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August
2008
Big Dave McLean Acoustic Blues Stony Plain/Warner Music
Winnipeg’s Big Dave McLean is fresh off his highly successful cross-country tour with Doc MacLean. I hope you caught one of the shows and some of the performances that were preserved on the CBC’s web site. If you did, you also heard some of the songs on his new CD. As you might guess from the cover, McLean specializes on the National Steel guitar. I think you’ll agree that it’s the only instrument that could match his raw and gravelly voice. His arrangement of Barbecue Bob’s “Atlanta Moan” has become his showpiece, a perfect storm of gruff blues singing at its best and slashing slide work, hitting all those harmonics effortlessly. Perhaps surprisingly, this combination is also capable of great tenderness, as he demonstrates in the ode to his wife, “Coming Home To You”, a road song to remember. Seeing Muddy Waters in the 70’s started McLean on this career path and his every CD acknowledges that. Here the medley of “Louisiana Blues/Forty- Four” serves that purpose here. It isn’t “Muddy Waters For President” but that’s on two other albums. It, along with “Good Morning Little School Girl” and “Someday Baby” prove his mastery of the tradition. “Michael Henderson”, “Kanadiana” and “The Bottoms Where I Got ‘Em” are the best of his new ones, the last being used as the subtitle of this must-have CD. It’s an almost tempo-less ‘thank you’ to his wife and family for rescuing him - a very convincing performance, with understated band accompaniment and a heartfelt vocal. Lightning Hopkins’ “Needed Time” in a raucous, rousing gospel group vocal version is about the only possible follow-up.
Canadian
Aces Live at Albert’s Hall
Pacemaker/EMI
One of the great, unheralded voices of our recent music history, Scott Cushnie’s career twists through almost every part of it. In 1959, he started a band called the Suedes with Robbie Robertson and demanded that Robertson come with him after he was invited to join Ronnie Hawkins’ new band as the original Hawks were pining to return to Arkansas. Cushnie did not stay although he would work with Hawkins quite a bit over the years. He toured almost continuously with various bands (including Aerosmith) but stayed based in Toronto. I’m brutally reducing here Bill Munson’s 1996 article in Maple Blues, which has been re-purposed as the liner note with 2 Pianos. In addition to playing whatever was required, he became more and more immersed in the music of the 20’s & 30’s. Which brings us to the CDs at hand. Beginning in the late 70’s and through the 80’s, the Canadian Aces became his main project. As Professor Piano, with bassist Terry Wilkins, guitarist Mitch Lewis, drummer Bucky Berger and singers Eileen Tobin and Marian Tobin as the Honolulu Heartbreakers, he re-introduced us to a lost era. No one else was doing this at the time and, with hindsight, this was a trailblazing band. They recorded an LP in 1985, Modern Primitive, which remains undigitized and in Pacemaker’s usual modus operandi should have been the subject of this review. Instead what we have is a never before released live recording of the group at its prime. Modern primitive is not a bad term for the music either. The songs may be from an earlier era but the performances are so enthusiastic that one cannot help but be swept along. The boogie woogie classic “Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar”, a 1940 hit for Freddie Slack and later The Andrew Sisters is one highlight, a medley of “Robin Hood” and “Oh Babe” is another, seemingly right out of the Louis Jordan songbook.
Scott
Cushnie 2 Pianos No
Waiting Pacemaker/EMI
2 Pianos No Waiting is not a re-issue either. 2 Pianos No Waiting was the title of the original CD from 1996, and compounding the confusion, Munson’s article/liner note was a story on that original album. This 2 Pianos is a glorious but previously unreleased live recording from two nights in 2002 at the now closed Montreal Bistro (plus a couple of songs from the Rex a few months later), complete with owner Lothar Klein’s introduction (a nice idea, that). With the Canadian Aces no longer active, Cushnie had conceived of a series of piano duets, two volumes of which were released. He would invite a fellow pianist, in the first case, Doug Riley & Joan Besen and adding Tyler Yarema & Lance Anderson for Volume 2. For the live recording, Cushnie, Riley & Besen re-convened with Maureen Brown on drums. The set list included blues and boogies from the earlier CDs plus some of Cushnie’s own songs. Highlights are Little Brother Montgomery’s “Vicksburg Blues”, Thelonius Monk’s “Blue Monk” and a Doug Riley solo performance of his “Jump For Joy”. Cushnie’s songs are a delight: “The Real Boogie Woogie” and “Gorilla My Dreams”, to just name two, are witty and insightful. You can catch the current Scott Cushnie with his re-constituted 1970’s band Diamondback at The Dominion on Queen on Sunday afternoons. Incidentally, Diamondback also recorded an LP that was never released, maybe it could be added to Pacemaker’s wish list.
Loco
Zydeco Time To Turn The
Key flamingcheese/Outside Music
Their first CD stressed that they wanted to ‘blend the contemporary and the traditional into their own fiery brand of rockin’ zydeco’. This, third, CD shows the benefits of hard work, a consistent lineup and talent in pursuit of that goal. In fact, the contemporary seems to be taking over. The best of the new songs have little in common with the zydeco tradition, other than the use of the accordion & rubboard. In terms of sound they remind me now of Glamour Puss or Crowbar, with their exuberant group vocals and equality of input. “Feelin’ Fine” starts things off in the traditional mode with a contemporary chorus and some very contemporary key changes in the middle. A zydeco band from Toronto traveling to Louisiana is the subject of “Face Down in Plaisance”. Maybe “Hair Of The Dog” came from the same trip but it also displays their knowledge of what a recording studio can provide. Rob “Bongo” Urqhuart is the lead vocalist and plays harp; Dave The Cat McLean is the guitarist and also sings, (He’s not to be confused with the other Dave McLean on this page) Kris “K.K.” Walsh is on the rubboard & vocals; Les Graham is on bass & vocals; Mike Menheere is on drums & percussion and Sameday Ray Walsh is on accordion, vocals, acoustic guitar & keyboards. Ray Walsh wrote “Next Time” and this just might get commercial radio play, as might the lovely ballad “Christine Lamour”. There’s still traditional zydeco on the generous 17-song program to remind fans of where they came from, songs like “Hey Ma Hey Pa” & “Two Step” but it’s songs like “Wrongway Jack” and “Rollin’ Wheels” that will lead the way forward. I hope nothing impedes their progress, this is a band with a future. They will celebrate the release at the Silver Dollar on Saturday, August 16 with special guest Cheryl Lescom,
Various
Artists And This is Free
DVD + CD Shanachie/Koch
Sub-titled The Life and Times of Chicago’s Legendary Maxwell Street, this is a beautifully packaged and thoughtfully compiled presentation of what the Maxwell Street Market was and what it meant to Chicago’s blues community. The CD collects re-mastered songs by artists who played the Market, starting with Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Maxwell Street Blues” from 1925 to Jimmy Rogers & Little Walter’s “Little Store Blues”, recorded at Ora Nelle’s record store in the Market in 1947 to Arvella Gray and Big John Wrencher who were fixtures there during the sixties. Almost all of the Delta blues players who moved north to Chicago got their start playing the market. The highlight of the DVD is Mike Shea’s legendary 1964 documentary And This Is Free, previously only available briefly on videocassette. Shea’s tightly edited street sequences of musicians, preachers, merchants, con artists and especially children are a delight but his choice of interview guest and scenes of closing kiosks foretell the end, even though that would not happen for a couple of decades. Perhaps the new location will flourish but we have this film to remember the old one. The sequences of Blind Jim Brewer and Robert Nighthawk performing show how integral the music was, and is, to its community. Two CDs of the music recorded for the film are, or were, available but now we have visual component as well. There is also a 30-minute feature on the market’s early days from the viewpoint of its Jewish merchants, a collection of photographs and some found film footage plus an extra on the making of And This Is Free. George Paulus, who began visiting the Market as a teenager and who is responsible for bringing us many recordings from the bluesmen working there, provides a fascinating print version of the story, a highlight of the 36 page booklet. A most impressive tribute to one of the cornerstones of the music we love.
- John Valenteyn, jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
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