Ok so, it’s Blues Wednesday and I started by listening to Jonny Lang’s album Live at the Ryman. The last Live at the Ryman album I listened to was Robert Earl Keen so somehow to me blues at the Ryman just isn’t the way I think of the venue. Anyway the album and Jonny’s guitar wizardry was good! There were some tracks that really caught my attention but I’ll listen again and write more later.
Next I had to change genres because I was writing and I went to Rhapsody and checked out the Blues Jazz artists one that caught my eye was Johnny “Hammond” Smith so I listened to his album Soul Flowers I wasn’t really paying close attention to the music but I did like the organ. Anyway the third track came on and that did catch my attention and I said “Hey, isn’t that “Ode to Billy Joe” and sure enough it was. Then I looked at all the tracks and they include “Alfie”,” Tara’s Theme”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, “To Sir with Love” and “Love is a Hurting Thing” all arranged well for Smith’s organ playing….. all these songs took me back to that time before my listening ear was taken over by rock and folk, back to those days when Motown groups like The Temptations and The Four Tops dominated my turntable.Those thoughts brought me to a Jazz blues artist whose voice I always loved at that would be Lou Rawls. So I listened to a Lou Rawls Greatest Hits album which included the aforementioned “Love is a Hurting Thing: and also “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” and you know what I still love his vocal prowess!!
All this takes me back to some of those guilty pleasure albums including all those Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass albums in the basement and even a couple Baja Marimba Band albums. Maybe they will be on Forgotten Friday’s playlist! Anyone up for some Herb Alpert! Hugh Masakella!
Anyway back to regular blues this afternoon after a pleasant trip down memory lane!