CD Reviews on projects by Indie Blues Artists
Mud Morganfield Mud Morganfield They Call Me Mud Severn It’s not fair to make such a physically imposing man walk a proverbial tightrope. Yet, that will likely always be the case with Muddy Waters’ son, Mud Morganfield. Both his large presence and vocal style inevitably recall his dad. In fact, Mark Wenner of the Nighthawks […]
Laurie Morvan Gravity Screaming Lizard Laurie Morvan’s sixth and most polished release, continues to move away from an angry blues rock attack to a smoother, more strictly blues-based guitar accompanying her songs and lyrics, which now have more of the focus than on her earlier efforts. And yes, she is becoming a stronger songwriter. Don’t […]
Sue Foley The Ice Queen Stony Plain Records This album marks Sue Foley’s return to her solo career. It is her eleventh studio album and first for Canada’s Stony Plain Records. A native Canadian Foley has nicknamed herself “The Ice Queen”. Foley first appeared on a 1992 compilation called “Antone’s Women”, featuring women that played […]
Seth Walker Live at Mauch Chunk Opera House Royal Potato Family These words have previously appeared in my reviews of Seth Walker, but they bear repeating. Walker is a bluesman dressed up as an Americana artist. Since I first saw him perform at the Americana Music Conference over ten years ago, suffice it say that […]
Katy Guillen & The Girls Remember What You Knew Before Vizztone Label Group Katy Guillen leads this Indie Blues/Roots Rock trio that touches on the blues but is primarily into Americana. Guillen’s guitar influences include Jimi Hendrix, while her songwriting is influenced by Patty Griffin. Having played festivals including The Montreal International Jazz Festival, they […]
Mud Morganfield They Call Me Mud Severn Records Mud Morganfield is the oldest son of McKinley Morganfield better known as Muddy Waters. Morganfield grew up surrounded by music but was mostly raised by his mom and uncles. He became a truck driver and didn’t consider a career in music until after his father’s death. Morganfield […]
Wentus Blues Band Throwback Ramasound Records Finland’s Wentus Blues Band released their self-titled debut album in 1989. The band leads the thriving blues scene in Scandinavia and has twelve previous albums. 2011’s “Woodstock”, on Ruf Records, was recorded at The Levon Helm Studios. Their last album was 2016’s “Lucky Strike Mama”. They play 150 gigs […]
Seth Walker Live At Mauch Chunk Opera House Royal Potato Family Greenville, North Carolina native Seth Walker recorded his debut album “When It Rains It Pours” in 1998. In 2006 Walker released his self-titled fifth album to critical acclaim. His most successful album was 2009’s “Leap of Faith”. This is Walker’s third album for the […]
Sue Foley The Ice Queen Stony Plain Canadian guitarist/singer Sue Foley returned to Austin, TX where she got her start as blues woman and laid down these sessions with special guests Jimmie Vaughan, Billy F. Gibbons, and Charlie Sexton. This, her 15th album, marks Foley’s debut for Stony Plains and her return as a solo […]
Chris Smither Call Me Lucky Signature Sounds Recordings Chris Smither’s vocals are accompanied by guitar techniques he learned from blues masters Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt. His 1970 debut recording “Devil Got Your Man” included the song “Love You like a Man”. In 1972 the song was recorded by Bonnie Raitt and helped establish […]
Nina Simone Mood Indigo: The Complete Bethlehem Singles BMG/Bethlehem Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina in 1933. The sixth child born to a preacher she aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few friends she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. […]
Ghost Town Blues Band Backstage Pass Independent The Ghost Town Blues Band has one foot in Memphis and the other in New Orleans. The GTBB represented The Memphis Blues Society at The International Blues Challenge in 2013; and again in 2014 when they finished in second place. The GTBB’s last album, and most successful, was […]
Reverend Raven & The Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys Twentieth Anniversary My Life Nevermore Records Reverend Raven is currently a resident of Appleton, Wisconsin. He was born and raised in Chicago and began playing guitar after seeing Freddie King at The Kinetic Theatre in 1971. He spent the rest of the seventies playing clubs on the […]
Janiva Magness Love is An Army Fathead Records/Bluelan Records Janiva Magness has been nominated for twenty-seven Blues Music Awards. She won the BMA for “Contemporary Female Artist of the Year” five times. Magness is also the only female artist other than Koko Taylor to win a BMA as “Entertainer of The Year”. Currently Magness has […]
Johnny Tucker Seven Day Blues Highjohn Records Johnny Tucker was born to a sharecropper, the tenth of nineteen siblings. He is a self taught musician and learned by listening to Lowell Fulson and James Brown. He started singing with Phillip Walker and soon switched to the drums. He plays drums on Phillip Walker’s 1973 recording […]
David K. Mathews The Fantasy Vocal Sessions – Vol. 1 Standards Effendi Records If you’re not from the San Francisco Bay Area or an ardent fan of Santana, you’re probably not familiar with keyboardist David K. Mathews. Yet, considering this, his first as a leader in fifteen years, could lead to five or six projects […]
Victor Wainwright and the Train Ruf Records By Rhetta Ajamatsu Having established himself firmly in the last few years as a multiple-award winning piano player and entertainer, Victor Wainwright is making some changes. He has a new band, The Train, a new record label, Ruf and a new album, simply called Victor Wainwright and The […]
Big Shoes Step On It! Biglittle This is a can’t miss project. We’re seeing a resurgence of the Muscle Shoals sound these days. Even The Swampers just released an album of lost tracks last month. The sound of Big Shoes has plenty of that river city’s sound but stretches beyond into New Orleans, Memphis, and […]
Danielle Nicole Cry No More Concord Music Group “Trampled Under Foot”, Danielle Nicole Schnebelen’s family band formed with her brothers Nick and Kris, won the 2008 International Blues Challenge. In 2011 they released their fourth album “Wrong Side of The Blues” produced by the Grammy winning Tony Braunagel and Danielle received her first Blues Music […]
Mick Kolassa is a very likable guy and therefore as a musician he has acquired a lot of talented friends. When he decided to do an album of duets of blues standards to be called Double Standards, of course, he collected 12 of them to sing with him. He also recruited his buddy Jeff Jensen […]
The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down Put Together Music The Reverend Shawn Amos was born the son of Wally Amos founder of the Famous Amos cookie brand. Amos attended film school at New York University and discovered the blues by reading Peter Guralnick’s book “Feel Like Going Home”. He traveled the south and fell […]
Bernard Allison Let It Go Ruf Records Bernard Allison was born in Chicago in 1965. He was introduced to the blues by his father, the late Luther Allison. He started playing guitar at the age of ten and played on a live recording of his father’s when he was just thirteen. After graduating high school […]
Hypnotic Wheels Trio and Various Artists Muddy Gurdy VizzTone This is one of the most interesting collaborations of blues we have heard in some time. A trio of French musicians – Tia Goutteble (guitar, voice), Gilles Chabenat (Hurdy-Gurdy – a traditional French instrument), and Marc Glomeau (percussion) call themselves the Hypnotic Wheels Trio. Their music […]
John Mayall Three For The Road Forty Below Records This new album is John Mayall’s sixty-eighth and that doesn’t include re-issues. Mayall is the influential British bluesman who formed his band The Bluesbreakers in 1963. A great guitarist, keyboardist, harmonica player, singer, songwriter and bandleader he is still going strong after more than fifty years. […]
Rocky Athas Shakin’ The Dust Cherryburst Records Rocky Athas was born in Oak Cliffs, Texas, a Dallas suburb, in 1954. He and Stevie Ray Vaughan were schoolmates long before either became known. By 1977 Athas was already listed as one of the ten best guitarists in Texas. In 1984 Athas appeared on Jim Dandy’s Black […]
Peter Karp Blue Flame Peter Karp is soon to release a new album, Blue Flame. The title, according to the liner notes, comes from a conversation with the great bluesman and songwriter Willie Dixon. Dixon told Karp, “When it’s honest and real it burns hot, like a blue flame.” Karp took those words to heart, and […]
Backtrack Blues Band Make My Home in Florida Harpo Records Harp ace Sonny Charles met guitarist “Little” Johnny Walter in Chapel Hill, North Carolina while they were both attending the University of North Carolina. Charles founded the Backtrack Blues Band in 1980 and Walter was among the first to join. The Backtrack Blues Band is […]
Johnny Fink And The Intrusion JFI Independent Johnny Fink and The Intrusion is a band based out of Cincinnati Ohio. The four piece unit was originally formed in 1992 and called The Blue Intrusions. They jammed on everything from the Allman Brothers to Lonnie Mack. After several years guitarist Fink took over and they became […]
Michelle Malone is a proud Georgia singer/songwriter and guitar slinger who is stirred up about things on her upcoming release, Slings and Arrows, and she is right up front about it. Since she is so good at what she does, you’re pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it while you are listening and think about it when it’s […]
Johnny Feds & Friends Pinky Gets The Blues Independent John Federico has been part of the NY/NJ blues scene for twenty years always running an open blues jam. For the last seven years he and his band Johnny Feds and the Bluez Boyz have hosted the Monday night jam at the Bayou Restaurant in Mt. […]
ThunderGypsy is the group chosen at the Atlanta Blues Challenge sponsored by the Atlanta Blues Society to represent the city at the International Blues Challenge 2018. They have a new CD out, produced by Richard L’Hommedieu at Midnight Circus Studios, and it is phenomenal. They won the unlimited studio time as a prize for winning […]
Curtis Salgado and Alan Hager Rough Cut Alligator Records Curtis Salgado was born in Everett, Washington but grew up in Eugene, Oregon. By 1980 he was already a member of The Robert Cray Band and he plays harmonica on Cray’s debut recording “Who’s Been Talkin”. He befriended John Belushi and gave him a transforming appreciation […]
Tinsley Ellis Winning Hand Alligator Records Tinsley Ellis was born in Atlanta, Ga. in 1957. He was raised in south Florida and discovered the guitar at a young age. One night while listening to records by The Yardbirds, The Animals, and The Rolling Stones his friend’s older brother offered to take them to see B.B. […]
In Meet Me In Memphis, Eric Hughes and his band do a fabulous job of not only capturing Memphis in all its diversity but of moving smoothly from blues to blues-rock with hints of soul and country as well. Hughes and the band start out with a powerful blues rocker, “Freight Train of Pain,” just […]
Jay Willie Blues Band Jay Walkin’ Zoho Music The Jay Willie Blues Band was formed in 2001 by guitarists Jay Willie and Bob Callahan; and former Johnny Winter drummer Bobby T Torello. Although based out of Newton, Connecticut they are a Texas Blues band with one foot in the traditional and the other in a […]
Ghalia & Mama’s Boys Let the Demons Out Ruf Ghalia Vauthier, the Belgian singer-songwriter/guitarist, is the newest signing for Ruf. This emerging artist from Brussels splits her time between her native country and New Orleans where she recorded this album with acclaimed harmonica band Johnny Mastro & Mama’s Boys. Ghalia has steadily built a fan […]
David Maxwell & Friends Max Attack A tribute to David Maxwell (March 10, 1943 – Feb. 13, 2015) David Maxwell has apprenticed and is the most in demand blues piano player today. David appears on albums by James Cotton, Ronnie Earl, Joe Louis Walker, Louisiana Red, Luther Guitar Jr. Johnson, Jimmy Rogers, Bob Margolin, Paul […]
Curtis Salgado and Alan Hager Rough Cut Alligator We’ve come to know Curtis Salgado mostly as a blues singer leaning heavily toward soul, with his horn-drenched bands. Now we see another side of Salgado – the deep blues done raw and unadorned with his band’s lead guitarist, Alan Hager, showing impeccable talent here too. Rough […]
Mama Spanx State of Groove Ideal Scene Music Mama Spanx is a seven piece soul, rock and funk band. They derive their inspiration from the old school soul and funk of Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, James Brown and Tower of Power. The band is led by New York Blues Hall of Fame vocalist and songwriter […]
Bobby Kyle It’s My Life Juicy Baby Records Bobby Kyle has been serving the blues for some forty years. He mentored with Lonnie Mack in the seventies; and played in Bill Dicey’s band from 1979 – 1981. Between 1983 and 1989 he toured with Eddie Kirkland. Kyle joined Blues Hall of Famer Johnny “Clyde” Copeland’s band […]
Here is the Top 15 “Indie Blues Bands” that are pushing the envelope and breaking new ground in the genre. Each of these artists have embraced the true tradition of the blues by creating new music and sounds with creativity, innovation and integrity. In No Particular Order Reverend Freakchild – ‘Preachin’ Blues’ Eliza Neals – […]
Richard Ludmerer and Making A Scene Top Fifty Indie Blues Albums of 2017 YES, You Need these in your collection! (Artist albums only and not in any particular order) Ronnie Baker Brooks – Times Have Changed – Provogue John Mayall – Talk About That – Forty Below Records Thornetta Davis – Honest Woman – Independent […]
The Blues Foundation International Blues Challenge #33 From January 31st until February 4th, 2017 The Blues Foundation’s 33rd International Blues Challenge was held in Memphis. The annual showcase is the world’s largest gathering of blues musicians. “The IBC makes careers, forges relationships between artists and industry veterans, and unites blues fans in their love for […]
Ilya Portnov Strong Brew Independent The twenty-eight year old Ilya Portnov grew up in Russia and started playing piano at the age of four. His father exposed him to British rock but he mostly studied classical and folk music. His first harmonica teacher introduced him to the music of Jason Ricci, Howard Levy, and Carlos […]
The Blues This Christmas a reprint by Richard Ludmerer I always look forward to the holiday season as a time when I can break out my Christmas albums. This is a ritual that began years ago when my wife and I were first dating. She wanted to listen to some Christmas music and I began […]
Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters The Luckiest Man Stony Plain Records Ronnie Earl plays guitar with a passion and creativity that is rarely equaled. For a number of years he performed without a vocalist and his compositions became closer to jazz. Earl won his third Blues Music Award as Best Instrumentalist – Guitar in 2014.When […]
by Rhetta Akamatsu Originally published in Rhetta’s Reviews Little G Weevil has a full band with him ton Something Poppin’ and he sounds modern while keeping his blues roots not too far from the surface. Some of the songs remain closer to those roots than others, like my favorite track, “I Don’t Want To Feel […]
Rockin’ Johnny Burgin Neoprene Fedora West Tone Rockin’ Johnny Burgin graced many of the great Delmark records, especially as the guitarist for Tail Dragger. After a storied stint in the Windy City, his move to California finds him once again working with Kid Andersen in Kid’s San Jose Greaseland Studios, rapidly becoming the place of […]
Sweet Pea Atkinson Get What You Deserve Blue Note Records Sweet Pea Atkinson is an R n’ B vocalist who began as a singer with the Don Was produced “Was Not Was”. In 1982 they had a top ten single “Walk the Dinosaur”. That same year Atkinson released his debut album “Don’t Walk Away” on […]
by Rhetta Akamatsu Royal Johnson is a band out of Macon, GA. It was formed by Chance Foyal and Andy Johnson. Looking at the delightful cover of their second album, Howlin‘. You expect you are going to hear a strong Allman Brothers influence, and you do. But the band has its own blend of Southern […]
