Friday Blues Picks (7/10/26)

Here are a couple of upcoming releases that blues fans should have on their radar.....some cool releases to battle this serious summer heat.

One of the earliest blues artists that I was aware of was Taj Mahal.  His records were always prominent in record stores and I can remember seeing him on television when I was in high school before I even got into the blues.  Over the years, Mahal has incorporated reggae, jazz, and soul into his repertoire and he does all of them exceedingly well.  He's never really stood still as far as his music goes......always trying out new sounds or improving on what he's already mastered.

During the late 90's and early 2000's, Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band won back-to-back Grammys for two excellent albums (1998's Senor Blues and 2000's Shoutin' in Key).  The PBB has toured frequently with Mahal since then, but are also a working band by themselves, having released several great albums of their own.  Mahal recently released Time (Resonatin' Records/Thirty Tiger), which is taken from sessions recorded back in 2010 with the PBB, other than keyboardist Mike Finnigan who is replaced by Jon Cleary and Mick Weaver on piano and organ respectively.

If you're familiar with Taj Mahal's music, you know it will be a mix of blues, soul, reggae, jazz, and anything else that comes to mind during the recording process.  There are some really good songs among these ten tracks....a few of my favorites are Mahal's reworking of Bob Marley's "Talkin' Blues," which features co-lead vocals from Ziggy Marley, Bob's son, Mahal's cover of "Ask Me 'Bout Nothing (But The Blues)," the Bobby "Blue" Bland classic, and the wonderful title track, written by Bill Withers, but never recorded.....Mahal and producer Steve Berkowitz (who worked with Withers and brought the song to the session) got permission from Withers' widow to include it on the album.  I'm not sure why Withers never recorded the song, or for that matter why Taj Mahal never released Time until now, but I'm sure glad both things happened and blues fans will be, too.

Sherri Harding is a Canadian soul singer and she recorded her previous album, A Million Pieces, in Muscle Shoals.  That effort was successful, so for her latest album, Storyland (Instant Replay Music), she brought some of Muscle Shoals to Ottawa in the form of guitarist Kevin Holley, who backed Little Richard and the Amazing Rhythm Aces, among others.  She also used the Muscle Shoals horns, who recorded their tracks in Muscle Shoals.  

All this being said, it wouldn't mean a thing if Ms. Harding didn't have the voice to put in front of the music, and she certainly has that.  It's not the over-the-top variety vocal style that is sometimes prevalent in modern blues.  She sings with a easy, confident assurance and listeners actually hear and understand the vocals.  I really enjoyed her delivery on all of these songs, which were written by Richard Cooper, who also produced.

The songs are a mix of soul, blues, a bit of jazz, and R&B thrown in.  She sound great on all of them, but she really has a way with the blues and soul-flavored tracks are standout, particularly "Down In The Shoals," which really captures the swamp, soulful essence of the Muscle Shoals sound.  This is a great release with fine work from Harding and the entire band.  

We'll look at a couple more new releases next week but meanwhile, another cool release that I recently found in the "Blast from the Past" department is a collection of the early recordings of Earl Hooker.  We profiled Hooker many years ago on the blog, but all you need to know is that Hooker was one of the finest guitarist to ever play the blues.  His slide guitar was just amazing and he was incredibly creative as a player with a clear and distinctive style, comfortable playing blues, jazz, country, and even rockabilly.  He wasn't as confident with his singing as he was with his playing, so he often backed other singers in Chicago, but he was a decent vocalist himself.  Hooker also battled tuberculosis for most of his life, which caused gaps in his playing career and eventually took his life at the too-young age of 40 in 1970.

A couple of years ago, the UK label Jasmine Records released The Electrifying Blues Guitar of Earl Hooker:  Ride Hooker Ride 1953 - 1962.  Hooker's recordings for Chief, Profile, and Age Records have been pretty well-documented over the years (see Paula Records' Blue Guitar) and they are often considered his best work.  Most of them are included in this set, but the real treat with this set is the inclusion of 17 of his earliest recordings, several of which have never been issued on CD prior to this album.  That includes ten tracks Hooker recorded for Sun Records with Pinetop Perkins on piano, Willie Nix on drums, and Boyd Gilmore on one vocal in 1953.

The sound on these recordings is actually better than the Chief, Profile, and Age tracks that are on the Paula release and Hooker is backed by a pretty impressive group of performers including Perkins, Nix, and Gilmore, Junior Wells, Johnny "Big Moose' Walker, A.C. Reed, Lafayette Leake, Fred Below, and Reggie Boyd.  The instrumentals are just dynamite and find Hooker playing blues, country, and rockabilly.  Two of the noteworthy previously unissued tracks are "Steel Guitar Rag" and "The Huckabuck," and it makes you wonder what in the world Sam Phillips was thinking when he put these songs on the shelf.  If you are a fan of blues guitar, then you need some Earl Hooker in your collection and this is a great place to get started.