Coming Soon!!!!!

Due to a combination of technical difficulties and the Dreaded Deadline Syndrome striking in various locations at the same time, this week's Friday Blues Fix will take a look at a few upcoming posts to give you a heads-up about what to expect in the next few weeks.  This will give you something to look forward to, plus it will allow you the opportunity to visit the FBF archives and see if there are any posts of interest that you might have missed.

It's hard to believe, but we are approaching 200 posts, nearly four years worth, so if you're a relative newcomer to the blog, take a few minutes to see what we've been talking about.....after you read this week's post, of course.

Over the summer, I was able to pick up a few discs up on Amazon.  Some were CD versions of previous albums that I had on cassette, while a few were discs that I had been looking for a while.

Some of these, you already have read about on FBF....Lazy Lester Rides Again, Robert Randolph Presents The Slide Brothers, Boz Scaggs' Memphis.......but I picked up several more that deserve a mention.  In the next few weeks, we will look at several releases and they will be the subjects of a couple of different posts.  One of these will take a look at some of Otis Rush's live recordings, while another will focus on a pair of excellent collections of unsung artists that deserve to be heard.

One of the things I like to do is just be spontaneous with a couple of purchases, buying a set with no idea who most of the artists or songs are.  It's a great way to find some new music, but it's always a big leap of faith when you do that.  I'm happy to report that I did find some great new music by doing this.....one of them is a fantastic series of Louisiana swamp blues from the early 70's that I had always heard about but had never been able to find and the other is a great collection of zydeco music from many of the genre's up-and-coming artists of the 90's.  You'll be hearing more about both of these sets in a few weeks.

Regarding the Otis Rush live recordings....earlier this summer, someone asked me about the possibility of writing a biography of Rush.  I have to admit that I had thought about doing that in the past.  After all, Rush is a local guy who made it big and he still has family in the area.  With that in mind, I did approach a couple of people to get their thoughts on writing the book and they basically told me that it was probably not a good idea because 1) Mr. Rush would more than likely not be forthcoming with any information, being the intensely private man that he is, and 2) because of any reluctance he might have, other associates of his would probably respect his wishes and also not be available as sources for the book.

I understood this and backed off (I may still write up an "appreciation" of Rush that would be available locally, if that interested anybody in his home county), but while I was pondering it, I decided to try and fill the gaps in my Otis Rush recordings collection.  Most of these gaps consisted of his live recordings (though I did also pick up Troubles Troubles, the original Sonet version of the controversial Alligator reissue, Lost in the Blues, which could also be a future FBF post by itself), plus a DVD he recorded shortly before his illness.  We'll discuss those soon.

There will also be another Ten Questions With......installment in the next few weeks with an artist who has rapidly become one of my favorites with his insightful songwriting and his impressive guitar skills.  He just released a wonderful new album and he'll be talking about that, the songwriting process, his inspirations, etc....., so be on the lookout for Ten Questions With.....Toronzo Cannon!!!!

Finally, there will be one more post coming up definitely in the near future.  It's a Blues Legends installment, only this one will be taking a look at a Blues Legend who is actually a living Blues Legend, something never tackled previously here at FBF.  He's a one of a kind Blues Legend who continues to amaze and astound audiences, and influence scores of blues singers and guitarists, even into his late 80's.

FBF will also look at some of the great new releases that have hit, or will be hitting, the shelves during the fall season.  There will be a pretty diverse list of albums to choose from, something for everybody and enough that we may have to spend a couple of weeks on it.

All these things will be happening at Friday Blues Fix in the coming weeks.  Be sure to check back on a regular basis (every Friday works for me) and see what's going on.