01-07-2018 10:46 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1995-1985

01-07-2018 10:46 RULE BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1995-1985 # Tommy Castro, Phillip Walker and Otis Grand, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Luther 'Guitar Junior' Johnson, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Rogers, Charlie Musselwhite, Henry Gray, Snooky Pryor, Chris Thomas King, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray

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1995-1985

One of the brightest contemporary blues musicians, combining passionate, fiery guitar playing with powerful vocals. According to all the press and hype and hoopla for a time during the 1990s, Tommy Castro was pegged as the next big star of the blues. Long a favorite among Bay Area music fans, Castro -- in the space of two album releases -- took his music around the world and back again with a sheaf of praise from critics and old-time blues musicians alike. His music was a combination of soul-inflected rockers with the occasional slow blues or shuffle thrown into the mix to keep it honest. His vocals were laid-back and always a hair behind the beat, while his scorching guitar tone was Stevie Ray Stratocaster-approved. Crossover success did not seem out of the question.
Tommy Castro
Exception to the Rule (Tommy Castro / Shad Harris) 3:28
Had Enough (Tommy Castro) 4:55
Sho' Enough (Tommy Castro) 4:00
from Exception To The Rule 1995
EXCEPTION TO THE RULE by TOMMY CASTRO just rocks. It has a good blend of blues, soul and rock that is totally lacking from most of the music that is popular today. (Martin Lemos)

Despite recording somewhat sparingly since debuting as a leader in 1959 on Elko Records with the storming rocker "Hello My Darling," Louisiana-born guitarist Phillip Walker enjoys a sterling reputation as a contemporary blues guitarist with a distinctive sound honed along the Gulf Coast during the '50s...

Phillip Walker and Otis Grand 

b. Fred Bishti, 14 February 1950, Beirut, Lebanon. Grand has spent most of his life in the USA, although he lived in France for a few years. He began playing guitar at the age of 13, citing his influences as B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Otis Rush and Johnny Otis, and he has played with many San Francisco Bay area blues artists. Otis Grand And The Dance Kings created a sensation when they burst onto the British blues scene in the late 80s...

Dressin' Trashy (Nathaniel Dove / Phillip Walker) 3:51

She's Gone (Phillip Walker) 7:02

Play Me Some Blues (Jimmy Johnson / Phillip Walker) 8:54

from Big Blues From Texas 1994

Nice comeback set after a lengthy absence from the recording scene that was cut in London under the direction of guitarist Otis Grand (who shares axe duties throughout). Why this Louisiana-born guitarist hasn't been recorded more heavily is a mystery; he seldom fails to connect, and this import is no exception to the rule.

Indie '90 trio that bent the rules of rock while demonstrating a devotion to the music’s R&B roots. After a long and semi-successful tenure as leader of scuzz-rock heroes Pussy Galore, Jon Spencer shook up his anti-rock vision and hooked up with guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins to create the scuzz-blues trio the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Postmodern to the core, there was a genuine irony in the band's name; little of what they play resembles standard blues.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 

Afro (The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) 2:55

Train #2 (The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) 2:25

from Extra Width 1993

On their self-titled debut album, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion had worked out the basic framework of their sound -- lots of guitar clatter, booming drums, and wild vocal gesticulations from Spencer -- but it took a while for the pieces to really come together, and 1993's Extra Width was the first album where they revealed their true potential...

Of the three blues guitarists answering to the name of Luther Johnson, this West Side-styled veteran is probably the best known. Adding to the general confusion surrounding the triumvirate, like Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson spent a lengthy stint in the top-seeded band of Muddy Waters (1972-1979).

Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson 

Feel So Bad (Lightnin' Hopkins) 5:12

If You Love Me Like You Say (Little Johnny Taylor) 2:47

It's Good to Me (Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson) 3:31

from It's Good To Me 1992

Another barn-burner mixing the guitarist's West-side roots with soul and blues shadings to present some of the fieriest contemporary blues on the market. Saxist Gordon Beadle and keyboardist Joe Krown distinguish themselves behind Johnson.

An exceptionally talented blues and slide guitarist, beginning in the 1960s and stretching into the 21st century. When Johnny Winter emerged on the national scene in 1969, the hope, particularly in the record business, was that he would become a superstar on the scale of Jimi Hendrix, another blues-based rock guitarist and singer who preceded him by a few years. That never quite happened, but Winter did survive the high expectations of his early admirers to become a mature, respected blues musician with a strong sense of tradition.

Johnny Winter 

Illustrated Man (Mary-Ann Brandon / Fred James) 3:40

Life Is Hard (Fred James) 6:19

Blue Mood (Jessie Mae Robinson) 3:04

from Let Me In 1991

Let Me In is a star-studded all-blues set from Johnny Winter, featuring cameos from Dr. John, Albert Collins, and several others. Though the set focuses on blues material, Winters can never leave his rock roots behind -- the sheer volume and pile-driving energy of his performances ensures that. For most of the record, his enthusiasm is contagious, but there are a couple of bland, generic exercises that fail to work up a head of steam...

Brilliant urban blues guitarist and recording artist who worked extensively with Muddy Waters.  Guitarist Jimmy Rogers was the last living connection to the groundbreaking first Chicago band of Muddy Waters (informally dubbed "the Headhunters" for their penchant of dropping by other musicians' gigs and "cutting their heads" with a superior on-stage performance). Instead of basking in world-wide veneration, he was merely a well-respected Chicago elder boasting a seminal '50s Chess Records catalog, both behind Waters and on his own.
Jimmy Rogers
You're Sweet (James A. Lane) 3:46
Sloppy Drunk (Jimmy Rogers) 4:57
Ludella (Jimmy Rogers) 3:22
from Ludella 1990
One of the most enriching contemporary items in Rogers's growing album catalog. Combining studio tracks with live performances, the set trods heavily on the past with loving renditions of "Rock This House," "Ludella," "Sloppy Drunk," and "Chicago Bound." Kim Wilson proves a worthy harp disciple of Little Walter, while bassist Bob Stroger and drummer Ted Harvey lay down supple grooves behind the blues great.

A Mississippi transplant whose rangy, subtle harp playing made a splash in Chicago blues circles beginning in the 1960s. Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they both stand out as being especially faithful to the style.
Charlie Musselwhite
It Ain't Right (Walter Jacobs / Little Walter) 3:59
Finger Lickin' Good (Charlie Musselwhite) 4:0
If Trouble Was Money (D.A.R.) 5:21
from Memphis Charlie 1989
Charlie Musselwhite earned the nickname “Memphis Charlie” during his years in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned to play guitar and blues harmonica. Moving to Chicago in 1962 to look for better-paying work, Musselwhite jumped into the blues scene, becoming a regular at blues venues, sitting in and playing with some of the great musicians of the Chicago scene. This album, released in 1989, contains songs recorded in 1971 and 1974 that feature the electrifying blues vocals and harmonica of Memphis Charlie.

Louisiana-based pianist and singer Henry Gray has a career in American roots music that goes back more than 60 years. Gray was born January 19, 1925, in Kenner, LA, now a suburb of New Orleans. He grew up in Alsen, LA, a few miles north of Baton Rouge. Henry began playing piano as an eight-year-old, and he learned from the radio, recordings, and Mrs. White, an elderly woman in his neighborhood...
Henry Gray
My Girl Josephine (Dave Bartholomew / Fats Domino) 2:43
Lucky, Lucky Man (Henry Gray) 2:57
Boogie In the Dark (Jimmy Rogers) 2:54
from Lucky Man 1988
Renowned as a piano-rippling sideman on the 1950s Chicago scene, Henry Gray returned to his native Louisiana in 1968 before anyone recorded him too prolifically as a leader. This album at least partially makes up for the oversight; backed by a solid Chicago combo, Gray alternates his own stuff with classics by Big Maceo, Little Walter, and Jimmy Reed, his ruminative voice and rumbling ivories prowess nicely spotlighted.

This harmoinca player's records were harbingers of the amplified, down-home sound of post-war Chicago blues.  Only recently has Snooky Pryor finally begun to receive full credit for the mammoth role he played in shaping the amplified Chicago blues harp sound during the postwar era. He's long claimed he was the first harpist to run his sound through a public address system around the Windy City -- and since nobody's around to refute the claim at this point, we'll have to accept it! James Edward Pryor was playing harmonica at the age of eight in Mississippi...
Snooky Pryor
Broke and Hungry (Snooky Pryor) 2:36
Judgment Day (Snooky Pryor) 4:16
Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy / Charles Segar) 2:55
from Snooky 1987
An outstanding comeback effort by Chicago harp pioneer Snooky Pryor, whose timeless sound meshed well with a Windy City trio led by producer/guitarist Steve Freund for this set. Mostly Pryor's own stuff ... with his fat-toned harp weathering the decades quite nicely.

Initially known for his audacious fusion of blues and hip-hop, Chris Thomas King reached a whole new audience with the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, not only appearing on the award-winning soundtrack but playing a prominent supporting character as well. Despite the much-celebrated, down-to-earth rootsiness of O Brother's music, King had previously been a determined progressive, hoping to reinvigorate the blues as a living African American art with a more contemporary approach and adamantly refusing to treat it as a museum piece whose "authentic" forms needed careful preservation. King eventually modified that approach to a certain degree, attempting to create a more explicit link between blues tradition and the general musical present.
Chris Thomas King
The Blues Is Back 3:37
Cheatin' Women Blues 4:38
Going Home To Louisiana 3:43
South Side Shuffle 1:45
from The Beginning 1986
Recorded at Reel To Reel Sound Factory - Baton Rounge, La.

Albert Collins - The embodiment of the Texas blues guitar style, with non-standard tuning and slashing blocked chords. 
Johnny Copeland - An influential blues guitarist since the 1950s, journeyman hit critical paydirt in the 1980s. 

Robert Cray - The guitarist who brought blues back to the charts in the '80s via songs that defined blues themes but added modern and personal twists. 

Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray
T-Bone Shuffle (T-Bone Walker) 4:58
The Dream (Unknown Blues Band) 5:32
Blackjack (Ray Charles) 6:34
from Showdown! 1985
More cooperative than competitive in spirit, Showdown! ranks above other blues ‘supergroup’ sessions in the cohesiveness of the music, as three of the top names in blues of the 1980s shared the spotlight with a tight rhythm section in support. There were still plenty of hot guitar licks, though, from Collins, Cray and Copeland, with Albert even taking a turn on harmonica. T-Bone Walker’s T-Bone Shuffle provided a common ground for the triumvirate to kick the album off, and the rest of the program consisted of originals and lesser-known covers of Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, Texas legend Hop Wilson and others....