New Releases -
July 2001
Harry Manx
Dog My Cat NorthernBlues NBM004/Festival
A highlight of last March's Canadian Music Week, this world traveller and former Canadian now makes his home in Saltspring Island BC and is one of the newest members of the rapidly expanding NorthernBlues roster. Manx brings an unusual variation
to the arsenal of the acoustic bluesman: ten years living in Japan and a five-year apprenticeship with the legendary Indian Mohan Veena
player, V. M. Bhatt. The Mohan Veena is an Indian classical stringed instrument played with a kind of slide and hearing
Bhatt's Grammy-winning disc with Ry
Cooder, Meeting By The River (still available on Water Lily Acoustics), was the inspiration for Manx's journey to India to seek him out. Manx uses it on four of the album's thirteen songs, playing lap steel on the others. These
others bring the music of Kelly Joe Phelps very much to mind and he is in fact thanked in the album's notes, although Manx's songs are much less obviously "poetic". Most of the songs on
Dog My Cat are originals and fit well with the quiet arrangements of "Can't
Be Satisfied", "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Shame, Shame, Shame". The Indian influences on his lap steel playing show up most on the lover's plea "Bring That
Thing (back home)" which includes the line that gives album its title, it might even work as a single for
radio as might "Lay Down My Worries". Another highlight is "Sunday Morning Ascension", with its slide figure that begs for band accompaniment. This blending of influences is a major new dimension in slide playing and I hope he continues to develop it for years
to come. Manx will be playing several times during the Labatt Blues & BBQ Festival at
Harbourfront, where you can check him out live before acquiring his CD. Courtesy of Festival,
Dog My Cat should also be available at a store near you or from northernblues.com.
Manx' own website is www.harrymanx.com.
Powder Blues Swinging The Blues
Peerless PRLSCD 52001
For the first new Powder Blues album in a decade, Tom Lavin decided to feature songs long associated with the band but the way he always wanted them to sound, with a big band and the learning-on-the-job musical knowledge to use the instruments to advantage. These are also not just new recordings of the originals - these new arrangements incorporate the results of over 25 years of performing. The charts are by Lavin and Bill Runge and most of the songs feature six horns. It seemed odd to me to re-record "Caledonia" and a host other familiar tunes with so many other versions around and even your own still in print but then I decided to listen to this as a jazz album with its context of soloing and arranging within "repertory standards" and it made more sense. I'm also sure that Lavin wanted to prove to the likes of Brian Setzer and Colin James that Powder Blues has been doing this, and doing this well, for many more years than they have. The jazz analogy also will help prepare us for the next album, recorded at the same time, with a still bigger band and jazzier tunes. If you need another reason to check this one out, Lavin has apparently taken quite a lot of care with the actual recording of Swinging The Blues, so audiophiles take note. Check out www.peerlessmusic.com.
Ken Hamm Cross The
River North Track NTCD2K01/Festival
Ken Hamm has been working the gray area between blues and folk for many years now and a new journey is always eagerly awaited. He does not disappoint and has brought along a couple of friends: Donna Konsorado on banjo & harmony vocals and long time accompanist Bruce Everett on harmonica, panpipes & flute. Four songs interest the column this time: a solo "Last Steam Engine Train" by the late John Fahey; a fine version of "Hambone" Willie Newbern's "Roll and Tumble", with a particularly effective banjo part; Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues" and the fingerpicking showcase, "Police Dog Blues" by Blind Blake. Hamm will be in Ontario this month, check the listings page for details.
Harpdog Brown and The Bloodhounds Once In A Howlin' Moon VAT VR01
The VAT pub and nightclub is in Red Deer, Alberta, and this is the first in planned series of albums from performances there. Edmontonian Mark "Harpdog" Brown(e) gets pride of place, leading a quartet with a special guest for his third album. He's on vocals & harp; Charlie Sures is on guitar; Gary Latimer is on bass and Grant Stoval, blues radio show co-host, is on drums. The special guest throughout is Powder Blues' keyboard man Willie MacCalder, with duet vocals on "Pink Champagne" & "Farmer John" and a piano feature, his "Flip Flop Bop". Brown is an excellent singer and bandleader who reminds me a lot of the late Hock Walsh and he has put together a program that you can often hear in clubs but seldom so well played - light on originals perhaps but heavy on blues feeling. Brown is also no slouch as a harp player and seven of the songs here are by Little Walter, Big Walter, James Cotton, et al. The one original, "How Come?", is a treat and the band should get an award for appropriate and tasteful playing throughout. Well-recorded by the club, this is a fine album to have, especially if you're not going to be in Red Deer to join in the fun in the near future! Their website is www.thevatpub.com and check out also www.harpdogbrown.com.
Ronnie Douglas Blues
Band Big Brother RDCD007/Indie
The winners of the1999 Talent Search are debuting this studio album in their hometown of Rama, ON as we go to press. They had previously made available a CD of their prize-winning set at The Silver Dollar and they had a three song demo that they used to enter the contest. Big Brother shows a rapidly maturing band with Douglas moving more confidently into songwriting. He draws here on the music of his childhood, the music introduced to him by his big brother Larry, and around this First Nations village it was jazz, country, blues and R&B. There isn't much country on this CD, but some nice soul singing starts things off here with "On My Way" and "You Don't Know". The basic quartet of Douglas on guitar & vocals; Dave Hewitt, drums; Peter Loudon, bass and Greg Duncan, harp is augmented by Bob Federer of Wayne Buttery's band, The Groove Project and his chops on the B3 provide a nice jazzy touch to the instrumental "Highway 44" and the good slow blues "Good Time Baby". The organ also adds a great deal to the new recording of Douglas' best song so far, "Why Am I Drinking?", featured on both the previous offerings. Contact Douglas at 705-326-6308 or rdouglas@bconnex.net.
Barry Mack Pray To The Father, Pray To The Sun HOA 1007/Indie
It's a pity Mack didn't bring the rhythm section from this album with him for this year's Talent Search. Geoff Arsenault, no stranger to Torontonians, on drums and Tom Easley on acoustic bass, provide a drive that simply was not there at the Silver Dollar. On three of Mack's songs, "Dusk", "Sundown" and "Don't Know My Name", they create a sound not unlike that of Fat Possum Records - maybe there's a Hill Country around Halifax we haven't yet heard about! With trance-like rhythms under a slashing slide guitar and Mack's minimal but very effective lyrics, they certainly found the groove. The other songs, four of them non-originals, don't have quite the same effect but I would search this one out just for those three songs! Contact Keith Bradley at kbradley@hfx.eastlink.ca or 902-422-3853.
Saffire-The Uppity Blues
Women Ain't Gonna Hush Alligator ALCD 4880/Warner Music Of Canada
Album number seven for this trio adds a whole batch of new songs to their repertoire that will delight fans old and new. From the opening song on through, there is no hint that they enjoying themselves any less than when they began - "Ain't Gonna Hush" may have began life as an answer song to Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush' but it plainly applies to this outing. The always-present social commentary is Gaye's "Blues For Sharon Bottoms"; the saucy by "It Takes A Mighty Good Man", "Footprints On The Ceiling", "Let The Gin Do The Talking", "Birthday Suit" and "Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox", with its hilarious bits that beg live performance. There's usually also a just bitter song to go with all the bittersweet and "Happy Birthday To Me" might just drive you to the bottle! So, once again a highly-recommended album from Gaye Adegbalola, Ann Rabson and Andra Faye, my only reservation being that some of the songs are now so graphic that innuendo and euphemism may become endangered species.
SuPeR ChiKaN Shoot That Thang RoosterBlues ROB-2645
James "SuPeR ChiKaN" Johnson is Big Jack Johnson's nephew and he seems to be recording for two labels at once. His Fat Possum CD was reviewed here a while back and Shoot That Thang is his second for Jim O'Neal, who sold his company to Bottled Majic Music and stays on as A&R Director. BMM now has distribution through KOCH International in the States for the new Ike Turner album, maybe this album will be easier to get here soon too. As on Blues Come Home To Roost, Super Chikan likes writing little vignettes about life in the Delta, although the songs are rather stronger here. He also has a couple of very good more-normal songs in "Guilty Man", "Don't Mess With The Blues" and "Wrong To Sing The Blues". He generally performs with guitar but overdubs piano and harmonica here with his Fighting Cocks, Dione Thomas and Harvell Thomas adding drums, bass and group vocals. Make sure you catch this slice of the Mississippi Delta on Saturday night at Harbourfront's Labatt's Blues & BBQ Festival.
Solomon Burke King Of Blues `n' Soul Fuel 2000/True North TND 242/Universal
Johnny Taylor funksoulbrother Fuel 2000/True North TND 225/Universal
Two more in Fuel 2000's reissue series made available here by True North at domestic prices. The Solomon Burke album culls songs from Burke's early `90's CD's for the now defunct Black Top label. Those were excellent albums and if you don't have them, this will do nicely. The origin of the Taylor material is less certain and it may not have been issued before. After the demise of Stax Records in the early `70's, Taylor continued to record with his producer, Don Davis, and it appears these ten songs date from this period, before he had the hit "Disco Lady" on Columbia in 1976. Wherever they came from, I'm glad they're here - this is top flight soul blues, with some of Motown's best session men on hand. A year after his passing, Taylor's contribution to music is still not fully appreciated - except in the American South, where his albums continue to sell in amazing numbers.
With unlimited space, and time, I would have included these albums:
Tabby Thomas, Eddie Bo & Raful
Neal
The Hoodoo Kings Telarc 83532/Universal
Bennie Green Green's Blues Telarc 83539/Universal
Roomful Of Blues Watch When You Go Bullseye Blues & Jazz 9638/Universal
Bill Perry Fire It Up Blind Pig BPCD 5069/Stony Plain/Warner
Deborah Coleman Livin' On Love Blind Pig BPCD 5070/Stony Plain/Warner
Dave Hole Outside Looking In Alligator ALCD 4881/Warner Music Of Canada
Kelly Joe Phelps Sky Like A Broken Clock Rykodisc 310612
Catie Curtis My Shirt Looks Good On You Rykodisc 310613
Sugar Ray & the Bluetones
Rockin' Sugar Daddy Severn 0012
Jeff Lang everything is still bobby dazzler BODA-007
- John Valenteyn, jvalenteyn8724@home.com
Toronto Blues Society Copyright _ 2001