April
2004
Jim Byrnes Fresh Horses Black Hen BHCD14752/Universal
Byrnes is one of the most familiar faces in Canadian blues because his acting/TV hosting is a full-time activity. He has once again taken the time to put together a CD. His last one, `96's That River (Stony Plain) won him a JUNO and this one will certainly be in contention this year. Fresh Horses combines Byrnes' superb blues sense and vocals with the genre-crossing expertise of Zubot & Dawson, the fiddle/guitar wizards. Somewhat unusually, the CD opens with a slow blues, the fine new original "B's Blues" that however establishes the mood perfectly with Byrnes' raspily effective vocals. The blues tempo picks up with the title song, an instrumental from one of the best writers of these, Steve Dawson (just listen to their Chicken Scratch on True North for proof). The rest of the band is Chris Gestrin on organ, Elliot Polsky on drums and Andrew Downing on acoustic bass. In the best songster tradition, they tackle Bob Dylan's "Just like Tom Thumb's Blues" and Neil Young's "For the Turnstiles" before getting back to the blues with a sterling version of Muddy's "I Can't Be Satisfied". The stunning new "12 Questions" may be the CD's best song, a powerful road song that will keep you thinking. The Mississippi Sheiks' "I've Got Blood in my Eyes for You" is another performance that'll keep you going to the repeat button. "Postcard from Mexico" adds some Tex-Mex flavour before another fine original slow blues "Love is Just a Gamble" puts us back in the groove. The Appalachian standard "East Virginia" closes out this fine CD. Let's hope the next one is sooner.
Hot Toddy the Salty Sessions, Vol. 1 Hot Toddy HT04
The allusion might well be to the Basement Tapes. Hot Toddy Trio and friends set themselves up with modern recording equipment in the friendly Salty Towers in St. Andrews NB and just let the tapes roll. The result is a delightful CD of acoustic blues. The informality of the setting shines through allowing different combinations of the players to present the new songs in their best light. Instrumentally, Thom Swift and Joel LeBlanc are on various guitars and harmonica with Tom Easley on acoustic bass. Geoff Arsenault guests on drums and Bill Stevenson on piano. The vocals show how collegial the proceedings were with Geoff playing acoustic guitar and singing his own, presumably autobiographical, "Hired Hand", a bluesy lament perhaps on his chosen career. Stevenson's "Put Your Foot Down To It" is perhaps the most electric song here with the whole group letting loose. Often, though it's just two or three players as on LeBlanc's "Black Fly" or Swift's "Old Dirt Road". "Woodpile" has LeBlanc on lead vocal and harmonica with Arsenault's drums accompanying the group background vocal. "Just Like That", "The Cabin" and "Junkyard Man" are highlight group performances. Check out www.hottoddytrio.com.
Various Artists Ultimate Blues
Collection Warner WTVD60760
Expertly compiled right here in Canada, this set most definitely deserves your consideration. It's in Warner's Ultimate series, which has three Soul volumes, so perhaps we can treat the "ultimate" tag as a marketing device. It is, however, an exceptional 2-CD survey of modern blues, not restricted to the Warner catalogue and except for the presence of only one woman is a far better sampling than many others I could list. There are two Canadian bands per disc: the stomping "Mannish Boy" by Muddy with The Band from The Last Waltz and Colin's James and Linden with "Fixin' To Die" from the great acoustic blues CD of that name on disc one. Downchild with "Almost" and King Biscuit Boy with his marvelous "Step Back Baby" from the aka Richard Newell Stony Plain album that has yet to make it to CD round out disc two. There are other gems here as well: "Ray's Blues" from Ray Charles early days on Atlantic, Ry Cooder's version of Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark is the Night" from his first solo album and Otis Rush's "Gambler's Blues" from Mourning in the Morning to mention but three. It would take a comprehensive collection indeed to rationalize away acquiring this one.
Buzz Thompson & The Honeybees It's Yesterday Once More BTHB
Peterborough's Brian "Buzz" Thompson is Ronnie Hawkins' longtime guitarist. In 1996, he released a CD of R&B standards recorded live at the Red Dog entitled Find Out For Yourself. He, and his new wife Jeanne, have been recording original songs ever since. It's Yesterday Once More is very much in the Hawkins style in that it's a mix of blues, boogie, country and ballads. The blues & boogie songs are of most interest here with "Boogie Shoes", "Waitin's Killin' Time" and "Out There" leading the way. Honourable mention, though, has to go to the country rocker "Don't Withdraw All Your Love" which cleverly compares love to banking. Thompson plays guitars & harp with J.P. Hovercraft on bass and Brent Bailey on keyboards and Doug Hewie on drums as the Honeybees. Robin Hawkins guests on the closer "Life on the Fly" which they characterize as cowboy metal funk rap (!) - it must've been fun to record. The web site is www.BuzzThompson.ca.
The James Rogers Band Wanna Go Home Mak 012676
This is an excellent young Vancouver band with a modern, horn-led sound. It seems natural that they should record in Blue Wave Studios as they sound very much like early Powder Blues Band. Tom Lavin even guests on lead guitar and vocals on one of the best performances here, "Hear That Guitar Ring", a Lavin Brothers original from Powder Blues' first album. There are other similarities with Rogers playing lead guitar, singing and writing the original songs. He's the producer of this CD as well. Tom Gould provides the saxophone section; Ivan Duben Jr. is on drums, Jac Garret on bass and Winfred Ballard on congas & percussion. Rogers sings with an easy confidence that sometimes reminds one of Robert Cray. Occasionally he copies his source too closely, as in Albert King's "Bay Area Blues" and his vocal on "Why Get Up" pales beside Kim Wilson's but these are quibbles. On his own songs, of which there are five, add to the impression that this is a band with a future. Visit www.jamesrogersband.com.
Curtis Salgado Strong Suspicion
Shanachie SH9036
Many years ago, Salgado & Robert Cray started a blues band together. Salgado has not recorded as frequently or as famously but has nonetheless put together a series of fine albums in his career. This one continues his pursuit of a harder soul style than the one that has served Young Bob so well. The Portland OR-based band includes wonderful horns and Sonny Landreth on slide guitar. Bekka Bramlett leads the background vocalists, duetting on Lloyd Jones' "Can't Stop Lovin'". The excellent "Money Must Think I'm Dead", a song Salgado co-wrote with Rick Estrin of Little Charlie & the Nightcats is here too ("#2" is on their That's Big!). He hasn't left downhome blues behind entirely, as his version of a lovely slow blues Leon Russell wrote for Freddie King, "Help Me Through The Day" shows. His own "The Sum of Something" is a more uptempo R&B shouter type of song. You can check out the songs for yourself, though, at the Silver Dollar Room on April 24th.
Tangle Eye Alan Lomax's Southern Journey
Remixed Zoe 1024/Universal
Scott Billington had as one of his responsibilities at Rounder Records the job of supervising the packaging some of the Lomax Recordings into the Southern Journey Series. It seems he kept some of the songs he heard in mind for special consideration. This CD consists of those songs remixed, with new musical arrangements and the original digitally processed where necessary to fit those arrangements. Before you gag, let me hasten to point out that this has been done with taste, good judgement and with the approval of the Lomax Estate. Proper composing credit has also been given to the original performer in this "modernizing" of one the great legacies of folk music. Tangle Eye is Billington, Steve Reynolds and a floating group of musicians who worked on the project including Corey Harris, Davell Crawford, Henry Butler and George Porter Jr. Ed Lewis' 1959 version of "John Henry" now features Butler on piano, Tony Trischka on banjo and Reynolds on bass. The digital additions include a rhythm accompaniment, some echo and repetition. Lewis' plaintive vocal is remarkably effective in this setting but I'm not sure they needed to add the 78rpm surface noise effect. A great way to open the CD. Fred McDowell's "Wished I Was In Heaven Sitting Down" originally was just Fred and his guitar. Here he would find himself in a band with Billington on harmonica, David Farrell on snare drum and Vic Shepherd on guitar, plus, of course, the computer. Billington blows exactly in the style of Johnny Woods, a longtime McDowell accompanist. There are studio & digital effects throughout and the fragment with Denise and Mattie Gardner is worked in also. I don't think the original is discredited in any way here. I could go on for all twelve songs here but I think you get the point. In spite of the diversity of the source material, Tangle Eye has managed to come up with a coherent whole. If you get a chance to, even if you're long-time Lomax collector, you should make every effort to hear this CD.
Various Artists White Line Flyers, If This is Love & Bare Blues Blind Pig/Stony Plain/Warner and Crucial Slide Guitar Blues, Crucial Live! Blues & Crucial Texas Blues Alligator/Fusion
Some choice blues-on-a-budget CD's here - drawn from two of the finest catalogues available. While not everyone will approve of the cover art for the Blind Pig series, there's no denying the quality of the music. White Line Flyers is subtitled "mile melting road raves". If This is Love…I'd Rather Have the Blues is subtitled "wry tales of love gone sour" and Bare Blues is subtitled "instrumental gems". That's about all that needs to be said. The Alligators have more explanatory titles and equally great music. Get them for friends or for your car and you might also discover some older CD's you missed the first time.
- John Valenteyn, jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
Toronto Blues Society Copyright _ 2004