2011 Blues Awards

The Blues Foundation has announced  the 2011 Blues Music Awards . Many of the albums were reviewed here as I explored the Blues this year!! Here are the nominees of course my favorites have the links to my posts! NOMINEES Acoustic Album Eric Bibb Booker’s Guitar Lucky Peterson You Can Always Turn Around Paul Oscher Bet on the Blues South Memphis String Band Home Sweet Home The Nighthawks Last Train to Bluesville Acoustic Artist Doug MacLeod Eric Bibb Guy Davis John Hammond Paul Oscher Album Buddy Guy Living Proof Charlie Musselwhite The Well Eden Brent Ain’t Got No Troubles Janiva…

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Blues Women – Eden Brent and Rita Chiarelli!

So yesterday and today I’ve been listening to a couple of female blues musicians. Eden Brent whose album Ain’t Got No Troubles on Yellow Dog Records is currently number 2 on the Roots Music Blues Charts and Rita Chiarelli whose current release Sweet Paradise is sitting at number 8! Eden Bret aka “Little Boogaloo” a name bestowed upon her by the late blues pioneer Boogaloo Ames after Brant served a 16-year apprenticeship with Ames. Brent is a Mississippi delta jazz musician who plays a mean piano and sings pretty well too! Brant is a three-time Blues Music Award Winner, winning…

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New Blues Rock – Jimmy Bowskill Band Live

So in the last couple of weeks I’ve written about two young women, Amanda Shaw and Sierra Hull who are making some great music at a very young age. Well today I’m writing about a young Canadian blues rocker Jimmy Bowskill, who released his first album Old Soul at the tender age of thirteen and now in 2010 he has released his fourth album “Live”. An album that was designed to capture the set he had been playing on a European Tour with Wishbone Ash. And I for one believe that he succeeded very well. Bowskill is a great guitarist…

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Blues Wednesday Mix – A Vaughan, McCLinton and Kashmar!

So this afternoon I turned on BLuesville on XMRadio on my way home for lunch and I think it was a track by track show of Jimmie Vaughan’s latest album. Anyway Vaughan was talking about the influence of Jimmy Reed and playing harmonica and a few other things so I thought that I’d listen to a little Jimmie Vaughan this afternoon. Now I said last week that The Fabulous Thunderbirds have never been a band that I listened to much but have listened to Kim Wilson’s solo stuff. So the upshot was I put Vaughan’s new album Jimmie VaughanPlays Ballads,…

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New Folk – Brooks Williams – Baby O’

So several years ago, no wait that’s three, no more! Ok it says that Hundred Year Shadow was released in 1999 so I guess about 10 years ago I first discovered Brooks Williams music. WXPN was playing tracks off the aforementioned album and we went to the Main Point to see him. When I first listened to Brooks’ music the thing that stood out was his guitar playing and when I saw him live I was even more impressed and told him so! For which I got a thanks because he said that;s what he loves the most! And he…

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New Blues from the Legendary – Buddy Guy

So playing Rock n’ Roll in your 70’s, playing punk roll in your 80’s doesn’t seem right. But you can keep singing the blues right into your golden years – just listen to Pinetop Perkins who’s about to turn 100!, or Hubert Sumlin who turn 80 next year, or B.B. King who past 80 five years ago. So at 74 years young Buddy Guy‘s one of the young guys! And this youngster has just released a terrific new album Living Proof. I’ve said before that I’ve never been a big Buddy Guy fan but after the release of Skin Game…

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Blues Wednesday – Elmore James,Jr. and Bob Margolin

Today I was out doing field work but on the way there I listened to B B King’s Bluesville on XM Radio to get some ideas for listening one of the first artists I heard this morning was Elmore James. I know James’ name more than his music but the track that I heard was good so I thought , hum maybe I’ll listen to some of his music when I get home! A little while later I heard John Lee Hooker’s son John Lee Hooker, Jr and again a good track. I thought maybe I’ll listen to his Live…

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Blues Wednesday – Roger Hurricane Wilson

So yesterday I noticed an album on the ZenV that I had downloaded one Blues Wednesday and then never listened to it! The album was Exodus the 2008 release from Roger Hurricane Wilson so today I gave it a listen and boy am I glad I did! Exodus is Wilson’s eighth album. His music is electric blues tinged with some Americana but Wilson’s great guitar shines through the whole album! Here’s what some pretty good bluesmen say about Roger: “That boy knows what he’s doing!” ~ Hubert Sumlin ~ “I was there both times… once when Roger went toe to…

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Blues on a Rainy Thursday – Swississippi Chris Harper

So what do you get when you mix a Swiss blues harp player with some of the most distinguished Chicago blues players? You get a damn good blues album from Swississippi Chris Harper Four Aces and a Harp. The Chicago blues men include Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and John Primer who played in both Muddy Waters’ and Howlin’ Wolf’s bands and Bob Stroger who was Otis Rush’s bassist. Vocals are provided by some more modern bluesmen like Jimmy Burns of the Jimmy Burns Band, Tail Dragger and Kenny “Beady Eyes” Smith (Willie “Big Eyes” Smith’s son), along with Smith and…

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Forgotten Music Friday – John Mayall – Chicago Line

So a few weeks ago as I was researching for a post about Walter Trout’s latest album Common Ground ,I discovered or rediscovered that Walter had played on John Mayall‘s 1988 release Chicago Line. I say rediscovered because I probably knew in 1988 that Walter played on the album, but by the time I listened to Walter’s solo albums a few years ago, it was something I didn’t remember! Anyway I went to the CD shelf and pulled out Chicago Line and listened to it. I haven’t listened to it for a while because it currently is not on the…

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