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May 2007

Steve Strongman Honey Fallen Sky/Fontana North/Universal

This guitarist/singer/songwriter is perhaps not so well known yet but Hamilton's Strongman will be much better known very soon with this release. Fontana North Music has wisely agreed to make this self-produced disc widely available. As a teenager, he used to sneak into Pop The Gator in Kitchener and watch all the blues legends that Glenn Smith brought in, including Mel Brown. The young guitar player ended up sitting in with many of them. With the oft-lamented demise of that club, Strongman branched out, playing rock with bands like with Plasticine and Kazzer along with many others and touring extensively. He has obviously learned a great deal, especially about the recording studio. Returning home to concentrate on blues, he began to assemble this impressive solo debut. He kicks in with a searing slide intro to "Hard Headed Lover", a rocker as hard as its title, followed by a slightly slower piece of mature advice, "Let's Sleep on This". The heavily distorted slide is back for "Honey", a grinding plea for reconsideration. "Big Legged Woman" shows he's got Freddie King down cold and he pays a nice tribute to B.B. with "How Blue Can You Get", which copies King's vocal a little too closely but this is more than compensated for by his guitar work and that of his mentor Mel Brown. Their display is worth the price of the album alone. "Soul Searching" is a power ballad with a Stones-ish feel that builds nicely, a radio single for sure. "River" switches gears completely, a solo acoustic blues with a gentle finger picked intro and a vocal that breaks into falsetto most convincingly. "Silhouette" works some country changes into the set before "The Birthday Song" returns to acoustic playing. This birthday song is much more pleasant than Fruteland Jackson's rather dour one from last month's column! "Keep it to Yourself" closes with a bit of jazz accompanying some more useful advice. Strongman's vocals hold this stylistic diversity together, aided immeasurably by his ability to write superior songs. Outside of Jesse O'Brien, whose piano playing graced much of King Biscuit Boy's work, the cast is new to me: Craig Lapsley on drums, Adam Buschlen on bass, Colin Lapsley on organ, Terry Townson on trumpet and Steve Hilliam on sax. Townson also did the horn arrangements and they are a treat. Check out Strongman's web site at www.stevestrongman.com. He will have music clips available there shortly.

James Anthony Room For Me Blue Disc

James Anthony Pecchia has been a mainstay of the Southwestern Ontario circuit for many years now, with early stints in Mondo Combo, the house band at Lulu's Roadhouse and much radio & TV and summer festival work along the way. He has a recording studio and is a guitar expert but his own music reflects a talented performer and songwriter. This disc especially highlights these qualities and may even bring him (gulp) commercial success. In terms of overall sound, he comes closest to Coco Montoya, most obviously on the opener "Cold Inside". But that's just to give you an idea of what to expect. He's found a way, though, to create some hook-laden, radio-friendly songs: "All Alone", "Room for Me", the Santana-flavoured "What Can I Do for You?" and the Tom Petty inflected "Paint me a Picture" all should be crowd pleasers if the right people heard them. "Down with the Blues" and "Get Over It" bring us back to the jook joint. The centerpiece of the album comes early, as song two: using some high harmonics to simulate them, "The Bells Toll (Can You Hear It)", open a moving slow blues tribute to the late Larry Goodhand, using his mastery of the recording studio very effectively along the way. On an album like this, short, succinct songs are the way to go. James Anthony knows this. Go to www.jamesanthony.ca. It doesn't show any of his earlier albums but maybe he has some left.

Blues Delight Rock Island Line Blues Del/Disques BROS

Blues Delight is a Montreal group, with Guy Richer on acoustic bass, Vincent Beaulne on lead vocals & guitar/mandolin/dobro, Laurent Trudel on vocals/harmonica/guitar/flute/fiddle, Gilles Schetagne on drums and Dave Turner on alto sax. Beaulne and Trudel pick up electric guitars too. Other than the title song, all are originals and often with striking lyrics by Robert Langlois, Beaulne providing the settings. Fortunately, Beaulne's a very good singer, handling the unusual songs with ease and with passion. He has a very slight accent, which gives the songs an additional charm. "Slightly Hung Over" is a very good slow blues, starting out as standard one but sticking to its subject matter. "Nothing Special but the Blues" on the other hand has a rather more complex text than its title allows; perhaps it should have titled by its first line: "The border of Heaven is a thin line, red as a woman's lips". "Apaches" is just dobro & harmonica under the vocal, a plea to return to living with Nature. The best title award goes to "Mademoiselle Super Cool", a slightly less interesting song on a more standard topic, something that can be said of some of the others. A whole album of such thought-provoking material might narrow the focus of the band too much. "Rock Island Line" has some powerful vocal help on new lyrics and a new arrangement. Nanette Workman and Bob Walsh both get new verses to sing, turning it into a rather different song altogether. It's quite a way to end an album. They have a web site, www.bluesdelight.com, where they've printed the lyrics and provide audio samples.

B.C. Read Bowl of Sugar Blue Buddah

Bowl of Sugar is a rather more ambitious project than his last studio album, My Tunes, and it has its corporate sponsors recognized on the back _ a sign of the future perhaps. His regular band is augmented with horns and back up singers: George Tennent on bass, Sheldon Corbett on sax & accordion, Tom Cunningham on drums, Rod Saloum on keyboards and features old friend Big Dave McLean on harp for two songs. Added for the horn section are Brent Longstaff (principle tuba player from The Saskatoon Symphony), Ross Ulmer on trombone, David Anderson on trumpet, Sharon Matheson & Kelly Read on vocals. Read is from Saskatoon and is a radio host when he isn't playing his guitar and harmonica. The full band is on only a few of the fifteen originals, Read writes songs in a variety of styles and adjusts his forces accordingly. He likes using a tuba to accompany his acoustic blues and Longstaff is up for it. "Louisiana Dream" has the band marching along, New Orleans parade style. Big Dave MacLean duets on a song they co-wrote in Howlin' Wolf-style, "Why Do Girls Do That". "Highway Shoes" is a traveling song but one with a catchy melody. Read has a gruff vocal style, reminding me of Mendelson Joe. This one is worth checking out and definitely worth catching live. His web site is www.bcread.com.

Grant Lyle Retronym Self

What was simply a `guitar' had to be labeled as an `acoustic' guitar when electric ones came along, that made `acoustic guitar' a retronym. It certainly is appropriate here. Perhaps it's the country air in Utopia ON pictured on the sleeve but the electric blues guitarist that I'm familiar with has turned in a solid acoustic blues CD. Working with Roly Platt on harmonica and Mike Sloski on subtle percussion, this is a musical treat from beginning to end. Lyle's sturdy vocals carry us through an eclectic mix with Platt getting lots of work on acoustic versions of Chicago standards "Can't Be Satisfied", "Mellow Down Easy", "Honey Bee" & "Don't Go No Further". "Survive" and "Come Alive" are much less familiar but no less engaging. Check out his web site, www.grantlyle.com.

Jimmy Burns Live at B.L.U.E.S. Delmark DVD/Festival

It's a good thing video cameras are a lot smaller these days, having been in B.L.U.E.S. a few times a video shoot in the old days would have been out of the question in a club that small. What we get is a beautifully packaged evening of Jimmy Burns in a famous club for your aural and visual enjoyment. Burns was drawn more to the R&B bands of the day as he began performing and since his return to recording a decade or so ago he has forged a unique blend of that sound with his love of straight ahead blues. Originals like "No Consideration", "Leaving Here Walking" and "Better Know What You're Doing" have enough of a shot of rhythm & blues to give a different flavour to the evening. These songs sit comfortably with staples like "Can't Hold Out Much Longer" or "Three O'Clock Blues", which gets a rousing guest vocal from Jesse Fortune. Tony Palmer on the other guitar, Greg McDaniel on bass and James Carter on drums form a marvelous unit behind Burns with Palmer getting in some exceptional solos. Elsewhere he supplies rock solid and inventive rhythm work, perfectly in sync with Burns' songs. There is nothing done by rote here, everyone is at the top of their game. Burns concludes the set on slide guitar, roaring to the finale "Stop The Train". One of the extras deserves special mention: as the video is replayed, Burns provides a commentary on the songs and talks about his early life, the people in the club and his music. His astonishing memory paints a detailed picture of life in the rural south. As with the other Delmark DVDs, this was done in dts, 5.1 and high resolution audio. Put a slice of top flight Chicago blues in your living room today. A CD of the show, similarly titled, is also available. It deletes two songs.

- John Valenteyn, jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com

 

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