Your humble correspondent is traveling the next few days, so this post will be a quick one. Please come back next week for more blues that you can use. In the meantime, here's a neat little album that slide guitar fans might dig that you might have missed some thirty years ago, like I did.
A few years back, I started listening to some albums from the Testament Records catalog. Testament was founded in 1963 by writer Pete Welding, who edited Down Beat magazine. The label released a variety of roots music.....blues, gospel, country, and jazz until it was shut down in 1977. Hightone Records acquired the catalog in the mid 90's and re-released nearly every album on CD, adding a few new compilations along the way.
There are a lot of fantastic recordings on Testament from artists like Big Joe Williams, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Johnny Shines, Otis Spann, J.B. Hutto, Robert Nighthawk, and several excellent compilations. One that was intended for release before Testament closed up shop was Bottleneck Blues, which consists of 22 recordings, some of them field recordings made by Welding and blues scholar David Evans, who contributes the extensive liner notes for the CD.
The album showcases a variety of bottleneck guitar styles and features a few tracks from Big Joe Williams, Nighthawk, McDowell, Hutton, Shines, John Littlejohn, Napoleon Strickland (who played a one-string "jitterbug" mounted on a wall), and Honeyboy Edwards. Some other standouts include Blind Connie Williams, and Mott Willis, who played slide with a knife, adding a bit of Hawaiian style to his slide playing.
If you want to dig deeper into traditional blues, especially slide guitar blues, Bottleneck Blues can still be easily found on Amazon or Discogs and it well worth your time. I'm glad that Hightone made the decision to release it. In fact, any of the Testament Records catalog is a pleasure to listen to and they're relatively easy to track down.
This week, I've been busy trying to finish up my reviews for the May issue of Blues Bytes, which should be out sometime next week, so in the meantime let's take a look at an older album that you might have missed the first time around.....
I've been a fan of Otis Rush almost as long as I've been listening to the blues. He was born in Neshoba County, Mississippi, around 15 - 20 miles north of where I live, so that played a role, but it was his combination of guitar and vocals really grabbed me upon hearing his Hightone Records release, Right Place, Wrong Time back in the late 80's. Later on, I picked up his live release from Blind Pig, Tops, and not long after that, I found his tracks on the Chicago! The Blues! Today! anthology from Vanguard Records and the Chess collection of early 60's Rush and Albert King recordings, Door To Door.
I also managed to round up a two volume set from Paula Records that collected Rush's early sides with Cobra Records, recorded in 1956 - 1958. As allmusic.com puts it....."If Rush had never recorded another note, his legendary status would remain intact based solely on these recordings." These tracks were later reissued as The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956 - 1958 by Varese Sarabande in 2000 and included the A- and B- sides of all of Rush's Cobra singles issued, plus alternate takes, all released with slightly improved sound from the Paula release, which was released in 1991.
Over time, I managed to fill in most of Rush's recordings that followed, including his two studio releases in 1994 and 1998, his Cotillion/Atlantic, Delmark and Evidence releases, and the controversial Alligator Records release originally released in Europe in the late 70's (Alligator overdubbed keyboards from Lucky Peterson in hopes of giving it a full, more modern sound). There were also a few live releases during the 90's and early 00's, as well, including a pair of DVDs.
However, I had difficulty tracking down his two sides recorded for Duke Records in 1962. Duke signed him and just sat on him, only recording one single for release at the time....I've always assumed that the label signed him, basically to sit on him where he wouldn't be able to cut any new records to compete with their other artists.
The A-side of that single, "Homework," appeared on a Duke Records compilation in the 90's, but that was it, until I discovered another winning CD from the UK label Jasmine a couple of years back. I Won't Be Worried No More - Otis Rush's Chicago Blues 1956 - 1962 captures 27 tracks from Rush's Cobra, Chess, and Duke recordings, and it should be required listening for anyone who digs Chicago blues.
Rush really had buzzard luck as far as recording. His sides for Cobra generated several tracks that charted on the R&B charts, and he was backed by some of the future legends of the blues, such as Willie Dixon, Lafayette Leake, Odie Payne, Jody Williams, Wayne Bennett, Little Walter, Little Brother Montgomery, Fred Below, and Ike Turner.
However, this is where the bad luck kicked in.......Cobra Records, which released Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam's first recordings, folded in 1958 due to money woes. Rush's Cobra output included several tunes that are considered blues standards today, including "Double Trouble," "My Love Will Never Die," "Three Times A Fool," "Keep On Loving Me Baby," and "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)." That's about as good a run as you can ask for in the blues world. All of those tracks are on this collection, along with most of his other Cobra output.....there are a couple missing, but they're hardly noticeable.
Rush signed with Chess Records in 1960, where that label recorded six sides, but only released two singles, one of which was a great one - "So Many Roads, So Many Trains." This collection included all six of Rush's sides, the same ones collected on the Door To Door album from 1970, plus two additional tracks that had only appeared on an LP for Blue Light Records. The Duke single, "Homework," is also included along with it's B-side, "I Have To Laugh."
Rush remained active until 2004, when he suffered a stroke. I got to see him in 2009, when the state of Mississippi dedicated a blues marker for Rush in his hometown of Philadelphia, MS. He was extremely moved by the honor as he sat with friends and family for the unveiling. He passed away in 2018 on September 29. His guitar work has inspired so many later guitarists and many of his songs have been recorded by other blues and rock artists.
Any of Otis Rush's recordings are worth a listen, but I Won't Be Worried No More - Otis Rush's Chicago Blues 1956 - 1962 captures his first eight years as a recording artist in one sitting and those tracks serve as an excellent introduction to not just Chicago blues, but to one of the genre's masters.
It's time once again for another edition of Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. This makes our 24nd edition. For a long time, this was one of our favorite themes and it dates back to FBF's early days as a weekly email sent to co-workers. It serves as a great way to introduce new and old tunes to new and old blues fans.
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......
For Something Old, let's go way back to 1930 for "Everybody Oughta Make A Change," by Sleepy John Estes. I first heard this tune recorded by Eric Clapton on his Money & Cigarettes album in the early 80's. Born in Tennessee in 1899, he and his family moved to Brownsville when he was a teen. He lost his right eye soon after when a friend hit him with a rock. He started performing at 19 at parties and picnics while working in the fields during the day. He was usually accompanied by harmonica player Hammie Nixon and James "Yank" Rachell, who played guitar and mandolin. He played with both of these musicians for over 50 years.
His recording career, at least his first one began in 1929 and recorded tracks like "Drop Down Mama," "Milk Cow Blues" (a.k.a "Leaving Trunk"), and "Someday Baby Blues." He recorded for Decca Records and Bluebird Records, and later returned to record in the early 50's for Sun Records unsuccessfully. He was rediscovered by Bob Koester and Sam Charters in 1962, completely blind by then and destitute. He appeared in Charters' move The Blues and later recorded for Koester's Delmark Records.
Although he was in his late 20's/early 30's when he recorded his first sides, he sounded like an older man when he sang. A lot of the blues revivalists searching for artists in the early 60's sort of wrote him off because they figured he was dead, but he was very much alive and his later recordings were as powerful as his early recordings. I guess he grew into his voice. He passed away in 1977 from a stroke, but he was a big influence on artists like Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, and Taj Mahal. His early recordings and later recordings are uniformly fine, so if you're not familiar with him, check him out.
For Something New, how about a track from one of the young lions of the blues scene, 27 year old D.K. Harrell from Ruston, Louisiana. An amazing guitarist and singer, Harrell sang along to B.B. King when he first heard him at age two. He sang in his church as a boy, but continued to follow the blues. After he got his first guitar at age 12, he was writing songs by 16. He was inspired by King and you can hear a lot of him in his music, the tone of his guitar and his vocals. His first paying gig was at the B.B. King Symposium at Indianola, MS, where he got to play "The Thrill Is Gone," backed by King's band.
Harrell also is influenced by Albert King, Freddie King, Muddy Water and other and he has used a little bit of their style forging a distinctive style of his own. He release the excellent album The Right Man on Little Village Records in 2023 and it won acclaim from blues fans all over. Last year, he signed with Alligator and released Talkin' Heavy, which improved on his first release and made many Top Ten lists last year (including FBF's). Blues fans should love D.K. Harrell's music, which is a mix of traditional and contemporary blues. Here's "Grown Now," a single from Talkin' Heavy.
For Something Borrowed, let's stay close to the present time with a track from the B.B. King's Blues Summit 100 collection compiled by Joe Bonamassa. If you haven't heard this set and you're a blues fan, you are missing out. This is one of the best tribute albums I've heard because it honors its subject, is fairly reverential, and it seems like the participants are having a blast with the opportunity to acknowledge one of the true legends of the blues.
Our selected track is performed by jazz guitar legend George Benson, who actually doesn't play guitar on the track (Bonamassa and Josh Smith do a wonderful job in that capacity), but he turns in a marvelous vocal performance. Benson was one of my first guitar heroes and the reason that I started my long journey to listening to the blues via his excellent guitar/vocal recordings throughout the 70's. I got into jazz before I moved to the blues and his guitar work was a huge reason why.
Benson, at 83, is still playing in the states, but stepped back from international touring in 2024, having released an album of standards in 2024 that he originally started recorded in the late 80's, but completed it with his record label's encouragement. Joe Bonamassa continues to be incredibly prolific with his own recordings, but even more important is his work in bringing under-recorded blues artists back, such as Larry McCray, Eric Gales, Dion, and Jimmy Hall, with new releases on his Keeping The Blues Alive Records.
For Something Blue, here's the harmonica legend James Cotton. Cotton was born in Tunica, MS and was mentored on the harp by Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller version) after losing his parents at a very young age. When Williamson left Cotton to live with his wife in Milwaukee, he just gave his band to Cotton, still very young, and the band fell apart. He started playing harmonica in Howlin' Wolf's band in the early 50's, also recording his own single for Sun Records, "Cotton Crop Blues," in 1952.
He began playing in Muddy Waters' band in the mid 50's, though Little Walter played harp on most of Waters' recordings. By 1957, Walter and Cotton were alternating on the recording sessions. He formed his own band in the mid 60's with Otis Spann on piano, and they performed both blues and R&B tunes, adding a horn section for some tunes. Cotton was one of the few blues artists who really crossed over to the rock audience during this time, recording with Buddha Records and appearing at numerous festivals.
In the 80's, he recorded for Alligator Records, where this track comes from, a dynamite version of Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Ain't Doin' Too Bad." The album this track comes from, High Compression, was a cool album that was part traditional and part contemporary. Incidentally, Bland and Cotton found out that they were half-brothers shortly before Bland passed away. There's a great documentary about Cotton, Bonnie Blue: James Cotton's Life in the Blues, which can be seen on Tubi TV that you should check out if you're a fan of blues harp. Cotton remained active, despite losing his voice due to throat cancer, until shortly before his death in 2017. Even though he couldn't sing anymore, he could still blow the back off a harmonica.
When I started this blog in February of 2010, I honestly never figured I'd still be working on it sixteen years and 3 months later. I never even considered that we might reach 500 posts, or 1,000,000 views (we passed that number a couple of weeks ago), but here we are.
I don't really have a big anniversary post planned or anything...... just taking a look back at how Friday Blues Fix came to be.
The real origin of the blog was actually a group email from work. Around 2007 or 2008, I started sending a audio file or two to a couple of my co-workers who also enjoyed the blues on Friday mornings. Word got around and others asked to be included to the list, and soon I was including people who didn't work with me, so it got to be a pretty good-sized list of folks.
Sometime, along the way, I started including little information tidbits about the songs and the artists responsible. Since I listened to the blues a lot and read about the blues a lot, it wasn't that big a deal....I could usually knock an email out in a few minutes and everyone seemed to enjoy the information I was providing.
Near the end of 2009, I got an email from one of my bosses (who was on the Friday Blues Fix email list) saying that IT was complaining about file sizes being sent, which is kind of funny now, given the size files that go through emails these days, so he told me that I needed to stop sending them after the one that I had worked on for that Friday. At that point, the Friday Blues Fix email group concluded with little fanfare and hubbub.
While I was doing the emails, one of my co-workers, Brent Parks, said that I should consider starting a blog about the blues. He had started a few websites about different subjects, one of them being about the blues (he was a fan, too), and he thought it might be fun for me to try. For starters, he just attached some of my CD reviews from Blues Bytes and that was pretty cool. For kicks, I decided to do a Ten Questions with Larry Garner, who I had been corresponding with via email, and he included that on his site. I later recycled it as one of FBF's earliest posts back in 2010.
Also for kicks, we sat down and worked up a Friday Blues Fix ezine of sorts which included reviews, interviews, and blues news items. We never got past setting it up as a Word document prototype at the time and I kick myself for not keeping a copy of it because it would have been neat to see some 16 or 17 years later, but I haven't been able to track it down.
First FBF post - February 12, 2010
That's about as far as we got for a little while until one weekend early in 2010, I finally decided that I'd give it a try. I got into Blogger and started puttering around with a site, doing a lot of trial and error until I had it like I wanted it. In setting up a blog, I wanted to have something in place that (1) I enjoyed doing and (2) would be a solid source of information for both old blues fans and new ones.
One of the things that really helped me in doing the blog was that I had been listening to the blues faithfully for almost twenty-five years, and by that time I had covered a lot of ground. As I've said, I really enjoyed The Blues Brothers and the music that they played, so they led me to a lot of music that I'd never heard before. I think they led a lot of blues fans to the music during that period.
I had started leaning more into the soul, R&B, and blues-rock veins with Stax soul, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds after music started becoming more computerized and sterile in the mid 80's, but I've always liked to trace things back to their beginnings, so I managed to unearth a lot of great blues from the 50's, 60's, and 70's, and later on from the 20's, 30's, and 40's.
I had also read whatever I could find about the blues......as I've said many times, Peter Guralnick, Robert Palmer, Stanley Booth, Bill Ferris, Robert Gordon, Dick Waterman, and many other authors were indispensable sources of information for me.
Thanks to Bill Steber for allowing me to use his pictures for the blog header.
Another source who provided me with a lot of information many years earlier was a man from Houston named Jim Shortt. I met Jim on the old Blues Access message board - Blues Access was an excellent blues magazine that, with Living Blues, provided me with a lot of information about old and new artists and that message board was just wonderful to a relatively new listener. At the time, I was listening to a lot of Excello blues and that's how Jim and I connected. Jim knew a lot of the folks that I listened to and he also introduced me to the world of Duke and Peacock Records. He knew many of the artists who recorded on those sessions and he had endless stories about those guys and many others. I had started writing album reviews for Blues Bytes in 1999 and he was a big help to me in learning how to write reviews. We also exchanged mix CDs back and forth of our favorite artists (his were much cooler than mine).
Unfortunately, Jim passed away in 2008, a year or so before I decided to start this blog. I'd like to think that he would have probably contributed a few posts himself in the early years, like my friend Joe Goff, who I met through work. He contributed a couple of posts about B.B. King and Robert Nighthawk in the blog's early years. Sadly, I've lost track of Joe because he changed jobs several years ago, but I know he's still listening to the blues somewhere in a big way and I'd welcome any additional posts he'd like to contribute.
It was always a lot of fun to try and figure out what to write about each week. There was so much material to work with. Friday Blues Fix managed to publish every Friday for over seven years, until things just got too hectic in my everyday life. We had taken on some additional family responsibilities at home that took a lot of extra attention and that extended into some other family issues that developed along the way, so that, with work responsibilities took up most of my blogging time. I managed to crank out a few posts over the years and I was able to continue writing reviews for Blues Bytes during my spare time, so I wasn't completely away.
After a few fits and starts over the last couple of years, I'm hopeful that Friday Blues Fix is finally settling back into a groove. I appreciate those visitors who have stuck around through all the fits and starts, and welcome any new visitors to the blog who have showed up in recent months. I know that the blog is sort of an archaic way to communicate these days, but hey, I still listen to CDs so I'm sure there are others out there who still like to do things "the old way." Please be patient with us and stick around.....there's more to come, I promise.
Also, thanks to everyone who helped guide me into and through this process for their invaluable advice, suggestions, criticisms, and praise.
This week, FBF offers a bit of news and a couple of reviews for blues fans to check out........
A few months ago, some videos showed up on YouTube and few people were even aware of it. Ted Giola wrote about them on his Substack page, which attracted a lot more attention. According to Giola, sound restorer Nick Dellow managed to get his hands on a shellac master "test pressing" of Robert Johnson. The disk was made in 1940 from the original metal parts by George Avakian, a young producer at Columbia Records who was a big jazz and blues fan. They were left forgotten in Columbia's storage facility at Bridgeport, Connecticut. The YouTube video that Giola was describing was Take 2 of "Cross Road Blues," recorded by Johnson in San Antonio in 1936 (Take 1 was the track that was released). Check it out below. The sound quality is just amazing!
Here's Take 1 of "Come On In My Kitchen," also recorded by Johnson at San Antonio in 1936....Take 2 was the released take. Again, the sound quality is just amazing. The original pressings that most blues fans have on CD or LP are pretty clear, considering their age, but these really bring out the qualities of Johnson's guitar work and vocals even more. I'm hopeful that there are more of these sides to be heard and that Dellow will share them. You can check out his YouTube page for more even more classic blues recordings remastered and updated.
Last weekend, we were able to catch Tab Benoit and Samantha Fish during their recent visit to the MSU Riley Center in Meridian, MS. Both did a good job, but I would give the edge to Ms. Fish. They both had a great rapport with the audience, but I think her guitar work was more dynamic and daring and she had a bit more variation in her set list. A lot of folks I talked to felt differently about it (I think this was many of the attendees' first exposure to Samantha Fish), but, hey, that's the way it goes.
Here are a couple of Friday Blues Picks for you to check out.....
Rick Vito - Slidemaster (MoMojo Records): I've heard several of Vito's solo releases.....he's been a member of Fleetwood Mac and Mick Fleetwood's Blues Band and played on numerous sessions with Bonnie Raitt, John Mayall, John Fogerty, Christine McVie, Leon Russell, Boz Scaggs, Bob Segar (that's his slide guitar solo on "Like A Rock"), and many others. Slidemaster is an all-instrumental album and it features new songs by Vito mixed with some older tunes that he remixed and remastered, plus several choice covers, including two by Fleetwood Mac founding member Peter Green. Vito covers a lot of ground on these tracks, all of which are firmly rooted in the blues. His slide work is beautiful, almost singing on several tracks, and the two Green covers may send blues fans unfamiliar with the early edition of the band scrambling for their recordings. Definitely a must-listen for fans of guitar, especially slide guitar.
Eliza Neals - Thunder In The House (E-H Records): Neals is a Detroit-based vocalist with an appropriately soulful delivery. She is also a great songwriter, having learned at the feet of the legendary Motown songwriter Barrett Strong. I've listened to her last seven releases and she continues to improve with each subsequent album. This is her strongest effort to date....she co-produced with Michael Puwal, who provides superb guitar work throughout the album, and she also provides all the vocals on the disc, lead and background, with effective and impressive results. With great songs and powerful vocals, plus a dynamic stage presence, Eliza Neals deserves to be heard by blues fans. She's a real talent and this is an album that blues and blues-rock fans will enjoy.
Last weekend, my brother and I were able to catch a couple of young blues stars in action at a venue 25 miles away. I haven't gotten to see a lot of live shows in the last ten years due to events that unavoidable, but things have gotten better in recent years. There have been some great shows at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian, MS, which is about thirty miles from home, and the Ellis Theater in Philadelphia, MS, which is about 25 miles away.
The Ellis was opened in 1926 as a movie theatre until the late 50's and later repurposed for live performances. It was revitalized and reopened in 2022 as part of Philadelphia native Marty Stuart's Congress of Country Music. It has hosted a variety of live acts during that time in the country and blues genres....one of the first acts to play the Ellis was the North Mississippi Allstars and my wife and I saw Dorothy Moore there a couple of years ago.
Last weekend the Ellis hosted Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, one of the rising stars of the blues. About 12-15 years ago, my good friend Joe (who wrote a few posts here in the blog's early years) sent me a video one Monday morning. He had traveled up to Clarksdale and had checked out the blues at Ground Zero. The email said, "This guy is supposed to be 13 years old......unbelievable!! They call him Kingfish." The video, which I can't find now, just blew me away. I mean, he looked like a pre-teenager up there, but he was playing guitar like a seasoned vet.
It's been really neat to watch this young man develop and show up on television and videos across YouTube. His albums for Alligator were great, especially the Live in London release in 2023, mainly because it showed him in his natural element, live performance. In September of last year, he released Hard Road on his own Red Zero label (FBF reviewed it last fall) and I think it was his best studio release yet.
So, yeah, I was a little excited for the opportunity to see Kingfish in a live setting. I've heard so many stories about him over the years that I grabbed up tickets the day that they went on sale back in January. At the time, I didn't realize he would have anyone opening for him. Last week, they announced that Mathias Lattin would be opening, which excited me even more.
(Note: While I do take photos....all of the ones below......I don't usually record the music to share because #1 the sound is usually distorted, so you can't really hear it, #2 I'd rather hear it and experience it first-hand instead of playing it back later, and #3 because I feel kind of guilty doing it..... I guess that goes back to the What's Happening TV episode where Rerun tried to illegally record the Doobie Brothers' concert 😉)
The Houston-born Lattin won the 2023 International Blues Challenge and Best Guitarist. He was 20 YEARS OLD, the youngest to ever win both awards. He began playing around Houston when he was 12 and joined The Keeshea Pratt Band, who won the IBC in 2018. He released Up Next not long after he won the IBC and it was one of my 20 favorite albums that year, along with Kingfish's Live in London. Lattin, now 23 years old, was recently signed to Red Zero Records, so hopefully, we will be seeing a new release from him soon.
The theatre was packed when Lattin took the stage, backed by his longtime bassist and drummer. They turned in an excellent 45 minute show, playing five or six songs. Lattin is a triple threat as a songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist. He played some great guitar that reminded me a lot of other Texas guitarists I'd heard over the years, but with his own distinctive touch. He's also a great vocalist and the audience really enjoyed his back-and-forth with them. He was certainly comfortable on stage and confident as a performer and my brother and I both figured he would be a hard act to follow. He and his band did a marvelous job.
Kingfish followed after a short break and it was an incredible show. He performed several songs from his Alligator releases and a few from Hard Road and it was pretty amazing. His band also did a fine job....their bass player was relatively new to the band and he was an absolute monster. Their regular keyboardist didn't make the show, so Buddy Guy's regular keyboardist Dan Souvigny sat in.
Kingfish's music has continued to evolve over the years and while most of the guitar clips you've heard from him over the years are of him just shredding, you really need to check out his recordings for the big picture. He's been incorporating different musical styles into his blues beyond rock, such as funk and soul on all his albums, but it's really evident on Hard Road. All of those styles were present during his show. His playing has such feel..... it's so far beyond that shredding that some people associate with him. His guitar playing is like an extension of his soul and serves as his voice as much as his own voice does. He left it all on the stage.....well, except for that 10-15 minute segment where he walked out and played in the audience, stopping about five feet from where we were standing.
Mathias Lattin came out and joined Kingfish for the encore and they had a playful headcutting contest that was a lot of fun, not just for them but for the audience who stuck around. I'm really excited about the future releases on Red Zero from both of them, and singer Dylan Triplett, another Red Zero signee.
All in all, the show was one that I won't soon forget, actually one of the best I've seen in a long time, and I hope that I get the chance to see them again soon.
I was one of those folks who made regular trips to the record store on Tuesdays, and later Fridays to see what new albums were hitting the racks. That was always exciting for me, not so much to find what was expected but to run across something that I wasn't aware of while I was browsing.....not necessarily new, but maybe a disc or two that I missed along the way. Sadly, those days are pretty much gone and a lot of music seems kind of throwaway these days as far as things go, but I still love to get my hands on an actual recording and hold it in my hands, pop it in my CD player and just sit back and listen. I know that there doesn't seem to be many of us left who prefer to listen to music that way, but I certainly will until there aren't any more physical copies of recordings left. Anyway, here are a few new releases for blues fans to check out......however you choose to check them out.
Selwyn Birchwood - Electric Swamp Funkin' Blues (Alligator Records): Birchwood started playing guitar at 13, mostly rock, before discovering Hendrix and the legendary guitarist's blues influences. He toured with Sonny Rhodes after high school, attending college in the process and earning an MBA. He formed his own band after graduating and they won the 2013 I.B.C. and signed with Alligator. This is their fifth Alligator effort (eighth release overall), the title indicates Birchwood's description of the band's music, a mix of blues, funk, jazz, soul, and whatever else strikes his fancy. He produced this one himself and it has a more earthy, funky feel than his previous efforts. There's a little Chicago blues, a bit of the Delta, a little Piedmont flavor to one track, and deep soul as well. He's a masterful guitarist and a strong vocalist and his mix of traditional sounds with contemporary blues will appeal to every blues fan that I know. Here's the title track, which pretty much serves as Selwyn Birchwood's mission statement. It will knock your socks off!
Bob Corritore & Friends - Ernestine Blues (VizzTone/SWMAF Records): I love Corritore's collections of recordings with all the guest stars. He either releases a set "From the Vault" that he's done over the past 20-30 years, or he releases a set of more recently recorded songs. This is one of the latter collections, with songs cut between 2023 and 2025. The guest star list is most impressive, with tracks from Pat Thomas, Sugaray Rayford, Bob Stroger, Tia Carroll, Johnny Rawls, Oscar Wilson, Tony Coleman, Charles Wilson, Willie Buck, Jimi "Primetime" Smith, Carla Denise, and Teeny Tucker with instrumentalists Ben Levin, Bob Margolin, Johnny Rapp, Kid Ramos, Nick Moss, Billy Flynn, Anthony Geraci, and many many more. There's not a bad track in the bunch and it's all good old traditional blues. Corritore provides his usual superb harmonica throughout the disc and this is one that blues fans will really enjoy from start to finish. Here's the first single from the album from Corritore and soul/blues master Rawls, "I Love The South." By the way, I love the comic book-like covers that are such a cool part of Corritore's albums.
Laura Chavez - My Voice (Ruf Records): I first heard guitarist Chavez backing Candye Kane on some of the late vocalist's releases and I was impressed with her style, precision, and power. She's backed a host of artists such as Nikki Hill, Deborah Coleman,, Dani Wilde, The Mannish Boys, Monster Mike Welch and Mike Ledbetter, and Vanessa Collier, to name just a few, but she's never releases an album of her own until now. She doesn't sing, preferring to let her guitar be her "voice," and boy, does she ever do that on these ten instrumental tracks. She wrote five of them and the covers all have special meaning to her as well....a CCR track (her father's favorite band), a couple of cool Memphis-styled tracks, including a Booker T & the MGs tune, a Blasters cover, and a couple of Mexican tracks that reflect her heritage. These tracks move from Latin flavors to jazz to the aforementioned Memphis soul to rock n' roll to urban blues. Chavez won the 2023 BMA for Instrumentalist - Guitar and it was certainly a well-deserved honor. This excellent set goes even further to prove that it was a wise choice.
Stefan Hillesheim Band - Live at the Chicago Blues Festival (Stella Blue Music): German-born singer/guitarist Hillesheim has been in the U.S. since 2014, making his way to the Windy City about four years ago. He's always loved the blues, so the move was a perfect fit. He's also a talented songwriter and vocalist and an outstanding guitarist. This set was recorded at last year's festival and Hillesheim is backed by Dionte McMusick (drums), Darryl Wright (bass), and Sumito "Ariyo" Ariyoshi (keys). As mentioned, the guitarist's original tunes are top notch, mixing blues, soul, jazz, and funk, and the band, particularly "Ariyo" on piano and organ, provides great support. There are eight original tracks and two covers - "Big Legged Woman" and "It Hurts Me Too." I have to admit that I knew little about Stefan Hillesheim prior to hearing this release, but he impressed me enough that I'm going to follow him from now on.
I'm currently working on new album reviews for the April issue of Blues Bytes, so we will be talking about them in a couple of weeks in that issue, which should be out around mid-month. Meanwhile, let's take a look at a couple of older releases from a few years back that I completely missed the first time. I used to do a Five Discs That You Might Have Missed post occasionally here, but two will have to do this time around, so here we go.....
I'm not sure how I missed M.C. Records' 2022 Big Jack Johnson release. Johnson was one of the first blues men I listened to, beginning with his first Earwig Records release, The Oil Man, in the mid 80's. He had one of the most distinctive guitar tones and big vocals to go with it.
After hearing The Oil Man, I found his Jelly Roll Kings release on Earwig with Sam Carr and Frank Frost (Rockin' The Juke Joint Down) and loved it as well, so I tried to keep up with his career the best that I could, following him to M.C. Records in the 90's, where he released some fine albums as well, as well as his Rooster Blues sides that were released to limited distribution by P-Vine Records in Japan, and a couple of independent albums he did on his own.
Johnson passed away in 2011, but I still listen to his music a lot, so I was surprised when I saw a picture of the album cover for Stripped Down In Memphis, which M.C. Records released in 2022. It consists of sides recorded in 1998 with Wild Child Butler and 2000 with Kim Wilson and let me tell you that it warmed my heart to hear The Oil Man like I'd never heard him before in unplugged format.
There are nine tracks on the disc, Wilson and Johnson on five and Butler and Johnson on the rest. The tracks are a mix of covers and three Big Jack originals. The Butler/Johnson tracks are all original, with each writing two, and Butler provides vocals on one of his track. Their good-natured banter is a highlight.
The Wilson/Johnson tracks are all cover tunes recorded during their The Memphis Barbecue Sessions collaboration, which won a Handy Award for Acoustic Album of the Year. The pair had never played together before, but you'd never know it. Johnson plays mandolin on a cover of "Part Time Love," and Wilson plays only acoustic harmonica on these tracks.
All of these tracks are great listening and the musical interplay between the two duos is dynamite. If you did acoustic blues played right, then check out Stripped Down In Memphis.
True Blues was originally released in 2013 on Telarc Records and it's a collaboration between Taj Mahal, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Shemekia Copeland, and Phil Wiggins. It consists of thirteen tracks recorded live at multiple locations across the U.S. The set list is a mix of originals and some terrific covers and each artists appears on at least a couple of tracks.
There are a number of highlights as all of these performers are on the top of their game during these shows. Among the highlights are Shemekia Copeland covering her father Johnny's song "Bring Your Fine Self Home" (backed by Harris, Hart, and Wiggins), Harris doing Sleepy John Estes' "Everybody Ought To Make A Change," and the closer, Robert Johnson's "Ramblin' On My Mind," which features Harris, Copeland, Hart, and Wiggins.
True Blues is another one that acoustic fans should seek out and they should be on the lookout for the sequel, which will be released in a couple of weeks on Yellow Dog Records featuring Harris, Hart, and Davis. We'll be looking at that release in a few weeks and, trust me, it's really good, too!
I can't believe I missed both of these albums when they were first released. Glad I was able to backtrack and pick them up, so I didn't have to miss out on this wonderful music.
We're back again with a few new albums to look for, along with one you might have missed. As always, expanded reviews of these releases can be found in past, present, or upcoming issues of Blues Bytes.
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Future Soul (Fantasy): I've followed Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi since they were in their formidable years and truly enjoyed their individual work. That being said, some of their collaborative work has not really clicked with me as much as their early efforts. As TTB, they have been very prolific, and I have to say that I've enjoyed most of their releases, especially their live albums, but to be honest, there are a couple that I don't really go back and play much once I've heard them. However, this release is one that I will play again and again, and already have. Everything really seems to fall into place perfectly with this album. I think this is their best set of tunes overall, and they're delivered in the band's usual mix of blues, rock, and soul. None of the tunes clock in over five minutes, but not to worry..... I'm sure they would stretch out nicely in live performances. Trucks' guitar work is phenomenal as always (there's just never enough of it for me), Tedeschi has one of the best voices in the music world (and she's a great guitarist as well), vocalist extraordinaire Mike Mattison even gets a lead vocal, which is always a good thing, and the band is marvelous.
Pontchartrain Shakers - Love, Peace & Chicken Grease (Southland Records): This group's self-titled debut release was one of my favorite releases in 2024, and this one looks to be one of my choices for 2026. The Shakers are out of Louisiana and they play a tasty mix of Louisiana blues and soul with a touch of Mississippi Delta thrown in for good measure. Led by singer/guitarists Amadee "A5" Frederick and Jojjo Wight, both of whom come from musical families, the Shakers turn out a potent mix of blues and soul that will make you smile, tap your toe, or shake your groove thing. Frederick's father, Amadee Frederick IV, sings one tune and Wight's parents add cornet and trombone to one track. A5 is a really soulful vocalist who sells everything he sings 100%, Wight is a prodigious guitarist, and their rhythm section is first rate. Their first two releases include fun original songs about family, food, fishing, and love, so after you check this one out (by the way, the album title is how they usually sign off to the audience after their shows), you might want to check out their debut. You can thank me later.
Charlie Barath - Issaquena Getaway: Barath, from Pittsburgh, worked as a carpenter for years, playing harmonica on the side, but retired a while back to focus on his music. He has developed a sound that encompasses blues, roots, and Americana and he also works as an educator in addition to performing and recording. This is his second release and it was recorded in Clarksdale, MS. He wrote 12 of the 14 tracks, with two instrumentals written by Ike Turner and Stanley Turrentine. The tunes touch on Delta blues, swamp blues, Chicago-styled shuffles, Latin-flavored numbers, urban blues, and jazz. Barath's harmonica work and vocals are outstanding and he gets great support from a superb band that includes guitarists Johnny Burgin and Andrew Sherer. Barath also released a 2021 album, Just Me and My Friend(s), that's worth your time as well.
Brother John - Black Crow: Brother John is the duo of singer/guitarist Johnny Never and harmonica player John Colgan-Davis, both based in Philadelphia. Never specializes in Delta and Piedmont blues styles, while Colgan-Davis has played and recorded with Bonnie Raitt. Their new release is acoustic blues, 12 originals from Never and a cover of his favorite Charley Patton song. there are some guest musicians, including Chicago Carl Snyder on piano, on selected tracks, but this is pretty much a duo album. Never's songs are powerful, sometimes playful and sometimes poignant, and one could easily hear the blues artists of the 20's and 30's recording them. Never has a weather-worn voice that's a snug fit with the songs he writes and you really get the feel of those century-old recordings with his new tunes. I think anyone who digs country blues of the pre- or post-war variety will enjoy this album.
Luther Dickinson with Datrian Johnson - Dead Blues Vol. 1 (Strolling Bones Records): Our "older" release is actually not that old....it came out last fall, but I wasn't aware of it until a couple of months ago after listening to a podcast where Dickinson was discussing it. He and his brother Cody were invited to play with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh in Lesh's Phil & Friends group. The longer they performed together, Dickinson realized how many old blues songs were part of the Dead's repertoire. Inspired by Lesh, he began working on an instrumental album during the pandemic and brought in friends to help flesh out the tracks. Keyboardist John Medeski introduced Dickinson to North Carolina singer Datrian Johnson and Dickinson was inspired to let Johnson sing the lyrics of some of those classic blues songs over these instrumental tracks. Other musicians appearing on the tracks are Cody Dickinson, Lesh's son Grahame, Boo Mitchell, Steve Selvidge, and fellow Allstar Ray Ray Hollomon. These are really cool tracks and while they were inspired by the Grateful Dead's repertoire, they don't really sound like Dead tunes.... Dickinson has re-interpreted these tunes in a way that would probably make Phil Lesh smile. Similar to Dickinson's work with North Mississippi Allstars, these tunes fuse blues, R&B, funk and soul in equal measures and I can tell you that I'm hopeful that there is a Dead Blues Vol 2 in the works sometime soon.
Thanks for stopping by! Come back for more blues reviews next week!
Where
I'm from, the name “Jimmie Rodgers” is a name that's heard
frequently. I live about thirty minutes from Meridian, MS, where
Rodgers was born. There's a music festival named after him that's a
big part of the East Central MS region and has been for many years.
There's a museum dedicated to him and his music, as well as some of
his family who helped him along the way. There are roads named after
him in the Meridian area (I was involved in the field work leading up
to the Jimmie Rodgers Parkway during my working days), and in the city's Highland Park,
there's a monument dedicated to him that's been there many years.
All
that being said, I really didn't pay much attention to the music of
Jimmie Rodgers during my youth or for most of my adulthood. I
attended the Jimmie Rodgers Festival several times, including this
past year when they presented a couple of shows at the Mississippi
Arts + Entertainment Experience (details below) in Meridian, but his
music, and his legacy in a variety of musical genres, really didn't
click with me until the last couple of years.
Rodgers monument - Highland Park, Meridian, MS
Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933) is recognized as the “Father of Country Music,” and is in the
Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. However, did
you know that he is also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an
early influence? Not only that, but he is also in the BLUES Hall of
Fame, having been inducted in 2013. I guess that was really when I
started paying attention. I'd heard bits and pieces of his music
over the years, but really sort of disregarded it. I wasn't a big fan of modern country music, so even going to the Jimmie Rodgers Festival, there were only a few of the artists that I really liked.
Over
the years, though, I've heard lots of blues artists talk about growing
up listening to the Grand Ol' Opry on the radio....country music and
gospel music (on the radio or at church) really being the only music
they had access to for a long time, so it only made sense that their own music would be influenced somewhat by the music they heard on the radio.
Then
I started digging deeper into the Pre-War music of the Mississippi
Delta. I discovered that some of the blues artists of the area played with Rodgers, either
on stage or as co-workers on the railroad. A lot of the Pre-War
artists that I began to listen to....Houston Stackhouse, Robert
Nighthawk (then Robert Lee McCoy), Hammie Nixon, Frank Stokes, Rubin Lacy, Ishmon
Bracey, the Mississippi Sheiks, and most notably, Tommy Johnson knew, influenced, were influenced, and even played with him . Just about every blues
performer from Mississippi was influenced either by his recordings or
his performances.....Mississippi John Hurt has some Rodgers influence in his playing (check out "Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me") and Howlin' Wolf claimed that his howl was
influenced by Rodgers's yodel.....and Rodgers even recorded with
black blues musicians like Louis Armstrong, St. Louis guitarist Clifford Gibson, and
the Louisville Jug Band.
Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian, MS
During
my recent visit to the Mississippi Music Museum, I noticed a display
dedicated to Rodgers, which sort of rekindled my interest in him and
his music. A couple of months later, I had a doctor visit in Meridian
and the Jimmie Rodgers Museum is located a couple of blocks away, so
I decided to stop by and check it out. It's a nice little museum
with a lot of Rodgers memorabilia....some of his clothes, a few
guitars and a piano, plus other items donated from his family. It's
a good 45 – 60 minute tour and the museum has free admission
(donations are welcome).
On his Facebook page, Peter
Guralnick had recently mentioned a new book about Rodgers, a biographical novel written by musician Paul Burch titled Meridian Rising
that sounded interesting. The museum had this book for sale, so I
picked up a copy. It's an imagined autobiography of Rodgers (Burch also recorded a fascinating album dedicated to Rodgers with the same title in 2016) that incorporates several blues artists and movers and shakers of the time within it's pages, including Charley Patton, H.C. Spier, Rallph Peer, Sam Chatmon, and even a young Howlin' Wolf (listed here as "Chester"). It's a thoroughly enjoyable book, especially if you're familiar with Rodgers, his music, or the blues....actually, it's enjoyable even if you're not familiar.
It would appear that people are starting to
remember and appreciate Rodger's contributions to not just country
music, but just about every other popular genre as well, and he gave and received a lot of influence to the blues that I never really knew about.
Keep
in mind that when Rodgers started playing music, there was NO style
of music called Country.....or Blues. Back in those days, genres were not
as big a deal as they are today, where even blues gets
compartmentalized into ever smaller sub-genres. Traveling musicians in Rodgers' era, black and white, had to be able to play a pretty diverse repertoire to satisfy whatever audiences were listening, black and white.
I've always thought it was ridiculous to have SO many different genres of music. When I was growing up in the 70's, you actually had radio stations that played MULTIPLE musical genres over their air waves and, lo and behold, we all managed to survive this. Even today, my playlist on my mp3 player in my car includes blues, jazz, gospel, country, rock, pop, reggae, Cajun/zydeco, soul, R&B, and even world music. Clinging to one genre will certainly deprive music lovers of a lot of great music.
Working on the railroad, Rodgers crossed paths with a lot of different people, black and white, and he also absorbed their influences in his music. His singing style replicated a lot of blues singers and his songwriting also focused on subjects that rang true with anyone who listened to the blues, so his music appealed to both white and black listeners at the time. He recorded 13 "Blue Yodels" during his career, which served as an influence for how blues songs would be structured in future recordings, so whether white country music fans were listening to Rodgers, they were also hearing the blues.
There are a lot of Jimmie Rodgers recordings out there that collect his work, but I was interested in finding one that provided a good sampling of his more blues-related material to see if I could pick up
what influenced a lot of these older blues artists and also what he
might have picked up from those older blues artists, maybe some who
never had the opportunity to record.
Happily, I found just the recording via the UK record label Catfish. 2001's Brakeman's Blues captures 24 of Rodgers' blues songs (about 40 of his 110+ recordings are considered blues), and all 13 of his "Blue Yodels." Listening to these tracks, you can't help but notice the similarities in song structure, lyrical content, and vocal delivery. It also shows how vital the blues were in the formation of early country music and much of that is due to Jimmie Rodgers.
All 13 of the "Blue Yodel" songs are worth hearing, but here are three noteworthy examples that can be linked to the blues genre directly. The first is, of course, "Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)," a number that has been covered in multiple genres. Another one is 1930's "Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standing On The Corner)," which features Louis Armstrong on trumpet and Armstrong's wife Lil Hardin on piano, and his last one recorded just a couple of days before his death, "Blue Yodel No. 13 (The Women Made A Fool Out Of Me)."
Rodgers also recorded "Let Me Be Your Sidetrack" in 1931 with St. Louis blues guitarist Clifford Gibson, but his label didn't release it at the time because they feared backlash with Rodgers recording with a black musician (Armstrong and his wife were not credited on "Blue Yodel No. 9") and had him re-record it performing solo. Here is the unreleased version (listed as Take 2), with Gibson officially listed as guitarist.
Other standout Rodgers' blues tracks include "In The Jailhouse Now," "My Good Gal's Gone Blues" (with the Louisville Jug Band), "Pistol Packing Papa," and "TB Blues." Rodgers' lyrics are pretty raw and direct, compared to the standard fare of the day, but there's also some good humor in his words as well.
I spent most of my life more or less disregarding the music of Jimmie Rodgers. Little did I know how much of an influence he was not just to country music, but eventually rock n' roll and, yes, the blues. If you are a blues fan, especially of the older pre-war blues recordings, take a little time and give Rodgers' recordings a listen, especially the "Blue Yodels," and you'll discover that the connection between blues and country music is a pretty close one.
