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Into The Night...Nocturne
Paul Sanderson is the choice of most of the blues community here in Toronto when expert legal help is needed. No doubt his own involvement in the community is a major factor. All the songs on Into The Night...Nocturne were written or co-written (with Ron Hier) by Sanderson and he explains that it’s the culmination of a life playing, and listening, to music. The songs, and the way they’re delivered by Brian Neller, grab attention right off. They are thematically related, to the night and what people do then (usually in cars) and the two-page commentary that he sent along with the review copy is required reading, the booklet supplies only the lyrics. Musically, this is mostly rock or blues-rock in the guitar-bass-drums-with-singer basic lineup with snippets and sounds briefly recognizable or traceable but if you thought nothing fresh could be created in this style then wait ‘til you hear this. This is where the listening shows-the creativity comes in assembling different sounds from the past into a new whole. The sound gets bluesier as the album progresses and at the risk of taking songs out the thematic context, “Into The Night Into The City”, “Devil” and “Don’t Tell Me you Love Me” should appeal to most of you but the album as a whole should, too. Sanderson plays the guitars, Brian Neller does the vocals, Frank Watt plays the drums on all but one song and Fraser Lawrence handles the various basses. Ray Harrison and David Chester provide stellar assistance on B3 and grand piano, Marty Morin adds percussion with Sarah McElcheran and Richard Underhill on saxes and trumpet. Paul Irvine produced, did the horn arrangements (except Underhill did the wonderful arrangement on “Jack Kerouac”) and played drums on the one song. Blue Room made the final nine in last summer’s new talent showcase and their short set at the Dollar showed a very good band that had not done much live performing. The album shows they have the chops, perhaps when they get out and perform the next album won’t take quite as long.
B.C. (Brian Cleve) Read is from The Prairies and My Tunes, his debut on his own BlueBudda label, is a fine, mostly acoustic blues album. Although he does play guitar, the emphasis on My Tunes is on singing and songwriting. Fortunately, he has a fine blues voice and writes good songs. Described as “whiskey-soaked” and “husky” it is placed by producer Ken Whiteley in settings from Chicago to the Piedmont with Rev. Gary Davis being a very important influence. The songwriting is by Read or by Read with members of the recording band and I hope you get a chance to hear them on your favourite radio show. The band is Brent Burlingham, drums; George Tennant, bass; Doug Scarrow, electric guitar and Dwayne Harder, keyboards. Brent Parkin guests on one song and Johnny V contributes slide guitar to two others. Ken, not surprisingly, fills out the sound with guitar, mandolin, piano and assorted percussion. Read plays National Slide guitar, acoustic and electric guitars mandolin and harmonica. BlueBudda Records can be reached at 306-343-1349 or bcreadblue@aol.com.
J.P. LePage was a part of Wang Dang Doodle, the fine Winnipeg
blues band compilation released here last summer. He now has a CD of his own,
also on the Bluescene label, My Best Regards. J.P. began his musical
career in a band called Mother Groove in the Mennonite farming community
of Morden, Manitoba in 1983 with Jon Penner, who went off to Austin and
ended up with Sue Foley; Lorne Petkau who also went to Austin and who,
as Shorty Lenoir, plays with Gary Primich and Michael Chubey
who stayed in Winnipeg and is now with Shuffleheads (also on
Wang Dang Doodle). J.P. stayed in Winnipeg for a while and then
moved to London and then Windsor when he joined the Windsor Dukes.
Kelly Hoppe was also a Duke before joining fellow Windsor native Gordy
Johnson in Big Sugar. This bit of history is from the current
issue of Bluescene Quarterly and provides an explanation for the players
on the CD: J.P.’s current piano player, Harri Vallittu, with Gil
Dudgeon on drums, Hoppe & Penner. The songs are all LePage originals
except for a Fats Domino tune and two Johnny ‘Guitar’
Watsons. About half the songs are big band swing blues, with the Blue
Duke Horns, and there is a fine gospel “So Small A Stone” to go
with the more straight forward blues to make it one of the most
musically-varied CD’s I’ve heard in a while. Bluescene is at
204-896-5075 or www.bluescene.com
Our own Liz Tansey sent along her new indie CD What I Want. With a voice somewhat like Rita Chiarelli’s, she belts out very well done pop & blues-rock along with some nice ballads. “Mama’s Lies” and “Lose All Track’ are pretty good but “Hello Blues” and “The Other Woman”, with Poly Platt on harp, stand out. Ralph Cole plays guitar throughout and produced a large cast with Ms. Tansey. Contact address is P.O. Box 98038, 1000 Gerrard St. E. Toronto, M4M 3L9.
Two new Gospel releases deserve mention here as you can sample them yourself. The Youth Outreach Mass Choir’s Just Look and Sharon Riley and Faith Chorale’s Caught Up, are both on the Micah label and both are live recordings with studio overdubs-full marks for honesty in liner notes but resulting in odd phrases such as ‘live musicians’(?). Attempts at humour aside, the music is impressive to this blues fan’s ears. The YOMC’s live portion was recorded at Howard Park Pentecostal Church on February 10, 1996 and Just Look “is a compilation of hits carefully put together covering all different styles, taste, and music genres such as reggae, Latin, praise and worship, R&B and House music”. Caught Up was recorded at Banfield Memorial Church a year or so earlier with Sharon Riley in top autobiographical form. The Youth Outreach Mass Choir will be appearing at the Water’s Edge Cafe on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 2pm. Sharon Riley and Faith Chorale will be appearing at the du Maurier Centre Feb. 15 at 1pm. No doubt both ensembles will have their new recordings available at their shows.
Four albums in the mailbox from south of the border round out this month’s column: Ernie Hawkins, from Titusville, PA , has a Ph. D in Psychology but chose to spend a lot of time with Rev. Gary Davis. He has since played various bands, blues and otherwise, and decided to commemorate the centennial of Davis’ birth with a CD. Blues Advice features four Davis songs, three of which, “Penitentiary Blues”, Florida Blues”, and “Will There Be Stars In My Crown” have not been previously recorded. The album is mostly solo & acoustic with Willie Try on harp on four songs and Big Jack Johnson helping out on the one original, the instrumental “Where The Mississippi Meets The Monongohela”, which is probably not far from Titusville. 814-827-9483 (afternoons). Kelley Hunt, from Lawrence, Kansas, plays piano and sings much in the style of Marcia Ball and while her vocals don’t always match the high energy settings supplied by producer Mike Finnigan, her songs are very good indeed. Her self-titled CD is on 88 Records and her home page is www.kelleyhunt.com. The late William Clarke arranged a session for his friend and teacher Smokey Wilson in the pre-Bullseye Blues days of 1986 when Smokey was a legend in the few blocks around his Pioneer Club in LA. Smokey Wilson & The William Clarke Band is on Black Magic Records and has been a difficult to find (and expensive) import since then. It is an important addition to the recorded works of both men. Many thanks to Munich Records of Dallas for making it available. Also from Munich, a Musa recording of The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi from their 1996 European tour. This now eight-strong group still has two founding members from 1943! In Concert features eleven traditional and original songs, including a nine-and-a-half minute version of “If I Had A Hammer”.
The Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson album’s title was not available at press time last issue. Sing It! (Rounder/Denon)is now out and early critical comment seems to be that this potentially fabulous structure rests on some pretty weak songs. Perhaps more listening will help. Also, the story I repeated about Larry Goodhand was only partly correct. Larry was indeed asked to join Willie Dixon’s band-Buster Benton left on a Saturday night in Denver but Larry’s phone number was in Willie’s office in Chicago! Larry assured me that he would not have turned such an offer down. So much for second hand stories.
- John Valenteyn