29-10-2019 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 2017-2007

Fabrizio Poggi and Guy Davis

29-10-2019  BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 2017-2007 # Guy Davis, Fabrizio Poggi, Joe Bonamassa, Kevin Selfe, Chris Duarte Group, Lurrie Bell, Shemekia Copeland, Ry Cooder, Buddy Guy, Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam, Julian Fauth, Tommy Castro

B L U E S    M U S I C

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BLUES_circle The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

2017-2007

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. 

Fabrizio Poggi is a singer and harmonica player Grammy Awards nominee who has received the Hohner Lifetime Award, and has been two times Blues Music Awards nominee, Jimi Awards nominee, and during his long career has recorded twenty two albums. He has performed in the US and Europe with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Garth Hudson of The Band, Steve Cropper, Charlie Musselwhite, Ronnie Earl, John P. Hammond, Marcia Ball, Guy Davis, Eric Bibb, Flaco Jimenez, Little Feat and many others.
Guy Davis, Fabrizio Poggi
Hooray, Hooray, These Women Are Killing Me (Sonny Terry) 2:56
Baby Please Don't Go to New Orleans (Big Joe Williams) 4:52
from Sonny & Brownie's Last Train 2017
...“Brownie and Sonny were two musicians whose work will never surpassed, let alone improved on,” says Guy.
While that might be true, this writer is old enough to have experienced those giants on multiple occasions in my youth and, more recently, been blessed with the good fortune of catching Davis and Poggi in concert, too. Even though they deliver much of the same material as their predecessors, they achieve a level of intimacy that Terry and McGhee never approached – possibly because of personal differences...

Blues-rock guitarist who got his start with the band Bloodline before launching a solo career.Guitar mastermind Joe Bonamassa, a young player with the childhood dream of playing music similar to legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix, was 22 when he inked a deal with Epic.
Joe Bonamassa
This Train (Joe Bonamassa / James House) 4:20
Blues of Desperation (Joe Bonamassa / James House) 6:27
What I've Known for a Very Long Time (Joe Bonamassa) 5:33
from Blues Of Desperation 2016
Despite its hardscrabble title -- a sentiment mirrored by the deeply etched black & white cover art -- 2016's Blues of Desperation is very much a continuation of the bright, varied blues-rock heard on Different Shades of Blue. On that 2014 album, Joe Bonamassa made a conscious decision to pair with a bunch of Nashville songsmiths to help sharpen his original material, and he brings most of them back for Blues of Desperation, too. The tenor of the tunes is somewhat heavy -- there are lonesome trains, low valleys, no places for the lonely -- and the production also carries a ballast, something that comes into sharp relief on the Zep-flavored title track but can be heard throughout the record...

Kevin Selfe has been electrifying audiences nationwide since breaking into the blues scene in 2006. His growing stature as a captivating story teller and passionate performer are surpassed only by his deft mastery of blues guitar. Having relocated to Portland, OR, the Virginia native is now a leading light in the Pacific Northwest’s robust blues revival.
Kevin Selfe
Buy My Soul Back (Kevin Selfe) 4:52
Bluesman Without the Blues (Kevin Selfe) 3:21
Virginia Farm (Kevin Selfe) 4:02
Pig Pickin' (Kevin Selfe) 4:48
from Buy My Soul Back 2015
Multi-talented Kevin Selfe and his band, the Tornadoes, have been wowing audiences from their adopted home base of Portland, Ore., for the better part of a decade, but should make waves nationally with Buy My Soul Back, a thoroughly modern album that delves into themes that regularly run through the blues.
Originally from Roanoke, Va., Selfe discovered the blues late in life, when he was a student in meteorology at North Carolina State University. His roommate, a bass player, introduced him to the works of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James, and, by the time he graduated with honors, changed his path in life from TV weatherman to dyed-in-the-wool bluesman.

San Antonio-born, Austin-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter who specializes in fiery Texas blues rock. Austin-based guitarist, songwriter, and singer Chris Duarte has often been compared with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. It's heady stuff for the musician, who plays a rhythmic style of Texas blues-rock that is at times reminiscent of Vaughan's sound, and at other times reminiscent of Johnny Winter. The truth is, Duarte has his own sound that draws on elements of jazz, blues, and rock & roll.
Chris Duarte Group
You Know You're Wrong (Chris Duarte) 6:14
Crazy for Your Love (Chris Duarte) 5:15
Meus Via Vita Suite: Setting Sun (Chris Duarte) 6:48
from Lucky 13 2014
Earlier in his career, Chris Duarte was often compared to fellow Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Johnny Winter's name was tossed around as well, but Duarte has been at this professional blues-rock thing for a couple of decades now, and while he quite likely will never escape the Vaughan/Winter cul du sac, it's obvious at this point that he has his own varied spin on the whole modern Texas blues thing, spicing it up with, at times, a jazz feel and some light psychedelia. He doesn't wander far from that mix on Lucky 13, which he co-produced with Mike Varney, and for which Duarte wrote all the songs. Working with drummer John McKnight and bassist Kevin Vecchione, Duarte stays close to the power trio template, spinning off fiery guitar lines everywhere and, particularly when he gets a bit of that Jimi Hendrix vibe going, sounding like he's stepping right out of the late '60s...

Son of harpist Carey Bell who was on-stage early and often, later recording from the 1970s on, both as a solo act and under the Sons of Blues banner.
Lurrie Bell
Hey Hey Baby (T-Bone Walker) 3:11
'Bout the Break of Day (Amos Blakemore) 6:11
Blues in My Soul (Lurrie Bell) 6:03
from Blues in My Soul 2013
Lurrie Bell is a throwback and so is Blues in My Soul. It's the sound of classic small-band Chicago blues as played in the '50s and '60s: no flash, no showboating, and no screaming guitar...just solid ensemble playing. Of course, as the son of Carey Bell, Lurrie comes by it naturally, having learned at the feet of any number of Chicago blues legends. The set is mostly covers, but the only real warhorse is "'Bout the Break of Day," which suffers slightly from overexposure. Bell also contributes a handful of originals, with the nicely personal title track as an album highlight. Lurrie's got a gruff but soulful voice and his guitar style harks back to players like Jimmy Rogers (who he covers here twice). The album was cut with Bell's regular working band, with some tasty added horns on two cuts. If you like your Chicago blues old-school style, check out Blues in My Soul.

 A powerful blues singer and daughter of blues guitarist Johnny Copeland whose award-winning recordings run the gamut from electric blues to soul and Americana.
Shemekia Copeland
Lemon Pie (John Hahn / Oliver Wood) 3:25
Ain't Gonna Be Your Tattoo (John Hahn / Oliver Wood) 5:28
Mississippi Mud (John Hahn / Oliver Wood) 4:41
from 33 ⅓ 2012
Singer Shemekia Copeland must have been pleased with the way 2009's Never Going Back turned out because she returns to the well and again employs the services of the Wood Brothers' Oliver Wood as producer/guitarist, and some of the same backing musicians, on this follow-up released three years later. As on the last disc, there is a decided shift away from the sassy blues belter style that powered her Alligator catalog (the disc is dedicated to Koko Taylor, an obvious role model) to a still rootsy but more reserved rock/gospel/R&B groove... Still, she sounds older and wiser than her chronological years would dictate, as she energizes these terrific songs with guts, power, and a restraint powered by experience and natural talent.

Virtuoso roots guitarist who was steeped in the blues, but spent his career exploring new musical worlds from Tex-Mex to Cuban bolero.
Ry Cooder
No Banker Left Behind (Ry Cooder) 3:36
I Want My Crown (Ry Cooder) 2:37
John Lee Hooker for President (Ry Cooder) 6:08
from Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down 2011
Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, issued between two national election cycles, is the most overtly political album Ry Cooder has ever released, and one of his funniest, most musically compelling ones, too. Cooder looks deeply into his musical past using his entire Americana musical arsenal: blues, folk, ragtime, norteño, rock, and country here... Those who've followed Cooder from the beginning will find much to love on Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down. Those music fans unfamiliar with his work but looking for a comrade in arms will find one here. That said, this is revolution music; worthy of dancing to, learning from, and singing along with: who says topical music has to be boring?

Contender for the title of greatest blues guitarist ever, with a fiery, screechy, super-quick technique that influenced countless followers.
Buddy Guy
74 Years Young (Tom Hambridge / Gary Nicholson) 4:34
On the Road (Richard Fleming / Tom Hambridge) 4:11
Key Don't Fit (Tom Hambridge / Gary Nicholson) 5:02
from Living Proof 2010
Living Proof was designed partially as an aural autobiography from the legendary Buddy Guy, opening up with the stark summation “74 Years Young,” then running through songs that often address some aspect of a working musician's life... Like Skin Deep before it, Living Proof is distinguished by these bold, clenched blasts of sonic fury, but here the production has just enough grit to make the entire enterprise feel feral, and that’s a greater testament to Guy's enduring vitality than any one song could ever be.

British blues-rockers Back Door Slam boast a tough, streetwise sound that recalls veteran U.K. blues players such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and John Mayall, though these young guitar slingers represent a new generation -- when bassist Adam Jones joined the group in 2006, guitarist and singer Davy Knowles and drummer Ross Doyle were all of 20 years old, while Jones himself was just 19. 
Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam
Coming Up for Air (Davy Knowles) 4:36
Taste of Danger (Jonatha Brooke) 4:09
Riverbed (Davy Knowles) 3:38
from Coming Up For Air 2009
Perfectly acknowledging the whirlwind that inevitably happens when you're heir apparent to a litany of great bluesmen at the not-so-tender-anymore age of 22, Davy Knowles chooses an album title that sums up what it's like to follow the frenzy with another great gust of compelling songs and exciting studio activity. It's hard to tell the Isle of Man singer/guitarist's story without dropping some classic rock names, since he and his band, Back Door Slam, have played concerts with everyone from the Who to Buddy Guy and George Thorogood and toured with Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Gov't Mule. While many wanted to share stages with this powerful vocalist and brilliant axeman, one legend went a step further. Harking back to his blues-rock roots in Humble Pie, Peter Frampton makes Coming Up for Air his first foray into producing another artist's entire project...

Julian Fauth is a singer and piano player whose style is based on the tradition of pre-war barrelhouse blues and boogie woogie, with infusions of gospel and jazz. He writes his own songs in addition to re-interpreting traditional material.
Julian Fauth
Maggie Campbell (Julian Fauth) 4:52
The Man on the Box (Julian Fauth) 5:05
Cubist Blues(Julian Fauth) 3:34
from Ramblin' Son 2008
If you think Julian Fauth’s new record is a cover album, you’re likely not alone. However, Ramblin’ Son is almost all originals – it’s just so good that you can’t believe his tracks weren’t written by a weathered 50s bluesman.
Opener Maggie Campbell is a speedy piece complete with old-timey wailin and a swift guitar solo. The Man On The Box is a much slower affair but no less infectious, due to the musicians’ subtle keys and powerful pipes. Fauth’s effortless swing makes it all sound easy.
Whether because of the way it was recorded or the accessibility of the sounds, Ramblin’ Son vividly creates that familiar smoky bar vibe.

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.
Tommy Castro
Love Don't Care (Kevin Bowe / Tommy Castro) 3:47
Painkiller (Tommy Castro / Gary Nicholson) 3:49
Lonesome and Then Some (Tommy Castro / Jeff Silbar) 4:44
from Painkiller 2007
Tommy Castro's sixth release for the Blind Pig label, Painkiller, picks up where his 2003 set, Soul Shaker, left off. This time around, producer John Porter -- who has worked with Santana, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy -- positions Castro's Delbert McClinton/Southside Johnny vocal grit in front of a punchy horn section and rounds out the date with a few guest artists. Unlike many similar modern blues projects of good intentions but lackluster performances, the combinations on Painkiller never sound forced...