New Releases -
November 2000
Colin James Fuse WEA 84633/Warner Music Of Canada
If you've heard "Hide", the new Colin James single that's climbing the charts, then you know that this new album is not swing music and if those swing albums cost him any of his blues-rock fans they'll be back and they'll happier than before. There are a couple of more rock songs like "Hide", with all the electronics and studio effects but there are also the Al Green-styled ballads, "Mystery To Me", "Something Good" & " Hate It When You Cry", and of the uptempo ones, "Stop Bringing It Down On A Perfect Day", "Of All The Things To Throw Away" have a great contemporary R&B feel and the James Brown/Albert Collins-flavoured "Going's Good" makes an excellent closer. My advance copy does not have songwriting or musician credits, but it appears that the songs are all written or co-written by James for the album. His vocals certainly don't need any electronic wizardry and are particularly effective on those ballads. His guitar(s) also seems especially well-recorded. James' longtime engineer & co-producer Joe Hardy along with Craig Northey are responsible for making it all sound tremendous and cohesive. My guess is you'll be hearing about this album for a while and it'll probably get them on the short list for a JUNO in several categories.
David Wilcox Rhythm Of Love Stony Plain SPCD 1271/Warner Music Of Canada
For quite a few years our wildest & best bar blues rocker was David Wilcox. His reputation was well deserved: to paraphrase from Richard Flohil's press kit, he burned the candle at both ends and took a blow torch to the middle. This was a lifestyle that obviously could not continue and he eventually took some time off to re-invent himself - in his own way: first with a couple of albums that used a lot of computer programming and then as a solo acoustic singer-songwriter, combining what he learned during his early years as a folky with songs and lyrics that maintained his warped cynical/humourous persona. 1996'sThirteen Songs was the first album in this new style and the following year, Greatest Hits Too opened with an acoustic medley of three of his most famous bar-era songs, "Do The Bearcat, Bad Apple And That Hypnotizing Boogie". The electric music the fans wanted was not to be denied however and Rhythms Of Love re-establishes his basic trio format right off the top on "Hook It Boy". Producer (and former Teddy Bear) Colin Linden helps bring back the acoustic side next with a song he co-wrote with Wilcox, "High Water Rising". But the title song and "I Need A Vice"(!) return to the bad old days with a vengeance (I wonder if Wilcox and Joe Hall ever get together?). The album goes some way to bringing his various styles together but the end result is much like the Wilcox of old. And that has always included some fine bluesy playing: the slide workout "Three Women", the Christmas drinking blues "Mama" with Suzie Vinnick on second vocal (see below), "Rattlesnakin' Daddy" and the lovely acoustic album closer, "Play That Guitar Rag". Jorn Anderson on drums and David Rose on bass round out his trio, Colin Linden & friends are on hand musically as well for Rhythms Of Love . He's on Stony Plain now and this is his seventh album overall, but that number doesn't count four collections, three of which also included new songs. Check them all out at www.davidwilcoxrocks.com, an excellent website that includes guitar tablatures and audio clips.
Long John Baldry Trio Live Stony Plain SPCD 1268/Warner Music Of Canada
A mostly acoustic outing in front of an appreciative audience last year in Hamburg, Germany constitutes Long John Baldry's fourth Stony Plain album. Joining him are Butch Coulter, a long time accompanist, on harp, and Matt Taylor, a promising young English guitar player hired just before the tour. The material spans Baldry's entire career, from Lead Belly songs he grew up with, to "Flying" and "It Ain't Easy" from the Rod Stewart/Elton John-produced rocking blues albums of the seventies, to more recent songs from those Stony Plain albums. Baldry plays his twelve-string and Taylor a not-overly-intrusive electric one through the generous 67-minute set that has lots of variety and lots of fine harp work from Coulter, whose "Moondance In Tajikistan" is actually Van Morrison's "Moondance" done as a harp solo. The otherwise-unidentified Christina Lux duets appropriately on "Black Girl" and Taylor gets vocal turns on Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's "Walk On" and his own ballad "Blue Valentine". Baldry banters easily with the audience in English and German and generally does his current "thing" which to me is getting dangerously close to self-parody. I hope he's saving his more committed vocal work for the Lead Belly tribute CD he's working on.
Raoul & The Big Time Big Time
Blues Indie
This band is only a couple of years old and already has this year's Stony Plain New Artist Maple Blues Award. A debut album as good as this one will take them a huge step forward. They are: increasingly busy actor Raoul Bhaneja on vocals, harp and most of the songwriting; Ka-Cheong Liu, bass; Thomas Bona, drums and Darren Gallen, guitar. Big Time Blues was recorded live off the floor at Alec Fraser's Liquid Sound Studio and what a marvellous idea that was - the enthusiasm that this trio generates at live performances fairly jumps off the CD. Add to that the fact that eight of the thirteen songs here are band originals, two written with co-producer Terry Wilkins and you get some idea of why they are generating some "buzz". If you haven't heard them, they play in the Little Walter/Rod Piazza stripped down-swing blues style and that's why original material is so important - there's an awful lot of competition and recording history to deal with here. "All I Gotta Do" is all the evidence you need really, with its roaring tempo and clever lyric but there is more: "So Far" is the other Terry Wilkins co-write and it stretches their sound in a more sophisticated direction; Billy Boy Arnold's "Been Gone Too Long" brings them back into the blues fold; Bhaneja's "$2 Bill", with just Wilkins on bass and Gallen on guitar has a sobering lyric on the likelihood of his getting any money at all(a $2 bill, really!) and closing with "Only Thing", almost rockabilly in style with some great dynamics and more great lyrics. Check out a great new band with a new album at The Silver Dollar Room on November 3 and visit www.raoulbhaneja.com.
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith Blues From The Heart Juke Joint 002
Same studio, same time frame, same production philosophy: Willie "Big Eyes" Smith records his second album for Juke Joint Records. The Northern Blues Legends are also back, this time slightly reduced in number with Jack de Keyzer on guitar; Al Lerman, harp; Michael Fonfara, piano and Alec Fraser, bass. Blues From The Heart is more no nonsense Chicago Blues and the major improvement here over Nothin' But The Blues Y'all is that the studio setting allows much more control over the recording. This is especially obvious on Smith's vocals (singing drummers are notoriously difficult to record in clubs). The playing, as might be expected with this group of veterans, is top notch and if you ask any of them how things went, they'll quickly tell you it was one of the best recording sessions they've ever done. The ensemble playing is so tight it's hard to pick highlights and the new songs are much like Snooky Pryor's new ones, they just feel like they've been played for decades: "Big Rear End" romps along nicely, "Watch Your Enemies" has some good advice, "The Sun Goes Down" has some lovely slide work from Jack, as does "Can't Rest For Worry". We may not have needed another "Chicago Bound" but "Big Eyes" personalizes the lyrics and the performance comes very close indeed to the Jimmy Rogers original. There are two instrumentals, "Greasy Spoon", for Al's harp & "Smokin' The Joint"). I guess in view of the next album in this column, I shouldn't forget "One Day `Til Christmas" with its not everyone looks forward to this day lyrics. This one is unreservedly recommended and I hope you can make it to one of the events listed in the ad on page 8.
Various Artists Stony Plain's Christmas Blues Stony Plain SPCD 1269/Warner Music Of Canada
Much like that "other" blues label, Alligator, Stony Plain has been stockpiling Christmas blues songs and now has enough for this package. Nine are new to disc and the other five are re-issued from other albums. With all the work Duke Robillard has been doing for the label, it's no surprise he's all over this one, with six of the fourteen songs. So we have Jay McShann's "K.C. Christmas Prayer" and "Spoon's Christmas Blues" from their albums, new songs from Maria Muldaur, Rosco Gordon and Billy Boy Arnold singing with the band plus "Duke's Christmas", a new one from the man himself. The oldest song here, but still a treat, is "Switchin' In The Kitchen" by Asleep At The Wheel with Roomful Of Blues, from their 1985 LP Pasture Prime. New homegrown performances are from Big Dave McLean ("Santa Come Down", with Tim Williams); Long John Baldry (Lead Belly's "On A Christmas Day" with a public school choir); The Rockin' Highliners ("What Do You Really Want For Christmas?") and Kristi Johnston ("Is This Gonna Last?"). Paul James' "Crazy Little Kitten For Christmas" and David Wilcox' "Mama" aren't new but certainly belong here. All in all, a nice package to listen to before and on that special day.
Geoff Muldaur Password Hightone HCD8125/Festival
Geoff Muldaur has been on the scene since the early sixties, first recording with Jim Kweskin's Jug Band where he met his first wife, Maria. Quite a few albums followed and then a seventeen year absence that ended in 1997 when Bob Neuwirth asked him to join him on an Italian tour. He decided to record a new album, The Secret Handshake, that also forms the template for this one: a stunning combination of new arrangements of old songs, some originals and a desire to blur or ignore boundaries. He also asks old friends to join in in these careful arrangements, sometimes as many as ten or twelve per song making the guest list longer than this review. One song can serve as an example: Charlie Patton heard a record of Sophie Tucker singing a show tune, "Some Of These Days" which he in turn recorded as a blues, Paul Rishell, in his version, slowed it down to an anthem-like pace and Muldaur then came up with this arrangement for strings and accordion(!), played by Van Dyke Parks. We obviously don't know what Patton would have thought of it but I think he might have been happy to return the favour. Similarly, Sleepy John Estes' "Drop Down Mama" gets a "Kurt Weill-like treatment" (Muldaur's words). "K.C. Moan" by The Memphis Jug Band (from the Harry Smith Anthology) gets an almost choral arrangement of usual instruments, by John Sebastian's J-Band joined by The McGarrigle Sisters and Neuwith, among others. Bessie Smith's "At The Christmas Ball", in the version here, has a vocal by Clare Muldaur who is Geoff's daughter but not Maria's, although the sound of her voice will get you racing for the booklet to check! This is an unusual album, well worth the investment if you're up to it, and I've chosen to mention only the blues songs here!
King Ernest Blues Got Soul Fat Possum 80334/Epitaph
Another new venture for Fat Possum - a soul blues album. And a very good one, too. Unfortunately, "King" Ernest (Baker) died in a car accident, at only 61 years of age, just as this album was finished, leaving a recorded legacy of a few singles and only two albums for almost forty years of singing. The other one, 1997's King Of Hearts (Evidence), by the way, is almost as good. A pure singer who worked most recently in the Los Angeles area, his album features LA players such as Rick Holmgren and Steve Mugalian, on guitar and drums, from Rod Piazza's band as well as a full horn section. The songs are by King Ernest and the band and the quality is pretty high but my favourites include the opening "Suffer And Stay", "House Where Nobody Lives" (by Tom Waits, who should get a blues tribute album of his own) and "Fallin' Down On My Face With The Blues".
- John Valenteyn, jayvee@ican.net
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