29-04-2019 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1996-2005

Sue Foley

29-04-2019  BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1996-2005 # Sue Foley, Karen Carroll, Little Mack Simmons, Tommy Castro, Robert Belfour, Boo Boo Davis, Junior Kimbrough, Taj Mahal, Guy Davis, Sean Costello

B L U E S   M U S I C

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1996-2005

This highly touted vocalist/guitarist originally hails from Ottawa, Canada, although her home base shifted to Austin, Texas, when she signed with Antone's Records and cut her debut set, Young Girl Blues, in 1992 (an encore, Without a Warning, quickly followed). Foley's wicked lead guitar makes her a rarity among blueswomen.
Sue Foley
Long Distance Lover (Sue Foley) 4:57
Try to Understand (Sue Foley) 5:03
Train to Memphis (Sue Foley) 4:40
from Walk in the Sun 1996
Walk in the Sun isn't quite typical Sue Foley. With her first three albums, the guitarist demonstrated that she had a firm grasp on searingly electric Chicago blues and high-voltage blues-rock. With Walk in the Sun, she expands her sonic palette somewhat, taking in gritty R&B, reverb-drenched surf and down-home country, among other styles of blues and roots music. Throughout the album, she demonstrates that she is gifted enough to effortlessly bring in these other styles without losing her distinctive identity.

...at 18 Karen Carroll struck out on her own, cutting her teeth in tiny South Side blues joints and developing a deep vocal style heavily influenced by jazz phrasing as well as the intensity of gospel...
Karen Carroll
Ain't It Nice (Lefty Dizz) 4:13
Talk to the Hand (Karen Carroll) 3:04
Neked J Blues (Karen Carroll) 9:11
from Talk To The Hand 1997
While her debut Had My Fun featured Carroll's thunderous, gospel-influenced vocals in a live setting, this studio recording also spotlights her burgeoning songwriting skills.

"He was one of the top harp blowers (and at times the best) in Chicago. - REAL BLUES Magazine
Malcolm "Little Mack" Simmons, came up from Twist Arkansas and earned his formidable harmonica chops in the southside jukes and in the blues clubs along Rush Street in the windy city. In a remarkable almost 50-year career, this childhood friend of James Cotton later performed with the some of the brightest lights of the blues world, including Robert Nighthawk, Sunnyland Slim, Luther Allison, Magic Sam, and Howlin' Wolf. 
Little Mack Simmons
Leaving in the Morning (W. Jacobs) 3:48
The Things I Used To Do (E. James) 3:50
You Mistreated Me (M. Simmons) 4:18
from The Best of Little Mack Simmons: The Electro-Fi Years
After a long battle with cancer claimed the life of harp legend Malcolm “Little Mack” Simmons on October 24, 2000, at his South Side Chicago home, blues music lost not only a brilliant innovator but another link to its storied past.
With the release of this recording, we at Electro-Fi are honored to preserve and present to you the musical legacy of a true original of Chicago blues—Malcolm “Little Mack” Simmons.

Contemporary blues star known for his passionate, fiery guitar playing and 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.
Tommy Castro
Lucky in Love (Tommy Castro / Billie Lee Lewis) 3:57
Right as Rain (Tommy Castro) 4:21
I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby (Isaac Hayes / David Porter)
from Right As Rain 1999
Young guitar slinger Tommy Castro came back with his third Blind Pig album in early 1999, again produced by veteran Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray, Santana, Huey Lewis, etc.), and it's another bid for mainstream blues-rock success. From the opening notes of the kickoff tune, "Lucky in Love," Castro is in the driver's seat with a set of blues-rock originals that give him plenty of room to spray his Stevie Ray-inspired guitar licks in between his soul-man vocals. Dr. John makes guest keyboard appearances on "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" and "Don't Turn Your Heater Down"...

Robert 'Wolfman' Belfour is a little-known but very powerful blues guitarist and singer based in Memphis, Tennessee. Born to sharecropper parents on a farm in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he began playing guitar in the late '40s after the death of his father who left the instrument to him...
Robert Belfour
My Baby's Gone (Robert Belfour) 4:46
What's Wrong with You (Robert Belfour) 4:41
Bad Luck (Robert Belfour) 4:17
from What's Wrong with You 2000
There's a certain honesty about people like Robert Belfour. Just by listening to What's Wrong With You one can immediately tell that he had a back breaking life in Memphis, TN. Blues enthusiasts are fortunate enough to hear all about it on his first album.
Belfour was 60 years old by the time that What's Wrong With You came out. Over forty years of guitar playing is clearly heard throughout this record, as he bears his soul of all the heartbreak and hard times in his life. And through his vintage of country based blues that looks back into the '20s and '30s, you can tell that there's not a fake bone in Belfour's body.

Boo Boo Davis is a survivor and belongs to the last generations of musicians that write and play the blues based on first hand experience of a hard life in the Mississippi Delta. He was born and raised in Drew, Mississippi in the heart of Delta.
Boo Boo Davis
Sad Thing (Boo Boo Davis) 4:35
Somebody Have Mercy (Sam Cooke) 7:56
East St Louis
(Boo Boo Davis) 4:42
from East St Louis 2001
It was the richest cotton land in the South and the large amounts of field workers attracted the best musicians from the surrounding areas. The entire Delta region was rich with blues, but the town of Drew was a particularly fertile one. Charley Patton stayed near Drew for many years and several legendary performers spent time there. Sharecroppers sang loudly to help pass the grueling hours of work and without a doubt Boo Boo developed his loud, bellowing voice based on the singing he heard in the fields as a young boy. In fact, that voice, through the years has demolished many amps and speaker cabinets.

Major blues figure, wandered country playing music he called "cottonpatch blues," often seen by critics as a revival of "juke joint." 
Junior Kimbrough
Release Me (Junior Kimbrough (5:21)
Meet Me in the City (Junior Kimbrough) 3:12
Tramp (Junior Kimbrough) 5:40
from You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough 2002
Gathering the best of his all-too-brief recording career, You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough includes most of his best-known songs, including "Done Got Old," "Meet Me in the City," "You Better Run," and "All Night Long." The collection does a good job of representing each of Kimbrough's albums, ranging from the rough-and-ready sound of All Night Long; Sad Days, Lonely Nights' dark, swampy feel (exemplified here by the title track and "Old Black Mattie"); the dense sonics of Most Things Haven't Worked Out's title track; and the gritty, uncompromising edge to God Knows I Tried's "Tramp." For anyone unsure where to dive into Kimbrough's catalog, You Better Run offers the ideal starting point.

A guitarist and singer/songwriter who took an interest in reviving the rural blues tradition, later extending to reggae and ragtime influences. 
Taj Mahal
Señor Blues (Horace Silver) 6:44
(You've Got To) Love Her with a Feeling (Freddie King / Sonny Thompson) 3:45
Blues with a Feeling (Walter Jacobs) 3:52
from Blues with a Feeling: The Very Best of Taj Mahal 2003
Throughout his career, Taj Mahal has always been considered a bluesman, which is true enough, since the basis for everything he does has been the country blues, but he is not a traditionalist at heart, and he has always looked for ways to push the blues into new places and shapes. Adding at times rhythms and sensibilities that are drawn from reggae, ragtime, calypso, zydeco, and other genres, Mahal practices a kind of blues hybrid that is his alone, and he has been a huge influence on newer artists like Chris Thomas King and Corey Harris. This collection derives from the five albums he recorded with Private Records during the 1990s, and overlaps somewhat with The Best of the Private Years, released in 2000...

Acclaimed American blues singer, songwriter, actor, and teacher. Updating the rural blues tradition for the modern era, Guy Davis was among the most prominent ambassadors of African-American art and culture of his generation, additionally winning great acclaim for his work in the theater.
Guy Davis
Uncle Tom's Dead (Guy Davis) 4:47
Run Molly Run (Henry Thomas / Traditional) 3:30
Drop Down Mama 4:00
Cypress Grove (Nehemiah James) 5:06
from Legacy 2004
With the exception of the opening "Uncle Tom's Dead," which is a blues versus rap debate of only minimal interest, Guy Davis' Legacy consists of the blues from various genres. Alternating older material with his recent originals (some of which sound more traditional than the vintage songs), Davis plays straight-ahead blues, country blues, a couple songs that could be called bluish pop, folk music, and blues ballads. Davis' baritone singing is pleasing, his guitar is solid, and his band is tight yet versatile. It is Davis' goal to keep the legacy of the blues alive, and this CD should help the worthy effort.

Teen blues phenom Sean Costello was born and raised in Atlanta, receiving his first guitar for his ninth birthday. A primarily self-taught player, he initially gravitated toward hard rock but soon discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan, moving on from there to Howlin' Wolf; under the wing of local bluesman Felix Reyes, a 14-year-old Costello won the Beale Street Blues Society's talent award in 1994.
Sean Costello
It's My Own Fault (Jules Bihari / Riley King) 4:41
Hard Luck Woman (Sean Costello) 3:22
You Don't Know What Love Is (Fenton Robinson) 4:39
I Went Wrong (Sean Costello) 4:34
from In the Magic Shop 2005
2008 April 15th is not a great day. Oh, yes, Income Taxes are due then but that is not why I note the date. It is the day that a young and bright star of the blues left us. Sean Costello was on the eve of his 29th birthday when an accidental overdose took him from his family and us only a week after beginning an alcohol addiction program and being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. Enveloped in depression, he had difficulty sleeping and told a friend he was taking something to help him sleep that fateful night. A shy and unassuming soul, Sean was also a premier blues guitar player, singer and songwriter.... Joining Costello on this recording are Paul Linden on B3, harp and keys, Melvin Zachery on bass and Ray Hangen on drums. A few others perform here and there, too, but the foursome of Costello and these three comprise the main band. It took Rosenthal six years to get the gumption up to play these recordings again and then by Summer 2014 he had recompiled and re-created this masterful recording. Half new and half fine covers, this album gives us but a glimpse of what we’ve missed with the loss of this fine musician.