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April
2006
Mel Brown Blues-A Beautiful Thing Electro-Fi/Festival
The first choice this month is Mel Brown's first studio album in five years. Mel is in fine voice on an excellent selection of songs and The Homewreckers are in top form. A perfect
Jimmy Reed-styled original, "Take Your Time" starts things off with some delightful spoken/sung comments for his partner of the evening.
The title song is up next, a slow instrumental that
B.B. King would be proud to record and it is appropriately titled! One of my favourite
Bobby Bland hits, "I Wouldn't Treat A Dog" gets a new arrangement here.
It doesn't quite bump the original but it comes close. Mel, of course, was the guitarist in the Bland touring band for over ten years. Mel goes solo and back to Clarksdale MS for a song he learned from his father. "Red
Cross Store" is pure down-home blues - it doesn't get any better.
Mel and his father, John H. "Bubba"
Brown, recorded together in a rather more sophisticated style, on
Mel Brown's Fifth on Impulse in 1971. "Sundown" takes us back to that jazzy period before his solo piano
introduces us to a new slow blues, "Make Love To Your Mind". "I Wanna See My Baby" heads into funk territory with a growling vocal by Mel with
Randall Coryell guesting on drums. We stay in contemporary territory with
Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster", with its masterful guitar solo over a reggae-tinged back up. "Karansa's Boogie" takes us out with a nice little original boogie instrumental.
The Homewreckers are John Lee on keyboards,
Al Richardson or Leo Valvassori on bass and
Jim Boudreau on drums. An excellent new album, then, and I hope he doesn't wait five years to do the next one! I
would also like to remind you of the comprehensive biography and discography that
Sandra Tooze prepared for Mel's Neck Bones &
Caviar CD. It will serve to remind you of the treasure we have in our midst.
JW- Jones just goes from strength to strength. Album #4 continues the collaboration with tenor sax man
Brian James (Asselin), who contributed so mightily to the last one. There are fifteen songs totaling well
over an hour of dancing feet. There is a pronounced `50's feel to the CD, especially on the opener, "(We'll be) Kissing in 29 Days", a storming rockabilly original with a smoking guitar solo and with
Geoff Dage supplying the requisite Jerry Lee
Lewis piano. Jones & James outdid themselves with the horn charts too. JW-Jones' vocals show
Kim Wilson to be a major vocal influence. On guitar, JW-Jones may be one of our most exciting
players, with an original style that suits the big band arrangements here. Mr. Wilson is not a guest on this one, though, and
David "Fathead" Newman is and his august presence is on three of the songs here. The large horn
section gives the album a Roomful of Blues feel but the charts are very different. Fathead's first appearance is on the stellar jazz instrumental, "Parasomnia" and he could very easily have been on the next song, "Fly To
You", which has a remarkable Ray
Charles sound. He does play on "Hallelujah I Love Her So, the Charles hit and a fine performance it is. "Got Me Chasin'" shows JW-Jones has the
Jimmy Reed sound down too, as the horns take a break. "Pretty Little Sweet Thing" is another highlight, a rocker with strong horns and a striking guitar solo. "No Love" has a tricky beat and a whammy bar guitar solo
a la Ike Turner. "Here She Comes" is yet
another rocker and Fathead's third appearance. It doesn't close the album, though, because there is a hidden instrumental track with the full band soloing in turn. Don't eject this one too soon. Be sure to read the current edition
of Blues Revue Magazine, Issue #99, for the feature on the J-W Jones Blues Band.
It is difficult to imagine the Canadian blues & roots music scene without Stony Plain Records and to realize that it is celebrating its
30th anniversary is a testament not only to its management but also to the talent
here. As with the earlier, 20th &
25th, packages, there are two CDs of highlights and previously unavailable goodies. The new part this time is a third disc, a DVD. CD1 is drawn from the folk & roots part of the catalogue and
CD2 from the blues & R&B. As usual, I'll just assume you at least know about the previously available songs and concentrate on the new stuff. We go from
Duke Robillard to Maria Muldaur to
Ronnie Earl before we come to the first of the gems.
Robert Nighthawk, one of the more restless of wandering blues men, recorded in Toronto in the early 60's. The tapes have recently been found and will be released soon. "Kansas City Blues"
will whet our appetite for a new album from this under-recorded legend.
Downchild, with Hock Walsh is represented by "When I Say Jump" from
Gone Fishin' and Hock is in fine form! Ronnie Earl & Duke
Robillard's recent The Duke Meets The
Earl was already chock full of guitar excitement, but there was more. "Don't Take Everybody For Your Friend" adds fully seven more minutes to the list, with the added bonus of a
Jimmy McGriff B3 solo. After a Big Dave
McLean tune, the late King Biscuit Boy is up with a song that apparently did not make it onto
Richard Newell aka King Biscuit Boy, a 1988 Stony Plain LP awaiting digitization. With
Jack de Keyzer and Stan Szelest on board, "Ain't Gonna Do It" will make the wait a little easier.
Billy Boy Arnold, the Chicago harmonica ace, is one of the legends produced by Duke Robillard. At 8:20, "Woman Stealer" was too
long for Boogie `n' Shuffle, but I'll take it here! After some early
Ellen McIlwaine, Doug James &
Sonny Rhodes, an appetizer for the new live CD by
Jeff Healey & The Jazz Wizards with Chris
Barber. Their eight-minute version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" will get you ready for that one.
The DVD has some serious treats: ten videos that you probably never saw on television, with
Rita Chiarelli, Amos Garrett, Jim
Byrnes and Long John Baldry for us blues hounds. The eleven-minute finale from
A Special Evening with Duke Robillard &
Friends, a segment of Jay McShann in
rehearsal for Still Jumpin' The Blues and an interview with label founder
Holger Petersen on the beginnings of the company round out this disc.
This should be available at three discs for the price of two and available everywhere.
A new one by Duke is always a treat and this time it's a special treat for fans of his guitar playing, as you might guess from its title. From the dirty opening notes of "Do the Memphis Grind", you just know this is
going to be a string bender's delight. It's now almost 40 years since he founded
Roomful of Blues at the age of 17 and he has culled a few choice moments from that history that showcase his heroes and influences. You want
down-home country blues? Well, Lil' Son
Jackson's "Gambler Blues" shows Duke got that covered. From his live show comes "Blues A Rama", a 16-minute tribute to 10 blues heroes cycling through the keys. Unlike
Ike Turner's famous 8-minute "All The Blues All The Time" medley, this one has spoken introductions by Duke. A couple of the songs are re-workings from
Temptation, with "This Dream" now ending with an intriguing raga-like
workout. "Danny Boy" is a clinker in the set, the obvious guitar expertise fails to overcome the fact that the song is out of place here. A minor quibble indeed.
Harmonica Shah Listen At Me Good Electro-Fi/Festival
This Detroit-based bluesman came up here for his second Electro-Fi release and a smart move it
was. Jack de Keyzer is on guitar throughout, joined on four songs by
Mel Brown. Julian Fauth is on piano, with
Alec Fraser on bass. Willie "Big Eyes"
Smith or Bob Vespaziani is on drums. This unit suits Shah to a tee. De Keyzer especially seems to be Shah's second voice. Shah did bring along some mighty fine songs with him from
Detroit. "Bullets Don't Care" may be about his hometown but it seems all too real for our hometown. "I've Got To Help My Own Damn Self" and "Lies, Lies, Lies" are less topical but excellent blues nonetheless. He shares
with the late Wild Child Butler a penchant for having more than the usual number of words for a given line of music and you sometimes find yourself wondering if he's going to get to the end of his thought before he runs
out of music. He always makes it, thanks to this crack band.
If you're feeling deprived because you haven't made it to a West Side Chicago Blues Club, worry no longer. Delmark has thoughtfully provided the next best thing. You too can now go to Vern's Friendly Lounge
whenever you want to. Tail Dragger carries on the
Howlin' Wolf tradition and has since 1966, with tutoring from the Wolf himself who also gave him his stage name. While all the songs here are Tail Dragger originals, what you
get is a program of solid Chicago blues with Billy
Branch on harp, Lurrie Bell and Kevin
Shanahan on guitars, Willie Young, tenor sax,
Bob Stroger, bass and Kenny Smith on
drums. Jimmy Dawkins guests most
dramatically on the title track. With a band like this Tail Dragger can do his thing and he is a consummate entertainer. The DVD is some fifteen minutes longer than its accompanying CD. There is an extra song but also his song
intros run longer as he wanders through the appreciative crowd with his wireless mic. For those of you so equipped, this DVD has full Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS and high resolution stereo. Also available from Delmark
is the Mississippi Heat show at Rosa's Lounge, the CD version of which was reviewed a couple of columns ago. It's called
One Eye Open. I don't mean to imply that you need not go to Chicago, or indeed that this
replaces any live show, but this is a fine production, a five-camera shoot, directed by
Tom Koester and produced by Steve
Wagner and a major addition to your collection.
Eddie Boyd Mellow Hello-Eddie
Boyd in Finland Blues North
A closing note from some fellow Finnish blues fans. The
Finnish Blues Society has prepared a CD of previously unavailable recordings by the Chicago legend. Boyd was featured on the recent
American Folk Blues Festival DVDs, the ones drawn from German TV shows in the early sixties. He enjoyed his time there so much, he moved to Europe, ending up in Helsinki, Finland a few years later. He lived there until he passed
away in 1994, mentoring a generation of blues fans.
Esa Kuloniemi, known to some as T-Bone
Ed of Honey B & The T-Bones, compiled this excellent tribute from performances for the
Finnish Broadcasting Company, featuring Boyd backed by some fine local players. The songs, with several new originals, are very good indeed, with "Praise to Helsinki" especially so. A discography of Boyd's Finnish years is thoughtfully provided. Thanks to
Pertti Nurmi, we have a limited quantity at the office for the special price of $10. Contact Stefan at
info@torontobluessociety.com.
- John Valenteyn,
jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
JW-Jones Blues Band Kissing in 29
Days NorthernBlues/Festival
Various Artists 30 Years of Stony
Plain Stony Plain/Warner
Duke Robillard Guitar
Groove-A-Rama Stony Plain/Warner
Tail Dragger My Head is Bald Delmark DVD/Festival
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