Cover photo by Bob Kieser © 2015 Blues Blast Magazine
In This Issue
Terry Mullins has our feature interview with Austin Walkin’ Cane. Our Video Of The Week is Taj Mahal. Rick Nation has photos and commentary from the Sunflower Blues And Gospel Fest. We have 8 music reviews for you including a 6 CD box set of vintage B.B, King recordings plus reviews of music by Reggie Wayne Morris, Christian Collin, Filmore Sims, Ian Siegal, Victor Wainwright & The Wildroots, Amy Hart and Sam Cockrell.
We have the latest in Blues society news. All this and MORE! SCROLL DOWN!!!
From The Editor’s Desk
Hey Blues Fans,
Have you heard about the BIGGEST blues event of the fall season yet?
Let me tell you about it. There will be 2 stages and 24 of the best of today’s Blues acts performing. Performances include Anthony Gomes Band, Andy T – Nick Nixon Band, Chris O’Leary Band, Tad Robinson, Oscar Wilson from The Cash Box Kings, Bob Corritore, Magnus Berg (all the way from Norway!), Dave Specter, Bobby Messano, Big Harp George, The Duo Sonics, Missy Andersen, Slam Allen, Ghost Town Blues Band, Markey Blue, Fo’ Reel Band, Slam Allen, John Ginty, Alexis P. Suter, Deb Ryder, Altered Five Blues Band, Reverend Raven & The Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys, Eight O’ Five Jive, Big Dave Mclean with Steve Dawson and Dan Phelps.
Where can you see a show like this?
At the 2015 Blues Blast Music Awards on September 25th in Champaign, Illinois of course. Tickets are going fast! Get yours now at: www.thebbmas.com/tickets/
VIP mini sponsorships that give you the best front row seats in the house, t-shirts, posters, more than 25 great Blues CDs to take home and much more, start at only $250 per couple. Check them out now CLICK HERE!
Wishing you health, happiness and lots of Blues music!
Bob Kieser
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Blues Blast Magazine is looking for a few good writers to help us out. We need writers with journalism experience who know Blues and can complete one interview or story each week. We can provide access to the artists for interview, media credentials for festival coverage and downloads or physical Blues CDs, DVDs and books. These are paid positions but not considered fulltime position. The assignments are on a contract per story basis.
We will assign subjects and stories and also entertain your ideas too. These positions require professional writing/journalism experience.
If really loves the Blues and want to spread the Blues word you could be a good candidate! If you are interested, please send an email to info@bluesblastmagazine.com and tell us about your Blues background.
Please include your resume and phone number with the email.
Featured Blues Review – 1 of 8
Reggie Wayne Morris – Don’t Bring Me Daylight
Blue Jay Sound
www.rwmband.com
https://www.facebook.com/RWMBlues/timeline
11 tracks; 46:05 minutes; Suggested
Styles: Electric Blues, “Boogie Woogie Rhythm & Rockin’ Blues”
“How can this guy be this good and not be nationally and internationally festival-famous?” These words are rarely spoken by this reviewer and Blues radio show programmer about a new CD, but in the case of Reggie Wayne Morris, they are true. One can imagine the large number of CD submissions received by the few radio stations that actually broadcast Blues music over the airwaves. Way too many of them leave us lamenting, not lauding.
Typically, our number one complaint about an unfamiliar artist is “can’t sing.” Here, on Morris’s third release, Don’t Bring Me Daylight, the smooth vocals are first rate. Secondly, too many CDs sent to our “Blues” radio show are not “Blues.” Morris’s album avoids any criticisms on that front by providing solid contemporary Blues as one will hear.
Raised on his grandparents farm in Charlottesville, Virginia, guitarist/singer/songwriter Reggie Wayne Morris is now based in the Baltimore, Maryland area. He was reared on Gospel and Blues, learning the guitar at an early age from musical family members. Reggie’s up-tempo guitar style developed from listening to Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King and fusing their influences with his own unique approach to create his “Boogie Woogie Rhythm & Rockin’ Blues” that allowed him to tour Italy, France, Hawaii, and the U.S. with an appearance at Carnegie Hall as a “career milestone.” He has the distinction of being the only artist to perform at the Baltimore Blues Society Festival nine consecutive years, having the unique opportunity to be both the opening and closing act on one particularly memorable occasion.
This current release pays homage to the past by showcasing contemporary, witty and humorous lyrics that speak to listeners of today with all original songs composed by himself and Gerald “Gypsy” Robinson, with one track by Ceophus Palmer. Joining Morris’s guitar and vocals in the studio are: drummers Chuck Fuerte and Ezell Jones, bass players Vinny Hunter, Pete Kanaras, Chris Sellman, and Ray Tilkens, along with keyboardists – Mark Stevens and Bob Borderman.
Cleverly switching an old cliché (son of a blues “man”), Reggie kicks off his set with “Son of a Blues Fan.” It is right from the opening piercing guitar notes that listeners are introduced to real deal, modern sounds that are upbeat, full in production, and thoroughly enjoyable. Morris sings with aplomb, “I was sitting on my daddy’s knee; he was listening to ‘The Things I Used to Do’”. Meanwhile, Stevens’ organ is pumping the melody under Morris’s guitar, all propelled by Jones on drums and Sellman on bass.
Attention new “Blues” artists: it is still ok to play actual 12 bar Blues! If you need tutoring, just listen to “I used to have a Woman” with its authentic feel and theme. Stevens’ organ is again nicely utilized on “Sign My Check” as Morris invokes the humor in the lyrics and punctuates it all on swinging guitar. Reflecting some influence from fellow Baltimore area Bluesman, Charles “Big Daddy” Stallings, Morris brings smiles on a wonderfully bouncy “Another Can of Worms.”
The title track is another example of Morris’s clever turn of a phrase. When a lover is out for the evening with friends and running late, what is the absolute last thing the partner wants brought home? According to Reggie, “… bring it on home on time … don’t bring me ‘daylight’; you know I won’t understand!”
Slowing the tempo and pouring on the Southern Soul, Morris tells it straight about his devotion to his woman on “Ball & Chain.” Similar in musical style, “Too Many Cooks” echoes the familiar theme found in the old classic song “Too Many Drivers at the Wheel.”
Full of traditional sounds, this CD excels in expressing contemporary topics and issues by using bright new musical approaches. There is even a soulful ballad, “Meet Me,” and a surprising Reggae style on the closing “God Loves You.”
It is so refreshing to receive a new CD full of infectious passion, charm, and humor. With his knack for incredible, modern, real deal Blues music, Reggie Wayne Morris should soon be “nationally and internationally festival-famous!”
Reviewer James “Skyy Dobro” Walker is a noted Blues writer, DJ, Master of Ceremonies, and Blues Blast contributor. His weekly radio show “Friends of the Blues” can be heard Saturdays 7 to 11 pm on WKCC 91.1 FM and at http://www.wkccradio.org in Kankakee, IL.
Featured Blues Interview – Austin Walkin’ Cane
Since its re-opening in 1987, you would probably need an abacus that stretched from here to the moon and back to count the number of visitors that have entered through the doors of Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
However, when you’re looking to tally up the number of folks that have given their wedding nuptials at the modest building that is now a National Historic Landmark, one hand would be more than sufficient for counting.
And when you’re viewing the roll call of those that were married at Sun Studio and then immediately began laying down tracks at the place that helped give rise to Elvis, B.B., The Wolf and Ike … that distinction pretty much solely belongs to Cleveland-based bluesman Austin ‘Walkin’ Cane’ Charanghat and his wife, Karen.
“Well, we were looking to go to Memphis and get married and my wife is a big ’50s-era fan of Elvis. So we checked into getting married at Graceland, but they wanted a crazy amount of money for about 15 minutes. Then I thought about Sun Studio – which was still a functioning studio – and about how people like The Wolf recorded there, along with Ike Turner and all the rock-n-rollers,” Walkin’ Cane recently said. “So I got in contact with Sun and they said, ‘Sure, you can get married here. That would be great.’ It happened to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 2002 and we went and got a judge and got married and Sun Studio didn’t charge us anything for using the studio to get married. So I asked about recording a few songs after the ceremony in there – that way I could give them some money for being kind to me and my wife – and they said, ‘That would be great.’ It was a very spontaneous thing.”
‘Spontaneous thing’ or not, what Walkin’ Cane emerged from Sun Studio with – besides of course, a brand-new bride – was seven or eight songs captured in the afterglow of his wedding ceremony.
“I recorded the songs on a guitar that Marty Stuart gave to Sun Studio and then we came home and my wife and I moved into our place and some friends came by one day and I played them the tunes (cut at Sun) while we were sitting there talking and one of them said, ‘Wow. You caught a pretty-good vibe there. Why don’t you make a record out of it? So with that in mind, I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’”
That ensuing album was named for the location of Sun Studio – 706 Union Avenue.
“We did that record and it was really the start of my whole love of acoustic-style blues in a lot of ways. It (the wedding and recording session) was really a great time. One of my friends from Kansas City showed up and then another friend of mine who happened to be driving to Florida turned up and that was kinda’ cool and then my dad came down, too. My mom was kind of afraid to fly then, because of 9/11, but it was beautiful – just a great moment in time. I was told that my wife and I were the second people to be married there since it re-opened in 1987. So we did something that was different and interesting and I’m always looking for a story.”
Based just on the above proceedings alone, it’s easy to see that Walkin’ Cane is a man who enjoys things a bit off the beaten path. But that hardly tells the whole story of Austin ‘Walkin’ Cane’ Charanghat. He also seems to possess the intestinal fortitude of a field full of stout oxen and has never let anything get in his way of playing the blues. That includes losing his lower-left leg almost 20 years ago to an arterial venous malformation that had plagued him since birth.
“It was just a combination of bad circulation and bad bone and over the course of time, the arteries and veins were almost tangled in knots – they were larger than they were supposed to be. If I was active, the blood would rush to those areas and not drain quick enough and my leg would just inflate and become huge,” he said. “By the time I was 16, I had to walk with a cane and I went to about a million hospitals and saw about as many doctors as that to see what they would say. After years of seeing different doctors as a child, I finally saw this one surgeon and on our first meeting, he said, ‘You should probably just cut it off.’ I went, ‘Whoa.’ I was not expecting that. Well, when I was about 26, I had broken it (his left leg) swimming in a pool. As the doctor was putting a cast on it, I thought, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ I had tried therapy and treatments for 10 years just to try and save that leg. It had started to really occupy all my time and my thoughts and I had gotten kind of sickly, because I was so down all the time … mentally, physically, spiritually … I was just out of whack because of my leg. So I said, ‘Let’s take it off.’”
It wasn’t like he had let his malady slow him down – musically speaking – before the amputation of his lower-left leg, but things are certainly moving full-speed ahead for the big guy these days. He’s endorsed by notable companies like National Reso-Phonic, Rocky Mountain Slide Company, Dr. Z Amplifiers and Ernie Ball Strings.
Very impressive and as his Web site so eloquently puts it: ‘Damn Fine Blues.’
“It was about 20-some years ago and I was at a gig, and I think it was our bass player who said, ‘Man, these are some damn fine fries.’ And I said, ‘Wait a minute … that would be good for our thing … damn fine blues.’ And it sorta’ stuck, but it was really kind of a joke,” he said. “But as time has progressed, I’m playing a different style of blues than I used to, a lot more Mississippi-, Clarksdale- and King Biscuit-influenced, as opposed to some of the electric stuff I did. But not matter what I play, it’s going to be bluesy. So ‘Damn Fine Blues’ just kind of covers it …you know, ‘What do you do?’ Well, ‘I do the Damn Fine Blues.’ That kind of covers it.”
That fluidity and willingness to readily change between styles has always seemed to suit Walkin’ Cane and it also keeps him from being pigeon-holed into a particular corner.
“Yeah, I can do North Mississippi Hill County blues or a B.B. King kind of thing, which are two totally different styles, but they both do fall under the bigger umbrella of the blues,” he said.
Walkin’ Cane’s newest album – One Heart Walkin’ (Lazy Eye Records) – may not be filled with visions of sugar plums and mistletoe, but apparently its origins can be traced back to the most wonderful time of the year.
“We have a Christmas band with about nine people in it and we write Christmas songs, because we’re sick of everybody else’s,” he laughed. “It was really kind of a joke that started off as a party and all our musician friends would come out and we’d do a few standards and then we’d write these goofy songs and everybody would sing a line – regardless of whether they could sing or not. We’d record these parties and after about five years, we realized we had about 40 songs. So we ended up writing a Christmas record … then it was time to record a blues record.”
Even though it was fueled by the creativity left swirling around from the Christmas album, One Heart Walkin’ was still left facing a major dilemma before it would see the light of day: finances.
“I really didn’t have any money for it (One Heart Walkin’), but I ended up getting (job recording) a commercial, so that gave me half the money and then I managed to come up with the other half myself,” he said. “But that kind of fits the whole vibe, because it was a very spontaneous record – I think we may have rehearsed once for it. But it’s a pretty straight-forward blues record, so if you’re well-versed in it, it’s not too hard to figure it out.”
The album was recorded at an old Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) hall, situated not too far outside Cleveland.
“The building was built in 1850 and there would be a lot of Civil War veterans that would hang out there. It also used to be an old school house … it’s just a really creaky, old, slightly-tilted, sinking building. There would be a lot of semi-trucks driving by (during recording) and they ended up being on the record, which I really enjoy. You know, the stupid nuances of our records.”
Besides the real-deal blues, the album has a dash of funky New Orleans’ hoodoo running through it, courtesy of Walkin’ Cane’s friends – The Revolution Brass Band.
“The song “Who’s Gonna Love You?” does have a pretty heavy New Orleans’ feel to it and for the song I had in my mind that I was on the street corner in New Orleans playing with a drummer behind me and then this brass band comes walking up on their way to a gig and sees what’s going on and they jump in,” he said. “So we had that vibe in mind when we cut that tune. The producer, Don Dixon, told the horn section that when they finished playing (on the song), he wanted them to keep on playing and just walk out of the building. So we propped the door open and they finished playing and walked right out the door. That made for a natural fade on the tune … but you’d never know it, except for the people that were there. It was kinda’ neat and it ended up with a vibe that I’d never really captured on record before.”
A large part of the palpable feeling of being in the moment that permeates One Heart Walkin’ has to be due to the fact that not only were the tunes authored fairly quickly, but that the album itself was laid down to tape with hyper-speed efficiency.
“The whole thing was recorded in a day-and-a-half …. and then we started working on the next record. But I usually work on about two records at a time,” he said. “We had extra time (during the sessions for One Heart Walkin’) so we used it to start the next one and I figure we’ve got about half of it done now.”
The end result was that One Heart Walkin’ was nominated for Best New Artist Album at the 36th annual Blues Music Awards (BMAs), an accolade that kind of sneaked up on Walkin’ Cane.
“Well, people that I trust were saying nice things about it, so I submitted it to the BMAs, but really didn’t think anything of it. I really didn’t think I had a chance, because I’m an independent guy without a label or a booking agent and play primarily in the Cleveland area, although I do travel all over,” he said. “Well, I got an e-mail from the Blues Foundation that started off, ‘Dear BMA nominee.’ I happened to wake up at about 7 a.m. that morning and just glanced at my e-mails and then rolled over and went back to bed. Then around noon, I saw that e-mail again and almost deleted it, thinking it was like spam or something. But then I remembered I had submitted the album, so I checked out the message in the e-mail and sure enough, there it was – I had been nominated. It was probably one of the greatest honors I’ve ever had. It was a huge shock, but very nice … I just hope that something good comes of it.”
Although it might seem to some that Walkin’ Cane could be labeled as a ‘Johnny-come-lately’ or ‘new kid on the block,’ the fact is, he’s been playing the blues for 31 years now. His sound, style and even outlook on playing the blues has obviously undergone several changes over the course of those three decades as well – including a transformation from full-blown electric band mode into more of a solo acoustic act.
“Earlier in my career, I tended to write mainly toward Chicago-styled blues, like the old-school Muddy and Howlin’ Wolf. Then in 2007 and ’08 when the economy dipped, we were getting (from club owners) a lot of, ‘We can’t afford you guys,’ or ‘Can you play two hours instead of four?’ But to be honest, my heart was already starting to drift toward just doing acoustic music,” he said. “So I decided to give it a shot – just so I could survive. Plus, I really love playing solo blues. And it seems like around most cities, there’s really not a whole lot of guys doing the solo acoustic blues that often. So that’s what I started doing.”
As would be par for the course, Walkin’ Cane’s entire style of playing changed after he switched directions.
“It really did, in a lot of ways. You try to be a whole band, but just by yourself. It started evolving and at that time I was really getting into boogie – stuff like John Lee Hooker, along with R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough and T-Model Ford and Robert Belfour. I found that style to be so hypnotizing and I always loved that aspect of music. It’s like as a musician, you’re going off somewhere and nobody knows if you’re gonna’ make it back or not. I love that feeling – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
That acoustic awakening within Walkin’ Cane also ended up having a pretty significant impact on his songwriting, as well.
“I started writing songs that were more like just one chord, really dwelling on how I could make songs with just one chord sound bigger. I wasn’t looking to keep the song the same all the way through, what I wanted was for it to progress and build it all the way through. I’d listen to Mississippi John Hurt and Blind Blake and Charley Patton and of course, Robert Johnson, and take that music as a foundation to build my own stuff on. My music is steeped in the roots and true to the old school, but yet it doesn’t sound like it’s from the ’20s or ’30s – it sounds like something kind of modern. That’s how my sound evolved and I’m still in that mode. I don’t know long I’ll be in that mode … I would assume it will last forever, but you never know.”
One thing’s for sure – it doesn’t matter if he’s playing in an electric setting, or is up on the bandstand with himself and a harp player, or even all alone with just an acoustic guitar – Austin ‘Walkin’ Cane’ Charanghat is going to be playing the blues.
“There are a million people better than me and even a few that are worse than me, but I feel pretty confident in my playing, you know? I really feel confident in myself and I think that’s a big part of the blues, personally. You go out there and you’re playing a three-chord song for two hours. Well, how are you going to make that interesting? That’s the challenge. How are you going to keep people entertained? How are you going to keep yourself entertained?”
Though he might not have realized it as such at the time when he was dragging around crutches for two straight years between the ages of 17 and 19, or when he spent the better part of a decade with a cane as his constant companion, his childhood aliment did turn out to be something of a blessing.
“My leg was really the reason I started playing guitar. It turned out to be a life-changing thing. I really couldn’t move around very well, so I started playing an instrument. I’d just sit around and play guitar for hours on end,” he said. “I mean, I missed a lot of time at school because of my leg, so playing the guitar gave me something to occupy my time with. That was my way of passing the time.”
It was about the time that his high school band of nine or 10 years was breaking up that Walkin’ Cane ended up in the Big Easy for a spell. It was also there at that time when ‘Walkin’ Cane’ went from a mode of transportation help to becoming a permanent nickname for Austin Charanghat. As he was playing on Bourbon Street, a homeless man shouted out, ‘Hey, Walkin’ Cane – got some spare change for a brother?’ Instead of taking umbrage, or lashing out at the putdown hurled his way, Charanghat looked at things from a more mature angle.
“I was like, ‘You know, I am going to be on a cane for the rest of my life.’ This way I could sell records to the day I die … so it stuck. But the only drag now is, since I cut off the leg, I don’t need a cane anymore,” he laughed. “I think a lot of people now wonder why I’m called Walkin’ Cane because I don’t walk with a cane. I don’t even walk with a limp. It screwed up the name, but I don’t care.”
Visit Austin’ website at: www.walkincane.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 8
Christian Collin – Spirit of the Blues
C-Train Records
www.christiancollin.com
12 tracks/52 minutes
Christian Collin offers up a great original album of original music with Spirit of the Blues. This is his second as a solo artist; he also released two with his first band Molasses, a blues rock band. Featuring Collin on vocals and guitar, Alex Evans on bass and Chris Morris on drums, there are also a number of guests who appear and make solid contributions. Billy Branch and Matthew Skoller play harp, Johnny Iguana is on piano and organ, Pete Galanis (from Howard and the White Boys) plays some slide, Jen Williams does backing vocals and Rodney Brown and his cadre add their horns.
Born in the Detroit area, Christian Collin makes his home in Chicago. His father was an A&R man for Capitol Records and also was road manager for Bob Seger. Attending a Little Feat concert in 1979 when Lowell George was still with the band was a hugely influencing moment for 13 year old Christian. He has spent the last 15 perfecting his craft playing the blues across the Midwest.
“One and Only” opens the CD. The liner notes say Collin plays rock with a blues flair and this song is proof. It’s a rocker with lots of bluesy influences. Collin lets it all hang loose, Iguana lights p the B-3 an Jen and Christian do a bang up job on vocals. The blues are alive in “Player’s Game” with Skoller blowing some very greasy and cool harp. The beat has a fast tempo and Iguana fills in well; very danceable stuff! “A Woman Like You” follows with the same crew. Collin adds a little country feel to the blues rock and Skoller pumps the harp to make this another hi tempo-ed danceable cut. Collin wails on his guitar and Skoller again blows some great harp. Next up is “Dance the Blues Away,” this time sans harp. Collins delivers another bluesy vocal with Williams big in support. Iguana does double duty here as he did the prior cut, playing piano and B-3. Collin’s “Without You” adds Brian Leach on clavinet. Williams moans as the song intros and Collins adds some funky guitar as the tempo turns to the sultry and sublime. The song is a nice soulful blues ballad as Collins and Williams deliver the good and the two keyboardists and flavor to the punch. Collins’ guitar sings and stings on the solo. The next cut is “Spirit of the Blues,” a deep, slow blues with some poignant guitar to open the cut. Collins then gets into the vocal as he tells us of the spirit and feeling of the blues. Iguana remains solid in support, but Collins delivers the vocals and more sweet licks on his guitar.
Skoller returns on “Highway Song,” a bouncing and driving cut that opens to Collins and Skoller sparring on guitar and harp. This is another impressive performance and song that audiences will get on their feet for. In “Blues for You” Collins delivers a cool mid tempo blues with a driving groove. Collins gives another nice, big solo on his guitar, too, as the pace and intensity build up. “Dead Man Walking” is a slower cut, a dark song that portrays desperation with what the one sheet calls a “hypnotic rhythm.” Can’t argue with that! Very cool. Galanis comes in for the slide on this next one: “Old 109” is a very bouncy song with Skoller adding his harp to the mix. A driving beat, big harp and slide make this one an impressive and hot number! “The River” is an unplugged cut with Billy Branch adding some thoughtful harp to Collins’ finger picking. Delta blues styled, Collins shows a little versatility here. He breaks into a bigger guitar solo and picks up the pace a little and Branch follow s his lead. The album closes with “Forever Friends,” which opens with an almost country sound as the guitar and horns set the tone. Iguana’s B-3 lends a hand to sell that flavor as do Collins’ vocals. It’s a somewhat country blues rock ballad, and is a nice closer for a very good CD. Collins adds his stamp with a big solo and the horns add fullness and smoothness to the cut.
All in all, this a good CD. I’d not heard Christian Collin before that I can recall and I enjoyed his effort here. When I saw all the Chicago players on the CD I was expecting more straight up Chicago blues, but Collins made this his own sound and deliver a dozen well-crafted and interesting songs. It was a very enjoyable listen and I’m sure I will savor it many more times.
Reviewer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.
Featured Blues Review – 3 of 8
Filmore Sims – Walking On Dangerous Ground
(unknown label)
(no web site for album)
CD: 10 songs; 47:08
style: Down-home blues
On the one-page CD insert of my copy of the elusive album Walkin’ On Dangerous Ground by Filmore Sims, someone has hand-written “Clarence Sims is Fillmore Slim.” That’s true enough, notwithstanding the extra “l” in “Fillmore” (or the missing one on the CD itself), and that’s most of the info provided on the album besides the song titles. The sheet does list John Clifton on harmonica and guitar, but who else plays (guitar, piano, bass, drums), who wrote the songs, who put out the album and when, are all unknown.
Clarence Sims’s résumé seems more in tune with hiphop than blues. He’s a former pimp, who figures prominently in the 1999 film “American Pimp” but also celebrates pimpdom in The GodFather: The Real Fillmore Slim where a group of articulate and sometimes funny pimps can almost make you forget what a lousy business they are in. Sims did his time for it, and if he hasn’t come to see it in a more enlightened way, at least he seems to be retired from that line of work.
Sims emerged as a major blues artist performing at the famed Eli’s Mile High club in Oakland and recording his debut album Born To Sing The Blues as Clarence “Guitar” Sims for club owner Troyce Key. He took full advantage of growing up in New Orleans to hone his talent and become a true, convincing blues singer. On albums after that, he has used his pimp-nickname Fillmore Slim (named after Fillmore Street in San Francisco, his work territory).
On Walkin’ On Dangerous Ground Sims’ band is at times just perfectly slightly out-of-tune, and the not-quite hi-fi audio quality also works to his advantage. It is refreshing to hear songs with the rough-hewn inexactness of real blues and a true blues singer singing them, in this era of blues-rock and an endless parade of “guitar-Gods.” Sims opens with a song about his own Louisiana heritage “I’ll Play The Blues” and then proceeds to do just that.
“Dedicated To Johnny,” a tribute to his friend Johnny “Guitar” Watson, is funky and grainy. Most of the other songs offer standard fare situations that blues songs take on – - initial attraction before knowing anything about the person in “The Lady And The Stranger” and the dangers in seeing a married woman in the album’s title track. On “Blues Doctor” Sims offers to write a blues prescription for his “patient;” on “Application For A New Love” he seeks a new partner after his current one has wronged him. The only actual disappointment is “Young Superfly” which is a take-off on Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” that doesn’t quite take off.
The last two songs may provide a clue as to why this album is so hard to locate. Each is an exact match for a song on a 1996 album by “Fillmore Sims” (with two l’s in “Fillmore”) called It’s Going To Be My Time After While from the Uptown Video label, and all the songs do sound like they were recorded at one time and place. Hey, buddy, come over here in the alley; wanna buy a cool blues CD?
Reviewer Jonny Meister is the host and producer of “The Blues Show” WXPN-FM Philadelphia and also host and producer of “Blue Dimensions” PRX (Public Radio Exchange)
Featured Blues Review – 4 of 8
Ian Siegal – The Picnic Sessions
www.iansiegal.com
Nugene Records
16 songs – 50 minutes
The UK has produced several generations of great blues guitarists, from the initial wave of Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher in the 1960s, to the latest “young bloods” such as Mark Harrison, Dave Dixon, Brian Carpy and Johnny Wright. 44 year-old Ian Siegal has actually been around for a while now, winning numerous British Blues Awards and being nominated for various US Blues Music Awards, without ever becoming the household name his talents deserve. If there is any justice in the world, however, that may be about to change.
As Blues Blast Magazine readers will know from his 05 July 2015 cover story, Siegal has had a particularly busy few months, releasing the acoustic ensemble work of The Picnic Sessions, the full-on electric blues of One Night in Amsterdam and the solo acoustic Man & Guitar (recorded at the Royal Albert Hall).
Let’s not beat around the bush here: The Picnic Sessions is an absolute gem. Featuring the serious talents of Siegal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Cody Dickinson, Luther Dickinson and Jimbo Mathus, The Picnic Sessions shows what can happen when five musicians with a love of blues and roots Americana get together and play an sing, with no predetermined idea of the outcome.
Siegal explains the background to The Picnic Sessions as follows: “In June 2013 I went to the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, a festival near the town of Oxford MS and home turf for the Dickinson brothers and Alvin Youngblood Hart, my cohorts in the Mississippi Mudbloods. It’s also local to Jimbo Mathus, who I had long wanted to meet. Everyone was free the next day and up for a jam, so we piled into the Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch studio, sat in a semi-circle, campfire-style around some old ribbon microphones, and played and sang. It was a case of turn on the old tape machine and see what happens.”
Of course, the result could have been a directionless, self-indulgent mess. Thankfully, however, they produced a joyful, love-filled, magical mess, all recorded in two leisurely afternoon sessions. There are some traditional covers, some old Siegal songs and some that were written on the spot. Of the 16 tracks on the album, there are actually 10 songs, together with six tracks of conversation and out-takes, each of which adds to the sense that this album was a lot of fun to make.
The album is entirely acoustic, with guitars, mandolin, mandocello, harmonica and banjo all featuring highly, as a variety of different voices take the lead vocals (albeit primarily Siegal). From the weeping slide of “Hard Times (Come Again No More)” to the traditional Mississippi country blues of “Stone Cold Soul” and from the Johnny Cash-esque “Talkin’ Overseas Pirate Blues” to the New Orleans-flavoured “Only Tryin’ To Survive”.
The Picnic Sessions is a delight from start to finish. If your tastes extend to the roots/Americana of artists like Peter Mulvey, Jeffrey Foucault and Chris Smither, you will definitely want to check out this album. It’s a grower and a keeper.
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 Blues Review – 5 of 8
Victor Wainwright & The Wildroots – Boom Town
Blind Pig Records – 2015
www.vwwroots.com
13 tracks; 44 minutes
‘The Piana From Savannah’ returns with his large band The Wildroots on a first release for Blind Pig (who also issued the Southern Hospitality set in 2013). As always Victor is the larger-than-life frontman on vocals, piano and organ with regulars Stephen Dees on bass, Nick Black on guitar, Billy Dean on drums, Patricia Ann Dees on tenor sax and occasional vocals, Ray Guiser on tenor sax, Charlie DeChant on baritone sax and Stephen Kampa on harmonica. Guests include guitarists Robert ‘Top’ Thomas, Ernie Lancaster and fellow SOHO bandmate JP Soars, Chris Stephenson on Hammond, Beth McKee on backing vocals and Juan Perez on percussion, each of whom are present on one track. The material is all original and was mainly written by Stephen Dees who also produced, arranged and engineered the recordings; Victor co-wrote two tracks and produced one on his own.
The album opens with the title track, Victor on piano and Chris Stephenson on swirling Hammond and the horns beefing up the sound. Victor’s deep and gruff vocals evoke Dr. John as he sings of the boom town where a good night out seems guaranteed. After “raising hell on Saturday night” Victor recommends going to church in “Saturday Night Sunday Morning”, a terrific piece of rock and roll with Victor weighing in with some great boogie piano and the horns offering fine support. Victor then seems to be in some bother with his lady in “Stop Bossin’ Me Baby” as he shares vocal verses with guitarist Nick and then sings some scat along with Nick’s guitar. “If It Ain’t Got Soul” follows and is credited as ‘Part 1’ though no second part appears here – one for a future album? It’s a standout track too as the band conjures up memories of Little Feat in their prime, Victor supplying some tough vocals and twinkling piano, the harp and horns feature and it’s a whole band piece which concludes that “if it ain’t got soul, it don’t roll”. In complete contrast “When The Day Is Done” goes back to the oldest traditions of gospel with a very simple accompaniment of Juan’s percussion, harp, acoustic guitar and bass, Beth McKee’s backing vocals adding a real gospel feel.
A song that might have been perfect for Victor’s other band Southern Hospitality is the very enjoyable “Genuine Southern Hospitality” which rolls in with Ernie Lancaster’s slide, horns and Victor’s great piano. However, as this is one of Stephen’s solo compositions it may not be eligible for SOHO, which is their loss as it’s one of the best tracks here. “Two Lane Blacktop Revisited” is a boogie-woogie tune with Victor singing of his love of Memphis with drummer Billy setting a furious pace that Victor is more than capable of following throughout! “Wildroot Farm” takes things down as Victor shares the vocals with Patricia who has a very pleasant voice which contrasts well with Victor’s gruff tones, harpist Stephen providing a fine back-porch feel to celebrate this fictitious farm. Victor gives us a solo boogie-woogie in “Piana’s Savannah Boogie” which, combined with the earlier duet with his drummer certainly shows the man’s piano talents.
On “The Devil’s Bite” Victor sounds like Tom Waits and the song bears some similarities with Tom’s work as Victor sings of the dangers that lie in wait for the unwary. This is an acoustic tune with JP Soars on lead acoustic and Nick playing the basic rhythm, also on acoustic. The horns return to the fore on the last three cuts: “Reaper’s On The P