Cover photo by Bob Kieser © 2016 Blues Blast Magazine
In This Issue
Don Wilcock has our feature interview with Bob Margolin. We have 6 Blues music reviews for you including reviews of music from Kim Simmonds And Savoy Brown, Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band, Deb Callahan, Robert Hill, Bees Deluxe and Little Boys Blue.
Nate Kieser and Bob Kieser have photos and commentary from the 2016 International Blues Challenge finals.
We have the latest in Blues society news. All this and MORE! SCROLL DOWN!!!
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Featured Blues Music Review – 1 of 6
Kim Simmonds And Savoy Brown – The Devil To Pay
Ruf Records RUF 1220
13 songs – 58 minutes
www.savoybrown.com
One of the longest enduring bands in blues history, Savoy Brown celebrates 50 years in the business with the release of The Devil To Pay, the 45th album in leader Kim Simmonds’ catalog, and it delivers a rock-solid collection of original material with a familiar feel.
A self-taught string-bender, Simmons formed the band in London as a teenager after a chance meeting with harp player John O’Leary in 1965. Along with original vocalist Bryce Portius, keyboard player Trevor Jeavons, bassist Ray Chappell and drummer Leo Manning, they quickly moved to the forefront of the British blues revival alongside John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream and Eric Clapton, scoring hits with such classics as “I’m Tired,” “Tell Mama,” “Hellbound Train” and “A Hard Way To Go.”
The band’s gone through dozens of revisions through the years, and has featured at least 22 different percussionists, 20 bassists, 11 vocalists, nine guitarists, three harmonica players and one sax player through the decades, including future Foghat founders Tony Stevens, Dave Peverett and Roger Earl. But the one constant has been lead singer/guitarist/harmonica player Simmonds. He’s joined here by bandmates Pat DeSalvo (bass) and Garnet Grimm (drums), who’ve worked behind him since 2009.
The Devil To Pay kicks off with “Ain’t Got Nobody,” a slow, relaxed five-minute grinder that gives Simmonds plenty of space to deliver straight-ahead single-note guitar runs as he delivers a plea for the return of the best love he’s ever had. The blues runs like blood from his strings as he relates his torment. The pace quickens and brightens for the walking shuffle “Bad Weather Brewing,” which features steady triplets from Grimm and a funky, complimentary bass line from DeSalvo.
The autobiographical “Grew Up In The Blues” leads into the loping “When Love Goes Wrong,” a warning that when your lover leaves you, tears will fall. “Oh Rosa” features Simmonds on harmonica, an instrument and sound usually missing from recordings on the Ruf label. He works the high reeds before launching into another song of departure. This time, he’s leaving and requesting that his lady always keep him in mind because, when he returns, he’ll “walk a straight line.”
The cover tune “The Devil To Pay” is a high-energy blues-rocker that brings to account all the misdeeds the singer’s responsible for in life. The band gets funky again for “Stop Throwing Your Love Around,” a catchy warning to a woman who’s treating the singer “like a clown.” “Snakin’” gives Simmonds a chance to stretch out on the six-string in an instrumental delivered in a style that’s reminiscent of Texas guitar legend Freddy King before another burner, “Got An Awful Feeling,” delivers unspecified fears about loneliness and poverty. Simmonds’ slide work is featured on “I’ve Been Drinking” before “Watch My Woman,” “Whiskey Headed Baby” and “Evil Eye” conclude the set.
Tasty, polished and available everywhere. It won’t matter if you’re a new fan or someone who’s been there from the beginning: You’ll like The Devil To Pay.
Reviewer Marty Gunther has lived a blessed life. His first experience with live music came at the feet of the first generation of blues legends at the Newport Folk Festivals in the 1960s. A former member of the Chicago blues community, he’s a professional journalist and blues harmonica player who co-founded the Nucklebusters, one of the hardest working bands in South Florida.
2016 International Blues Challenge Finals
We made it to Memphis last week to cover the finals of the 2016 International Blues Challenge. The last few years they have put both the solo/duet competition and the band competition together in one LONG finals competition show. (7+ hours!) We were fortunate to have the best seats in the house photographing the finals with other photographers from the orchestra pit right in front.
First up was The Mighty Orq, a solo act from The Houston Blues Society
Next up was the band Southern Avenue from the Memphis Blues Society. It featured Memphis local and Israeli born guitarist and band leader Ori Naftaly with a new lineup that includes an impressive new vocalist, Tierinii Jackson. Keep your eye on this gal. You haven’t heard the last of her.
They alternate between solo/duet and band performers in the finals so Sonny Moorman, a solo act from The Cincy Blues Society was next. This was not Sonny’s first time in the finals of the IBC. In 2010 The Sonny Moorman Group made the finals in the band category. Sonny also took 2nd place in the 2007 solo duet category.
The Delgado Brothers were up next. They were representing the Ventura County Blues Society. I thought they would place based on the performance. (They won!)
Up next were Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons, a duet from Washington Blues Society. While they did not play what many thought was a bluesy or original set, (They played mostly covers!) their incredible harmonies and musicianship won the the solo/duet championship.
Next was the Bobby BlackHat Band representing the Natchel Blues Network. Bobby is a singer and harmonica player from Ohio. His band also made the semi-finals last year in 2015.
Trey Johnson and Jason Willmon representing the Arkansas River Blues Society performed next. Trey had great stage presence and Jason played some great harp.
Tee Dee Young representing The Blues, Jazz and Folk Music Society was next to perform. He is from from Lexington Kentucky.
The Blues Jazz and Folk Music Society made a great showing at this years IBC as their acts both made the finals. Micah Kesselring was their solo/duet act.
The Hector Anchondo Band were up next representing the Blues Society of Omaha
Dave Muskett, a solo/duet act from Indy Crossroads Blues Inc was next.
The Paul DesLauriers Band representing the Montreal Blues Society was the sole “international” act in the finals. Paul is a very talented slide guitar player.
InnerVision, a solo/duet act from Columbus Blues Alliance were up next. InnerVision is Genene Blackwell and Sam Shepherd, life-long friends who both lost their vision as infants. Their show was inspiring. They took 2nd place in the solo/duet category and Sam won the award for best harmonica player.
The Norman Jackson Band from the Lake of the Ozarks Blues Society were next. They took 3rd place.
Bing Futch, a solo/duet act from Orange Blossom Blues Society was the act with the best hair! He also had the most unique approach to blues playing original songs on the mountain dulcimer. He won the best “solo guitar” player award.
The final erformance of the finals was A Different Shade of Blue, a band from the Vicksburg Blues Society.
This was the 33rd year for the International Blues Challenge. If you have never attended this great event, put on your bucket list. I promise you wont be sorry!
Commentary by Bob Kieser. Photos by Nate Kieser and Bob Kieser as marked © 2016
Featured Blues Interview – Bob Margolin
Half the reviews “Steady Rollin’” Bob Margolin is getting on his new album My Road mention Muddy Waters’ name before it does his.
“It will be on my obituary, too.” He says. After all, Margolin was Muddy Waters’ lead guitarist from 1973 to 1980. He’s featured prominently playing with Muddy in The Martin Scorsese film The Last Waltz. He’s on all four of the Muddy Waters albums produced by Johnny Winter. Margolin also produced and consulted on the Blues Sky Muddy Waters releases for Sony/Legacy, and as a Keeping The Blue Alive in Journalism recipient he has written for a couple of decades on Muddy’s legacy.
Asked if that association is both a blessing and a curse, he doesn’t hesitate a moment to say that it is. “Absolutely it is! I learned a lot from Muddy. I loved his music more than anyone. He was the one for me. He was the one who inspired me the most before I met him, and I have those credentials, and people come to me and hope to hear something about Muddy both musically and in my writing and in person and in conversations, and I’m thrilled to do it. I know it would make Muddy happy. Sometimes you can do something for somebody even after they’re gone, and it’s the right thing to do.
“I know Muddy would love that I’m telling stories about him that they wouldn’t hear in other ways that carry on the spirit of his music. He’s so heavy. He truly is. He was one of the greatest at his profession ever in the world, and because he’s that strong, people tend to associate me with him before they associate me with myself.
“It’s a blessing and a curse, and there’s nothing you can do but deal with the duality of it. I’m not going to stop or abandon the incredible gift that Muddy gave me, and I’m not going to deny people who want to know about it. I really want to do that, but at the same time, and especially on this album, there are plenty of songs that have nothing to do with it.”
The new album he refers to is My Road. Thirty-three years after Muddy’s death, Margolin is at the second tipping point of his post-Muddy career. The first came in 1989 when he decided to first record his own albums. Now, he’s poured his soul into My Road to the point of selling two priceless guitars to pay for the CD. Of course, everything has its price, and he got $35,000 for the two guitars, but that’s when his problems began.
“Recording today often combines the best of the old and the new. I’ve done a lot of different kinds of recording now. On the album I just did I spared no expense and no amount of time. I spent a lot of time writing the songs and making the demos. I got a producer. I used a studio and a golden-eared engineer and did not skimp on it for money.
“I actually sold a couple of my oldest guitars that mean a lot to me to make the album. They were two guitars from 1956 that I used when I was in Muddy’s band. One was a Stratocaster, and that one brought a lot of money, and then the other one was a Gibson Archtop. I never played them anywhere, and maybe the reason is I bought a guitar in 1991, a Telecaster, that just in the last few years has become like a monogamous love relationship.
“It’s the first guitar I’ve had that actually cares if I spend the night with another one. If I try to play another one, it goes, ‘Me, me, me!’ It’s true. So I use it on just about everything like in situations where people would normally use an acoustic guitar like the song, “Goodnight” on my album where I just played by myself. But that guitar has such a beautiful sound, and I feel so at home on it I use that, and I felt like it was ok to do it.
“I got like $35,000 for the two guitars, and I intended to use it for the album and to pay off some credit card debt and just make life a little bit clearer as well as do this album with no compromise at all. Then it turned out the weekend I started recording in the studio, my wife’s car died, so I had to buy her a new old car, and then afterwards when we were mixing and everything, I went to the Notodden Festival in Norway, and I called home, and my wife sad, ‘It’s raining ……in the living room.’ And I had to have a new roof put on my house, and that was $13,500.”
His investment was worth it. Of all the albums Margolin has recorded for Powerhouse, Alligator, Blind Pig, Telarc and VizzTone since leaving Muddy, My Road differentiates him from his work with Muddy without denying that incredible legacy. And that’s not an easy trick bag.
One year I brought a friend, Bill Graham, down to King Biscuit Blues Festival. Graham had written for me in BluesWax. We were running around as we do, and he’d never been to a festival before. I said, “Now, look. You gotta see Bob Margolin. The band he has and what the does is as close to Muddy Waters 1954 in Chicago as anything you’re ever going to hear.”
On that album Margolin captures the tone and simplicity of Muddy, but he does it with his own voice. That’s a tightrope to walk and he’s done it very adroitly.
“It is (a landmark album) for me. I hope the rest of the world might enjoy it that much. I very deliberately tried to write songs that were from deep inside of me, but tht other people could enjoy the stories, too. People like it when you tell a story, and I try to play some hot guitar on it. I have good arrangements, make it swing. I’m working with musicians I’ve worked with a lot in the past 20 years, and we don’t ever have to talk about music. They just know how I’m going to do any time we’re on stage together. That would Be Chuck Cotton on drums and Tad Walters. On this album he’s on either guitar or harmonica.”
Ironically, the best cut on the album is the last, and the liner notes mistakenly neglect to give Margolin co-writing credits. “My friend Terry Abrahamson and I co-wrote that. I’m not sure if this was written anywhere, but he’d written that song and asked me to do a demo for B. B. King’s single-string playing and another that was reminiscent of Muddy’s Delta blues slide guitar.
“I liked the song so much, and it tragically became obvious that B. B. was not going to record again, and this was more than a year before he passed, but I knew that he was not doing well, and I said, ‘The whole concept of the song is something that I could change the word to and do myself.’
“So I kinda rewrote the lyrics pretty drastically from what (Abrahamson) wrote, but it was still his idea of Muddy suddenly appearing when I was sleeping. There’s a lot of personal things in it. (In the song) Muddy’s taking me to his house in Clarksdale, and it’s not clear if it’s happening now, and that really is where heaven is. At least it would be for me.
“But Muddy told me a story living in Clarksdale when he was 17 and having a wedding in his house, his first wedding and a big party, and he said people were dancing so hard, he thought the floor of the cabin was going to break, and it was Robert Nighthawk playing.”
My Road is the third tipping point in Margolin’s career. The first was joining Muddy Waters’ band. The second came in 1989 when he decided that recording would afford him the necessary added visibility and cache needed to keep his career from faltering as a regional musician in North Carolina where he still lives today.
“We were mostly regional except for sometimes I would end up with a gig that came through my Muddy connections, or else somebody would just like my music a lot, give us a good festival or something, but mostly I was riding around leisurely in the south and having a good time doing it. It’s not as crazy as things are today where everybody is connected all the time, and you have a gigantic opportunity to take a lot in, but everybody I know these days you say, ‘How are you?’ They say, busy whether they’re doing well or not.
“I was starting to realize the musical world was changing a little bit whereas clubs in the ’60s and ’70s used to hire a band like Muddy’s or other people for a week at a time. The gigs even during the time I was with Muddy there were less of those week-long gigs which were fun and easy and more two-day gigs and then by the end of the ’80s there were hardly any nights where you played two nights in a club and just had to find concerts, festivals and one-nighters.
“I was opening a show for George Thorogood, and his manager Mike Donahue who became a friend of mine – Mike stopped working on them just a couple years ago retired from managing George but a real, real nice guy, and I see him in Memphis almost every year at the Blues Music Awards, but he said to me, ‘You really need to record.’ I went, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess I do.’ Get out beyond these little clubs in a regional scene that was tightening up a little more and get back out on the world scene and do it.
“So I started doing that, recorded that and recorded a couple of albums for Powerhouse Records, Tom Principato’s label. I did three for Alligator, one for Blind Pig, one for Telarc, and then since 2006 been doing them on my own. Then I did one working with Rosie Rosenblatt. He used to have the ToneCool label, but we put that one out, and it worked so well that we decided to form the VizzTone label group, and be able to do it for other artists, too, with a whole different business model from regular record label, and we got about 50 releases out, and this new one is the latest one, and I guess I’ve done two more for the label, but that works pretty well for me in the middle of all that.”
One of the most notable advances in Margolin’s work is in his voice. Twenty years ago, he tended to slur his words like an old Delta singer. Today, he articulates so clearly that every word is understandable.
“I don’t think I’m naturally as good a singer as a lot of other people I know. I’ve had to try to unlearn some bad habits and try to learn from listening to people that I really like, but I believe in this one and especially with the help of producer Michael Freeman that I’ve definitely done my best recorded vocal performances on this album.
“I was coached not to over-sing sometimes. On one hand, blues is supposed to have a lot of passion in it, and it should be expressed in the singing. On the other hand, you have to pick and choose your spots because if everything is just yelled or screamed or growled, it gets old real fast even on one song to use a lot of vocal chops as spice rather than the main ingredient. I once produced an artist and tried to tell him in a nice way the way he was singing was too much frosting and not enough cake. He understood.
“(Michael) said to me at the beginning of the recording, ‘If I make a suggestion to you, instead of discussing it, please just try it and see what happens. I think it will take a lot less time, and we can figure out whether it was a good suggestion or not later.’ And I said, ‘That’s a good suggestion, and I’ll do that.’
“I give him the respect to do the job that I hired him to do, and we didn’t always agree on everything, and actually the vocal on “Heaven Mississippi” he really worked me very hard on that line by line and at the end of it I said, ‘Thank you very much. I think we got a good performance. I’m too close to it to judge, but I never want to hear that f**king song again.’
One of Margolin’s originals on the album is “Young and Old Blues” about looking at the age issue in blues from both side of the time line. Margolin is 66. “Fortunately, I’m healthy and I don’t seem to be suffering physically. I’m still learning things on guitar and think I deliver better performances than I ever did. I think I’m an entertainer, a better entertainer than I ever was and seem to be from the response I’m getting, and there’s plenty of people older and younger than me that kick my ass of course, and I sure wouldn’t want to try and kick Buddy Guy’s ass – ever.”
Who else does he look up to in that way?
“Well, I did with Otis Clay that we just lost, but I was pretty close to Nappy Brown. We met in about 1985 or so when I was playing at a roadhouse where I live, and the club owner said, ‘You know, Nappy Brown was just here. Do you mind if I put him with your band sometime?’
“And It began a real friendship and plenty of recordings and a lot of gigs until his death in 2008, and he was somebody who was an entertainer that would do whatever to drive a crowd crazy all the while he was singing as good as humans sing, and he was also an entertainer that would do whatever it took to drive the crowd crazy whether walking out into the audience or rolling around on the ground. He would get their attention.
“He had come from that scene in the 1960s where he had 20 minutes to do a show with Sam Cooker and James Brown and Muddy and lots of other great people and Chuck Berry. And he had to prove himself that way. So he was very inspiring to me and great stories and just what he did on the bandstand gave me a window back into that time that Muddy didn’t have so much. By the time I was with him, he was sitting on a stool and playing every night.
“The first word everybody uses about Muddy was dignity, but Jimmy Rogers told me a lot of stories about when they were playing in the ’50s in Chicago with Little Walter that they used to do all kinds of wild things. Jimmy used to tell me they used to walk through the crowd with Muddy sitting on his shoulders, and both of them playing guitar.”
I reminded Margolin of the stories about Muddy taking a beer bottle and shaking it up and putting it through his pants so it looked like he was ejaculating in the crowd.
“I have heard that story, but there is another story that I heard from Nappy about Muddy and B. B. King. The way B. B. told it is the other people playing on the show were backstage at the Paramount Theatre when they heard the crowd going completely insane, and he looked out to see what Muddy was doing, and apparently he was doing “Mannish Boy” with his dick out.
“Nappy told me the same story except I guess he kind of play acted it or something. He kinda showed what it looked like swaying in the breeze, but Muddy said, ‘I didn’t realize my pants opened up when I was doing that song, and I went, “I’m a man, I’m a man,” and I looked down and saw I’m a man.’
Bob Margolin keeps more than the Muddy Waters legacy alive. His performances and the album My Road almost bring Muddy back. It’s almost as if he weren’t gone. I can’t think of another artist who’s done that any better for a postwar legacy artist. He has done more to continue that feeling, that emotion, that wonder, that joy of Muddy than any other artist I can think of. And he’s done it in his songwriting and his music journalism, too.
“It would be very easy for me to say, ‘Deliberately, don’t put anything on here that will remind anyone of Muddy,’” explains Margoilin. “I felt it would be dishonest to do that. At the same time I wanted to go beyond what I’ve done before singing and playing and songwriting with depth and telling my own stories.
Visit Bob’s website at bobmargolin.com
Photos by Bob Kieser © 2016
Writer Don Wilcock has been writing about blues for nearly half a century. He wrote Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues, the biography that helped Buddy Guy jumpstart his career in 1991. He’s interviewed more than 5000 Blues artists and edited several music magazines including King Biscuit Time.
Featured Blues Music Review – 2 of 6
Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band – Born to Love the Blues
Self-Produced
www.dantreanorband.com
CD: 12 Songs; 52:22 Minutes
Styles: Traditional and Contemporary Electric Blues, Blues Rock
“2013 International Blues Challenge 3rd Place.” So states the back cover of the latest album from Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band, while the front proclaims they were Born to Love the Blues. Indeed so, for as blues promoter and writer Skyy Dobro says, “I’ve played Dan Treanor a lot on the Friends of the Blues Radio Show [now in syndicated reruns].” When artists’ reputations precede them, the result is a double-edged sword. Will they surpass their fans’ high standards once again? Treanor and his posse deliver a musical guarantee. This ensemble achieves what I call the “Blues Trifecta” – vibrant vocals, laudable lyrics, and innovative instrumentation.
The band’s website states: “Born in 1947 and raised in Pueblo, Colorado, Dan Treanor began playing guitar at the age of fifteen. Discovering the blues and R&B through a local radio station, KAPI, he developed a lifelong passion for the root of all popular American music…” His current offering with the Afrosippi Band features two dynamic divas named Erica Brown and Merrian Johnson (known as MJ) on lead vocals. They propel this album through the stratosphere on eight original songs and four covers. The only flaw is on the back cover of the CD itself: tracks 10 and 11 should be switched around. “Mississippi Fred’s Dream” comes first, with a running time of 6:02, and then “Missing”, running time 5:38.
Along with Treanor, as he plays harp, guitar and an African instrument called the khalam, are Michael Hossler on guitar and lap steel guitar, Scott Headley on drums, Jack Erwin on bass guitar, Gary Flori on congas, and Bill Shannon on bass guitar for selections five and nine. As mentioned earlier, Erica Brown and MJ sing their souls out, and then some!
Picking the “best” out of twelve fantastic songs is nearly impossible, but here’s a good shot:
Track 02: “Done Got Old” – People react differently to the passing-by of Father Time. Some get sad; some get mad; others get downright furious. Need proof? Listen to Treanor’s raging harp. Erica Brown ruefully lays it on the line: “When the 10:00 news comes on the TV, I’m sitting on the sofa with my aching knee, ‘cause I done got old. I done got too old. I done got too old to boogie-woogie all night long.”
Track 05: “A Change is Going to Come” – Merrian Johnson takes spectacular vocal lead on this heart-rending Sam Cooke cover. “I was born by a river, in a tenement. My poor mother, she could hardly pay the rent. It’s been a long, long time coming, but I know a change is going to come.” What a perfect song to listen to on MLK, Jr. Day, celebrating his unrealized dream.
Track 11: “Missing” – Mistakenly listed as track ten, this hard-bitten accusation with a serpentine beat (to which one could belly-dance) minces no words: “You said, you said, you said you would come back home. I’m waiting, I’m waiting, I’m waiting. I’m here all alone.” This is MJ’s finest display of her vocal talents, especially on a mid-tempo, grinding stomp that other artists might downplay.
Were they Born to Love the Blues? Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band knows it, and shows it!
Reviewer Rainey Wetnight is a 36 year old female Blues fan. She brings the perspective of a younger blues fan to reviews. A child of 1980s music, she was strongly influenced by her father’s blues music collection.
Featured Blues Music Review – 3 of 6
Deb Callahan – Sweet Soul
Blue Pearl Records – 2015
13 tracks; 57 minutes
www.debcallahanband.com
It has been four years since Deb released “Tell It Like It Is”, the gap being partly explained by her becoming a mother and this album is dedicated to her son Elijah. For her fifth release Deb took her new songs to California to record with producer Tony Braunagel at Johnny Lee Schell’s Ultratone Studios. As with most projects in which Phantom Blues Band members play a significant role this is a good album: Tony plays drums with Reggie McBride on bass, fellow Phantom Mike Finnegan on keys and Deb’s regular guitarist Allen James on all tracks, Johnny Lee Schell adding slide to one track; harp is added by Jimmy Powers and an array of backing singers help out: Teresa James, Leslie Smith, Lydia Hillard, Mike Finnegan and Johnny Lee Schell.
Deb brought eight songs to the sessions, mostly written with Allen or Chris Arms who produced her earlier albums. The five covers were suggested by Tony Braunagel to fit the upbeat mood of the record and come from Candi Staton, Doctor John, Tom Waits, Sonny Boy Williamson and David Egan – quite a diverse set.
The album opens with four originals, starting with the funky “Big Love”, Deb singing of her feelings towards her “new love and it feels just right”. The crisp and funky rhythm section is brilliantly supported by Mike’s organ work and Allen steps out to nail the solo on guitar. Juggling motherhood with everything else in a busy life takes careful planning and Deb seems to have managed that well, to judge by “I Keep Things Running”: “If you want something done, I’m the girl to go to. I’m in the know, I run the show, I carry the weight, never hesitate”. However, there are some aspects of modern relationships that don’t seem to work for Deb as she states in “Shackin’ Up”. A rocking tune with Johnny Lee Schell’s slide and Mike on both piano and organ underpins Deb’s account of several romances in which she concludes that “shackin’ up ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, feels so good until you get fed up”, concluding that greater stability and longer term commitment may bring more honesty and stability to the relationship.
Dropping the pace, “I Am Family” is a superb song with some moving lyrics: “Out in California again, don’t have a dime and you don’t have a friend. Somebody somewhere did you wrong, how many times have I heard that song. I tried to help you for all those years, been a lot of anger and a whole lot of tears; been here before, this crash and burn is feeling real old.” Mike’s piano work here is terrific and supports Deb’s emotional vocal really well, the backing vocalists also doing a great job on the choruses.
Deb is just as happy singing soul as the funkier blues and rock elements of the first few tracks and the first cover is “Sweet Feeling” (Candi Staton/Clarence Carter/Marcus Daniel/Rick Hall) and it works just fine before the gospel-toned “Born To Love You” finds Deb confessing her love for someone – perhaps her son Elijah? “Seven States Away” is a shuffle that recounts a tour down south and Deb really missing her family, counting down the states until she gets home.
Tom Waits’ “Way Down In The Hole” adds some menace to the set with Jimmy Powers’ harp combined with Mike’s organ work providing an almost horn-like accompaniment while the original “Step Back” is a slow, moody piece with some gospel parts and finds Mike on echoey electric piano and moody organ with Deb producing a particularly fine vocal. David Egan has written songs that have been recorded by artists such as Tab Benoit, Marcia Ball and Etta James and his and Buddy Flett’s “You Don’t Know Your Mind” fits perfectly into the groove and style of this album in a relentlessly funky version. “Crazy ‘Bout You Baby” is a Sonny Boy Williamson song but has been sung by Tina Turner (in her days with Ike) and more recently by Gina Sicilia. Deb’s take on the song is quite fast, almost rockabilly, with more fine piano and guitar work. Deb’s final original is “Slow As Molasses, Sweet As Honey”, a slow blues with an excellent, sultry vocal and a well-poised solo from Allen and more stellar keyboard work from Mr Finnegan. The album closes with Allen working the wah-wah pedal hard on a swampy take on Dr John’s “I Been Hoodoed”.
Deb continues to progress both as a singer and songwriter and this latest album is well worth a listen.
Reviewer John Mitchell is a blues enthusiast based in the UK who enjoys a wide variety of blues and roots music, especially anything in the ‘soul/blues’ category. Favorites include contemporary artists such as Curtis Salgado, Tad Robinson, Albert Castiglia and Doug Deming and classic artists including Bobby Bland, Howling Wolf and the three ‘Kings’. He gets over to the S