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May
2005
Mississippi Hippies Mississippi
Hippies Big Smoke
Perhaps oddly named for a local band, the teaming of
John Dickie with Gord and Hugh
Leggat, of Foot in Coldwater fame, has resulted in a smoking album of New Orleans-flavoured rocking blues. With John at his
high-powered best on vocals and harp, Gord Leggat on guitars, Hugh Leggat on bass & guitar,
Mike Sloski on drums, Norm Brown and
Rob Gusevs on keys, Gord Myers on trombone,
Chris Mitchell on saxes and Pat
Perez on tenor, this is one exciting band. All the songs are by Leggat/Leggat/Dickie and particular attention goes to the
Wolf-styled "Dangerous Curves" and the churning, harp-led "Don't You Touch My Hair". Dickie gets to turn down the power and turn up
the soul on "Ain't Got the Blues" with its great horns. "Luv Pad" starts out as a solo country blues but soon charges up to turn into a fine full-band rocker. This one and a couple of the others seem to have rather more firepower than
the lyric requires but this too is a New Orleans tradition and the songs sure are fun to listen to. Every one shows careful attention to the arrangements with subtle and clever shifts in instrumentation everywhere. It's a pleasure to report
that all the obvious effort has paid off. This band was supposed to open for and then back
Long John Baldry on his summer tour but now he's in a Vancouver hospital. Let's hope he recovers soon and that many other opportunities
arise to see this band. Get this CD from them at
www.mississippihippies.com and enjoy.
This band gets better and better! With
Kevin Higgins on guitars and a new rhythm section of
Uli Bohnet on basses and Duncan
McBain on drums and Martin Aucoin on keys, Mr.
McAneney turns in a nicely varied program
of originals and covers. The title song is the Brownie
McGhee tune electrified and taken at a breakneck pace _ an appropriate choice for a title. There are other fine examples of re-arranging other people's songs to make them your
own: Albert King's "Angel of Mercy" and
Bukka White's "Shake `Em On Down" to mention two. Their own, though, shine as well: "Brown's Line" and "Mimico Bus" leave no doubt as to the west end home of this outfit. Higgins
continues to shine on guitar, impressing with his choices no matter the style of music. There are a couple of soul songs in the mix here that put one of our better vocalists in a different light: "Watcha Gonna Do" and "Long Gone Train". He
too handles the challenge with ease. "I Heard a Rumour" is a strong band original built on Howling Wolf's `44' riff and the New Orleans standard"Junko Partner" is taken at such a slow tempo you'll hardly recognize it. It works,
though. A hidden track features a strong gospel vocal from Johnny. This is another masterful Liquid Sound production. If you need a reason to visit the west end, this is it. Check the listings and head out! Failing that you can
go www.johnnymaxband.com.
Russell Marsland Dig
Deep RM/Festival
Marsland is a Vancouver guitarist, a session player, who has assembled what could be called an aural documentary as his first solo album. He and keyboard wiz
Chris Gestrin wanted to create a musical soundscape, a picture
of the sounds around them. For us the interesting part is that their soundscape includes the Delta, with its plantations and juke joints. Their version of "Hootchie Cootchie Man", the only non-original, includes a balalaika among its six
or seven guitar parts plus a sax section and rather a lot of percussion. Fortunately Marsland has an excellent blues voice. "When Money Grew on Trees" incorporates processed spoken excerpts, processed to remind you of 78s, over a
slide guitar melody. Recorded train sounds lead us into
David `Hurricane' Hoerl's harmonica/harp contribution for "Traintime", which again has a slide guitar part plus sound effects and percussion. You get the idea. "Warsaw
Blues", though, is a rather good original acoustic blues, without the FX. Something that's not for all tastes but if you like some of
Tom Waits' bluesier efforts you might like this one.
Los Angeles blues man Finis
Tasby was a guest vocalist on Enrico
Crivallero's Electro-Fi CD and here he gets a full album of his own. Now in his sixties, he has had relatively few opportunities to record for a lifetime in the
blues so Electro-Fi's initiative is a welcome one. Especially so for bringing him here to record: Crivallero returns the favour on guitar,
Mel Brown plays guitar & keys, David
Rotundo plays harp, Julian Fauth, piano,
Alec Fraser or Shane Scott, bass and
Jim Boudreau, drums. Tasby's world-weary singing reminds me of
Percy Mayfield, two of whose songs he brought to the sessions, and his own nine show where the CD title came from. They are remarkably
effective glimpses of a blues life and ably supported by this stellar band. From the opening, Westcoast-styled "Let's Have A Ball" with Crivellaro's idiomatic guitar work, to the dead-on
Rice Miller take of "Blues From Down Under".
Rotundo's harp work here and throughout makes one hope for his own Electro-Fi release soon. Fauth's is coming in a couple of months but you can get a taste on ""It's So Sad" where his piano Boudreau's and subtle drums is all Tasby needs.
This is the kind of laid-back setting that Mel Brown excels at and he does not disappoint. His piano work on "Mean Old World", guitar on "Baby Please" and "Save A Place For Me" (perhaps the best song here) and organ on "Ugly
Woman Blues", a long slow blues by Percy Mayfield with some new lyrics, are all highlights. This one's a keeper.
It's been a little while between releases but Shannon's instantly identifiable brand of New Orleans blues funk is back. His "S.U.V." from
Memphis in the Morning won him a Handy
Award for best song of the year in 2002 and a
few of the originals here look to be contenders again, particularly "The Reason". It's a commentary on people not trying very hard to get to get along and it's a good choice for the opening track - it establishes a groove that doesn't let
up. "Swing Tiger Swing", a song about
Tiger Woods, may not strike you as standard blues fare but Shannon makes it work, a rocking groove with fine keyboard work. He has eleven players with him here and the only name you
might recognize is Billy Martin, from Medeski, Martin &
Wood. But such is the depth of talent in New Orleans. Things slow down a bit for the ballad "Perfect World", which I suppose is the flip side to "The Reason". "Phunkville"
is Shannon's mission statement and it'll get you moving too and well before the ten minutes is up. You'll check your player though when he gets to the line `I'm playing with…time'. It seems an impossibly long pause. The
lovely instrumental "The Lights of Caracas (I Didn't Know)" slows things down a bit again with its Spanish-tinged jazz. "Sweet Potato" picks things back up again but we may not have needed the lyric printed for us. "No Religion" is the
closest we get to a blues in the outside New Orleans sense with its "Mannish Boy" references and its incendiary guitar solo (he can play guitar too). "Eleanor Rigby" might seem an odd choice but his arrangement makes it fit. Back to
Phunkville for the last two with "Ignant Stick" being especially good.
Bryan Lee Live &
Dangerous Justin Time JUST2052/Fusion
He was born in Wisconsin, is a lifelong resident of New Orleans and now we can listen to his tenth album for a Montreal label, recorded in Montreal. An unusual story perhaps but whatever its genesis, this CD is worth every
note. For this show at The Spectrum, Lee augmented his rhythm section of
Johnathan `Cujo' Limjuco on bass and Craig
Panosh on drums with Brent Johnson on guitar and
Bruce Katz on keys. Lee's generosity as leader is one key
that makes this all work. Another is the talent around him and a third is the wealth of good material on those nine earlier albums. Every one of the eleven songs on this generous CD draws a roar of support from the crowd.
Particularly effective are "Rocket 88" and "Gave You What You Wanted" but the closers, "Six String Therapy" and "Memphis Bound" which last almost one half hour between them, excel because of the strong soloing. Johnson on his wah wah
pedal or with a slide provides the perfect foil to Lee's imaginative single string work. Katz, one of the most in-demand keyboard players since his days with
Duke Robillard, is a delight throughout. I would not part with his double CD
Live at the Old Absynthe House Bar but as a concert at a larger venue this CD has a vibe all its own.
The last CD, their first for Alligator, was nominated for a Grammy so there may have been a little more pressure than might otherwise have been the case. If that's true it has had a beneficial effect. I think there are some very
strong songs here. "Boomerang" is a case in point. It's the kind of song that just jumps out of the speakers at you and would surely be a radio hit if playlists weren't so tightly controlled. It's also a sign of a slightly different direction for
the band as it's not based, loosely or otherwise, on a tune from the golden age of R&B which has been a mainstay of this outfit since its beginnings some thirty years ago. This has not been to every fan's liking but if the songs are this
good, I'm going to let you know.
"The Love you Lost on the Way", "Two for the Price of Ten"and "Love Grown Cold" all fit into this category. "Sufferin' With the Blues" is an excellent slow blues and the rest of the songs show they haven't left the golden
age entirely behind. Buy with confidence.
A few CDs have been submitted for review here that are also being considered for the Talent Search. I've decided to keep them back until after the Finals in June. - John Valenteyn,
jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
Johnny Max Band Ride and
Roll JMB
Finis Tasby What My Blues Are All
About Electro-Fi 3390/Festival
Mem Shannon I'm from
Phunkville NorthernBlues NBM0029/Festival
Roomful of Blues Standing Room
Only Alligator ALCD 4900/Fusion