09-02-2020 > BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 2005-1994

Shemekia Copeland

09-02-2020 > BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 2005-1994 # Shemekia Copeland, Detroit Jr., Robert Belfour, Tom Waits, John Hammond, Alvin Youngblood Hart, B.B. King, Colin James, Taj Mahal, Joanna Connor, The Jeff Healey Band, Chris Duarte Group

B L U E S    M U S I C

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2005-1994

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 

Breakin' Out 3:33

Poor, Poor Excuse 3:02

from The Soul Truth 2005

Shemekia Copeland can sing the heck out of the blues, but she isn't necessarily a blues singer, and on The Soul Truth she makes what would seem like a sure-fire move into Memphis soul territory, even working with Stax great Steve Cropper, who produced the album and adds his trademark guitar economics to most of the tracks...

Emery Williams Jr. is a living link to the great Chicago blues piano players of the 1940s and 1950s. Born on October 26, 1931, in Haynes, AR, Williams was given the name Detroit Junior when be began recording on his own in the 1960s...

Detroit Jr. 

Rockin' After Midnight (Lowell Fulson) 3:34

Blues on the Internet (Emery Williams, Jr.) 6:53

from Blues On The Internet 2004

Veteran blues pianist (and longtime Howlin' Wolf sideman) Emery Williams Jr. -- known professionally as Detroit Junior -- has had a renaissance of sorts in the past decade, releasing three albums on Blue Suit Records, and now this one, Blues on the Internet, on Delmark Records. Williams is a throwback to the classic Chicago blues piano style, and his warm, expressive vocals fall somewhere between a hoarse Ray Charles and a latter-day Bob Dylan, while his songwriting, although hardly innovative, is solid and workmanlike, avoiding most of the obvious blues clichés. His intent isn't to move blues into the 21st century so much as preserve the way it was played in Chicago in the 1950s (where Williams played alongside the likes of Jimmy Reed, Eddie Boyd, Eddie Taylor, and Little Mack Simmons)...  Fans of vintage Chicago blues piano will find this collection a delight...

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. He learned by emulating the sounds of such greats as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and his idol, Howlin Wolf, as they were being broadcast on his mother's battery-operated radio. He was also influenced to some extent by his neighbor, Junior Kimbrough. Belfour's style is deeply-rooted in the sounds of his North Mississippi birthplace. It is a highly rhythmic and riff-oriented type of playing that can also be heard in the work of other players from the region, like Jessie Mae Hemphill, R.L. Burnside, and the late Fred Mcdowell.

Robert Belfour 

Crazy Ways (Robert Belfour) 4:17

Breaking My Heart (Robert Belfour) 5:01

from Pushin' My Luck 2003

Robert Belfour's sophomore effort for Fat Possum -- at 63, he is one of the youngest artists on the roster and is by far the most "polished," if the Delta blues can ever really be called that -- proves his debut was indeed only a beginning. In stark contrast to his labelmates, Belfour strictly plays acoustic blues, but he plays them with the same dark, trancelike feel of Junior Kimbrough, haunting spookiness of Fred McDowell, rhythmic intensity of John Lee Hooker, and sprawling drawl of Lightnin' Hopkins. Ted Gainey aids Belfour on a drum kit. While the first album was all of a piece, and everything but the vocal seemed to be recorded at the same level (and even then, Belfour couldn't always be understood among the ringing guitars and shuffling drums), Pushin' My Luck is nervier, a bit more edgy. Belfour's truly nearly unbelievable singing is a bit more in the foreground, enough to add to the hypnotic repetition in his music, while the drums -- played no more elaborately than Meg White's in the White Stripes -- are mixed just a tad higher, bringing it extremely close to the punch this stuff has when played in front of a live audience... I hope this guy lives to be a 100 and makes a record every year he's on this planet. Forget everything you just read: This record is amazing; just buy it.

09-12-2019 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 2011-2001

Ry Cooder

09-12-2019 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 2011-2001 # Ry Cooder, Buddy Guy, Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam, Julian Fauth, Tommy Castro, Snooky Pryor, Shemekia Copeland, Detroit Jr., Robert Belfour, Tom Waits, John Hammond

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2011-2001

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
I Want My Crown (Ry Cooder) 2:37
No Banker Left Behind (Ry Cooder) 3:36
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
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...

03-11-2018 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1962-1972

03-11-2018 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1962-1972 # Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson II, The Rolling Stones, Long John Baldry, John Hammond, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Little Milton, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison

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1962-1972

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (also known as "Pop" Crudup) (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1976) was a delta blues singer and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs later covered by Elvis Presley (and since covered by dozens of other artists)...
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup
If I Get Lucky (Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup) 3:05
Rock Me Mama (Or Mamma) (Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup) 2:58
from The Definitive Collection 1941-62, Vol. 1

Regarded as the last of the great Chicago harmonica players, he was an impressive stylist and a leading practitioner of postwar blues harmonica. He was one bad dude, strutting across the stage like a harp-toting gangster, mesmerizing the crowd with his tough-guy antics and rib-sticking Chicago blues attack. Amazingly, Junior Wells kept at precisely this sort of thing for over 40 years; he was an active performer from the dawn of the '50s until his death in the late '90s.
Junior Wells
Two Headed Woman (Willie Dixon / Junior Wells) 2:41
I Could Cry (Junior Wells) 3:10
So Tired (Junior Wells) 2:13
from Calling All Blues - The Chief, Profile & USA Recordings 1957-1963
Following his recorded debut as a leader for States Records, Junior Wells signed with Mel London, producing a number of sides for the producer's Chief and Profile imprints. Perhaps best-known for his spectacular harmonica playing, this period, documented on Calling All Blues, saw Wells emerging as an outstanding vocalist as well. A consummate performer with a firm grasp of the range of emotions the music can produce, Wells wrings every drop of feeling out of the lyrics. The singer growls, shouts, howls, moans across these 24 tracks...

Highly-regarded blues singer and harmonica player, an unpredictable character, and a major figure of Chicago blues. Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey, hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim and simply wrote, played and sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into black phonograph records. 
Sonny Boy Williamson II 
Help Me (Sonny Boy Williamson II) 3:10
Nine Below Zero (Sonny Boy Williamson II) 3:31
Trying to Get Back on My Feet (Sonny Boy Williamson II) 2:09
Close to Me (Willie Dixon) 3:03
from More Real Folk Blues Rec: 1960-1964 (1967)
His delivery was sly, evil and world-weary, while his harp-playing was full of short, rhythmic bursts one minute and powerful, impassioned blowing the next. His songs were chock-full of mordant wit, with largely autobiographical lyrics that hold up to the scrutiny of the printed page. Though he took his namesake from another well-known harmonica player, no one really sounded like him.

1964 - Sonny Boy Williamson II and club compère Bob Wooler
at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, UK,  Photographer Peter Kaye

The premier British rock band for over half a century, creators of the sound and style imitated by countless groups. 
The Rolling Stones
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love  (Bert Berns / Solomon Burke / Jerry Wexler) 2:58
What a Shame  (Mick Jagger / Keith Richards) 3:05
Little Red Rooster  (Chester Burnett / Willie Dixon) 3:05
from The Rolling Stones, Now! 1965
Although their third American album was patched together (in the usual British Invasion tradition) from a variety of sources, it's their best early R&B-oriented effort. Most of the Stones' early albums suffer from three or four very weak cuts; Now! is almost uniformly strong start-to-finish, the emphasis on some of their blackest material...

The Rolling Stones - Every parents nightmare in America.

21-09-2018 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1969-1959

John Hammond Jr July 1964 Newport

21-09-2018 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1969-1959 # John Hammond, Fred McDowell, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Champion Jack Dupree, Big Joe Williams, Curtis Amy & Paul Bryant, Brownie McGhee

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. 

1969-1959

John Hammond, Jr. is one of a handful of white blues musicians who was on the scene at the beginning of the first blues renaissance of the mid-'60s. That revival, brought on by renewed interest in folk music around the U.S., brought about career boosts for many of the great classic blues players, including Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, and Skip James. Some critics have described Hammond as a white Robert Johnson, and Hammond does justice to classic blues by combining powerful guitar and harmonica playing with expressive vocals and a dignified stage presence.
John Hammond
Mystery Train (Junior Parker) 3:00
I'm Leavin' You (Chester Burnett) 3:21
from Southern Fried 1969
Southern Fried differed little from other early Hammond albums in its repertoire, consisting entirely of covers of blues and R&B songs. As usual, the Chicago sound came in for especially heavy tribute, with versions of songs by Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Chuck Berry, as well as a pass at "Mystery Train," though more vocal-oriented R&B got a nod with Chuck Willis' "It's Too Late" and some of the other tunes. Where this might have a leg up on some other early Hammond efforts -- and a leg up on blues cover albums in general -- is in the stellar band, featuring Muscle Shoals stalwarts like Eddie Hinton and Roger Hawkins. Allman Brothers fans, too, will want to keep an eye out for it as it features Duane Allman playing fine lead guitar on four tracks...

...As a stylist and purveyor of the original Delta blues, he was superb, equal parts Charley Patton and Son House coming to the fore through his roughed-up vocals and slashing bottleneck style of guitar playing. McDowell knew he was the real deal, and while others were diluting and updating their sound to keep pace with the changing times and audiences, Mississippi Fred stood out from the rest of the pack simply by not changing his style one iota...
Fred McDowell
Levee Camp Blues (Mississippi Fred McDowell) 3:49
My Baby Don't Treat Me Like Humankind (Mississippi Fred McDowell) 2:21
from Levee Camp Blues / Rec. 1968 (1998)
When Mississippi Fred McDowell recorded these sides in March of 1968, producer Pete Welding encouraged McDowell to recall the earliest material he had learned when he first started playing. The result is a selection of tunes that simply don't show up on his other recordings, both stylistically and because of their previously unreleased status...

A primal, ferocious blues belter with a roster of classics rivaling anyone else, and a sandpaper growl of a voice that has been widely imitated.   In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music spun out to its ultimate conclusion. A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight, a Muddy Waters more dignity, and a B.B. King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.
Howlin' Wolf
Just My Kind (Chester Burnett / Howlin' Wolf) 2:53
I'm the Wolf (Chester Burnett / Howlin' Wolf) 2:54
from More Real Folk Blues 1967
This companion volume to the Real Folk Blues album was issued in 1967 (after the Wolf had appeared on network television with the Rolling Stones, alluded to in the original liner notes) and couldn't be more dissimilar in content to the first one if you had planned it that way. Whereas the previous volume highlighted middle-period Wolf, this one goes all the way back to his earliest Chess sessions, many of which sound like leftover Memphis sides...

31-08-2018 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1975-1965

Johnny Shines

31-08-2018 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1975-1965 # Johnny Shines, Junior Wells, Maggie Bell,  The Allman Brothers Band, Albert King, John Mayall, Savoy Brown, John Hammond, Fred McDowell, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon

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1975-1965

Delta bluesman, and one-time Robert Johnson cohort, whose career extended into the 1960s folk revival.  Best known as a traveling companion of Robert Johnson, Johnny Shines' own contributions to the blues have often been unfairly shortchanged, simply because Johnson's own legend casts such a long shadow. In his early days, Shines was one of the top slide guitarists in Delta blues, with his own distinctive, energized style; one that may have echoed Johnson's spirit and influence, but was never a mere imitation.
Johnny Shines
Red Sun (Kent Cooper / Louisiana Red / Johnny Shines) 4:46
Pay Day Woman (Johnny Shines) 5:10
from Too Wet To Plow 1975
Johnny Shines was far from predictable. Though he recorded his share of inspired electric dates, he had no problem turning around and delivering a stripped-down, all-acoustic Delta blues session like Too Wet to Plow. Recorded in Edmonton, Canada in 1975...  Too Wet to Plow finds Shines in excellent form. His solid accompaniment includes harmonica player Sugar Blue and bassist Ron Rault, as well as guitarist/singer Louisiana Red (a superb bluesman who isn't nearly as well known as he should be), and Shines clearly has a strong rapport with them... Highly recommended.

Regarded as the last of the great Chicago harmonica players, he was an impressive stylist and a leading practitioner of postwar blues harmonica.  He was one bad dude, strutting across the stage like a harp-toting gangster, mesmerizing the crowd with his tough-guy antics and rib-sticking Chicago blues attack. Amazingly, Junior Wells kept at precisely this sort of thing for over 40 years; he was an active performer from the dawn of the '50s until his death in the late '90s.
Junior Wells
What My Momma Told Me (Junior Wells) 4:07
The Train I Ride (Junior Wells) 5:06
from On Tap 1975
Underrated mid-'70s collection boasting a contemporary, funky edge driven by guitarists Phil Guy and Sammy Lawhorn, keyboardist Big Moose Walker, and saxman A.C. Reed...