Events / Press
Releases / MapleBlues
Magazine / Join TBS / Contact Info
BluesBook
Online / TBS Listserv / Links
/ Live Blues / Background
/ Marketplace
January
2007
Various Artists Saturday Night Blues 20
Years CBC/Universal
Canada's national blues show certainly celebrates in style! It's been on the air for twenty years and many of the shows featured live concerts, recorded around the country by the CBC
staff. This part of the celebration has 33 live performances, by many of our best blues men & women including two more from our Women's Blues Revue.
Jackie Richardson takes Willie
Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle" back home to New Orleans with the band serving up a stunning gumbo from the two years ago and in
Roxanne Potvin's return engagement, "Ain't It a Shame", from
last year's show. Other highlights (there's no room to write about all the songs!) include a masterful
Lightning Hopkins song, "209", from Calgary's
Donald Ray Johnson. He's a soulful blues
singer and hard-touring drummer who should be much better known.
Harry Manx serves up his version of "The Thrill Is Gone" with an all-star group: his own banjo,
Michael Jerome Browne on guitar, Doug
Cox on dobro and Tim Williams on mandolin, from the 2002 Edmonton Folk Festival.
Michael Pickett shines on a solo Edmonton studio performance of "Rosalie".
Rita Chiarelli tops her fine studio version of "Memphis Has Got The Blues" in a taping from the 2003 Ottawa Blues Festival.
Jim Byrnes and Zubot & Dawson do an amazing "Blood in my Eyes", a
Mississippi Sheiks song from Fresh
Horses. It is one of several performances here from the Maple Ridge Roots and Blues Festival. Lastly, from this past June's Vancouver Folk Festival,
Ndidi Onukwulu's "Come On Home" highlights the striking individuality of her voice, especially in a setting like this, juxtaposed with so many of her peers.
One of the biggest hurdles for the blues community to overcome is the difficulty of becoming known beyond your own area.
Holger Petersen, producer Dan
Cherwoniak and their crew at Saturday Night
Blues, along with this new, permanent document, are the greatest resource we have. They do what the CBC is supposed to do and they do it well.
As the daughter of missionary parents, McIlwaine spent much of her childhood in Japan and had always retained an interest in Eastern music while concentrating on her trademark
electric slide guitar style. She's chosen to launch her own label with this collaboration.
Cassius Khan is a tabla player trained in the Indian classical tradition, although he has lived here since
childhood (listening to funk and R&B). He is also a
Ghazal singer, which sets Urdu poetry to music. She describes this music as India's
blues. Linsey Wellman plays soprano saxophone in the
Coltrane style and Amika Kushwaha, harmonium. With McIlwaine primarily on her 12-string guitar, this group tackles her set list. You've not heard "Take Me to the River" quite this way, or "Crawlin'
Kingsnake". "The Question/Darbari Raag" is the one piece that goes the other way with the group tackling a new
Ghazal piece. Samples of this adventurous new music are at
www.ellenmcilwaine.com.
Organized by Graham Guest and Raoul Bhaneja
and guided by producer/bassist
extraordinaire Terry Wilkins, this is billed a new way of approaching music making. The size
and composition of the group is driven by the needs of the song. This isn't a band in the way we normally use the term. Nor does it need to stay in any one style, appropriate performers simply
being summoned to join the group. A glance at the notes reveals that more than half of the songs feature just the acoustic trio. Guest's day job, if you will, is keyboard player with the
Sue Foley Band and he opens the show with a rousing original "Last Time I Left New Orleans". This is one of the CD's strongest tracks, with great piano and a great horn arrangement. "Happiness Is" was
written by Raoul, whose acting work keeps him busy indeed. It's written in an old time country style and
The Foggy Hog Town Boys are on board. "Blues on the Highway" is one of Guest's and
features just the trio. It's in a Piedmont style with a duo vocal. Raoul solo is up next, on slide guitar with
Tanvir Alum helping out on vocals. With "Blood on My Hands" he could be relying on his
acting skills - the words are so completely at odds with his innocent-sounding voice. The jazzy "How Mutual Can This Be" adds
Melissa Stylianou on vocals and she clearly has more grounding in
this style than does Raoul. There is a sense here of young performers dabbling in many styles just to try them out. It would then be rather unfair to compare their work to veterans of the genre
in question. It is all done quite engagingly and perhaps younger listeners will enjoy the journey as much as they do.
Shawn Kellerman Land of a 1000
Dreams Flaming Cheese/Festival
With this issue in your hand, you should be heading off to Jeff Healey's new club. One of the main attractions at the Roadhouse will be
Lucky Peterson, on Friday, Jan. 5, where he'll
backed by Shawn Kellerman and his band. Shawn will also be launching his new CD then, in The Starlight in Waterloo with Lucky the next night and in Brantford at the Liquid Lounge on Sunday
afternoon. Shawn certainly has reason to celebrate, with some fine new songs. Seven of the eleven are his with a terrific slow blues, "Wash My Back", by Lucky and two by
Jordan Patterson. Late period Albert
King is the starting point for both Shawn and Lucky and that certainly is no bad thing. The sound is aggressively contemporary, from the blues rock opening title song through the
effective hip hop inspired "Bug and Shawn". The guitar playing is truly wondrous and Shawn has spared no expense in setting it in a proper context. There are more players than I can list but they all
do their job well, with the horn arrangements being especially good. It is only Shawn's vocals that keep this from being wholly recommended, they are only adequate at best. Check out his
web site at www.shawnkellerman.com.
After Kaleefah, Shakira's only recorded appearances as a blues singer were as part of
Bill King's Saturday Night Fish Fry. Shakura's new CD shows her to be a supremely confident
artist in this role. A little known solo CD, Out There and Loving
It, recorded at the Trane Studio led me to think she would head in a more jazzy direction but here she heads a rocking guitar &
keyboard-based band. James Bryan and Dennis
Keldie hold down those chairs, with Howard
Ayee on bass, Michelle Josef on drums and
Simon Wallis on tenor sax. She's chosen eleven songs from
records (but you might only recognize two of them) for a strong, well thought out program. "No More Trouble Out of Me" looks to be a
Big Maybelle song that chugs along in fine
Jimmy Reed fashion. "He Doesn't Care (About My Broken Heart)" is a smoking soul number that deserves to be much better known. "Getting Along Alright" sounds like it would be perfect for
Koko Taylor. Shakura's vocal is simply stunning. "Rain Down Rain" is more Big Maybelle with some very attractive playing from the band. "Las Vegas Blues" is a powerful performance - a slow, almost talking
blues, with David Rotundo guesting on harp. "Me and My Chauffeur Blues" is from
Memphis Minnie but rocks out via Big Mama
Thornton. Harrison Kennedy plays harp on "Big City Lights
(Have You Seen My Baby)" keeping the pot on boil. He stays on to play 12-string and the duet vocal for an all-to-brief version of
Brownie McGhee's "Living with the Blues". A massively
rocking and funky "Gotta Live" with Jackie
Richardson & Shannon Maracle on background vocals brings the set to a rousing finale. She may be working from recordings but she understands the
music to its core. If you didn't know of her before you must do so now. A blues voice this special does not come along very often. Her web site is
www.shakurasaida.com.
Paul James Band Lost in the Blues PJ
On January 20 at Jeff Healey's Roadhouse, Paul
James launches his latest CD. Lost in the
Blues has fourteen new songs by Paul and is perhaps the closest he's come to doing a
straight-ahead blues album. But you don't need to worry these new songs are bound to keep the dance floor full, as usual. Paul's engaging style comes through loud and clear, he's an entertainer to his core
and it keeps him working year after year. There is more here than just a memento of a great night out: the title song cleverly appropriates lyrics from several famous songs; "Like the Girl I had
Before" is well-written, Caribbean-flavoured song complete with steel drums and "Trick or Treat" is the Halloween single from a year or two ago. There isn't anything earth shattering here, just
some recycled blues and rock and roll, it's like a cozy night at the local pub _ there to enjoy with friends and neighbours. Check out
www.pauljamesband.com.
Three years to wait for those wonderful harmonies is a long time, but
State of Grace is here. The quote in the press kit says "brazenly borderless American music" and it's most
certainly true. The CD covers many bases, with some unexpected vehicles for those harmonies. It should come as no surprise however that the bluesiest are the highlights for this column. Those in
fact turn out to be new originals by the band. "Standing in the Need of Love" opens with growling lead guitar from
Wendell Holmes matches his lead vocal. Sherman
Holmes's "Close the Door" harkens back to timeless
O Brother Where Art Thou sound, aided by
Larry Campbell's mandolin. Wendell also contributes the unusually named "Gasoline Drawers" (he'd run through hell wearing
these to prove his love), not to forget the soulful opener, "Smiling Face Hiding a Weeping Heart". But perhaps this wasn't enough. Alligator is justifiably proud of the guests and the famous songs
here and Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny `Bout) Peace Love and Understanding?" seems ever more relevant with this version. "Bad Moon Rising" gets a fiddle & accordion upgrade but loses
the wonderful harmonies. Levon Helm comes back from throat surgery with this wonderful performance of "I've Just seen the Rock of Ages". And that's only about half the songs on this
must-have CD. Once again the talented and much in demand
Craig Street provides the sonic settings for these songs.
Roseanne Cash, Joan Osborne and Catherine
Russell are all here as well. You'll enjoy this version of borderless music as much as they do.
- John Valenteyn,
jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
Ellen McIlwaine Mystic Bridge EM/Festival
The Legendary Miles Johnson Big Time/Festival
Shakura S'Aida Blueprint Indie
Holmes Brothers State of Grace Alligator/Fusion
[Back to Maple Blues Magazine]