Cover photo by Marilyn Stringer © 2015 Blues Blast Magazine
In This Issue
Terry Mullins has our feature interview with 2007 International Blues Challenge winner Sean Carney. We have a review of Joseph Rosen’s photo book Blues Hands and a review of a book about a personal encounter with Son House plus 11 music reviews of albums from The Reverend Shawn Amos, Andy Poxon, Albert Cummings, Corte’, Robert Cray Band, Joel Zoss, Little Elliott Lloyd And The Real Deal Blues Band, Angelo Santelli, Mare Edstrom And The Snake River Ramblers, A.C. Myles and Soulstack.
We have the latest in Blues society news. All this and MORE! SCROLL DOWN!!!
Featured Blues Music Review – 1 of 11
The Reverend Shawn Amos – The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You
Put Together Records
www.shawnamos.com
12 tracks / 38:59
The Reverend Shawn Amos is a talented vocalist, songwriter and harpist, so maybe it is not necessary to mention that he is the son of Wally ”Famous” Amos – the cookie guy. But it is a part of what makes him the man that he is, just as much as the fact that his mom was the nightclub singer Shirl-ee May Ellis. Or that he was born in New York City and grew up on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, which certainly helps to fill a in a lot of the blanks.
Besides these biographical facts, Shawn Amos also understands the music industry, as he has worked as an A&R executive at Rhino Entertainment and was vice president of A&R at the Shout! Factory. This experience has helped him put together five of his own albums, the latest of which is The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You. This release was produced by two-time Grammy winner (and amazing sax player) Mindi Abair, and it features Amos on vocals and harp. They were joined in the studio by Chris “Doctor” Roberts on guitar, Brady Blade on drums, Chris Thomas on the bass, and Anthony Marinelli and Hassell Teekell on the keys.
There are also a few guests artists on this record, including the Blind Boys of Alabama, who sit in on the first track, “Days of Depression.” This bare bones blues track with its catchy electric guitar hook and minimal instrumentation is the perfect setting to add the amazing harmonies that these bona fide giants of the gospel world can contribute. This song is backed up by the hard-hitting rhythm and blues of “Brand New Man,” showing that Shawn is not afraid to mix things up a little bit. These first few songs are only a touch over two minutes each, and they certainly leave the listener wanting more!
Missy Anderson also makes a guest appearance, and “Boogie” is one of the standout tracks on the album. This song already drips with sex thanks to Amos’ soulful voice and harmonica over the heavy bass and tinkling electric piano. But when you throw Missy into the mix along with a tight horn section, the temperature skyrockets!
“Hollywood Blues” is a slick ode to Shawn Amos’ west coast home, and it works well because of the fabulous job that Nick Lane did of arranging the very prominent horns, which include Mindi Abair on sax and Lewis Smith on the trumpet. Like the other originals on this release, it is well written, and in this case the lyrics will strike a chord with anybody that has tried to work in the Southland’s music scene.
There is also a pair of cool cover tunes that made their way onto The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You. Minnie Lawler’s “Joliet Bound” gives Roberts the chance to step out on the guitar for a minute until the drums and bass set up their driving beat. This is a beautiful piece of roots and blues, and the feeling in Shawn’s voice is spot on for the expected law and order theme of this tune. The other re-do is a laid-back take on Jimmy Reed’s “Bright Lights, Big City” that has plenty of appropriately played barroom piano, lovely backing vocals from Forever Jones, and some well-placed sax work from Ms. Abair.
The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You is a very good modern blues album that does not lose touch with where the genre came from, and there is not a bad song on it. Pick up a copy if you get a chance and if you are ever near the City of Angels, Mr. Amos has plenty of shows on his schedule, including a regular gig at the luxurious Mr. C. hotel in Beverly Hills.
Reviewer Rex Bartholomew is a Los Angeles-based writer and musician; his blog can be found at rexbass.blogspot.com.
Featured Blues Interview – Sean Carney
He had been there twice before as part of Teeny Tucker’s band, a big band that featured piano and saxophone, along with Tucker’s amazingly-powerful vocals.
But when he decided it was his time to step up front and showcase his own talents, he pared things down to just guitar, bass and drums, with himself on the mic.
That’s when he heard the whispers.
‘You’re not going to make it without that big sound.’
‘You need a singer.’
‘You’re not going to do it.’
Fortunately, Sean Carney simply ignored all the catcalls and tuned out all the outside noise that surrounded him and did it anyway.
And when he walked off the stage that chilly night in early 2007, Carney and his band had won the International Blues Challenge (IBC), with Carney also capturing the Albert King Award that same year, an honor bestowed to the best guitarist at the annual competition in Memphis.
“It’s (doubters and their talk) just fuel to the fire for me,” he recently said. “I had a two-year stint working as a journalist at a weekly newspaper in Fort Myers Beach, Florida and part of my beat was politics and covering the town council and all that stuff. So I got a crash course in publicity and I learned that when people are talking about you, that’s good. Whether they like you, or whether they don’t, if they’re talking about you – saying your name – that’s a good thing.”
They’ve been talking about the Columbus, Ohio-based bluesman – in a good way – way before him and his crew won the IBC. Despite his ever-increasing profile these days, Carney is no Johnny-come-lately to the party. He’s been a highly-regarded musician for going on three decades now and his first album – Provisions – came out in 1998. He also has a huge and loyal following over in Europe, where he’s played several gigs in the past few months alone.
“It’s been a really busy year – I feel really blessed. I’ve been particularly busy in Europe and I’m in Spain at the moment,” he said. “I started coming over here (Europe) just before I won the IBC. I had just made a deal with an (European) agency and had just started booking our first tour and then a couple of months into booking that tour, we won the IBC, which kind of kick-started that tour. The dates that we had that were open filled up pretty quick after that. I feel like I have a lot of great fans over here, especially like in France and Belgium.”
That’s due to plenty of hard work and non-stop touring overseas, where you still have to build up a fan base one person, one city and one gig at a time. Thanks to that elbow grease, Carney’s trajectory has been on the rise in Europe, evidenced by the way that the Sean Carney Revue has been packing them in.
“We just played at this really big festival in France (Bay-Car Blues Festival), which was great, because for the last few years, I’ve been kind of a ‘mid-card’ (in order of appearance at shows) kind of guy. I started out being the first guy on and then worked my way to the middle,” he said. “And now, just on this tour, really, we’ve had a couple of pretty-big festivals, like the Bay-Car, which I got to headline. So personally and professionally, it was a big deal to move into that realm and start to get some of those headlining gigs. It was really awesome to get to do a show with Shaun and Jonn and Omar. It’s great to have such a powerful, all-American lineup … a pretty diverse, small, all-American lineup, at that. I’m pretty proud of the collection of folks we have in our little crew.”
That ‘collection of folks’ includes – as Carney mentioned – Shaun (Booker), Omar (Coleman) and Jonn (Del Toro Richardson), who have also been integral parts of his last three recorded projects, works that might best be described as ‘collaborative efforts.’
The latest of that trio of albums (Blue Plate Special – Nite Owlz Records) hit the streets early this year and features the incredible vocal talents of Shaun Booker.
“Yeah, I’ve done three of those in the last few years – one with Omar (Very Lucky Man), one with Jonn (Drivin’ Me Wild) and this new one with a really great singer from Columbus, Ohio named Shaun Booker,” he said. “Shaun has been at the IBC and certainly got a lot of attention there. I feel like I’ve been in a position to open a few doors for some folks – particularly in Europe – and I’ve been a friend and a big fan of Shaun’s for a long time. We decided to do a CD together this year and line up some tour dates and it’s been good. I also got to do some dates over in France with Omar, which was really good, as well. I’ve been busy working with my fellow collaborative artists the past few months.”
When he’s not been out burning up the road, Carney has been in the studio this year and his newest album is set to see the light of day next month.
“It’s called Throwback and is all original tunes,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a departure for me … it’s the guitar album I’ve been threatening to make for a long time. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s my first Sean Carney release since 2008. I’ve been working with a lot of people and doing a lot of things, but I’m excited to see a new Sean Carney CD out in the market.”
Their styles may be completely different, but when Carney and Richardson (long-time guitarist in Diunna Greenleaf’s Blue Mercy Blues Band, and like Carney, winner of the Albert King Award at the IBC) do share the same bandstand, they mesh better than ice cream and cake.
“I just finished a tour with him about a month ago and have been fortunate to get to work with him. With Jonn and I, it’s (the chemistry between the two) pretty much been there from the get-go. We both turn into 12-year-olds when we get together. You know, crazy antics on stage,” Carney laughed. “But our styles are so different … drastically different, especially in our approaches. I can’t even attempt to play like Jonn and it’s probably vice-versa with him. We kind of just do our thing. We’ve both spent so much time backing up other people that we’ve learned how to be sidemen and get out of the way and showcase the other guy and make him sound good. That’s another of the strengths that Jonn and I have working together. It’s a fun show for us to do together and I think it’s fun for the audience, too. I’m a big, big fan of Jonn’s. I think he’s one of the best blues guitarists on the scene today. I’m in awe of him every time I play with him.”
Even though a great deal of his time the past eight or nine years has been spent on the road – over in Europe, even – Carney has still managed to muster up more than enough energy to create something that is really very special – Blues for a Cure (www.bluesforacure.com). That organization was immediately successful, with the first two Blues for a Cure shows alone raising over $50,000 for cancer research in 2007 and ’08. Since then, well over $163,000 has been funded.
“This is our eighth year with Blues for a Cure, which is a non-profit organization that I founded back in 2007, when my mom was in hospice. Fortunately, she’s really good and healthy today,” he said. “I felt like I needed to do something to give back to that, so this year we’ve implemented the Heather Pick Music Program (Pick was a news anchor at WBNS TV in central Ohio, who lost a battle with breast cancer) at the Ohio State University-James Cancer Hospital to bring music into the patients. There’s a lot of evidence that supports music being a really good thing towards healing people. It’s been really exciting to be a part of that … to try and do something good for people and leave some kind of a good footprint in the world.”
More than just charitable concerts, Blues for a Cure has also spawned a series of compact discs – featuring a who’s-who of the best blues players around. Instead of sounding or feeling like a hodge-podge of superstars being cut and spliced into something trying to resemble an album, to their credit, the Blues for a Cure discs sound and feel like a cohesive work, or one complete thought. To sum it up, they’re highly enjoyable works of art, which is something that can be hard to accomplish, when so many killer players are involved.
“For me, it’s cool as producer to get to handpick certain people to have come up with a song together. It’s awesome to have people like Duke Robillard and Omar Coleman … some really interesting stylistic variations, to do a song together. I think Jimmy Thackery described it really well. He said, ‘It’s like you guys take all the musicians and lock them in the studio for a day and don’t let them leave until the CD is done.’ That’s it basically, in a nutshell,” laughed Carney. “Taking people out of their comfort zone is really cool for getting some different results and to get them to step out and try something new. Of course, I’m honored and humbled to get to work with all these people. All these people who come to work with us at Blues for a Cure – as most of us do – have some story of being touched by cancer, through a loved one or a friend. People come in with a really positive attitude and a really good energy and feeling to come up with something good. It seems like the bar gets set higher every year for those (Blues for a Cure) CDs.”
The most recent Blues for a Cure disc – recorded in June of this year – has a unique twist to it.
“We had what we call a Southern Hospitality trifecta. We had Southern Hospitality (the blues super group made up of J.P. Soars, Victor Wainwright and Damon Fowler), plus we had J.P. and his band, we had Victor and his band and Damon and his band. It was a really killer session with those guys,” Carney said. “We really came up with some good stuff and it was really fun to turn those guys loose and sit back and just watch it. I’m really pleased with these CDs. It’s hard to believe we’re on the eighth one. We’re looking at 10 years coming up here real quick.”
Carney has also spent the past several years acting as a ‘camp counselor’ at another project that’s certainly close to his heart.
“This has also been the eighth year of Camp Blues, which is a camp that I run in my hometown of Columbus at the jazz academy. That seems to be getting bigger and bigger every year,” he said. “We’ve tied that in with a festival in Columbus, where the kids actually – for their final of the one-week program – get to play at the Creekside Blues Festival. It’s really cool to get to be a part of that first stage experience for a lot of those kids. It’s been really cool during the last eight years to see some of those kids come into their own as professionals … they’re competing with me for gigs and I love it! I think it’s important for us to develop a new audience, or otherwise, this music doesn’t have much of a chance. That’s why I love getting involved with the schools and with this camp.”
Music has been a fabric that runs through Carney’s family and it was his uncle David who started to hip a teen-aged Sean to some of the blues greats.
“My uncle David is a blues drummer back in Columbus. He’s the guy that kind of turned me on to T-Bone Walker and Robert Lockwood and all the great players,” Carney said. “I saw Duke Robillard – who is probably still my hero – back when I was about 15 or 16. Fortunately, I was also able to see Robert Lockwood (who lived in Cleveland, which named a street after the legend) about that same time. He was a big, big influence. I loved Robert, but never really got to play with him. We did jam a couple of times and I was really honored that he came out to hear me play one time at the place in Cleveland where he held court once a week. I was blown away and humbled when he showed up at my gig. He hung out and we jammed. He was really a sweetheart. Ronnie Earl was another one that I got to frequently see in Columbus. There was a couple of really cool blues clubs back in Columbus in the ’80s and ’90s. They’d have guys like Gatemouth Brown and Lonnie Mack and Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, Anson Funderburgh and Sam Myers … Little Charlie and the Nightcats. I got to see those guys a lot and got to open for them when I was young, which was cool. I was really lucky to get to see those guys.”
As supplanted by the list of bluesmen that he had the chance to see – and rub shoulders with – as a young guitar player, it’s easy to understand why Carney loves playing the jump blues.
“I love the music of the ’40s and ’50s and really got pretty deep into that for a long time, and I’m still really into the jump blues and jazz and swing,” he said. “The early rhythm-and-blues, I just love that stuff. Johnnie Bassett was another one that I was lucky to get to play with. I really love his style and those big, hollow-body guitars. That was a thing that really impressed upon me as a young man, those big guitars with the big sound that those guys got. I’d look at pictures of T-Bone Walker and then listen to his records. I thought that was about the best sound in the world.”
He had played with his uncles (in a band called The Joint Rockers, which is still going today), but Carney really started his own band when he was 18.
“That was my first band, which I called Sean Carney and The Nite Owlz. I had befriended a singer named Christine Kittrell, who was living in Columbus at the time. She was one of the real pioneers of the Nashville R&B sound in the late ’40s and early ’50s. She had recorded up until the early ’70s on labels like Vee-Jay and King, but had a real series of misfortunes and health maladies in the early ’70s and gave it up. I, and a few other people in Columbus, found out about her and kind of got her out and about and she started singing with my band. I really started that band to be her backing band,” he said. “As her health started to decline, she started to push me into singing. So that was about when I was 24 or 25. I wasn’t good, at all. We also backed up Big Joe Duskin and Jimmy ‘T-99′ Nelson, who was a big, big influence on me. Another real legend in Columbus – Willie Pooch – also played with me back then. There were a lot of great artists that I would back up and sing a few tunes to warm the band up.”
Not too long after that, Carney hooked up with another fantastically-gifted vocalist – the dynamic Teeny Tucker. That’s when he really started to come into his own as an artist.
“That was really the beginning of me ever trying to write any songs. I think it was her first effort at that, too. I knew her from around town, but didn’t know her that well. I knew she was more into singing pop kind of stuff then. We really connected through Christine, she was the one who introduced us. Teeny started coming out and fronting my band and eventually, we decided to start from the ground up and create a new band,” said Carney. “We wrote some original songs and put a whole show together. I really did take a backseat to my own front-work there for a few years when I was working with Teeny. But working with all these great singers gave me a pretty high bar to set for myself. I can say that I try and emulate a lot of the singers that’s I’ve worked with – in my own style.”
Around 2005, things started to fall into place for Carney to focus more on his own career.
“Teeny’s mother got real sick and eventually passed away, so she decided to take some time off from music and deal with her mother’s affairs,” he said. “That really gave me an opportunity and a platform to start focusing on writing my own songs and developing my own repertoire and work on my own talents as a front-man and singer.”
His decision to enter his band into the IBC was not a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. Rather, it was the end result of a choice he made to put another vocation on hold in an effort to devote more attention to playing the music that was pumping through his veins.
“I think for about two years in a row, prior to my winning the IBC, I was getting my duckies in a row to do this full-time. I had left my job at a newspaper down in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, where I lived for about two years. I had gotten more into politics and stuff like that when I was living down there,” he said. “I decided that I really didn’t want to quit playing music. In fact I wanted to really focus on it full-time. We had recorded a really great CD about a year-and-a-half prior to the IBC, called Life of Ease, and that was getting some really great attention from a lot of different folks. We had also started touring in Canada – mostly in western Canada – and found that to be a really great audience. My bassist and drummer had been with me for about 12 years, so we were really, really tight and were ready to do it that year. So that’s what we decided to do and that’s what we did.”
It may not have been exactly like pushing the ‘fast forward’ button, but there’s no doubt that entering – and winning – the International Blues Challenge back in 2007 paid immediate dividends for not only Carney’s musical career, but also for his charitable work, to boot.
“It definitely kicked me into high-gear, as far as being able to perform full-time,” he said. “I mean. there were some pretty tough years before the IBC. It hasn’t all been roses (since winning), but things have been pretty good for me since then. I feel like I’m in pretty good company with a lot of the winners … we’ve kind of created some different fraternities with some of the IBC winners. A lot of the IBC folks have been involved with Blues for a Cure, like Jonn Richardson, Bart Walker, J.P. Soars, Noah Witherspoon, Trampled Under Foot, Karen Lovely and Billy the Kid. We’ve created a really cool fraternity of finalists and winners. I can’t say enough good things about the IBC. I’m typically there every year.”
Visit Sean’s website at www.seancarneyblues.com
Photos by Marilyn Stringer © 2015
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 Music Review – 2 of 11
Andy Poxon – Must Be Crazy
Eller Soul Records
www.andypoxon.com
13 tracks
The red headed guitar wiz kid is back for his third album and it’s a superb one! Sporting a much shorter hair style on the album cover and photos, his trimmed back mane does not detract from his prowess on the six string! Featuring 13 new original tunes written by Poxon with some help on a few by Kevin McKendree (his keyboard player) and on one by McKendree’s 14 year old son, Yates, this is another impressive effort by this fine young East Coast musician! In addition to those mentioned we have Kenneth Blivens on drums, Steve Mackey on bass and Jim Hoke on saxophones. Excellent backing musicians all, they add a lot of depth and soul to this CD.
The albums opens to the strains of the title track. A stinging guitar lead is vibrant with solid vocals by Poxon. The piano and horns are integral to the mix and add a great dimension. The song is a winner! “Living Alone” follows; Andy tells us that living alone is not as bad as you would think, especially after a bad break up. Saving money, spending money on yourself, playing guitar, not having any restrictions are positives. He offers a cool little solo on his guitar, too, in addition to the fun lyrics. Poxon and Company swing to “Next to You,” a song that easily could be a Room Full of Blues hit. Poxon and the band are tight and shout out the chorus together. Poxon’s guitar solo is clean and precise, the horns are well orchestrated, the keys are pounding and it’s just another great tune!
“Give Me the Chance” slows things down and Poxon sings with passion and the McCrary Sisters behind him help to testify along with his impassioned plea. Poxon offers another solo with bite and vigor. “Cold Weather” is sloooow and dirty blues, the kind lovers get up to and grind together on the dance floor as the guitar is picked with greasy and dirty aplomb. The intro lasts about a minute before Poxon wails about being a remedy for cold weather. Another great solo by Poxon adds to the intensity before he closes things out. On “Don’t Tell Your Mama” we get another great original tune where Poxon has a story to tell. Nice piano solo followed by a nice guitar solo here, too. The organ returns on “Harder Everyday”as Andy sings a mournful ballad and the band supports the mood. You can feel the pain in his voice and their playing.
“I Want To Know” has a bit of a bounce as the horns reply to each of the lines of the verse. Andy tries to understand the mind of his woman as he asks over and over how to make this girl fall in love with him. He picks out a distinctive and precise, slow beat on his solo which fits the song nicely. He stays with a slow beat in “Already Gone,” a breathy cut where he sings of a relation gone sour. Chloe Kohanski is also mournful behind his vocals as a drum beats out a slow beat and the organ slides in around their vocals.
The pace picks up nicely with “Making a Fool,” a mid to faster tempos tome about his clumsiness and ability to do what the title says. He ignores his friends’ pleas about impending heartbreak and sings to tell about it. A cool little swing tune with the guitar and piano supporting each other. The guitar solo is stinging again as Poxon plays with feeling. “Don’t Tell Me What to Do” is another slow bluesy ballad where Poxon is adamant about not taking direction from his woman. Really cool and well done stuff here. With “Too Late” Poxon and the band take a musical stroll in what appears to be a little bit of a take off on Freddie King.
Poxon concludes with “Rebound” where he and the organ introduce and provide the main basis of this instrumental tune. Yates McKendree helped write the song and appears on organ. Well paced and cool, the song works as Poxon picks at the strings and McKendree deftly fingers the keys. Nicely done once again!
Now 20 years old, Poxon is an experienced musician who has released three great CDs in four years. I think he’s got a bright future as each of his CDs show growth from the prior and build on their level of excellence. He’s a fantastic guitar player, singer and songwriter- I highly recommend this CD!
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 Book Review – 1 of 2
Blues Hands
By Joseph A. Rosen
http://josepharosen.com
Schiffer Publishing
The cliché that a photo is worth a thousand words may be out of date. At a time when our world is preoccupied with selfies, social media, and instant communication, there are fewer people who take the time to read 1000 words, or have the attention span. Joseph A. Rosen’s new book Blues Hands targets the new paradigm that – especially for today’s world – photographs may now be worth more than 1000 words.
Photographs are what we remember from significant news events long after the details of those events are forgotten. Like music, photographs eliminate the objectification of the thought process and mainline emotion in often overpowering ways. Rosen has been documenting blues artists in performances for more than 40 years, and as a blues Renaissance man and fellow photographer, Dick Waterman says up front in this book that there are shooters and photographers. And Joe is definitely a photographer.
More than 100 blues artists are represented in this beautifully produced book published by Schiffer Publishing. Looking at all the hands with multiple rings, tattoos, wrinkles, and gnarls, one wonders how all that beautiful music gets from the artist’s soul into so many souls.
“It’s not solely about close-ups of hands,” says Rosen about his work. “Hands are a thread that connects all the pictures. It can be a gesture. It can be moments like James Brown and Al Green who have their hands waving above them, but hands are a theme. There are a lot of close-ups of hands. That’s absolutely there, but I used hands as a connecting theme so a lot of what I felt was strong work and spoke to the blues.”
Perhaps these photos say something about the beauty within, especially with those artists who use their hands to create the music we love. We idealize their hands and see them in our mind’s eye as smooth, languid, sleek like a sports car, because their music takes us to places like that. Seeing their hands up close strips away the idealized image.
When Joe describes what 40-plus years of professional photography do for him in capturing that magic, he might as well be talking about what the performing artist does: “It’s important to appreciate the medium,” says Rosen, “to understand the medium and the mechanics that are involved and to know enough technique so that you can forget the technique and shoot reflexively and keep things on a higher level.” The critical word is reflexive. Both the photographer and the subject of his photos perform reflexively when they take us into “the zone.”
So when we see Magic Slim’s stubby fingers we marvel that they fly across six strings and connect with us on a primal level. Or when we see 96-year-old Honeyboy Edwards’ crinkled fly paper back hand, we can imagine what it must have been like for him to have heard the levee break on the Mississippi River in the flood of 1928. Rosen gives us an intimate look based on his years of experience. He helps us see the artist in ways we never thought of.
Two of the more atypical photos in Blues Hands are of Bobby Rush and Shemekia Copeland. Both tell stories reminiscent of the way Norman Rockwell painted scenes. In the Bobby Rush photo he’s running his hands down the backside of Mizz Lowe as he winks knowingly to his audience. Miss Lowe smiles broadly indicating with her hands on Bobby’s back that she’s complicit with his moves. But then you see peaking up from under the stage the face of a little boy watching this go on. Rosen calls that picture an example of what Branch Rickey terms the residue of design. “Keep doing. Keep honing your skills and then occasionally some extra magic comes along.”
The photo of Shemekia shows her doing the bump with four guys in fatigues, one with an automatic rifle hanging down. It was taken during the Bluesapalooza tour of the Middle East. “That was an amazing night,” says Rosen, “because that was what they call an FOB, a forward operating base, a little bit further out and smaller and a little more rugged, and the soldiers, mostly Marines I believe, were ready to rock. They didn’t get a lot of entertainment out there, and they were ready to have some fun. And they did. It was great. Those guys just spontaneously jumped up on stage and started dancing around there. They had automatic weapons unloaded. They’re very careful. You don’t just lean your weapons against a tree or anything.
As an editor of blues magazines, I’ve always breathed a sigh of relief when I knew a Joe Rosen photo was going to grace a cover or accompany an article because I knew it would give the article context. But it’s more than that. As a writer, I often feel that a Joe Rosen photo is the sugar making my herbal tea into sweet tea. It’s not just that he sweetens a story, but he often is the “secret ingredient” – the special sauce – that wholly transforms the editorial package, working with the words to create an experience for the reader that’s worth more than the sum of its parts.
Reviewer 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 Book Review – 2 of 2
Finding Son House – One Searcher’s Story
by Richard Shade Gardner
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
90 pages
In 1981, dealing with the emotions of life’s twists, turns, and setbacks, author Richard Shade Gardner discovered blues music. The music was a lifeline of sorts, reminding him that others had dealt with hardship and troubles, living to tell about it. Living was tough on money earned as a free-lance writer and part-time retail store clerk. But Gardner also hosted a blues radio on a weekly basis in Rochester, New York.
The author spent many nights pouring through the liner notes on album covers purchased from record stores and dusty thrift shops. The knowledge that he gained merely whetted his appetite for more understanding. So he dove deep into the archives of the local library system. He already knew that Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters were two legendary musicians whose work had influenced several generations of musicians and listeners. The author wondered who came before them, had provided the spark that ignited the passion in these two giants.
An interview in a 1950′s edition of Downbeat magazine provided a clue as Muddy Waters named Eddie “Son” House as his major musical influence. That bit of information led to a deeper investigation of House, who had also served as a mentor for Johnson. House had been rediscovered in 1964 by a trio of blues fans – Dick Waterman, Nick Perls, and Phil Spiro – who searched through the Mississippi Delta region only to discover that House had been living in Rochester for years. The author learns that House was still performing locally in 1976 but from that point, the guitarist seemingly vanished.
But the intrepid author refuses to give up on the search. Working through various contacts, Gardner eventually gets an address and phone number from guitarist John Mooney that puts House not in Rochester, but in Detroit, MI. After a less-than-promising contact with his wife, the author and a friend set off to visit the reclusive House. The tale of their trip and encounter with the legendary bluesman is the centerpiece of the story. It had a profound effect on the author, who posits that given the scope of influence that Johnson and Waters continue to exert on modern music, House deserves credit as a founding father of rock music.
The book also includes some of Gardner’s musings on the impact that House songs like “Grinnin’ In Your Face” had on his life as well as details on several incidents that played out around his search, including one with an irate musician who was none to happy that Gardner failed to contact her for an article he wrote about House that ran in the local Rochester paper. There is also a chapter that examines the history of the city as it plays out in chronicle of House’s life there.
While certainly not a definitive biography, this book connects because Gardner makes you care about his quest and does an admirable job of weaving the search for Son House around his own personal storyline. It includes some rare photos and a selected discography of House recordings, making this book a personal examination of one man’s brush with musical history.
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 Music Review – 3 of 11
Albert Cummings – Someone Like You
Blind Pig Records – 2015
www.albertcummings.com
12 tracks; 52 minutes
Albert Cummings’ latest release was recorded in LA with a new producer in David Z and a new studio band of Tony Braunagel on drums, Mike Finnegan on keys (both Phantom Blues Band members) and Reggie McBride on bass. Albert handles lead guitar and vocals and there are guest appearances by Jimmy Vivino who plays guitar on three tracks and Teresa James who adds backing vocals throughout.
Albert’s hallmarks are solid guitar very much in SRV mode and heartfelt vocals and both are very much present and correct here on an entirely original program. Opener “No Doubt” is at the heavier end of Albert’s range with plenty of chugging guitar and stabbing organ fills as Albert tells of problems with his girl staying out late at night – no doubt something is wrong! “I Found You” is more melodic with a soulful vocal from Albert and some nice support work from Jimmy’s second guitar, Mike’s organ filling out the sound well and Teresa’s b/v’s well in evidence. The next track “Up Your Sleeve” has a Texas blues strut feel and a typical barnstormer of a solo from Albert. A change of style on “Movin’ On” finds Albert playing some insistent fingerpicking guitar with Mike on electric piano, the combination bringing a bouncy country blues feel to the tune. Albert states in the sleeve notes that his wife Christina is the motivation for most of his songs and “So Strong” is one of the best here, a ballad that wears its heart on its sleeve as Albert sings of the solid relationship that he has with his wife: “I don’t know why I do what I do, I think it’s just because I’m crazy about you”. The love expressed in the lyrics translates into some of Albert’s most expressive playing on the album in a graceful solo. Lyrically “Finally In Love” follows on seamlessly, a mid-paced rocker with some tougher guitar from Albert and the uptempo “Make Up Your Mind” has plenty of Albert’s trademark guitar riffs with a strident solo that is less enjoyable.
The longest cut on the album is the slow blues “Little Bird” and at seven minutes it provides plenty of opportunities for Albert and Jimmy to demonstrate their chops, Mike on very bluesy piano in support. Perhaps emboldened by the previous joint effort Albert and Jimmy combine on the uptempo instrumental “Meatlockers” which fairly zips along with Mike on cool Jimmy Smith style organ and an overall jazzy feel to the performance. We return firmly to the blues with a traditional mid-pace piece entitled “I’m In Love With You”, Albert’s solo developing from low notes to a scream. “Old Dog” goes back to the Texas shuffle style, Albert adopting a gruffer tone as he warns other dogs off from HIS bone and he closes the album with a fine piece of blazing rock and roll in “Stay Away From My Sister” on which everyone seems to be having fun.
Albert’s rough and ready style of playing has made him many fans and this CD will not disappoint them. Plenty of solid guitar playing here for the AC die hards and something for most blues fans to enjoy if guitar-led, uptempo material is your enthusiasm.
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 States as often as he can to see live blues.
Featured Blues Music Review – 4 of 11
Corte’ – Seasoned Soul
Self-Produced
www.corte.global
CD: 10 Songs; 37:28 Minutes
Styles: Blues Covers, R&B, Soul-and-Funk-Influenced Blues
Make no mistake: A CD entitled Seasoned Soul, by veteran vocalist Al Corte’, can’t explain its genre more clearly. It contains ten blues and R&B covers, performed with panache by the lead singer and his backup band. Those looking for funky guitar songs in the style of traditional icons like Howlin’ Wolf will be disappointed. However, if blues fans crave disco dynamics and well-above-average singing, this album is the gem for which they’re searching. With pipes as polished as those of Pan, and a backup band that can’t be beat, Corte’ will woo lovers of soul everywhere.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Corte’ is the diversity and span of his musical journey. He “comes from talent” like some wealthy scions “come from money”. His website reveals that his father’s hobby was honky-tonk singing, and his Uncle Raymond was a professional opera singer. Thus, Raymond recognized his nephew’s gift, and trained him in classical vocals. However, Corte’ preferred blues and