19-03-2019 > BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1998-1987

Colin James

19-03-2019 > BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1998-1987 # Colin James, Taj Mahal, Joanna Connor, The Jeff Healey Band, Chris Duarte Group, Little Smokey Smothers, Tinsley Ellis, John Campbell, Etta James, Jack Bruce, Lazy Lester, Little Milton

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1998-1987

This guitarist, singer, and songwriter is Canada's answer to the U.S.'s Chris Duarte or Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Colin James Munn grew up in Saskatchewan, listening to folk and blues. After learning the penny whistle and mandolin, he quit school and worked with a succession of bands, among them the Hoo Doo Men.
Colin James
Kind-Hearted Woman (Robert Johnson) 2:41
National Steel (Colin James, Daryl Burgess, Christopher Ward) 4:52
from National Steel 1998
National Steel is a blues album by Canadian musician Colin James, released in 1997. The album was recorded at Rat's Ass Studios and Mushroom Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia and mastered at MasterDisk in New York City.
National Steel earned James the 1998 Juno Award for "Best Blues Album".
Colin James – vocals, guitars
Colin Linden – acoustic and slide guitars, mandolin, background vocals
Norm Fisher – bass
Chris "The Wrist" Norquist – drums and percussion
Johnny Ferreira - tenor saxophone
Campbell Ryga - alto saxophone

A guitarist and singer/songwriter who took an interest in reviving the rural blues tradition, later extending to reggae and ragtime influences.
Taj Mahal
Irresistable You (Luther Dixon / Al Kasha) 3:12
Señor Blues (Horace Silver) 6:43
from Señor Blues 199
Señor Blues is one of Taj Mahal's best latter-day albums, a rollicking journey through classic blues styles performed with contemporary energy and flair. There's everything from country-blues to jazzy uptown blues on Señor Blues, and Taj hits all of areas in between, including R&B and soul. Stylistically, it's similar to most of his albums, but he's rarely been as effortlessly fun and infectious as he is here.

What sets Joanna Connor apart from the rest of the pack of guitar-playing female blues singers is her skill on the instrument. Even though Connor has become an accomplished singer over time, her first love was guitar playing, and it shows in her live shows and on her recordings.
Joanna Connor
Big Girl Blues (Joanna Connor) 3:47
Sister Spirit (Joanna Connor) 4:28
Heart of the Blues (Joanna Connor / Marcus Roberts) 6:01
from Big Girl Blues 1996
The comparison of Connor to Bonnie Raitt is unavoidable, considering the similarities of their vocal style and skill at slide guitar. But Connor offers a more savage guitar approach, akin to George Thorogood, and she comes on as a bit nastier. The album is filled with impressive guitar work...

What made Jeff Healey different from other blues-rockers was also what kept some listeners from accepting him as anything other than a novelty: the fact that the blind guitarist played his Fender Stratocaster on his lap, not standing up. With the guitar in his lap, Healey could make unique bends and hammer-ons, making his licks different and more elastic than most of the competition.
The Jeff Healey Band
Yer Blues (John Lennon / Paul McCartney) 4:31
Angel (Jimi Hendrix) 4:29
Communication Breakdown (John Bonham / John Paul Jones / Jimmy Page) 3:16
from Cover To Cover 1995
One likes the covers concept espoused by blues-rockers The Jeff Healey Band in a kind of backhanded way: as much as one admires the chops displayed by Toronto's blind guitarist whiz-kid, the group's songwriting is somewhat lyric-challenged. Cover to Cover works to circumvent the combo's main limitations... Mind you, if any of these point new listeners in the direction of the original, then a valuable public service has been performed.

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.
Chris Duarte Group
My Way Down (Chris Duarte) 4:36
What Can I Do? (Chris Duarte) 5:03
Big Legged Woman (Leon Russell) 5:15
from Texas Sugar Strat Magik 1994
Guitarist Chris Duarte's Texas Sugar Strat Magik is an impressive debut album, showcasing his fiery, Stevie Ray Vaughan-derived blues-rock. As a songwriter, Duarte is still developing but as an instrumentalist, he's first-rate, spitting out solos with a blistering intensity or laying back with gentle, lyrical phrases. And that's what makes Texas Sugar Strat Magik a successful record -- it's simply a great guitar album, full of exceptional playing.

Not to be confused with his late older brother Big Smokey, Albert "Little Smokey" Smothers began to transcend his journeyman status in 1993 with a superlative Dick Shurman-produced album for the Dutch Black Magic label, Bossman: The Chicago Blues of Little Smokey Smothers. The set happily reunited him with his ex-guitar pupil Elvin Bishop and his cousin, singer Lee Shot Williams.
Little Smokey Smothers
Remembering 3:12
You're Gonna Miss Me 5:06
Tribute to Earl Hooker 7:15
from Bossman - The Chicago Blues of Little Smokey Smothers 1993
---After Bishop hooked up with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the band’s recordings began to take off, Elvin was constantly on the road. After Bishop was gone, Smothers almost completely gave up music, taking construction jobs to make money. Once his children grew up, he rejoined the music scene with the Legendary Blues Band in the 1980s and has been regularly gigging ever since. In 1993 he released his first full-length album, Bossman!, on the Dutch Black Magic label, with help from his student and friend, Elvin Bishop...

A fiery guitarist and talented songwriter who plays a unique blend of Memphis R&B, southwest blues, and urban funk. A hard-rocking, high-voltage blues guitarist most often compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tinsley Ellis is hardly one of the legions of imitators that comparison might imply.
Tinsley Ellis
Highwayman 3:16
Sign of the Blues 4:18
The Axe 7:35
from Trouble Time 1992
Trouble Time is a 1992 blues album by Tinsley Ellis. It was recorded by Mark Richardson at Triclops Sound Studios and Ricky Keller at Southern Living Studio in Atlanta, Georgia with horns recorded by Lynn Fuston at Classic Recording Nashville, Tennessee. It was mixed by Rodney Mills assisted by Russ Fowler and Tag George at Southern Tracks Studios Atlanta, Georgia, mastered by Dr. Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, Southborough, Massachusetts, and produced by Ricky Keller, Tinsley Ellis and Bruce Iglauer with Michael Rothschild as executive producer.
    Tinsley Ellis on guitar and vocals
    Ricky Keller and James Ferguson on bass guitar
    Chuck Leavell on piano
    Peter Buck on guitar
    Scott Meeder and David Sims on drums
    Oliver Wells on organ and keyboards
    Mike Boyette on piano and organ

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter John Campbell had the potential of turning a whole new generation of people onto the blues in the 1990s, much the same way Stevie Ray Vaughan did in the '80s. His vocals were so powerful and his guitar playing so fiery, you couldn't help but stop what you were doing and pay attention to what you were hearing. But unfortunately, because of frail health and a rough European tour, he suffered a heart attack in his sleep on June 13, 1993, at the age of 41.
John Campbell
Devil in My Closet (John Campbell / Dennis Walker) 6:00
Wild Streak (John Campbell / Elmore James / Marshall Sehorn / Dennis Walker)  4:59
Take Me Down (John Campbell / Dennis Walker) 6:46
from One Believer 1991
The Elektra debut by the late bluesman John Campbell is a curious affair in more than one respect-despite it's obvious excellence and original voice. The first is that he was signed at all. Clearly in 1990 when Campbell signed his deal, record company executives were still interested inn finding new and original talent and developing them over a period of time. One Believer was outside of virtually every trend on major labels and in pop at the time. Other than Chris Whitley's Living with the Law, it was the only roots record issued on a major label in 1991. The other thing is that One Believer is an oddity even for Campbell. It's a deeply atmospheric record full of subtle shimmering organs and warm guitar textures that accent the dreamy spooky side of the blues more than the crunchy stomp and roll that Campbell was known for in the clubs -- and displayed on his follow-up Howlin' Mercy...  This is a fine, fine debut that remains in print.

Few female R&B stars enjoyed the kind of consistent acclaim Etta James received throughout a career that spanned six decades; the celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her "the greatest of all modern blues singers," and she recorded a number of enduring hits...
Etta James
Whatever Gets You Through the Night (Bucky Lindsey / Dan Penn / Carson Whitsett) 3:50
The Blues Don't Care (Etta James / Brian Ray) 3:44
from Stickin' to My Guns 1990
Stickin’ to My Guns is the eighteenth studio album by Etta James, released in 1990.
Etta James is a little further along in her effort to come up with a more contemporary sound. Stickin’ to My Guns pays homage to James’s roots in that the lyrics are highly personal and blues oriented, but the accompaniment is completely contemporary... If you’re looking for the Etta James of the Chess years, you’re bound to be disappointed. But if you check your preconceived notions at the door, you’re gonna have a good time. (by Bob J. Cohen)

Best known as the bassist and vocalist for Cream, but also a remarkable talent who bridged free jazz and hard rock via countless collaborations. Although some may be tempted to call multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer Jack Bruce a rock & roll musician, blues and jazz were what this innovative musician really loved. As a result, those two genres were at the base of most of the recorded output from a career that went back to the beginning of London's blues scene in 1962. In that year, he joined Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. Throughout the following decades and into the 21st century, Bruce remained a supreme innovator, pushing himself into uncharted waters with his jazz and folk-rock compositions.
Jack Bruce
Life on Earth (Jack Bruce) 3:20
No Surrender 4:25
Blues You Can't Lose (Willie Dixon) 5:26
from A Question of Time 1989
A Question of Time is an album to appreciate, as Jack Bruce nicely wraps his diverse styles up in rock & roll packaging. Willie Dixon's "Blues You Can't Lose" is extraordinary noise, the late Nicky Hopkins bringing his unmistakable piano to a mix of Albert Collins' leads, Jimmy Ripp's slide and rhythms, Bruce's bass, harmonica, and voice, and the strong drumming of Dougie Bowne. In its slow dirge statement, "Blues You Can't Lose" is as powerful as the blistering Bruce tune that opens the set, "Life on Earth."...  Produced by Joe Blaney and Bruce, the song "A Question of Time" is a bizarre, colorful mix of clashing images and sound, while the album A Question of Time is one of the more complete Bruce recordings for those fans who know him from his pop radio hits. It is one of the most accessible discs by rock's premier bassist for both those in his cult and the casual fan. This project uses his mastery of jazz, pop, acoustic, and blues to give listeners what Jack Bruce does best: rock & roll.

Swamp blues vocalist and harp-man of the 1950s and '60s who earned an impressively long revival beginning in the 1980s.
Lazy Lester
I Done Got over It (Guitar Slim) 2:27
I'm a Man (Bo Diddley) 4:00
Five Long Years (Eddie Boyd) 3:52
from Harp & Soul 1988
After a lengthy hiatus from the music business, Lester was in the midst of his comeback when he waxed this album for Alligator. The overall sound is redolent of those Louisiana swamp blues classics, but with a cannily updated contemporary edge that works well.

Soul/blues singer whose style is characterized by a gritty, impassioned vocal style and precise, textured guitar playing.
Little Milton
You Just Can't Take My Blues (Bob Johnson / Sam Mosley) 4:08
Movin' to the Country (Tommy Tate) 3:47
A Possum in My Tree (Bob Johnson / Sam Mosley) 5:47
from Movin' To The Country 1987
He may not be a household name, but die-hard blues fans know Little Milton as a superb all-around electric bluesman -- a soulful singer, an evocative guitarist, an accomplished songwriter, and a skillful bandleader. He's often compared to the legendary B.B. King -- as well as Bobby "Blue" Bland -- for the way his signature style combines soul, blues, and R&B, a mixture that helped make him one of the biggest-selling bluesmen of the '60s (even if he's not as well-remembered as King). As time progressed, his music grew more and more orchestrated, with strings and horns galore. He maintained a steadily active recording career all the way from his 1953 debut on Sam Phillips' legendary Sun label, with his stunning longevity including notable stints at Chess (where he found his greatest commercial success), Stax, and Malaco.