I have a post here
http://bluesman2001.blogspot.com/2007/07/bukka-white-aberdeen-mississippi-blues.html?showComment=1304453433483#c6965260871156025284
It is a video of Bukka White.  His daughter Irene Kertchaval left a comment rightly angry about not only the treatment of Bukka years ago, but the continuing problems she has faced collecting royalties, and free downloading of his music.  I responded to her and left her a link to the Robert Johnson foundation which has some experience dealing with this, and has helped his decedents collect royalties.  I am not sure if she ever saw that post, but someone commented about her which set me off.  His comment below
dear irene, get a job and make a life for yourself and let people enjoy your father's music.
sincerely, dingothrust balltoontich
What set me off is that is the typical BS response that I have seen on Dozens of freeloading blues download sites. (I won't mention the biggest one by name, but you know who you are because you send a lot of hits my way everyday)  I don't understand why people who freeload off blues artists think you are helping them.  Here was my response. 
dingo
Irene has every right to be angry with people downloading music for free. Blues musicians spend years working on their songs,spending their hard earned money on studio time, and 300+ dates a year touring.  It is a rough life.  Blues performers aren't rock stars.  Most national acts tour in vans, and cars.  they don't have tour buses and rarely fly. So can you understand why blues performers and their families get angry when you download their songs without paying????   None of this is new.  African American performers were routinely screwed by record companies.  Paid a small fee when they recorded and rarely given royalties.  Their publishing rights taken away so that years later Paul McCartney, or Michael Jackson and their families could live comfortably off others hard work.  Its a great system!  Then you come along years later and steal their music thinking you are sticking it to the man, when in reality you are sticking it to the people who created the music to begin with.   
Nice Job. 
Tom 
Blues Historian
I know my rant isn't going to do any good.  I just hope one person at least comes to their senses and stop downloading our music for free.
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Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
John Hammer Blues News
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John 'blueshammer' Hammer
Blue Monday Monthly Magazine
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Sunday, May 1, 2011
Bob Corritore Blues News
Friday April 29, 2011
-  Rhythm Room All-Stars appear this weekend at the Rhythm Room! Back at their home base, the Rhythm Room All-Stars play tonight and tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, night April 29 and 30. The Rhythm Room All-Stars feature Bob Corritore, Chris James, Patrick Rynn, and Brian Fahey. Look for a couple nights of houserocking Chicago blues! Dave Riley will make a guest appearance on Saturday only.
-  BMAs next week! It is really thrilling to be going to the greatest blues gathering on the planet! The Blues Music Awards brings together the entire blues industry, as we reflect on last year's releases and achievements. The 2011 Blues Music Awards, hosted by Blues Foundation, will take place at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN on May 5, 2011. Bob Corritore is honored to have received two nominations under the categories of "Instrumentalist - harmonica", and for Bob Corritore and Friends / Harmonica Blues under the "Historical" category.
-  Dave Riley & Bob Corritore European tour kicks off next Saturday at the Moulin Ospel Blues Festival! Bob will leave from Memphis the day after the BMAs and meet Dave Riley and the band (Brian Fahey and Dave "Yahni" Riley, Jr.) in the Netherlands for the Moulin Blues Festival. The Festival lineup includes Los Lonely Boys, Janiva Magness, Fabulous Thunderbirds, John Nemeth, Kenny Neal, Kilborn Alley Blues Band, Dave Acari, Homemade Jamz, Mike Sanchez Band, Nick Moss & The Fliptops, Blackberry & Mr Boo Hoo, Ian Siegal & Big Pete, Shawn Pittman & The Moeller Brothers, Def Americans, and Tim Lothar & Peter Nande. Click here to see the festival poster.
Here are Dave and Bob's European tour dates:
5/07/11: Moulin, Holland - appearing at the Moulin Blues Festival with Dave Riley / Bob Corritore Juke Joint Blues Band
5/08/11: Gooreind, Belgium - GoorBlues - Café 't Goor with Dave Riley / Bob Corritore Juke Joint Blues Band
5/09/11:  Ruiselede, Belgium - Banana Peel with Dave Riley / Bob Corritore Juke Joint Blues Band 
5/10/11: Geldrop, Holland - De Kroeg with Dave Riley / Bob Corritore Juke Joint Blues Band
5/12/11: Hasselt, Belgium Muziekodroom Club with Dave Riley / Bob Corritore Juke Joint Blues Band 
5/13/11: Amsterdam, Holland - appearing for the Amsterdam Harmonica Meetup Group with Dave Riley & Bob Corritore duo
-  Paul Butterfield on To Tell The Truth! Not often do blues performers find themselves on popular television game shows, but in the 1960s blues singer / harmonica player Paul Butterfield appeared on To Tell The Truth. To see this wonderful clip, click here.
Jack Myers RIP
From Bob Corritore
-  RIP Jack Myers - Birthdate unknown to March 9, 2011. Charlie Musselwhite writes to inform us about the loss of his friend, the great blues bassist Jack Myers:"I thought you'd like to know that the great Chess bass player, Jack Myers died in Milwaukee March 9th. Jack was 74. He was a good friend. We recorded and toured together and he lived with me for a while. Seems like other than playing, we were laughing all day about one thing and another. He was a real good guy. Him and (Fred) Below made a great team. Wearing their berets and shades. That was about as good as it gets." Very little biographical info can be found on Jack Myers, but during the 1960s, he was a key player in bringing the relatively new electric bass into the forefront of Chicago Blues. The style was changing, and gutarists like Buddy Guy, who Jack worked with most frequently, were more interested in playing a single string lead guitar sound then the more rhythm oriented guitar work popularized in the 1950s. This led to a sparce, open sound in which the bass was holding down a different role in connecting the music. Jack Myers would play a patterned bass line and then hit occational runs to fill in the gaps in a way not heard from bass before. Here is what Buddy Guy recalls in an interview with Guitar World “When the Fender bass first came along, I remember seeing this kid Jack Myers play it with Earl Hooker’s band. Hooker actually owned the bass, so the only time that boy could play, he had to work with Earl Hooker. But I found out that Willie Dixon had a Fender bass that he’d pawned at a place on 47th and State. So I told that boy, ‘If you wanna play with me, I’ll go get that Fender out of pawn from Dixon.’ And I gave it to Jack, ’cause he was a good little bass player.” Jack played bass on the majority of Buddy Guy records on Chess as well on Guy's classic record, A Man And The Blues on Vanguard. He also played bass on the Junior Wells historic album Hoodoo Man Blues on Delmark Records as well as Junior's selections on the Chicago, The Blues Today series on Vanguard. He played bass on Big Walter Horton / The Soul Of Blues Harmonica, Charlie Musselwhite / Tennessee Woman, and the Chicago Blues Stars album (with Louis Myers, Charlie Musselwhite, Freddie Roulette, Fred Below, and Skip Rose).. He also participated in the 1966 American Folk Blues Festival (a European tour and live album) with Otis Rush, Junior Wells, Fred Below, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Joe Turner, Sippie Wallace and others. At a point in the 1970s Jack seemed to drop out of sight, but his decade of session work on many highly influential blues recordings will cement him forever into blues history. To see various great clips of Jack in Europe in 1966 with Otis Rush, Junior Wells, and Big Joe Turner, click here, here, here, and here.
Huey P Meaux
From Bob Corritore
-  RIP Huey P. Meaux (AKA Crazy Cajun) - March 10, 1929 to April 23, 2011. Producer Huey P. Meaux is best known for producing the amazing hits "You'll Lose A Good Thing" by Barbara Lynn, "She's About A Mover" by the Sir Douglas Quintet, and "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" by Freddy Fender. Of blues interest are sides he produced by Johnny Copeland, Big Walter Price, Rockin' Sidney (including the hit "Don't Mess With My Toot Toot") and many additional great sides by Barbara Lynn. Huey P. Meaux also had a tainted personal life and spent time incarcerated for sex crimes. He died on April 23 of multiple organ failure at age 82 at his home in Winnie, Texas. For an additional Huey P. Meaux obit, click here.
Bob Dorr And The Blue Band Update
Well, no, The Blue Band did NOT find any work this weekend, but I seem  to have a lot of fun writing these notes and since I was sick and in bed  for nearly 3 days this week, I need a dose of Dr. Feelgood...     There IS some Blue News. We have been invited to be part of the city of  Lamoni's 4th of July celebration, so Independence Weekend, July 1, 2, 3,  4 is booked and that allows us to take off the following week, July  5-15 (this could be the first summer in all 30 of them that we've  actually taken a summer vacation! WooHoo!) I mention that, in case you  still have intentions of booking the band for a stop along the 30th  Anniversary Highway. If you want your date on the once-a-year, 5000  piece, direct mail promotion that we mail out, or you want your event on  the tour list on the back of the T-shirt, we need to book the date no  later than 9pm this Sunday night (May 1) We're going to the postcard  printer and the t-shirt printer on Monday. If you've already booked your  date, take a second to check out the Calendar page  (http://www.theblueband.com/cal.htm) to make sure we have it listed. If  it's on the calendar page, it's on the mailer and on the shirt... The  Wizard of Wires/Sultan of Solder/Knave of Knobs, Phil Maass, is just  about finished doing his voodoo over mixing/editing/mastering of the  recordings from New Year's Eve. This includes Iowa Blues Hall of Famer  Joe Price playing The Iowa Crawl with The Blue Band and Capitol City  slide master Matt Woods playing slide on Santa's Got A Lot On His Mind.  It's always fun for me to see the weekly progress going from raw,  soundboard, undoctored tapes to finished, 70-minute snapshot of the  night. We are very fortunate to have regular access to Phil's skills!  Anyway, if we release the recordings on CD, it will be less than 300  copies, much of it will find itself on the Blue Band website (I'm  embarrassed to admit that I just recently visited that Listen To The  Band page and found some of those recordings to be FIVE years old!  YIKES! The most recent is THREE years old! DOUBLE YIKES!!...    
Next week, May 6, is the Final First Friday GEEEZER Gig at the Hub (we're switching to the 2nd Friday when the series continues in October) 6-9:30pm, 4th & Main, Sparkle City USA! Pizza by the slice, adult beverages, great sound system, friendly bar staff, spacious dancefloor, and Avis' husband playing that green guitar! What's not to like, right Avis? BRING CAKE!...Sat, May 7, Jeff and I are doing a duo (it's been a few years since we did THAT act!) in an effort to raise money for The Food Chain, a feed the poor organization in Cedar Rapids. We play 6-9pm at The Sub City sandwich shop on 1st Ave in downtown CR...after that, we're lookin' for work for a couple of weeks before the wild summer schedule starts (BTW, did you get your tickets for the boat ride yet? (http://www.dubuqueriverrides.com/specialty.html)...
I have had a lifetime of very good health. I was reminded of what an incredible blessing that is this past weekend. I started to develop a sore throat a few hours before the gig in Iowa Falls Saturday night. Singing all night didn't help much! By the time we got home, my throat was raw, it was backing up into my ear, my body ached and some form of extreme fatigue had set in. I was pretty much in bed until I could see a doctor on Monday afternoon (you KNOW it's bad if I call a doctor!) Actually, you KNOW it's bad when I attended my father-in-law's 86th birthday party on Tuesday and I could only manage to have two forkfuls of CAKE (I'm sure you're beginning to see the seriousness of this illness now) The GIANT pills I was given by the doctor (I swear they're really leftover mini Easter eggs) seem to be helping with the throat (yes, radio announcers and singers DO tend to panic if something goes wrong with their throat!) but I've yet to get much of an appetite back (another blessing in disguise, as I have had as a goal for three years now to weigh less than 190 pounds and this last week helped me lose those last 8 pounds!) Truly the greatest gift is that of good health...
Because of the illness, the Saturday Backtracks radio show is a "best of" spotlight segment edition of the program. Hour #2 is all British Invasion bands and hour #3 is My Wife's Records. 7-10pm on your favorite Iowa Public Radio station. I'm taking suggestions for the Horn Band special (Blood, Sweat & Tears, Cold Blood, Tower of Power, who else?) that will air on May 21 and the Memorial Day special, remembering rock'n'rollers who have passed on, that will air on May 28. I'm also looking for advance requests for the next live show, May 14. Just respond to this email if you have any ideas for any of these 3 shows...
I had hoped to get out of Sparkle City this weekend for a little mini-vacation, but losing those 3 days of work and my still achy body ain't really gonna let that happen. Perhaps Checker and The Bluetones at the Hub on Friday. Also, if yer in Des Moines for the Relays on Saturday, check out our friends Six Ways To Sunday (the guys who opened the New Years Eve show last year and who've already signed on for this coming NYE) They're playing in Chequers Lounge on the first floor of the Hotel Fort Des Moines, 10th & Walnut, DM. I think showtime is 7pm...
OK, a little more proof that I've been laying in bed for 3 days. I know that The Royal Wedding is getting ready to start RIGHT NOW, so I gotta go (not only am I sick, but I must be completely daft if I'm going to go watch this thing!) (I love spectacle) (does the bride's dad have pay for all that stuff?!) See ya on the Blue Highway, rub yer washboard to the tune of I Have Had My Fun (If I Don't Get Well No More), take two of these, drink plenty of fluids, and call me when you have CAKE! Bob Dorr & The Blue Band
Next week, May 6, is the Final First Friday GEEEZER Gig at the Hub (we're switching to the 2nd Friday when the series continues in October) 6-9:30pm, 4th & Main, Sparkle City USA! Pizza by the slice, adult beverages, great sound system, friendly bar staff, spacious dancefloor, and Avis' husband playing that green guitar! What's not to like, right Avis? BRING CAKE!...Sat, May 7, Jeff and I are doing a duo (it's been a few years since we did THAT act!) in an effort to raise money for The Food Chain, a feed the poor organization in Cedar Rapids. We play 6-9pm at The Sub City sandwich shop on 1st Ave in downtown CR...after that, we're lookin' for work for a couple of weeks before the wild summer schedule starts (BTW, did you get your tickets for the boat ride yet? (http://www.dubuqueriverrides.com/specialty.html)...
I have had a lifetime of very good health. I was reminded of what an incredible blessing that is this past weekend. I started to develop a sore throat a few hours before the gig in Iowa Falls Saturday night. Singing all night didn't help much! By the time we got home, my throat was raw, it was backing up into my ear, my body ached and some form of extreme fatigue had set in. I was pretty much in bed until I could see a doctor on Monday afternoon (you KNOW it's bad if I call a doctor!) Actually, you KNOW it's bad when I attended my father-in-law's 86th birthday party on Tuesday and I could only manage to have two forkfuls of CAKE (I'm sure you're beginning to see the seriousness of this illness now) The GIANT pills I was given by the doctor (I swear they're really leftover mini Easter eggs) seem to be helping with the throat (yes, radio announcers and singers DO tend to panic if something goes wrong with their throat!) but I've yet to get much of an appetite back (another blessing in disguise, as I have had as a goal for three years now to weigh less than 190 pounds and this last week helped me lose those last 8 pounds!) Truly the greatest gift is that of good health...
Because of the illness, the Saturday Backtracks radio show is a "best of" spotlight segment edition of the program. Hour #2 is all British Invasion bands and hour #3 is My Wife's Records. 7-10pm on your favorite Iowa Public Radio station. I'm taking suggestions for the Horn Band special (Blood, Sweat & Tears, Cold Blood, Tower of Power, who else?) that will air on May 21 and the Memorial Day special, remembering rock'n'rollers who have passed on, that will air on May 28. I'm also looking for advance requests for the next live show, May 14. Just respond to this email if you have any ideas for any of these 3 shows...
I had hoped to get out of Sparkle City this weekend for a little mini-vacation, but losing those 3 days of work and my still achy body ain't really gonna let that happen. Perhaps Checker and The Bluetones at the Hub on Friday. Also, if yer in Des Moines for the Relays on Saturday, check out our friends Six Ways To Sunday (the guys who opened the New Years Eve show last year and who've already signed on for this coming NYE) They're playing in Chequers Lounge on the first floor of the Hotel Fort Des Moines, 10th & Walnut, DM. I think showtime is 7pm...
OK, a little more proof that I've been laying in bed for 3 days. I know that The Royal Wedding is getting ready to start RIGHT NOW, so I gotta go (not only am I sick, but I must be completely daft if I'm going to go watch this thing!) (I love spectacle) (does the bride's dad have pay for all that stuff?!) See ya on the Blue Highway, rub yer washboard to the tune of I Have Had My Fun (If I Don't Get Well No More), take two of these, drink plenty of fluids, and call me when you have CAKE! Bob Dorr & The Blue Band
Illinois Blues News
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|        From The Editors Desk      Hey Blues Fans,    Writer Terry Mullins send us a big dose of Blues    this week! Terry made it to the Juke Joint Festival last weekend to    catch a few of the 100 artists performing to celebrate the 100th    birthday of Blues legend Robert Johnson.    Terry also caught up with Blues guitar wizard Eddie Turner to talk about    Eddie's musical journey through life.    Good Blues To You!    Bob Kieser         In This Issue      Terry Mullins has our feature interview with Eddie Turner   and a review of the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi.   Rainey Wetnight   reviews a new CD by Sweet Angel.      Greg “Bluesdog” Szalony reviews a new CD by Big Joe And The   Dynaflows. Steve Jones reviews a new CD by The Christopher Dean Band.    John Mitchell   reviews a new CD by the Delta Jets.   Gary "Wingman" Weeks reviews a new CD by Big Head Todd & The Monsters. Mark   Thompson reviews a new CD by Mike Hammar & the Nails. All this and MORE! SCROLL DOWN!!! | 
       Featured Blues Story - Eddie    Turner   
|       That is the power and the fury of Eddie Turner unleashed.       To witness him chew up and spit out a crowd clamoring for a dose of the    Delta blues funneled through The Twilight Zone, one would think that    Eddie Turner must spend his free time toying with a Ouija board - or    conjuring up ancient spirits - befitting someone who has earned the    nickname “Devilboy.”       In reality, that’s hardly the case.       When he’s not destroying stages from here to Copenhagen and back, one    can probably find Eddie Turner at home, hands and knees in the dirt,    surrounded by various forms of beautiful flora that he has lovingly    coaxed into blooming.       Gardening?        The Devilboy, gardening? Really?       Really.       “I love to garden. I like flowers. Yesterday I was out trying to fix the    pump in my pond, getting all the garbage out of there,” he said    recently. “And I walked around and looked at the plants, seeing what’s    blooming – the tulips are getting ready to go real soon – and the trees    are coming into play. It’s a part of the world that’s just as real as    anything else. It’s a huge relaxation. Because once you get in the truck    and get on the road, it’s all business.”       Especially in Europe, where the dynamic guitar player and his backing    band, The Troubled Twins, recently played to packed houses everywhere    they went, in support of Turner’s stellar latest disc, Miracles &    Demons (Northern Blues).       “It was excellent,” Turner said of his European jaunt. “Sold-out shows    in every venue … it was pretty wild and crazy, as they say. Really great    support everywhere we played – Germany, Poland - the response there was    unbelievable – really, we’re ready to go back.”       Going back to the 1960s when the American Folk Blues Festivals made    stars out of Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy    across the big pond, Europe has always had a great affinity for    American-based roots music and that love affair continues today, with    Turner being treated like a king thousands of miles from home.       “They (European audiences) seem to be more excited, I guess. They check    out all your music before they go to the show – they’ve already    purchased your CD – and at least for me, it’s always been that way,” he    said. “And for me, part of my success was that I was lucky enough to    have been on The Crossroads (Rockpalast) television show in Germany back    in 2006. It’s like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. Led Zeppelin’s been on    it, Johnny Winter’s been on it … you name it and they’ve been on it.    That really got me off to a good start in Europe.”       If you looked up the definition of “traditional bluesman” in Webster’s,    Turner’s picture would probably be nowhere near it.       However, if there were an entry for “the spirit of a rock-n-roller,    filtered through the blood of a traditional bluesman and spiked with a    psychedelic chaser,” odds are pretty good Turner’s might be the only    picture around.        Born in Cuba and raised in Chicago, Eddie Turner moved to Colorado to    attend college and somewhere along the way, found himself playing guitar    in Zephyr, the Boulder-based band that once featured the singular talent    of Tommy Bolin (James Gang, Deep Purple).       “To play In Tommy Bolin’s and Jock Hartley’s ex-band was a big coup for    me,” said Turner. “Jock (who replaced Bolin in Zephyr, before being    replaced by Turner in the band) was also my guitar teacher and was a    great guy.”       After the sudden death of Zephyr’s lead singer Candy Givens, Turner    moth-balled his guitar and quit the music business, instead focusing on    selling real estate for a number of years. This pursuit even lasted    after he re-emerged, along with producer/songwriter/bass player Kenny    Passarelli as a founding member of the Otis Taylor Band. (Passarelli was    also part of Joe Walsh’s Barnstorm back in the 1970s).  “We started playing little coffee houses in Boulder and then the next thing you know, we’re traveling the world,” Turner said of his time in Otis Taylor’s group. “But I never left the real estate business. There would be times I would fly in from France on a Tuesday and I’d have a real estate appointment at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Or I’d be negotiating a deal on the sale of a house from the South of France. I really didn’t stop real estate until about two years ago when things got so busy that I had to make a decision.”       With his real estate career pushed to the side, Turner once again    focused his laser-like sights squarely on what is his lifeblood –    guitar-driven, electric blues.       The results thus far have been a trio of discs on the Northern Blues    label – Rise, from 2005, The Turner Diaries in 2006 and    last year’s stunning Miracles & Demons.       Not merely cobbled-together fragments or bits of an idea, Miracles &    Demons harkens back to the glorious days of vinyl. Days when an    album was a whole body of work instead of a random collection of MP3s    that were spliced onto a disc, almost as an afterthought.       A quick look at the back cover of the disc reveals Turner’s thought    process for Miracles & Demons, with half the tracks labeled as    “Side One” and the other half “Side Two,” just like in the good ole    days.        Miracles & Demons kicks off with “Booty Bumpin’” a track that    starts off as a straight blues shuffle before Turner’s    tightly-compressed guitar licks from Mars lifts it in the stratosphere.       “I got tired of people saying, ‘Well, you don’t do a lot of blues.’ I    laugh and say, “Do I have to actually do it (the blues) for you to    understand – running through all the music that I do?’” he said. “I    mean, who really wants to do a straight-up shuffle? They’ve pretty much    all been done by every major blues artist out there. And when I did two    Freddie King songs, they turned out like nothing Freddie King would ever    think of doing. That’s out of my respect for Freddie King. Why would you    run around and try to be Freddie King? He’s a great, great performer and    his stuff needs to be enshrined, not copied.”       Although those that are exposed to Turner’s music for the first time    might be quick to toss around the Jimi Hendrix name, especially when it    comes to comparing vocals, the tie-dyed legend from Seattle is not at    the very top of Turner’s list of vocal influences. “Vocal-wise, everyone keeps telling me I sound like Hendrix, which I don’t think so, but I’m not going to fight it,” he said. “But if I could, I’d sound like Bobby Blue Bland, who is my favorite singer of the blues. He’s one of the greatest blues singers ever, along with Magic Sam, who I also love.”       The gone-before-his-time Magic Sam was also an influential figure in    Turner’s eyes and ears when it comes to sliding up and down the neck of    a six-string with reckless abandon.       “Oh ,yeah, definitely. Him and Peter Green and Jeff Beck … I’ve always    been a fan of their guitar-playing,” he said. “And like everyone else,    Muddy Waters …there’s just been a bunch of players I’ve heard over the    years, rock, blues and jazz players ... old George Benson from the Bad    Benson era. You’ve got that whole slippery-slidey thing from British    blues and then that really precise thing from Chicago jazz … I’ve heard    everybody. I’m an old guy.”       “You’ve spent your life listening to every great player and you try and    sneak in those influences. Like this is the Fleetwood Mac part circa    Bare Trees, or this is Creedence Clearwater Revival doing their    swamp-blues thing,” he said. “And a lot of people don’t get that, but if    you really look at it, you’ll find every artist you like, sneaking a    look out of that CD.”       But when you manage to carve out an instantly-recognizable style that is    uniquely you, that’s when you can say you’ve arrived.       “I’ve had other guitar players say, ‘We can tell your guitar playing    right when you strike a note, because you play everything really    strange,’” said Turner. “That’s what I want. I want people to say,    ‘Yeah, that’s Eddie Turner.’ You know, there are really only 12 notes.    It’s how you use take those notes and put them with emotional content    that’s important.”       Turner’s “strange playing” really found its stride during his days    touring and recording with Otis Taylor.       And in exchange for producing a whole slew of “weird noises” on Taylor’s    first five CDs, Turner was also rewarded with the “Devilboy” moniker,    straight from Taylor himself.       “Sometimes your mouth gets you in trouble faster than you can get out,”    said Turner. “So whenever that would happen, he would just call me “Devilboy.”       With a handle like “Devilboy”, it wouldn’t do for your backing band to    have a run-of-the-mill, bland name.       Thus, The Troubled Twins (drummer Robert Walker; bass player Andy    Irvine) were born.       “In Europe, everybody calls me “Devilboy” so once you get that going,    the next thing is, what’s a good name for a band?” Turner said. “Well,    how about “Troubled Twins”?” They’re two guys that look absolutely    nothing alike. People go, ‘Is it “Trouble” or “Troubled”?’ And I go,    “Pick whichever one you like. It’s fun and it’s funny.”       While Turner’s records are one thing, catching “Devilboy and The    Troubled Twins” live at a festival or in a club is another story    entirely.       “My live show is different from the record, which is how it should be,”    Turner said. “If it’s not different, why go to the show? Just buy the    record and go home. But my live show is completely different. It’s    exciting, it’s fun, it’s fast, it’s furious and it’s loud. We get in    your face and have a wonderful time. And once people see it, they enjoy    it and want more. We don’t have a certain set that we play. It’s all    based on how I feel and how the crowd feels. We don’t do the same show    in every club. ”       Currently burning up the road all across the globe, Turner clearly has    no plans at easing off the throttle anytime soon.        But if we had use of a crystal ball, where might we find “Devilboy” five    years from now?       “Let me see … five years from now, hopefully I’ll be spending two to    three months out of the year in Europe, two to three months touring the    United States and then I’ll be spending two or three months gardening in    my yard,” he said.       Because, after all, “Devilboy” sure does enjoy his flowers.Interviewer Terry Mullins is a journalist 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.    For other reviews and interviews on our website        CLICK HERE | 
       Featured Blues Review 1 of 6   
| 13    songs; 58:57 minutes Styles:    Southern Soul; Soul-Blues; Soul; R&B Sweet Angel    doesn’t play pure blues, but when it comes to pure vocals, she’s pure    magic! Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1964, this “dangerous diva” (Clifetta    Dobbins) got her start as a mortgage banker and real-estate agent before    meeting her now-husband and personal manager Mac “Mike” Dobbins. It’s    corporate America’s loss--and listeners’ gain--that Sweet Angel changed    careers. Her latest and fifth CD, “A Girl Like Me,” with its all    original tracks, proves that point relentlessly! The title    track--and this may come as a scintillating shock to his fans--describes    Sweet Angel’s crush on blues artist Bobby Rush. She desired to be one of    his hootchie dancing girls, only to be turned down because of factors    not easily altered: first “you’re too young,” and then “you’re too    little.” Unfortunately for Bobby, by the time Sweet Angel meets his    criteria, it’s too late! Her singing career has taken off, and Mr. Rush    has missed out. “I ain’t got much hair on my head,” Angel mentions    alluding to her short cropped, platinum hair style, “but I’m as fine as    I can be! Don’t you [Bobby Rush] wish you had a girl like me?” Across her    first four CDs, Sweet Angel has been lauded for her vocals. “...fierce    articulation and her knife-edged vocal timbre make almost everything she    sings sound emotionally focused...” said “Living Blues” magazine. For    someone raised on Blues-Rock and Traditional Blues, I found distinct    differences, apart from the vocals, in this music’s style.  Most    notable is the lack of guitar as the lead instrument and focus of the    music. Here, tight rhythm is everything, and guitar is used strictly for    rhythm, with a few exceptions like “Don’t Be Lonely, Be Loved.” Well    beyond the three-chord confines of conventional blues forms, Sweet    Angel’s sound is an urban fusing of elements of black popular music. It    uses the hard-driving energy of R&B plus the deep feel found in Southern    Gospel. Instrumentally, organ and keyboards rule backed by bass, drums,    and often an R&B-styled horn section (although machine sequenced).    Ultimately, this is music for dancing. Angel takes    one higher and higher to Soul-music paradise in her second song, “I’d    Rather Be By Myself than to be Unhappy.” It presents a hard realization    that some may experience at the end (or, more sadly, the beginning) of a    relationship. Some people say they’d rather die than be alone. That may    be true, but for her, death is living with the hurt. “You make me want    to run to the street, be on my own. How can I find heaven when there’s    so much hell in my home?” The answer, at least for her, lies in parting    ways. Even though    her stage name is Sweet Angel, she’s got a dash of the devil in her    repertoire! “What I Want, What I Need” reveals this. “I’m seeing two,    and I know that’s wrong. I’m so ashamed of what I’ve done. I know I’ve    gotta--I’ve gotta set one free, but both of them are so damn good to    me!” One has the finances, the other the finesse--in bed, that is. One    wonders if these two men know about each other, and if she could lose    them if they do find out. The best    slow song on the album is “The Comfort of my Man,” a saucy, swaying    ballad celebrating the joy of a (dance) partner.  Throughout    this release, Sweet Angel sings with power and pep, grace and glory.    Long live Sweet Angel’s unique style that has been inaccurately reduced    by some to the simple, limiting label, “Southern Soul!”      Reviewer Rainey Wetnight is a 31 year old female Blues fan. She    brings the perspective of a younger blues fan to reviews. A child of the    1980s music, she was strongly influenced by her father’s blues music    collection.    For other reviews and interviews on our website        CLICK HERE | 
       Featured Live Blues Review -  Juke Joint Festival   
|       Juke Joint Festival       Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl?       The answer to that was an emphatic, “Yes.”       The name of a late 1990s docudrama on legendary bluesman Robert Johnson,    “can’t you hear the wind howl?” very well could have been the theme of    the day April 16 at the eighth annual Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale,    Mississippi.       Just a day after deadly storms had ripped through the Magnolia State, an    unrelenting steady dose of whipping wind continued to blast and harass    the downtown Clarksdale area for most of the next day.       At times, one had to wonder if Mother Nature herself was not mourning    the loss of Big Jack Johnson, a fixture on the Clarksdale music scene    for many, many years, who had recently passed, leaving this year’s Juke    Joint Festival void of one of the all-time great Delta bluesmen. 
       But for most of those in attendance, the four days of the Juke Joint    Festival is all about the “blues fest” part of the equation.       While the wind – at times downright cold – did make things a touch    uncomfortable at times, it couldn’t dampen the spirit of the record-size    crowd that jammed the streets from Sunflower Avenue to Issaquena and    beyond, at the event that is billed as “half small-town fair, half blues    fest.”       With racing pigs, turkey-calling contests and canoe-carving workshops,    along with all the native cuisine one can imagine, the “small-town fair”    part was right on the money.       While free music filled every nook and cranny of the carnival-like    atmosphere of downtown streets during the day, a $10 wristband opened up    another avenue for blues lovers after the sun went down, with the likes    of Jimbo Mathus, Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band and T-Model Ford packing    patrons inside hallowed venues like Red’s Lounge, Messenger’s and Club    2000. 
       Started as a means of acknowledging the importance of the small jukes    and clubs of Clarksdale that have kept the blues flowing for decades,    while also celebrating “planter’s day” or the start of spring, the Juke    Joint Festival continues to grow in scope and width every year.       With this year being hailed as the 100th birthday of the afore-mentioned    Robert Johnson, organizers of the Juke Joint Festival rolled out the red    carpet for the bluesman that spent plenty of time in and around    Clarksdale, dubbing this year’s fest as the “Robert Johnson Centennial    Edition – 100 acts for 100 years.”       With such an impressive lineup of real-deal musicians, most of whom have    some kind of intimate bond with the city of Clarksdale, it was quite a    challenge to make it around to see all the talent on display.       From the solo acoustic blues of Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, to the electrified    boogie of Elam McKnight and Bob Bogdal to the hypnotic groove of Sharde    & Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, to the always-entertaining Super Chikan,    there was plenty of variety to spare at the Juke Joint Festival. 
       But the unquestioned headliner of the eighth annual Juke Joint Festival    boasted something that none of the other 100-plus acts could match.       Not only did he rub elbows and compete for coins with the festival’s    honoree, he was also a running partner of the birthday boy, Robert    Johnson.    He is David “Honeyboy” Edwards. 
       Ninety-five years young, Honeyboy is still going strong and gave those    gathered at the stage next to the Delta Blues Museum a living lesson in    the Delta blues. Although time has taken away some of Honeyboy’s once    larger-than-life voice, it had done nothing to diminish the fire that    still burns inside.       And even though he has closed down the outside music part of the Juke    Joint Festival for several years now, it would have been unimaginable    for Honeyboy not to have been there this year, holding court not too far    from the mythical crossroads where his friend Robert Johnson made his    deal with the devil.       Whether one believes in such wheeling-and-dealing with Beelzebub is one    thing, but there is no doubt that Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival has    cemented itself onto the “can’t miss” portion of the yearly festival    calendar.Reviewer Terry Mullins is a journalist 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.    For other reviews and interviews on our website        CLICK HERE | 
       Blues Society News   
|   You can submit a maximum of 175 words or less in a Text or MS Word document   format.   The Santa Barbara Blues Society - Santa   Barbara, CA   The Santa Barbara Blues Society is the oldest existing blues society in the   U.S. The next SBBS   show will be on June 11 with dynamic band Café R&B! Check  www.SBBlues.org for more info.   Greater Twin Cities Blues Society, St.   Paul, MN   The Greater Twin Cities Blues Society presents Road to   Memphis Challenge May 1, 2011 at Wilebski's Blues Saloon with 5 bands, 3 solo/duo acts   competing for slot at IBC. The show starts at 1:00 $10.00 suggested donation  www.gtcbms.org      The Blues Kid Foundation – Chicago,   IL   Columbia College Chicago, Artistic Director Fernando Jones, and the Blues   Kid Foundation proudly present the 2nd Annual Blues Camp July 12 to 16 at   Columbia College Chicago Music Center • 1014 S. Michigan Avenue • Chicago.   This fun-filled experience will give national and international student   musicians ages 12 - 18 an opportunity to learn and play America’s root music   in the Blues Capital of the World, Chicago. Students will receive   professional instruction in the hands-on, user-friendly environment of   Columbia College Chicago’s South Loop campus. Placement in ensembles is   competitive, and student musicians (intermediate-to-advanced skill levels)   must audition for positions. Openings for beginner-level students may also   be available.      Chicago-area student musicians are expected to audition in person Auditions   will take place Saturday April 23  11:00 AM - 1:00 PM at Columbia   College Chicago Music Center 1014 S. Michigan Avenue • Chicago. Out-of-town   and international student musicians may audition by submitting online video   links to BluesNewz@aol.com by Friday,   May 6, 2011.      For Updated Information Visit   www.Blueskids.Com  & Watch The Blues Kids TV Special or contact   Fernando Jones, Blues Ensemble Director Email:  Bluesnewz@Aol.Com • Hotline   312-369-3229   The Blues Blowtorch Society -   Bloomington, IL      The Blues Blowtorch Society presents the 2011 Central Illinois Blues   Challenge on July 15 & 16, 2011 at Tri-Lakes in Bloomington, IL  during the Ain't Nothin But The Blues Festival. The winner will be sent  to Memphis in   early 2012 to compete as our representative in the International Blues   Challenge. To be considered bands must apply by June 18, 2011. The  solo/duo   acts competition is to be determined based on interest.      For further information and submission guidelines, please contact Deborah   Mehlberg, Entertainment Director at:   Deborah464@aol.com   www.bluesblowtorch.org      West Virginia Blues Society -   Charleston, WV   The West Virginia Blues Society presents the 4th. Annual Charlie West Blues   Fest May 20 & 21, 2011 at Haddad Riverfront Park in Charleston, WV .   Showtime is 4 pm to 11 pm on Friday and Saturday 1 pm to 11 pm, with after   jam to follow both nights at The Boulevard Tavern. Admission is FREE !   That’s right, FREE to everyone !Over the two day period we will be having   over 18 acts performing on both stages. There will be plenty of food vendors   to suite your fancy along with beer and wine sales this year.      The lineup includes Sit Down Baby, Izzy & Chris, Kinds of Crazy, Lil Brian &   The Zydeco Travelers, Davina & the Vagabonds and Joe Louis Walker on Friday   and Lionel Young Band, Slim Fatz, Mojo Theory, Sean Carney, Kristine   Jackson, Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King and Ana Popovich on Saturday. For   more info contact: 304-389-1439 or   bkravenhawk@hotmail.com or visit  www.charliewestbluesfest.com   or www.wvbluessociety.org       Rosedale Crossroads Blues Society   - Rosedale, MS   Rosedale Crossroads Blues Society presents The Crossroads Blues and Heritage   Festival Saturday, May 7, 2011 at the River Resort. Highway 1 S. in historic   Rosedale, MS. Gates open at 12:00 noon - music starts at 1:00. Admission $5   - adults, $1 - children under 12. Bring your own ice chest - $10 No beer   sold - No glass - No pets, please! Parking $5 Lineup ( in order of   appearance - subject to change): Vinnie C., Eddie Cusic, Mickey Rogers,   T-Model Ford, Daddy Mack, Big T, Guitar Mikey and the Real Thing, and Eden   Brent.   Fest Feast on Friday evening, May 6 at the River Resort with a 5-course   Creole dinner, $50 per person - Cash bar. Limited seating. Call 662-759-6443   or 662-897-0555 for reservations and information. If you have questions   about the above information, call 662-402-6251. Thank you. Mary Anna Davis   Crossroads Blues Society   www.rosedaleblues.com The Friends Of The Blues - Watseka, IL   2011 Friends of the Blues shows - April 26 - The Rockin’ Johnny   Band, Bradley Bourbonnais Sportsmen’s Club, May 03 - Too Slim and the   Taildraggers, 7 pm, Kankakee Valley Boat Club, May 19 - The Sugar Prophets   (2011 IBC Finalists), 7 pm, Bradley Bourbonnais Sportsmen’s Club, June 23 -   Sean Chambers, 7 pm, River Bend Bar & Grill,  July 13 - Reverend Raven & C.S.A.B., 7 pm, River Bend Bar & Grill. For more info see: http://www.wazfest.com/JW.html   Illinois Central Blues Club -   Springfield, IL   The Illinois Central Blues Club presents “Ladies Sing The Blues For Illinois   WINGS” Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 7:00pm at the Hoogland Center for the Arts,   Theater III, 420 South Sixth Street, Springfield, Illinois.      This special concert is to raise awareness and funds for Illinois WINGS, a   non-profit organization whose mission is to bring quality breast cancer   treatment to women and men in central and southern Illinois regardless of   their ability to pay. Female vocalists scheduled to appear will include Mary   Jo Curry, Ruth LaMaster, Brooke Thomas, Josie Lowder, Lorrie Eden and Lori   Ann Mitts and will be backed up by Tombstone Bullet who will serve as the   house band for the event.       Admission to the concert is $10.00 at the Hoogland Center Box Office or   online at   http://www.hcfta.org/tickets.html . Net proceeds from ticket sales will   be donated to Illinois WINGS.   Also every Monday night for the last 25 years - BLUE MONDAY SHOWS - Held at the   Alamo 115 N 5th St, Springfield, IL (217) 523-1455 every Monday 8:30pm $3   cover. May 2 -   Too Slim & the Tail Draggers, May 9 - The Blues Deacons,  May 16 - James Armstrong, May 23 - Eric "Guitar" Davis and the   Troublemakers.  icbluesclub.org    The Alabama Blues Project -   Northport, AL   The Alabama Blues Project is proud to present the annual "Blues   Extravaganza" Friday May20th 6pm at the Bama Theatre, 600 Greensboro Avenue,   Tuscaloosa AL.   The show features Grammy winner Sugar Blue and the Alabama Blues Project   student blues musicians. Sugar Blue is the Grammy-winning harmonica player   who has played and recorded with Johnny Shines, Willie Dixon. Bob Dylan,   Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones, amongst many others.      This annual celebration is the culmination of the Alabama Blues Project's   after-school Blues Camp program and features our young students, alongside   internationally renowned blues artist. The event will feature blues all   night long showcasing our Blues Camp musicians' bands and our Blues   Instructors Bruce Andrews, Shar Baby, Stuart Bond, BJ Reed, Debbie Bond and   BJ Miller.   Tickets available at   brownpapertickets.com  - general seating $12.50, VIP $35 and $50.   For further information call (205) 752 6263 or email  info@alabamablues.org  www.alabamablues.org . We are on   Facebook!    | 
       Featured Blues Review 2 of 6   
|    Time-40:48    Big Joe and crew have been covering a wide spectrum of blues styles    since beginning their career in the late 1980’s. Chicago, Texas, Kansas    City Jump blues and New Orleans R&B are authentically represented. This    version of The Dynaflows seems to have been put together expressly for    this recording and features past and present members of Delbert    McClinton’s band. The five piece band achieves a full sound with the    late Dennis Taylor often multi-tracking his saxes to produce a horn    section. Rob McNelley’s guitar colors all the tunes either with tasty    background riffing or full-out soloing. Co-producer Kevin Mckendree also    adds organ and piano. The rhythm section of Big Joe on drums and Bill    Campbell on bass swing things along so effortlessly that you almost    don’t realize how locked-in their easy-loping groove is. Big Joe’s    vocals fall somewhere in between Chicago blues and Kansas City jump and    R&B. And the way he does it up it’s a good place to fall. Listening to    this stuff is no chore at all, as nothing is out of place or included as    filler.    The title track refers to Joe’s near career-ending accident in 2001 and    he proves his point right from the git-go with its swinging blues    groove. The R&B injected version of B.B. King’s “Bad Case Of Love” is    enhanced by the sax section. One of the highlights of the record for me    is the best song Fats Domino never wrote-“Evangeline”, written for Joe’s    cousins’ two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Substitute the ‘Fat Man’s’    voice for Joe’s and it sounds like a hit from the 50’s, complete with    patented Domino piano tinkling. The age-old predicament of troublesome    neighbors is broached in “Property Line”, a true story taken from Joe’s    life. It’s hard to believe it isn’t The Meter’s backing the vocals on    this one with one of their snappy guitar riffs and what could easily be    Booker T. Jones on organ. “Watcha Gonna Do?” would fit right into    Roomful Of Blues’ horn-driven repertoire. These guys can pull off a slow    blues burner just as readily as they replicate the jump-swing tunes, as    seen in “Someday” and the tale about our current hard economic times    “Nothin’ But Trouble”. Similar treatment is shown on the slow Kansas    City swing of Jay McShann’s “Confessin’ The Blues” featuring a nifty    guitar turn from Rob McNelley. One of the six originals “Face The Facts”    addresses the work-a-day life of the everyman. Under-appreciated guitar    wizard Earl Hooker is given his due in the tribute “Supercharger”, as    the guitar skitters merrily along. Kevin Mckendree puts his    boogie-woogie piano skills on display on the closer “What the Hell Were    You Thinkin’?” which was written by himself, McClinton and Tom Hambridge.     I know the band’s reputation, but this being the first full record of    theirs I’ve been exposed to, there is definitely a well-honed group of    craftsman here in tune to American music. Outfits like this surely    deserve a wider audience. You owe it to yourself and the guys to pick    this one up.      Reviewer    Greg “Bluesdog” Szalony hails from the New Jersey Delta. He is the    proprietor of Bluesdog’s Doghouse at   http://bluesdog61.multiply.com.    For other reviews and interviews on our website       CLICK HERE | 
       Featured Blues Review 3 of 6   
| Lost    World Music 13    tracks This CD is    like a Motown blues and soul oldies party done up in a fresh and    interesting way. Dean fronts the band singing and on guitar and has been    schooled well by older brother Chris Foti who does the bass work here    along with some backing vocals. Chip Dixon on drums also does backing    and lead vocals on some tracks. Dean opens    with a Mel Waiters song (“Hole in the Wall”) and by the time he finished    I was a believer. These white guys (good Italian boys from Central    Jersey no less!) really are funky and soulful! Dean offers up 3    originals with 10 covers, and they are all fun. “What I Need” is a    traditional sounding original soul tune that Dean delivers with    conviction; his vocals are quite good. The horn section backing him of    Jim Davis and Chris Lehman is also quite convincing.  The bluesy    side of the album also rocks. “Mother In Law” and “All Your Love” are    deeply blue and well done. “Mother In Law” starts out with greasy harp    (Mike Metallia) and Dean bounces around this track nicely. Keys by Carl    Snyder here and on several other tracks are pretty good, too. The Magic    Sam cover is also quite well done by Dean, both vocally and on guitar.    His vocals throughout are clean and very much spot on. Johnny    Rawls “Lucky Man” is another well done cover here. Again Dean’s guitar    and vocals work the song well and make for a good listen. Even the    grotesquely over played hit “The Love I Lost” gets a decent enough cover    with an assortment of keys, horns and vocals making it sound good and    fresh. The CD is    dedicated to Dean’s father Theodore Foti who passed in early 2009. He    apparently was a huge musical influence to Dean and his brothers and    sisters. He must have done a good job with his kids- I liked this CD a    lot. It's a grooving and funk filed soul and blues CD. Dean’s been at it    hot and heavy since he was 14 and has played professionally for 18+    years since graduating high school. He’s got a great soul sound vocally    and plays some really good guitar. I enjoyed this New Jersey regional    band and think soulful blues fans will, too!       For other reviews and interviews on our website     CLICK HERE | 
| Blind Willy Willing To Crawl Available now at | 
       Featured Blues Review 4 of    6   
| Self    Release - 2010 12    tracks; 48.02 minutes  The Delta    Jets come from Wisconsin and this live CD was recorded summer 2010 in    the Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee. The band members are Dale Anderson on    guitar, Jody Vanesky on harp and David Will on drums and washboard, with    all three singing. Most of the music was composed by Dale (whose    recording career goes back to the early 1990s), with Jody contributing    one song and three covers. The instrumentation would suggest acoustic,    but the sound is very upbeat. Dale plays electric and resonator guitars    and the drums or washboard keep the rhythm buzzing. For example Jody’s    tune “Spinnin’ My Blues” has a definite Bo Diddley meets Little Feat    feel, with plenty of exciting harp work and a ‘sudden stop’ ending and    “Pretty Little Woman” which follows is an attractive number celebrating    a chance encounter with the woman of Dale’s dreams, a very catchy piece. The covers    are well chosen, the CD starting with a fine interpretation of Skip    James’ “I’m So Glad” which does not take Cream’s version as a starting    point, preferring to adapt a rather eerie opening to the song,    shimmering slide guitar and harp taking us along to the start of the    song proper which is taken at a fast pace, the drummer setting the pace    well. I thought that this was a really good start to the CD, immediately    demonstrating all three musicians’ talents in equal measure. Muddy    Waters’ early career song “Can’t Be Satisfied” is often covered, but I    liked the introduction in which the band locates Muddy’s song in a    gambling/juke joint where Muddy is playing and hears about a lucky    gambler who has a ‘mojo hand’. There is a kazoo here too and    washboard/slide, plus a country feel harp solo, a nice take on the song.    The third cover is Leadbelly’s “Good Morning Blues”, the shortest cut on    the album, taken at a jaunty pace with the vocal sung through the harp    mike, not a technique that I particularly enjoy but the harp playing is    again very good. The    remaining songs are all Dale’s and offer a good range of styles, from    the relaxed country blues of “Baby Loves You” with very high pitched    harp accompaniment to the tragic tale of loss of young lives contained    in “Convertible Buick”. The vocals on “Mister, Mister” recall Dylan and    “Sylvester’s Rag” is a feature for Dale’s guitar picking on the    resonator, backed by the drums and subtle harp doubling the melody line    - I enjoyed both these cuts a lot. The final    trio of tunes starts with “I’ve Had Enough”, a humorous ditty about a    broken relationship: “She said she gonna leave, I said it can’t be soon    enough – I’ll get along without her, baby it ain’t that rough”. “T’Bone”    is another upbeat blues instrumental with plenty of harp action. The CD    concludes with “Midnight Sun Blues” where the vocal is again distorted,    but not through the harp mike as that is in use at the same time. This    was probably my least favourite track and as the track rather peters out    with some on-stage banter I found it a slightly disappointing end to the    disc. Overall I    found this an interesting CD with some very good tracks and a couple    that impressed me less. I imagine that the Delta Jets would be a good    band to see live, especially in a small venue.       Review John Mitchell    is a blues enthusiast based in the UK. He also travels to the States    most years to see live blues music. He was recently on the January 2011    Legendary Blues Cruise.       For other reviews and interviews on our website     CLICK HERE | 
| Beverly Lewis All Shades Of Blues ”Forceful, robust and soulful    offering from South Florida blues vocalist Beverly Lewis.”  Available for download at ITunes,    CDBaby and Amazon. | 
       Featured Blues Review 5 of    6   
| Ryko    Records Alternative    rockers Big Head Todd And The Monsters decide to go under an alias of    the Big Head Blues Blues Club releasing a cd entitled 100 years of    Robert Johnson. As with    most artists that release these so called "tribute albums," the heart is    there but the soul isn't. Overall there is nothing groundbreaking about    this cd and it doesn't re-invent the wheel in any way. The main    problem is Mohr's vocal like whine and his attempt to sound like an old    bluesman weakens the strength of the songs rather then enhanching them. It can help    having an all-star cast appear throughout the tracks. Charlie    Musselwhite's harp breathes some life into "Come On In My Kitchen." And    Ruthie Foster's vocals sound at home in "When You Got A Good Friend." At best the    songs shuffle and meander along with the necessary blues hooks. But the    slick production kills the vibe of having hellhounds on the trail. Even when    B.B. King puts his vocals and sweet guitar tones on "Crossroad Blues,"    it doesn't sound like the musicians want to even make a pact with the    devil but to play nice with him.  Some shiny    moments do occur. Cedric Burnside's drumming with it's hill country    overtones kicks the fire in "Preachin Blues" and sends "If I Had    Possession" right towards the crossroads. Still    credit has to be given to The Monsters for trying. Experimenting is    nice. But if you want to play Robert Johnson songs, don't pour the sugar    so much as soak them in rockgut.       Review by Gary "Wingman" Weeks       For other reviews and interviews on our website     CLICK HERE | 
       Featured Blues Review 6 of    6   
| Self-released 12    tracks/58:17 Based out    of northern California, this band has tearing up the West Coast for the    last decade, highlighted by their being named the winner of the 2009    Monterey Bay Blues Festival Battle of the Bands. Mike Hammar is the    front man, handling the lead vocals and guitar. He also wrote all twelve    tunes on this project as well as producing the recording.  Possessing    a powerful voice, Hammar is able to hold the listener’s interest by    varying his vocal approach from track to track. And his fervent guitar    work is a consistent highlight throughout the disc. His bandmates    include Allen “B3 Blues” Carroll on organ & keyboards, “Harmonica” Jim    Pedersen on harp, Sparky Gehres on bass and Greg Merino on drums. Photos    of the group included with the package suggest that they are hardy    veterans of music as well as life. The disc    opens with the title track, which is built around the John Lee Hooker’s    boogie riff. Hammar describes learning about the blues from his father’s    records as he barks out a laundry list of blues legends. “Arrested at    the Catfish Fry” takes a humorous look at a night out on the town gone    all wrong. Hammar, Carroll and Pedersen all turn in lively solos. The    band shifts to a funkier groove on “Miss Katrina”, which could serve as    a travel guide for some of New Orleans highlights. The    proceedings shift to a gospel-tinged vein on “Yes I Will”, with Hammar’s    eloquent vocal and soulful guitar picking making this track one of the    highlights. “Carry On” works the darker side of the human experience as    the leader belts out a message of hope in the face of life’s travails.    Carroll fleshes out the arrangement with fat chords from his organ.    “Suited for the Blues,” sounds like it was borrowed from the Robert Cray    playbook. The grinding rhythm of “Down at the Junction” provides a    launching pad for a fiery solo from Hammar. Pedersen    and Carroll trade licks on “Workin’ Overtime” before the leader turns in    another solo that burns up the fretboard on his guitar. Pedersen’s harp    is featured on “Who’s Richer Than Who”, which has a country music feel    and is the weakest song on the disc. Everybody gets a chance to stretch    out on the lone instrumental “Hambrosia” with Hammar and Carroll once    again distinguishing themselves.  Hammar    pours out his grief on the passing of his mother on, “This Ain’t    Goodbye”. Pedersen’s mournful harp tones lead into Carroll’s organ,    which takes you to church before Hammar’s heartfelt singing and gentle    guitar picking closes out the disc. There is    plenty to enjoy on this release. This band of veterans really works well    together plus they have the very capable Mike Hammar leading the way. If    they could put together a full program of material on a par with songs    like “Yes I Will” and “Carry On”, there would be no holding them back.    This one is definitely worth a listen.       Reviewer      Mark Thompson    is president     of the Crossroads     Blues Society in Rockford, IL.       For other reviews and interviews on our website     CLICK HERE | 
  Live Blues Calendar
|    YOU can submit your Blues performances for   FREE at:  http://www.thebluesblast.com/submitnews.htm   Performance dates were submitted by Musicians, Club Owners, Blues Societies   and Blues festivals.   TheBluesBlast.com is not responsible for errors or omissions. 
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