Cover photo by Reed R. Radcliff © 2015 Triplerphotography.com
In This Issue
Terry Mullins has our feature interview with Delta Blues harmonica player and builder Deak Harp. We have 11 Blues reviews for you this week including a great tribute album to Muddy Waters at 100 plus music from Sherwood Fleming, Jackie Payne, Layla Zoe, Black Patti, JC Crossfire, Steve Krase, The Blues Disciples, Beth Hart, Niecie and Sugaray Rayford. Our video of the week is Larry McCray.
We have the latest in Blues society news. All this and MORE! SCROLL DOWN!!!
From The Editor’s Desk
Hey Blues Fans,
As I write this on Wednesday night more than 3,000 fans have voted in the Blues Blast Music Awards! Be sure you vote at http://www.bluesblastmagazine.com/bbmas/vote/.
Tickets are on sale for the Blues Blast Music Awards on September 25th at our “earlybird” discount ticket price of only $35. With 23 artists performing it is sure to be a great show. But hurry! The earlybird pricing ends on August 1st!
To see all the great acts coming, visit our Blues Blast Music Awards website at www.TheBBMAs.com. Click on the CONFIRMED APPEARANCES tab on the right when you get there to see this great event that is shaping up for Blues fans.
Don’t miss this one
Wishing you health, happiness and lots of Blues music!
Bob Kieser
Featured Blues Review – 1 of 11
Various Artists Featuring John Primer – Muddy Waters 100 – A Tribute
Raisin’ Music Records
15 tracks/53:33
Producer Larry Skoller is back with another project that takes a fresh approach to the blues tradition. Skoller received a Grammy nomination for the first volume of his Chicago Blues: A Living History series, which utilized a bevy of musicians to explore the many facets and stylistic variations of the city’s rich history with the music. (EDITORS NOTE: Chicago Blues: A Living History won the Blues Blast Music Award for Best Traditional Album in 2009)
Now Skoller is focusing on the legacy of the iconic Muddy Waters in honor of the centennial anniversary of the bluesman’s birth.
Like his other releases, this one comes with deluxe packaging – a hard cover booklet complete with numerous pictures of Waters at various stages of his life plus a lengthy essay from author Robert Gordon discussing Waters’ influence that extended well beyond the blues realm. Also included is a track-by-track listing of the musicians that appear on each song, a welcome feature that sorts through the rotating cast.
Skoller also contributes a shorter commentary in which he discusses the extent of Waters influence on music, then sings the praises of several key members of the project – John Primer, James Cotton, and Johnny Winter. The producer zeroes in on his take on the project with these comments, “By design, this album has not taken a strictly archival approach in its treatments of Muddy’s songs. Some tracks are handled traditionally, in deference to the original recordings; there are also contemporary treatments and new arrangements that focus on today’s sounds. Whether it be rock, pop, hip-hop….the earliest five-watt amplifiers or digital samples, drum loops, and electronica – ….these sounds all lead back to Muddy Waters”.
John Primer is the sole constant, handling the lead vocals on every track and plays guitar on most of them. His tenure as a member of Waters’ band provided an immersion into the bandleader’s trademark sound, making Primer a logical choice to lead the project. He sounds right at home on “Rosalie,” a tune that dates back to Muddy’s Stovall Plantation recordings. He is backed by Bob Margolin on acoustic guitar, Billy Flynn on mandolin, Steve Gibons on fiddle, Felton Crews on bass, and Khari Parker on drums.
“Good News” finds Kenny Smith laying down a sturdy shuffle, Margolin ripping off a nasty solo, and James Cotton blowing some meaty harp licks. Cotton is back for “I Feel So Good,” a song he recorded with Waters. Johnny Iguana gives his piano keyboard a workout on the cut. Things are scaled way back on “She Moves Me,” with Primer’s assertive vocal supported by Smith, Flynn on guitar, and Matthew Skoller filling the Little Walter role. Primer really captures the magic on “Feel Like Going Home,” supported by Crews and Smith. His slide guitar and moving vocal are the essence of the blues.
A cover of “Got My Mojo Working” is elevated by Primer’s spirited duet with Shemekia Copeland over Smith’s electronic drum patterns, which also appear on “Still A Fool”. Derek Trucks adds his usual stellar slide playing on the latter cut. Johnny Winter’s distinctive slide is the highlight of “I’m Ready,” recorded shortly before the guitarist passed away. “Last Time I Fool Around With You” proves that Keb Mo can hold his own with the other distinguished slide players. The electronic drums create an eerie setting on “Forty Days And Forty Nights,” featuring a moody solo from Gary Clark Jr., joined by Primer and Vincent Buchner on guitar and harmonica. “Can’t get No Grindin’” gets an energized treatment lead by Iguana’s mesmerizing keyboard efforts plus the usual strong harp licks from Billy Branch.
There is quite a contrast when Margolin’s gritty slide guitar collides with drum loop programming from Blaise Barton on “I Be’s Troubled”. Barton also plays spoons and tambourine on the track while Keith Henderson fills in for Primer on second guitar. The drum programming seems an odd distraction on an otherwise powerful rendition of “Mannish Boy”. Barton handles synth bass, Farfisa organ, and drum programming on “Trouble No More”. Tim Gant on clavichord adds another modern element that is tempered by Branch’s harp.
In total, this is a first-class tribute to one of the giants of the blues. The list of top-tier guest artists certainly adds to the appeal. Instead of rehashing classic tracks, Producer Larry Skoller makes the bold move to reimagine part of the program to project what Muddy Waters might sound like today. Listeners who share Skoller’s vision will be very pleased with this one.
Reviewer Mark Thompson lives in Florida, where he is enjoying life without snow. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Suncoast Blues Society and the past president of the Crossroads Blues Society of Northern Illinois. Music has been a huge part of his life for the past fifty years – just ask his wife!.
Featured Blues Interview – Deak Harp
He heard what they were saying about him, but try as he might, he just couldn’t seem to get out of his own way.
‘Unreliable’;
‘Messed –up’;
‘Five-time loser’;
Those were the words that followed Deak Harp and nipped at his heels like the proverbial Hellhound some two decades ago.
“That was me … I was all of that and I was blacklisted back in the ‘90s. In New York City, I played Manny’s (Car Wash) and Terra Blues and Chicago B.L.U.E.S and they all had enough of me when I was drinking. I had a bad reputation for being a drunk back then,” Deak recently said.
Then, one day after failed rehab attempt after failed rehab attempt (five tries in all), Deak Harp finally found the conviction to said enough is enough.
“One day I got so sick and said, ‘That’s it. I’m tired of throwing up all the time.’ I had to clean up my act and I did. I was tired of letting alcohol control my life. I’ve been sober since 2001and that’s helped me out a lot. I mean, nobody wants to go see a drunken bluesman anymore,” he said. “That’s old stuff … back in the fish fry days when they would go out to the juke joint after picking cotton all week. These days, people don’t want to pay good money to go see a drunken performer.”
With all that Deak has on his plate these days, even if he were still tempted to climb back inside a bottle (which he’s not), it’s highly unlikely that he’d have the time needed to get smashed on a regular basis. He’s one of the premier harmonica players currently playing the blues, as his latest album – Clarksdale Breakdown – so purposefully proves. He’s also a highly in-demand harmonica instructor, and since 2007, he’s also been a staff writer for Big City Rhythm & Blues magazine. But the thing that gets Deak the most excited – and rightfully so – is when he talks about a little piece of real estate located at 13 Third Street in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
That’s the location of the one-of-a-kind Deak’s Mississippi Saxophones and Blues Emporium.
“I have the only – the only – brick-and-mortar harmonica store, where you can walk in and say, ‘Deak, I blew out my 5-draw (reed), could you put one in for me?’ I’ll pull out this $500 tool I’ve got that looks like the keyboard of a Hammond organ and I’ll pull out one of the draw-bars for that one note and I’ll replace the note and put a new ribbon in it – and some screws if needed – and they can walk out with their harmonica fixed,” he said. “This is the only store in the world where you can do that. You can buy a regular harmonica, you can buy a custom harmonica, you can get one fixed, or you can take a lesson from me, or hey, maybe you just want to hang out in here. When Charlie Musselwhite’s in town, he’ll spend two or three hours in here just hangin’ out and tellin’ stories. This (Deak’s store) is the best idea I’ve ever come up with.”
It also bears mentioning that Deak possesses laser-sharp focus and seems to be a natural born multi-tasker. He can carry on a meaningful conversation on the telephone, while at the same time he’s using a drill press to work on the restoration of a harmonica (a Hohner, circa 1985-90, in this case) that would later that afternoon be slipped into a mailing sleeve and sent out to another one of his many satisfied customers – this one in Australia.
“I kind of do what Hohner doesn’t want to do to their harps. It’s not that they’re bad harps, because they’re not. I mean the best harp you can get is the (Hohner) Marine Band harmonica. Almost all the blues players use those,” he said. “But they have little problems. Years ago, the wood used to swell up and cut your mouth when you got them pretty wet.”
No one wants their mouth to start bleeding from both corners when they break into a version of “Juke,” so Deak put on his thinking cap, rolled up his sleeves and came up with a solution to rectify that problem.
“What I did was to figure out a way to re-seal the cone by taking the harmonica completely apart and eliminating that problem. And I also fine-tune the harmonicas so they are exactly in tune,” he said. “A lot of professional players that use octaves when they tongue-block – which is an advanced way to play harmonica – those imperfections stick out like a sore thumb, because if you’re trying to play two of the same notes and they don’t ring perfectly together, that drives the artist nuts. So basically they (Hohner) don’t spend as much time on the last phase of production – the tuning – before they send their harps out, as I would. When I get done with them, they’re tuned perfect on a strobe tuner. My harmonicas have sold all over the world. I mean, who wouldn’t want a Mississippi-made blues whistle?”
Not only do the harps sound like a million bucks when they leave Deak’s Mississippi Saxophones and Blues Emporium, they also look like they should be hanging on the wall of an upscale gallery, to boot.
“What I kind of do is make them into a work of art … like on the outside of them … so they all look really neat, too. Each one of them has a mind of its own,” he said. “And they play like butter and they bend so easy.”
As one might expect, Deak’s workshop space is knee-deep in harmonicas in various stages of life – including bits over here and pieces over there.
“Yeah, people send me boxes of broken harmonicas with something wrong with them. And I completely take them all apart, go through them outside and inside and completely restore them and get them back into service and they’re better harmonicas than what come out of the factory,” he said. “And they’re something that you can’t get anywhere else … period. I also have Harp Gear amplifiers in here and am soon to have the brand-new Lone Wolf harmonica amps, which are 25-watt amplifiers.”
That same spirit and willingness to roll the bones and do things his own way certainly spilled over to Deak’s latest album, as well. In a nod to the grass-roots promotion methods of days gone by, Deak has pretty much taken care of most of the marketing for Clarksdale Breakdown all by his lonesome.
“I gave the Blues Foundation some copies and then I sent 160 of them out through Todd Glazer (blues/roots music radio promoter) and that’s really all that I could afford to do to promote it,” he said. “It did debut at number 18 on the blues charts, but it took a couple of months to do that, but I guess that’s normal.”
As impressive as his harmonica restoration skills are – along with his ability to flat-out peel paint off the walls when he puts a harp up to his mouth –equally impressive is the way that Deak has managed to morph himself into a one-man band over the years. He sings, blows harp, plays a guitar – or diddley-bow – and keeps beat on the drums, all at the same time up on the bandstand. That requires a certain level of dexterity, along with a brain that can focus on several things at once. But once again, for a multi-tasker like Deak, that’s really no issue at all.
“Well, I leave about two of them (brain wavelengths) on auto-pilot,” he laughed. “The guitar playing and drumming go on auto-pilot. Then I think about the rest. Mainly, what I’m doing is matching notes with the guitar, so I don’t fall off track if I stay in one groove. To be honest, I never really knew anything about Hill Country blues until I started coming to the (King) Biscuit (Blues Festival, in Helena, Arkansas) in like ’04 and ’05, when I started seeing cats like Terry ‘Harmonica’ Bean and Bill Abel (who guests on Clarksdale Breakdown). They hipped me to listening to R.L. Burnside and guys like that. My style is kind of in the Hill Country blues, but it’s like the Hill Country blues on steroids.”
Lately, Deak has kind of stepped away from playing the drums himself during his live shows and went back to more of a standup, in-your-face, wild and energetic stage show that’s kind of difficult to pull off when you have to remain seated with your foot tethered to a drum petal up on stage.
“I hire drummers now; I’ve got four or five different ones that I work with. I use Ardie Dean from the Music Maker Foundation – he travels the world playing drums and he plays a 1930’s Ludwig set. My number-one drummer here in Clarksdale is Andrew Lee Williams and I just worked with Joe Eagle for a gig at Red’s Lounge recently and it was like walkin’ in the park, man,” he said. “I just set the groove and they follow me and it’s like a juke party, man. I mean, I could cause a riot with this show.”
Deak and the legendary Charlie Musselwhite – who labels Clarksdale as his home-away-from-home – have become fast friends and they also share the love of the tone of a certain amplifier that Deak has in his store.
“It’s an old Ampeg from the ‘60s and Charlie wanted to buy it, but I said, ‘No, Charlie, I don’t want to sell it, but whenever you’re in Clarksdale, you can come get it and use it.’ And he just recorded his latest album (I Ain’t Lyin’) on it,” he said. “Charlie also invited me to be on his newest DVD to play backup harmonica while he’s running through five different positions on the harmonica. I play in the other key that doesn’t interfere with what he’s doing (in the DVD). It’s coming out in three or four months.”
With all that he’s got going on in and around his store, it’s understandable that Deak channels most of his energies and efforts –as well as his time – into running that, instead of traveling all over the place, playing gigs here and there. However, that doesn’t mean that he won’t travel at all.
“I don’t leave the shop unless it’s a really cool experience. I get paid for what I do and I don’t work for free and I don’t need no exposure,” he said. “I’m playing at the Bean Blossom Blues Fest (in Nashville, Indiana) on August 29 and I’m going to Switzerland and Germany in 2016 for a seven-night tour and I’m going to Norway in April of 2016 with a band I recorded with at the Shack-Up Inn, called the J.B. Blues Express. They’re out of Norway.”
Deak initially hooked up with the J.B. Blues Express when they were in Clarksdale and were in need of an amp. Instead of charging the Norwegians – who probably would have paid a pretty penny – for the use of an amp, he simply lent them one.
“That’s just the way I am. When people come into town, I’m not trying to make a quick buck off them, because I don’t need to,” he said. “You get more bees with honey than you would with a bag of dirt, you know? Money doesn’t come from that, money comes after doing things like that … and I sure don’t have any ulterior motives. I just want to help anyone that I can.”
Back in his younger days, Deak spent a good five years following the great James ‘Superharp’ Cotton up and down the left coast. That led directly to a spot driving Cotton and his band around for several years, which in turn resulted in Deak opening up shows for Cotton and ultimately ended up with Deak playing with, living with and becoming a lifelong friend of the great Cotton.
“That was really a dream come true,” he said.
The warm, rich and deep tone – readily acknowledged to be among the best of the best – that Deak coaxes out of his harmonica didn’t happen by accident. It happened because Cotton instructed him on how to summon up that sound.
“He told me to stop playing harmonica with my lips … that’s what it is. When I worked for him, I’d have to do the soundchecks and he would be there standing by the soundboard in the middle of the venue and he’d be going, ‘Come, on … dig a little deeper. Come on!’ He would be working me to get that tone that I needed,” he said. “That’s how I learned to emulate James Cotton’s tone. He forced me … beat it into me, to get that tone. He called me more names – in a good way – to get me where he thought I needed to be. You know, I learned from James and he learned from Sonny Boy (Williamson), so I’m third generation, man.”
Just because he learned to blow like Cotton doesn’t mean that Deak sounds like James Cotton, even though he most definitely could. It’s by choice that Deak sounds like … well, like Deak.
“Cotton and William Clarke – who was another great mentor to me back in the ‘90s, would always say, ‘Deak, I’ll show you anything you want to learn about the blues and the business, but you’ve got to make your own name, your own music.’ That was some of the best advice I ever got,” he said. “I mean, I can sound like Cotton, but I don’t use any of his licks. If you listen to my records, you really don’t hear anybody else’s (licks) but mine. I’m not the fanciest harmonica player and I know that … but I do have my own thing goin’ on. The beauty of the harmonica is, you can take it in so many different directions and everybody can sound like themselves.”
That spirit of giving – much like what Cotton provided for him back in the day – is what motivates Deak to do for the students that he teaches and mentors these days. It’s more about passing on traditions than it is about pocketing a paycheck.
“Carson Diersing’s mom called me up, worried about his career. He wasn’t getting anywhere and his teacher said it was looking like he just didn’t have that drive. His mom didn’t know what to do and really couldn’t afford to pay for hourly lessons. She wanted to arrange for him to come and stay with me for a couple of weeks and pay for his expenses (food and lodging). I said, ‘Pay me? No. This is the perfect opportunity for me to pass this on to somebody that is a well-deserved musician that needs that extra kick.’ I made sure he was fed and taken care of and I didn’t want a darn thing for it, that’s just the way I am,” he said. “I did say, ‘Now, if he comes down to me, I’m gonna’ be his papa and he’s going to listen to me.’ He was 16 at the time. Well, sure enough, he came down and he’s been learning from me. We just did a show with Gip Gipson who’s 94-years-old and I let Carson play with me and note-for-note, he was backing me up … I’m just so impressed with the way his playing is coming along. That’s what James Cotton did for me. I stayed at Cotton’s house for months, learning from him. He took me to The Checkerboard Lounge and everywhere. I was his step-son. That’s just what he said I was.”
Although it was just for a couple of fleeting years (2009-10), Deak was a member of Kilborn Alley Blues Band, a group that has carved out quite a nice reputation as a top-notch and hard-working outfit for itself over the years.
“I love those guys. The reason I left was because of my harmonica business. I was taking orders but was not able to fill them because I was on the road so much. And I didn’t want things to keep going on like that,” he said. “I just needed more time to build my harmonica business.”
He still keeps in touch with his old mates from Kilborn Alley – and as a matter of fact, their relationship goes well beyond the occasional long-distance phone chat.
“I just went up there to Chicago to Nick’s (Moss) studio and I’m going to be featured on their new record. They allowed me two days to record four songs and we started rolling and I banged through the first song in about 15 or 20 minutes. Before long, about an hour-and-a-half into the session, I had recorded the whole thing,” he said. “Nick Moss said, ‘You’re done! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!’ I banged ‘em out and it was up to my par. I reckon I saved them some time and studio money.”
Even though he still does make the occasion trip up to his old Windy City stomping grounds from time to time, you won’t find Deak’s Mississippi Saxophones and Blues Emporium in a metropolitan setting like Chicago or New Orleans or Memphis. No, sir.
You’ll find it nestled perfectly into the vibrant heart of Clarksdale, just down the block a bit from Ground Zero Blues Club. So just how did Deak – who spent a great deal of his younger years several hundred miles to the north in Illinois – end up picking Clarksdale as home for his entrepreneurial venture?
“I was into documentary films about Clarksdale and there I was living up north in the middle of the corn and the tourists sure weren’t coming to my house (there) and saying, ‘I’m a harmonica player from Brazil.’ But being down here, I get people all the time that come in and just drool over my shop,” he said. “Like I said, Charlie Musselwhite comes by, Harrison Kennedy’s (Chairmen of the Board) been in here, Mike Wolfe (from American Pickers) has been in, Dan Aykroyd … they never would have found me up there in the corn, you know?”
Visit Deak’s website at: www.deakharp.com
Photos by Bob Kieser © 2015 Blues Blast Magazine
Blues Blast Magazine Senior Writer Terry Mullins is a journalist, author and former record store owner whose personal taste in music is the sonic equivalent of Attention Deficit Disorder. Works by the Bee Gees, Captain Beefheart, Black Sabbath, Earth, Wind & Fire and Willie Nelson share equal space with Muddy Waters, The Staples Singers and R.L. Burnside in his compact disc collection. He’s also been known to spend time hanging out on the street corners of Clarksdale, Miss., eating copious amounts of barbecued delicacies while listening to the wonderful sounds of the blues.
Featured Blues Review – 2 of 11
Sherwood Fleming – Blues Blues Blues
Dynaflow Records
12 songs – 43 minutes
Sherwood Fleming’s story reads like something from the 1950s or ‘60s rather than 2015. He grew up picking cotton near Lula, Mississippi, on land owned by a man called Limping Jesus. In the 1950s, he moved to California, recorded a few songs for labels such as Modern Records and Highland without any (financial) success, despite the likes of Larry Davis covering his songs, and he then gave up on music. Fast forward to 2014, and Dynaflow Records track Fleming down and coax the now nearly-80 year old to play a few gigs and record a new LP. Most blues fans are familiar with the tales of the re-discoveries of the likes of Son House or Mississippi John Hurt, but it comes as something of a surprise that such events are still happening today. Dynaflow, and in particular label boss Eddie Stout, are to be roundly congratulated. The result is a little gem of an album.
The 12 songs on Blues Blues Blues include four Fleming originals, together with some choice lesser-known classic covers. The two most familiar songs are probably Ike Turner’s “Bold Soul Brother (Bold Soul Sister)” and “My Time After Awhile”, covered by everybody but perhaps most famously by Buddy Guy.
Fleming’s muscular voice remains supple and powerful, reflecting the influence of both Howlin’ Wolf (on songs like “Gotta Hold On” and “Non Support Blues”) and Otis Redding (on the glorious 60s-style soul of Sandra Rhodes’ “Lay It On The Line”). He is also unafraid to hurry a vocal line, or to hang it off the rhythm slightly, providing an emotionally powerful impact on tracks such as “Good Woman”. His most moving moment however comes in the closing track, an achingly beautiful acapella version of Mahalia Jackson’s “Trouble Of The World”, on which he sounds as old as Methuselah but still sings with a powerful undercurrent of hope and belief. There is also a surprisingly effective rap on “History”, a furious and articulate rant against racial abuse.
While Fleming’s voice is voice is fine fettle, Stout’s choice of some of Austin’s leading musicians as the backing band is inspired. Featuring the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Johnny Moeller on guitar and Jason Moeller on drums, together with Nick Connolly on piano/organ, Kaz Kazanoff on saxophone and Burly Manor on bass (Stevie Fulton also adds guitar to “Bold Soul Brother (Bold Soul Sister)” and “Gotta Hold On”), the band absolutely tears it up. Inviting famous musicians to contribute to albums always carries a slight risk. They may over-play and try to make everything about them. Or they may under-play to such an extent that their contribution is lost in the mix. The musicians on Blues Blues Blues however play with such authority and passion and such an irresistibly greasy “tight-but-loose” groove that the album sounds like a band at the top of their game rather than a collection of random musicians. Johnny Moeller in particular adds myriad top drawer (and left field) fills and solos without ever overwhelming the main attraction while Kazanoff’s warm and emotional sax is typically tasteful and supportive.
When an album is titled Blues Blues Blues, and the track “Blues Blues” even has the nerve to open with the line “I woke up this morning”, then the listener usually has a pretty fair idea what to expect. In this case, you have one of the better traditional electric blues albums of the year, served up with a healthy infusion of soul and a dash of gospel. Warmly recommended.
Reviewer Rhys Williams lives in Cambridge, England, where he plays blues guitar when not holding down a day job as a technology lawyer or running around after his children. He is married to an American, and speaks the language fluently, if with an accent.
Featured Festival Review – Champaign Blues Brews & BBQ Festival
The Champaign Blues Brews & BBQ Festival is held in downtown Champaign, IL the last weekend in June each year. This is the 8th year for this FREE festival. It is sponsored by the folks at Fluid Events, the same organization Blues Blast is partnering with for the second year on the Blues Blast Music Awards. These guys really have it together!
This year they tried something different, they had a festival featuring all Blues women performers! A great idea. I loved their logo.
The festival started off with a duo called No Solid State.
A good set to start.
Next up was a band called Upshot.
Lead singer Sara Hall gave it her all and it was a great set!
Then we got to see Adrianna Marie and Her groove Cutters. Adrianna is from California and was a nominee in the 2014 Blues Blast Music Awards last year.
Talented lady, great band!
Next up was Sena Ehrhardt. Sena is a Blind Pig Recording Artist and is also a past Blues Blast Music awards nominee.
Her set was great but I truly do miss her old man Ed Ehrhardt laying down some great guitar behind her intense vocals.
The headliner for Friday night was Carolyn Wonderland. It was my first time hearing her live.
Carolyn is one great performer. Her sat was a great way to cap off the first night of the fest.
On Saturday, the fest started off with Laura Rain & the Caesars.
A Detrot based band with the dynamic Laura out frot was a fitting way to kick off the second day of great Blues women performers.
Next up was Chicago’s own Joanna Conner.
This lady can hold her own with any guitar player. Her slide work was awesome!
Next up was Blue Music Award and Blues Blast Music Award winner Janiva Magnus.
Janiva’s latest album is an independent release and she sang a few song from it and many from her previous Alligator releases too.
Then we got to hear one of my favorite artists, Shaun Murphy! She has had gigs singing and recording with both Eric Clapton and Bob Seger and was the lead singer for Little Feat for many years.
Shaun is a double Blues Blast Music Award winner and she had a killer band with her.
Saturday’s headliner was Ana Popovic. Ana’s striking appearance belies the fact that she is a good vocalist and a GREAT guitar player.
Her set was a fitting way to end another successful festival.
Put the 2016 Blues Brews & BBQ Festival on your calendar for the last weekend in June next festival season.
Photos and commentary by Bob Kieser © 2015 Blues Blast Magazine
Featured Blues Review – 3 of 11
Jackie Payne – I Saw The Blues
www.luckymojo.com/shadesofblues.html
Blue Dot Records
12 songs time-59:39
Jackie Payne began singing professionally at the age of thirteen in his hometown of Athens, Georgia then relocated to Houston, Texas at seventeen were he recorded his regional hit “Go Go Train” on the Jetstream label. The success of that recording prompted Stax Records to ask him along on a forty-five city tour with the Stax Revue featuring Otis Redding, Sam And Dave and Rufus and Carla Thomas. After that he was the featured vocalist with The Johnny Otis Orchestra for fifteen years. He and blues guitarist Steve Edmonson formed the Jackie Payne-Steve Edmonson Band in the late 1990s. This CD was finished in the spring of 2014, but plans to release it were thwarted when in October of that year Jackie suffered a major stroke. Guitarists Kid Anderson and Anthony Paule picked up the baton to make Jackie’s longing to it release it come to fruition. Six of the twelve tunes on this CD were written or co-written by Jackie.
Jackie’s blues-rhythm & blues approach owes a lot to old school blues supper club artists, mainly Bobby “Blue” Bland. He knows his way around the blues and isn’t afraid to get a little bawdy at times. He also interjects some spoken comments, which is somewhat of a blues tradition. The production by himself, Kid Anderson and Anthony Paule is solid as a rock and benefits greatly from the top rate musicians assembled here.
Jackie leads right off with his warm and smooth with rough edges voice with the melancholy “Back To Normal” with tinkling piano, horns and Kid Anderson’s tasteful guitar solos. The self-penned title track is a nice stroll through Jackie’s recollections of his blues life featuring Aki Kumar on harmonica and Lorenzo Farrell on organ. Anthony Paule’s slide guitar and Aki’s harp give “Full Moon Blues” a nice and lazy blues vibe that takes you right to a Chicago blues joint.
Jackie’s rougher vocal performance on “When The Blues Comes Knockin’” brings the best moments of Bobby “Blue” Bland to mind. Kid Anderson plays B.B. King to Jackie’s vocal. He delivers an old school blues ballad on “Wife, Woman, Hootchie”. Kid Anderson on rhythm guitar and Anthony Paule’s lead guitar along with Lorenzo Farrell’s organ and Bob Welsh’s piano sync-in with the horn section to conjure up some feel good blues on “Kicking Back With The Blues”.
Bob Welsh’s boogie-woogie piano energizes the ode to clubbing “Feel Like Doing My Thing”. “Six Million Dollar Man” is sheer love=making braggadocio and bravado. Bob Welsh’s late night piano features on the smooth and sexy ballad “Rock Me With A Steady Roll”. It also includes some nice horn solos. Ari Kumar’s harp blends in nicely with the horn section on the bouncy “Somewhere Down The Line”, a lovely “you’ll be back” narrative. Sadly things end on kind of a sour note. Jackie delves into dirty old man territory on “I’ll Drink Your Bathwater Baby”. It includes too much talking and is over long. It isn’t the subject matter that bothers me, it’s the poor execution of the song.
So we get a fine blues and rhythm & blues album with one minor flaw. The song writing is solid and backed by top notch players. Here’s hoping Jackie recovers to deliver more of his classy music.
Reviewer Greg “Bluesdog” Szalony hails from the New Jersey Delta.
Featured Blues Review – 4 of 11
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