CD Reviews INDIE Blues

Grant Dermody & Frank Fotusky Digging in John’s Backyard Self-released Blues fans should be familiar with harmonist Grant Dermody who released one of 2019’s best blues albums, My Dony, produced by the great roots producer, Dirk Powell. This time out, although Powell just does a superb job mixing the album, this is a duo recording […]

Roy Roberts Covering the Years Growing up in Tennessee, Roy Roberts was exposed to a variety of music, but it was Jimmy Reed’s song “Baby What You Want Me to Do” which inspired him to get his first guitar.  Over the years, Roberts has backed acts such as Solomon Burke, Eddie Floyd, “Little” Stevie Wonder, Dee Clark, and Otis Redding.  His From the mid-sixties Roberts worked as a session man […]

Robert Connely Farr Ain’t Enough Ain’t Enough was recorded at Hipposonic Studios in Vancouver, BC, and marks Robert Connely Farr’s ninth studio album, and first solo acoustic album.   What I love about Farr’s music is that it’s deep, meaningful, and baptized in the blues.  Nominated for 2019 Maple Blue Awards for Songwriter of the Year and New Artist of the Year, Farr was mentored by 2021 Grammy […]

Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps Rose Colored Glasses Vol. 1 Blue Heart Teresa James & The Rhythm Tramps are a Los Angeles-based band, but James was raised in Houston and has been able to mix Texas style blues with a West Coast jump and swing sound for over five decades now. They have received […]

Gabe Stillman Just Say the Word VizzTone Pennsylvanians are well acquainted with guitarist Gabe Stillman’s energetic, acrobatic, showman-like performances. He leaves no doubt that he can wield an axe gracefully, swaggeringly, and demonstratively depending on the tune. Nonetheless, this debut, Just Say the Word, will surprise even his most ardent fans due to his accomplished […]

Mick Kolassa Wasted Youth Endless Blues The prolific, recently relocated to Memphis, resilient Mick Kolassa returns with a smile on his face after as devastating a year as any could endure.  Kolassa lost his wife and many close friends but rather than sinking into maudlin self-pity, these losses inspire the album as Kolassa, in his […]

Adam Schultz Soulful Distancing Blue Heart It’s rather common for an established bluesman to have a younger protégé that he is mentoring, with Buddy Guy and Quinn Sullivan being perhaps the most recognizable example to most blues fans.  But Pennsylvania’s Clarence Spady has an apprentice too, 18-year-old guitarist Adam Schultz. After a long recording hiatus, […]

Robert Billard & The Cold Cuts Stop Self-released Robert Billard, formerly mostly a folk singer and now a bluesman, may be the only one of that ilk living in Nunavut, Canada’s newest province, a massive, sparsely populated territory of northern Canada, forming most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its islands have expanses of tundra, craggy […]

Chris Bergson All I Got Left 2 Shirts Coincidentally as we sit down to write on this day of Levon Helm’s birthday, we have one of his many disciples – singer-songwriter, blues guitarist Chris Bergson, offering his new solo effort, All I Got Left. It’s solo in the true sense of the word as you […]