Tag Archives: Blues

Chuck Mead: Journeyman’s Wager

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ChuckMead_JourneymansWagerBR549 lead’s first solo album

Chuck Mead’s first solo album doesn’t stray far from the country, rock and blues he’d mixed and matches successfully as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter with BR549. With the band having run through a number of record labels and transitioned through key personnel changes, they now seem to be on hiatus, leaving Mead time to record and tour his first solo album. His originals sound as if they could have been worked up by BR549, though a looser rhythm section and the addition of horns adds new flavor. Ten originals and a cover of George Harrison’s Beatles-era “Old Brown Shoe” should tide BR549 fans over, but may also signal the launch of a full-time solo career. Either way, Mead’s roadhouse rockers, back-porch blues, and country-rock offer a fine balance of humor and sincerity as he crafts dance floor burners, thoughtful ballads, and novelty titles. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Chuck Mead’s MySpace Page

Chris Smither: Time Stands Still

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ChrisSmither_TimeStandsStillMesmerizing folk-blues from acoustic guitar giant

Born and raised in New Orleans, Smither broke into Boston’s coffeehouse circuit amid the folk revival of the 1960s. Raised on folk and blues classics, he developed a unique finger-picking style and waxed his first albums for the same Poppy label on which Lightnin’ Hopkins, Eric Von Schmidt and Doc Watson also recorded. He’s performed steadily for over forty years, but his recording career was marked by lengthy stretches of substance abuse that sidelined his studio work for much of the 1970s and 1980s. He warmed back up to full-time recording with 1991’s live release, Another Way to Find You, and recommenced studio work with 1993’s superb Happier Blue.

His latest album, his fourteenth overall, is a textbook of his art. Smither sticks to acoustic guitar, with David Goodrich playing atmospheric electric, and Zak Trojano adding sparse percussion. The mix of instruments provides a fuller experience than a solo guitar, yet leaves the spotlight on Smither’s emotive playing. His voice has the raspy edge of Tom Waits but without the guttural bowery bottom end. He growls the half-sung/half-spoken original “I Told You So” like Mark Knopfler, who’s own “Madame Geneva’s” closes the album with the sound of traditional English folk. Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” is reworked from the boozy, shambling backing of the 1965 original and sung in a haggard voice set to contemplative guitar.

Smither’s picking is everywhere, and in his hands, the guitar is an uncommonly flexible instrument. His strings provide an insistently rolling engine beneath “Don’t Call Me Stranger,” create pinpoint flecks of melody atop the metronomic shuffle of “Time Stands Still,” and stage an intricately picked opening to “Miner’s Blues.” Goodrich is no slouch either, adding superb electric and slide playing throughout; his dollar bill guitar on “Surprise, Surprise” is particularly memorable. Smither delivers lyrics with a sly offhandedness that undersells the beauty of his words and dovetails perfectly with his guitar playing. At turns he’s a tempter, an aging philosopher, and a wry social observer.

A bluesman at heart, Smither can also be quite funny, as with the tangled riddles of “I Don’t Know.” He’s self deprecating for “Someone Like Me” and sarcastic on “I Told You So,” but mostly he’s pensive, philosophical, exhausted and blue. Smither’s a master of down-tempo crawls, mid-tempo grit and percolating shuffles, and though his guitar is played mostly for accompaniment its qualities shine as though spotlighted throughout. You could strip the vocals from this album and still have a compelling record; but his wizened, abraded voice is the perfect topping on a sweet cake. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Surprise, Surprise
Chris Smither’s Home Page
Chris Smither’s MySpace Page

Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons: Bend in the Road

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MarkStuartBastardSons_BendInTheRoadArdent, road-hardened country and Americana

The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash return with their first studio album since 2005’s Mile Markers, and though several players, including bassist Taras Prodaniuk, drummer Dave Raven and guitarist Mike Turner also return, there are some significant changes. First, the band has dropped “of Johnny Cash” from the back end and added singer-songwriter “Mark Stuart” to the front. In many ways the group has been Stuart’s vision from the start, as it was his interest in country music that provided the original direction; the step out front mostly acknowledges what’s already been true.

The latest edition of the Bastards, and Stuart’s latest batch of original tunes (augmented by the opening cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal”), are his best yet. The band plays with more verve and Stuart sings with more freewheeling energy than ever. You can hear the influences of Billy Joe, Waylon and Hank Jr. in his tone, phrasing and attitude; his music has become bluesier and more convincing. Perhaps it’s the refreshment of moving from California to Austin, but more likely it just the authority of road-hardened talent that allows Stuart to romance the melodies and rhythms of his country shuffles and roadhouse blues.

Stuart’s blossoming confidence shows in his songs, which flow from the grooves like old friends. The album’s originals open with the banjo, fiddle and guitar of “Restless, Ramblin’ Man.” Stuart sings against bluegrass harmonies about the uncontrollable wanderlust that’s kept him on the road for two-hundred dates a year. He writes of being blindsided, renewed and supported by love, but also of its ephemeral nature and the blue sorrow of its fade. He finds a comforting conclusion to serial monogamy on “Best Thing” and struts through a romantically sunny day on “Everything’s Going My Way.” Even when he’s kicking up his heels to escape the drudgery of the world’s ills, such as on the Mellancamp-esque “Fireflies & Corn Liquor,” Stuart keeps to the bright side.

The Bastard Sons cook up a country rock sound filled with driving beats, second-line rhythms, twangy electric guitar solos and well-placed blue notes. They only slow down twice, for the ballad “Lonestar, Lovestruck, Blues” and the beseeching lament, “Carolina.” The latter is surprisingly unresolved and morose, given the album’s definitive and upbeat tone. Stuart is on to a next-phase in his music, relaxing into the Austin scene and stepping out from the self-imposed shadow of Johnny Cash. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | When Love Comes A Callin’
Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons’ MySpace Page

The Band of Heathens: One Foot in the Ether

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BandOfHeathens_OneFootInTheEtherAustin-style country, rock, folk, gospel, blues and soul

The Band of Heathens’ second studio album (their fourth overall, having started their recording career with two live releases) is a big step forward. The artistic palette of last year’s eponymous release is carried forward here, but the result sounds less like a collage of influences and more like a band that’s discovered its own groove. The twin inspirations of Little Feat and the Band remain particularly strong, but as channeled spirits rather than imitated sounds. With three singer-songwriters contributing a dozen originals to this self-produced release, the group clearly knows they have the goods. Their experience as a live unit pays dividends in the studio, as they sound like a band running through their set rather than musical architects constructing a recording.

The group’s comfort is immediately apparent on the chorus harmonies of “Say.” Their multipart singing is tight as a drum but also as loose as a casual back porch harmony session. The same is true for the gospel backing of “Shine a Light” and the lead passing on both the Little Feat groove “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and sad-sack blues “Right Here With Me.” This is a group that’s clearly spent time getting comfortable with one another. Their musical sympathy is heard in jamming solos and instrumental codas, and the seemingly ad libbed exhortation to “keep it going” as “You’re Gonna Miss Me” threatens to wind down.

The band’s name proves ironic as their songs are laced with biblical images. They sing of non-conformists, petulant ex-lovers, and independent ramblers, but these tales are filled with doubt and remorse. Gospel influences, both musical and liturgical, praise the hard work of salvation, cast an accusing eye towards the contradictions and hypocrisy of modern society, and call for reconciliation with one another and, seemingly, a higher power. The clanking blues “Golden Calf” warns of a false idol’s allure, and even songs of busted relationships have an eternal ring as they sing “you can give up, you can give in / but you can never quit.”

Last year’s studio debut climbed to the top of the Americana chart and promoted the band from scattered local club dates to a full touring schedule. Their continuing musical growth is evident in both the absorption of their top-line influences and the addition of new touches, such as the dripping Dark Side of the Moon styled guitar of “Look at Miss Ohio.” The results are organic and unforced, and by producing themselves and releasing on their own label, the group remains free to chase their singular, yet multi-headed musical muse. The adage “you have a lifetime to record your first album and a year to record your second” doesn’t seem to have vexed the Band of Heathens at all. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | L.A. County Blues
Band of Heathens’ Home Page
Band of Heathens’ MySpace Page

Left Lane Cruiser: All You Can Eat

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LeftLaneCruiser_AllYouCanEatGreasy and gritty guitar-and-drums two-man blues

Two-man blues bands have become their own genre, blossoming from the font of the White Stripes and a dozen others. Left Lane Cruiser is a Fort Wayne, Indiana duo that offers roaring storms of electric slide playing by Freddy J IV (Fredrick Joe Evans IV) and powerful, driving drumming by Brenn Beck. Though the songs often settle into standard blues progressions, the raw, shouted vocals and in-your-face electric guitar force is quite unsettling. Beck is constantly in motion on his snare and kick drums, adding cymbal crashes for texture, while Evans alternates between greasy power chords, low-string riffs and slide licks that alchemize electricity into music. The torrent of distortion clears momentarily as the duo turns the volume down for finger-picking and washboard percussion on “Ol’ Fashioned.” But mostly the duo rages, with Evans’ growl sufficiently distorted to obscure many of his lyrics. But with titles that include “Black Lung,” “Hard Luck,” and “Broke Ass Blues,” the pain isn’t subtle. This is very much what you’d expect from a band that thanks Jim Beam and Pabst Blue Ribbon for “keeping us feelin’ good.” [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Crackalacka
Left Lane Cruiser’s MySpace Page

Hollis Brown: Hollis Brown

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HollisBrown_HollisBrownAngsty radio pop, Stonesish blues and twangy Americana

Hollis Brown lead singer Mike Montali is hard to pin down. He sounds a bit like the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, a bit like Neil Young, a bit like the Gin Blossoms’ Robin Wilson, and a bit like Robert Plant. He’s got the high edginess (and falsetto) with which they each create emotional tension, and though the band’s guitar, bass, drums, organ and harmonica share a ’70s rock ‘n’ roll vibe with the Crowes, Zeppelin, and Blossoms, they add twangy blues and country roots that really belie their urban Queens upbringing. The album opens with the exuberant “Show Love” and follows with the roiling guitars and stinging lyrical rebuke of “Walk on Water.” The songs track through Stones-styled rock, ambling Americana, broken-hearted country twang, shuffling sing-a-longs and angsty pop. The group’s melodic hooks will stick in your head for days, and Montali’s voice is memorable, whether singing up-tempo rockers or slowing to surprise with the Stax-styled soul of “Don’t Wanna Miss You.” One can only assume Hollis Brown polished these tunes in numerous live gigs, as their self-assurance in the studio translates to terrific passion and swagger on disc. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Show Love
MP3 | Passin’ Me By
MP3 | Completed Fool
Hollis Brown’s Home Page
Hollis Brown’s MySpace Page

Robben Ford: Soul on Ten

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RobbenFord_SoulOnTenBlues, rock and jazz guitarist captured live

It’s hard to believe, but guitarist Robben Ford is marking his 40th year as a working musician, having moved to San Francisco to form his first band in 1969. Stints with Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Tom Scott’s L.A. Express eventually led to the founding of the Yellowjackets and a solo career. Ford’s early work in the blues gave way to jazz sets with Miles Davis and the forging of a progressive sound that melds blues, jazz and rock. This latest release features eight tracks taped live at San Francisco’s Independent, and two more recorded live in the studio.

Ford and his backing trio of bass, drums and B-3 organ work through severa; catalog favorites, including the roaring guitar instrumental “Indianola” on which Toss Panos’ drums drive as Ford brilliantly intertwines rock and blues leads with jazz chordings. Ford’s guitar shows plenty of muscle on Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful,” and the straight blues medley of Elmore James’ “Please Set a Date” and Jimmy Reed’s “You Don’t Have to Go” give both Ford and organist Neal Evans a chance to show off their licks.

Ford revisits “Nothing to Nobody” here for a third time; originally released on 1999’s Supernatural, and played live on 2004’s Center Stage, this eleven-minute take makes room for some funky solos by Ford, Evans and bassist Travis Carlton. Ford recalls the rock-soul sounds of San Francisco’s ballrooms with wah-wah pedal workouts on “Supernatural” and “There’ll Never Be Another You.” The two studio tracks that close the CD sound out of place, and could have better been replaced by more tracks from the gig. As it is, the titles only reach back to 1999, though the blues covers give a feel for Ford’s earlier roots. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to Soul on Ten
Robben Ford’s Home Page
Robben Ford’s MySpace Page

Nathaniel Mayer: Why Won’t You Let Me Be Black?

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NathanielMayer_WhyWontYouLetMeBeBlackLatter-day recordings from early ‘60s soul legend

Nathaniel Mayer is best known among early soul fanatics for his 1962 hit “Village of Love,” a few other early ‘60s sides and the cult status he developed during a nearly forty-year absence from the music scene. He resurfaced briefly in 1980 with the single “Raise the Curtain High,” but it wasn’t until Norton Records issued the vault side “I Don’t Want No Bald-Headed Woman Telling Me What to Do” in 2002 that he was prompted to return in full for 2004’s I Just Want to Be Held. With the soaring soul voice of his early records reduced to a bluesy rasp, Mayer’s showmanship and feel for music remained fully intact. Whether his latter-day voice is burnished or shot is in the ear of the listener, but the way he strutted through up-tempo numbers and drew out ballads recalled the artistry of his younger years.

In 2007 Mayer released Why Don’t You Give It To Me?, backed by a collection of players from the Black Keys, Outrageous Cherry, SSM, and Dirtbombs. The heavy blues arrangements paired nicely with the edginess of Mayer’s voice, providing bottom end and pushing him to sing hard. This posthumous release (Mayer passed away in 2008) adds eight more tracks from those same sessions, expanding upon the weathered crooning, pained blues, and neo-psychedelic soul. The album also includes two acoustic performances from a 2007 radio interview on which Mayer’s vocals are completely revealed; the simple guitar backings leave the wear and tear to speak volumes. It’s hard to draw a line between the voice on “Village of Love” and these latter day recordings, but the artistry and soul are easily identifiable. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Dreams Come True
Nathaniel Mayer’s MySpace Page

Adam Hood: Different Groove

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AdamHood_DifferentGrooveCountry, electric blues and adult alternative

Hood’s been making music for the better part of a decade, having released his first album, the solo blues live set 21 to Enter back in 2001. His second full-length (he released a four-song EP in 2004) was produced and arranged by Pete Anderson and originally released in 2007 on Anderson’s Little Dog label. This re-release gives the album a national re-launch, adding three acoustic takes to the ten Hood (and Hood/Anderson) originals. As might be expected with Anderson co-writing and producing, the songs don’t hew to the acoustic blues of Hood’s debut, and as the title suggests, there are several different grooves here. The most notable change is that Hood is now backed by a full band with Anderson picking strings, Michael Murphy on keys and a potent bass and drums rhythm section. Hood sings electric country-blues, singer-songwriter country-folk, and a country-tinged version of the adult alternative mainstream sound of John Mayer. The album’s killer track is the moody country lament “Late Night Diner,” with Bob Bernstein’s pedal steel and Anderson’s laconic electric guitar providing moving accompaniment to Hood’s sorrowful song of broken hearts and broken lives. Accordion and a second-line beat give “Vornado” a toe-tapping Cajun edge and show how moving Hood sounds in rootsier settings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to Different Groove
Adam Hood’s Home Page
Adam Hood’s MySpace Page

Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan: In Session

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AlbertKingStevieRayVaughn_InSessionSuperb meeting of two blues guitar legends

This 1983 live performance summit between a legend and a soon-to-be legend has been reissued a few times on CD, including a hybrid SACD in 2003. This latest CD is a remastered reissue of the original eleven tracks and includes three sets of liner notes. At the time the pair met in a Canadian TV studio, Vaughan was blazing a trail into the blues world with his debut album, Texas Flood. King was long since a legend in the blues world, and though he didn’t recognize the name “Vaughan,” he immediately recognized the guitarist who’d sat in with him whenever he played in Austin. Snippets of dialogue interspersed between the tracks do a good job of showing the personal bond that complemented the guitar slingers’ deep artistic connections.

King and Vaughan are backed by the former’s tack sharp road band, and run through a set drawn almost entirely from King’s catalog. You can hear what was on the horizon, though, as Vaughan rips into his own “Pride and Joy” with monster tone and a gutsy vocal. Throughout the session the players trade licks and prod each other with solos that quote all the great players from whom they learned. King’s influence is clear in Vaughan’s playing, but hearing them side-by-side (the recording does a nice job of keeping their guitars separated slightly left and right) gives listeners an opportunity to hear how the same fundamentals change as they filter through different fingers and hardware.

As free as both guitarists play, the band, the catalog, and the deference Vaughan shows King all tipped in favor of the latter orchestrating the pacing. This is a master class, King leading the way with his guitar and providing verbal tips in between songs. In any other venue Vaughan would be the master, but here he plays the role of apprentice. How many chances do you get to play with someone who can introduce “Blues at Sunrise” with “This is that thing, uh, I recorded with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin out there at the Fillmore West”? It was a good time to be the apprentice. Anyone who loves King, Vaughan or great blues guitar should catch this one. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]