Another month, another set of great new releases to let blues fans know about. Lots of Mississippi blues love in this particular edition of FBF, so let's get started!!!
More new blues to come in a few weeks.....
Friday, November 21, 2025
Friday Blues Picks (11/21/25)
Friday, October 17, 2025
Friday Blues Picks (10/17/25)
As promised, here's a look at a few more new releases. There have really been a lot of fine efforts in the past couple of months, and there are actually more new ones than we've discussed. It's an embarrassment of riches for blues fans these days. Let's check out several more great new releases. As always, you can find expanded reviews of most of these releases at Blues Bytes.
This is a magnificent set of tunes that is being sold as a single CD, or as part of a huge 5-disc, 41-track box set called Antone's: 50 Years of the Blues, that includes a couple of discs of rare live and studio tracks, a 7" single from Los Lobos, a bound book of liner notes from author Joe Nick Patoski, and a reissue of Susan Antone's book Picture The Blues, loaded with rare photos. I've only got the CD so far, but I'm dropping hints right and left around the house for the whole shebang as a Christmas gift.
Friday, October 10, 2025
Friday Blues Picks (10/10/25)
Blues fans have been rewarded over the past few months with some outstanding new releases. It's been a lot of fun to listen to them. The state of the blues right now is fantastic with a lot of younger voices stepping up to the mic and producing high quality music. Let's look at a few new recordings for readers to be on the lookout for.
Garry Burnside - It's My Time Now (Strolling Bones Records), Kent Burnside - Hill Country Blood (Strolling Bones Records): Garry Burnside is R.L. Burnside's youngest son and Kent Burnside is R.L.'s grandson. Both have played extensively, Garry with Junior Kimbrough, the North Mississippi Allstars, nephew Cedric Burnside, Bobby Rush and Jessie Mae Hemphill, and Kent working with Jimbo Mathus and Buddy Guy in addition to leading his own band. Strolling Bones Records released these two albums simultaneously in mid-August, so you can't really help but compare them. Garry's release is more Hill Country-oriented (though both have plenty of that groove) and Kent's album incorporates a bit more of the rocking blues sound associated with Buddy Guy. Both artists pay tribute to their predecessors, Kent modifying a few lyrics here and there. I think the elder Burnside and Kimbrough would be proud of these efforts and I have had a hard time picking a favorite between the two, maybe leaning a bit toward Garry's effort because it’s a little grittier and the Hill Country groove is a little more prevalent in his release to these ears, but don't let that stop you from checking both of these fine releases out.
This is not all of the great new releases, by any means. We'll be checking out a few more in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Friday, October 3, 2025
In Case You Missed It (Museum and King of the Blues Edition)
If you're a blues fan living in the Jackson, MS area, or traveling I-55 toward New Orleans or Baton Rouge, this is a great stop. There are lots of cool displays that track not just the blues genre, but every other genre of music and it's really impressive when you see how many Mississippi natives were involved in the development of blues, rock n' roll, country, jazz, and gospel music. It's also the location for the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame as many award plaques are here and there's also a list of members to view.
A walk-through takes about an hour, and the museum is still a work in progress....we were told that there are other displays in the works. Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, so there are a couple of nice displays about him, as well as another local resident - Crystal Springs native Tommy Johnson. There are also a couple of guitars made by Super Chikan, plus a display of cigar box guitars and sections on Elvis Presley and Jimmie Rodgers. The museum is free admission, but donations are welcome. It's a great place for any music fan, but especially blues fans.
The museum also has a collection of used albums, cassettes, and CDs for sale that have been donated. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for checking out a bin of used CDs, so I had to thumb through them. I found two B.B. King CDs, one that I'd previously owned in cassette form and one that I'd never actually seen before. They were basically a steal, and in great condition, so I picked them up and wanted to share them with fellow blues fans in case you missed them....after all, he just turned 100.
I was familiar with a few of the songs on the set, which was released originally in 1981.....probably about a third of them. There was also a mix of live and studio recordings, which was pretty cool. I found out much later that this was a compilation of some of King's "Great Moments" taken from some of his mid to late 60's recordings with ABC and BluesWay.
I have to agree with the "Great Moments" assessment because it's an excellent summation of B.B. King' musical career up until around 1970. That was actually a portion of his career that I was not as familiar with. The live tracks are particularly good, and you may remember some of them from other great King albums (such as Blues Is King), but it's a great capsule summary of B.B. King's music at a great period in his career.
Lucille sounds fantastic on these tracks, which drift from downhome gritty blues to classy soul and jazz. I had never even heard of this release, not sure how it slipped through my fingers the first time around, but I'm glad I happened to run across it in this used CD collection. This is a great set to just plug into your stereo and just go about your day. Anytime you get a chance to put the spotlight on B.B. King's guitar is an opportunity you need to seize upon.
Friday, September 26, 2025
Tampa Red - The Guitar Wizard
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| Tampa Red |
Now that doesn't mean that I wasn't familiar with Tampa Red....I've heard his songs from numerous other blues artists over the years. It's safe to say that nearly all blues fans are familiar with Tampa Red's songs - "New Stranger Blues," "Black Angel Blues," "Crying Won't Help You," "It Hurts Me Too," "Love Her With A Feeling," "Things 'Bout Coming My Way," "Anna Lou Blues," "Let Me Play WIth Your Poodle," and "Early In the Morning" were among his hits, and were also recorded by many other blues artists. I just didn't realize when I first heard them that they were written by Tampa Red.
I've always been a huge fan of slide guitar, particularly the work of Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters. Well, Tampa Red was a major influence on all of these guitarists and many more (B.B. King was a huge fan), and these artists' versions of Red's songs might be the versions that you are familiar with. Upon listening to Tampa Red, his influence made complete sense. I can only imagine the impact his single-string slide guitar technique had upon both artists and listeners when his first recordings hit the streets in the late 20's, when it would have been considered a new concept.
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| Tampa Red with Leroy Carr |
Another factor was his use of the kazoo, which he began incorporating into his songs from the mid 30's onward. At the time, with the various styles of music played in the pre-electric era, it made sense to Red to use the kazoo, and it was popular to his listeners as well, but it was often used in lieu of Red's amazing guitar work. Listeners at the time were probably fine with it because, to them, it was fun and entertaining, but for modern listeners, it can be somewhat jarring.
That being said, listening to Tampa Red's sides, recorded from the late 20's through the mid 50's with only a couple of pauses in-between, can be a rewarding experience and for blues fans, it's definitely worth your time. The story of his life is interesting as well.
Whittaker's older brother played the guitar around the Tampa area, so he learned a bit from him, but his primary inspiration was an old street musician named Piccolo Pete, who taught him his first blues licks. He had also heard Hawaiian guitar played and he learned to play it in standard position instead of lap style, using a thumb pick to strike the springs and a bottleneck, which helped him develop his unique slide sound. He also learned from listening to recordings from many of the female blues singers at the time.
Whittaker started playing the vaudeville circuit in the 20's, eventually settling in the Chicago area around 1925, where he adopted the “Tampa Red” moniker referring to his childhood home and his light skin. His playing style was a combination of his country blues roots and a newer, more polished style that would work better in an urban setting and his guitar work was a mix of Mississippi and Hawaii with his precise bottleneck work which sounded like no one else at the time.
In 1928, Red found his ideal partner in “Georgia” Tom Dorsey, a singer/piano man who eventually left the blues and became known as the “Father of Gospel Music.” That career change for Dorsey was several years down the road when the pair recorded “It's Tight Like That” on Vocalion Records in late 1928. The hokum number was a huge smash and eventually sold over seven million copies, which launched Red and Dorsey's recording careers in a big way. He also managed to insert some recordings that highlighted his guitar playing along the way.
Red also formed a Hokum Jug Band, a mix of guitars, piano, bass, washboard, and jug players), but once Dorsey left and the novelty of the hokum craze subsided, he formed Tampa Red's Hot Five, which included clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone, and occasionally the aforementioned kazoo (check out "Anna Lou Blues" below). The audiences apparently like the kazoo, it was a fun sound, and Red must have liked it too, because it became a regular part of his repertoire from 1936 onward.
The mid 30's through early 40's were the period that generated most of Red's greatest songs, such as “Black Angel Blues,” which became “Sweet Black Angel” in B.B. King's hands. Another King, Freddy, covered “Love With A Feeling,” while slide master Robert Nighthawk transformed Red's “Anna Lou” into “Anna Lee” (Nighthawk also covered “Sweet Black Angel”), and Elmore James, another slide master, covered “It Hurts Me Too” and “New Stranger Blues.”
Red
cut these sides during his tenure with RCA's Bluebird Records,
signing on with the label in 1934. His recordings were so successful
that he eventually was responsible for the overall sound of most of
the label's releases, dubbed “The Bluebird Beat.” He played on
his own sides and appeared on other Bluebird artists recordings as
well, notably Big Maceo Merriweather, Sonny Boy Williamson I, and
Memphis Minnie. He also began incorporating electric guitar into his
music as well. Other notable tracks from this period included “She
Wants To Sell My Monkey,” “Let Me Play With Your Poodle,” and
“Don't You Lie To Me.”
In 1947, Red moved from Bluebird to RCA's main label, Victor, where he remained until 1953, recording new songs and reworking some of his previous hits for a new audience, even moonlighting for a small independent label, Sabre, using the name Jimmy Eager for several tracks in the fall of 1953.
Red enjoyed much success and prosperity during the 30's and 40's and his house became a center for the blues community in Chicago. Many musicians rehearsed there, set up their gigs, even stayed there when making their way up north. His wife, Frances Whittaker helped him do all of this, offering new arrivals a place to stay and a meal. Sadly, she passed away in late 1953 and her loss devastated Red. He became an alcoholic and developed mental problems, which curtailed his music career and eventually left him destitute.
Tampa Red recorded over 300 78's during his career, making him one of the most prolific blues artists of his era. He only recorded two albums, the two on Bluesville Records, but there have been numerous albums released that collect his early sides and they're all worth listening. My two choices cover most of his career from beginning to end. It Hurts Me Too – The Essential Recordings, on Indigo Records, covers the period from 1928 to 1942, and I'll Find My Way – Hot Chicago Blues 1947 – 1953 takes in most of the rest of his career.
Friday, September 19, 2025
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue #23
For those unfamiliar with the format, we offer a song from the early days of the blues (Something Old), a song from a recent blues artist (Something New), a blues artist covering a rock song or vice versa (Something Borrowed), and finally, someone who epitomizes the blues.....usually a legendary artist (Something Blue). Here we go......
Friday, July 18, 2025
Remembering The Daddy Mack Blues Band
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| Daddy Mack Orr |
Around 25 years ago, I was visiting a record store in search of some inspiring new blues. The store that I visited was one that usually included a few surprises on the blues aisle....the manager was a blues fan himself and we had many conversations while I was in the store. On this particular visit, I ran across a CD from The Daddy Mack Blues Band called Fix It When I Can.
It was great, a whole album's worth of gritty, gutbucket blues with a healthy dose of Memphis grease in the terrific rhythm section work. Daddy Mack was a strong vocalist and guitarist and he wrote eight of the ten tracks. It was familiar and fresh at the same time. I listened to it all the time for a long time and I still listen to it frequently, several of the tunes remain among my favorite blues tracks.
As I usually do when I hear a new (to me) artist, I dug into his background. I discovered that Daddy Mack was Mack Orr, born in Como, Mississippi in 1945. He spent his early years working in the cotton fields until he was 18. He grew up listening to many of the blues greats at the time like B.B. King, Albert King, and Little Milton. He hung out around the local juke joints around Como listening to whoever happened to be playing.
Eventually, Orr moved north to Memphis, got married and worked as a heavy machine operator until he opened his own business, Mack's Auto Repair, where he settled in as a mechanic and helped raise his four kids.
In his mid 40's, he heard Albert King's "I'll Play The Blues For You" on the radio and decided to start playing music himself. He went to a pawn shop after work one day and bought a guitar and amplifier on layaway and, determined to practice and make a name for himself, he was able to listen to the styles of his favorites and develop his own unique style that combined his favorites' sound with his own.
Several of those favorites played in Memphis' premier blues band at the time - the Fieldstones. Though there are only a couple of recordings by the Fieldstones, they are regarded as one of the best, if not the best, blues bands in Memphis......many of the city's best blues musicians played in the band at one time or another.
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| The Fieldstones at Green's Lounge (Eric Lindahl) |
The Fieldstones played regularly at the South Memphis nightclub Green's Lounge and it was there, in the early 90's, that Fieldstones guitarist Earl "The Pearl" Banks invited Orr to play with the band. He soon became part of the Fieldstones family, and a few years later, he was invited to take over residency at Green's. At that time, Orr formed the Daddy Mack Blues Band with two Fieldstones vets - Harold Bonner on bass and James Bonner on guitar, with Wilroy "Wolf" Sanders Jr. on drums.
In 1999, the band released Fix It When I Can. By that time, William Faulkner had replaced Sanders as drummer. Later that year, the band played a party for the Rolling Stones at the Rendezvous, during the Stones tour stop in Memphis and Keith Richards and Ron Wood joined them onstage. The Daddy Mack Blues Band was drawing attention almost immediately from the right people.
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| Daddy Mack with a couple of rock n' rollers from Britain. |
Before he started playing the blues, Orr had only visited four places - Wisconsin, Chicago, Kansas City, and Jackson, MS. The blues enabled him to travel all over the world. Despite the extensive travel, he still spent a lot of time in Memphis, playing locally on Beale Street and at the Center of Southern Folklore, plus he still worked on cars in his spare time.
The Daddy Mack Blues Band released seven other albums over the years. There was about a six year gap between his first and second releases, but the band released two albums in 2006, the first being Slow Ride, an interesting concept in which the group covered a number of blues rock classics from Foghat, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Santana, the Rolling Stones, and others (I remember reading, maybe in the liner notes, that Orr wasn't even familiar with most of the songs prior to recording them).
Other major contributors on the music end and the songwriting end included Matt Isbell, Wally Ford, and Inside Sounds chief Eddie Dattel. Ford and Dattel had spent a lot of time with Orr and their songwriting captured the essence of the man as well as if Orr had written the songs himself. Of course, Orr and the Bonners continued to contribute songs as well. I bought each of these albums upon release and it amazed me that the quality of each subsequent release topped its predecessors. There are usually a few misfires on most blues artists’ albums from time to time, trying to do something new or different, but that was not the case with the Daddy Mack Blues Band. They knew what they did well and they did it
After his 2015 release, I assumed that Daddy Mack was not going to record any more albums, really just basing it on the A Bluesman Looks At Seventy title more than anything. However, I heard via the internet that the Daddy Mack Blues Band had returned for a recording in late 2024, called Doctor's Orders.
The additional musicians give Doctor's Orders a slightly more modern feel, but most of them have been guesting on Orr's previous albums, so it's been a gradual move toward the contemporary. However, it doesn't diminish the power of Daddy Mack Orr by any means. That greasy, gutsy Memphis guitar is still present, as are Orr's good-natured vocals and that funky backbeat.
I can't describe how excited I was to see a new Daddy Mack Blues Band release hit the racks, especially one that's so good and includes so many other Memphis artists that I admire taking part. Doctor's Orders was just what the doctor ordered for this blues fan.
Sadly, this will be the last Daddy Mack Blues Band release. A couple of months ago, Orr was in the hospital with some issues for a few days, was discharged but had to return for some medication adjustments. He suffered a heart attack unexpectedly while in the hospital on June 16. He was 80 years old.
Despite the fact that he didn't pick up guitar until he was 45 years old, Daddy Mack Orr ended up being a Memphis mainstay for the next 35 years, as well as one of the best of the current blues scene worldwide. If you're not familiar with his music and you are a blues fan, I highly recommend any of his recordings. They are all excellent, downhome blues.
