Twang – Part 1 – Blue Moon Rising!

So in the last couple of days I’ve been listening a couple of really good new albums with an older sound! First was the traditional sounding bluegrass band Blue Moon Rising and second the traditional Outlaw sounding Whitey Morgan and the 78s. Blue Moon Rising is a four man band from Knoxville, Tennessee composed of Chris West on lead vocals and guitar, Tony Mowell, bass and vocals, Brandon Bostic mandolin, guitar and vocals, and Owen Piatt on banjo. Chris West, who’s been with the band since their beginning, writes many of the band’s songs, that have populated thier first four…

Continue reading

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…

Continue reading

Twang Tuesday – The Blackberry Bushes

So as I looked down the Folk DJ list of airplay for the month of October 2010 the group at number 25 (32nd Top Artist) caught my attention The Blackberry Bushes and their new release Little Bit of Grace. So I headed over to Rhapsody and downloaded the album onto the ZenV. Their music certainly fits in the Americana genre there music is high energy and infectious and certainly will set your toes a tapping. Here’s a description of their music from their Myspace page Their music is progressive Americana “like someone threw a radio from yesteryear high into the…

Continue reading

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…

Continue reading

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,…

Continue reading

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…

Continue reading

Saturday Twang – The Steeldrivers – Reckless

About a week ago I downloaded the new Steeldrivers album Reckless and for some reason I didn’t like the album as much as their self-tilted debut album. I thought their debut album was a really really fine album that stayed in my rotation for a good long time. Well after a few listens the album has grown to be a favorite!! From their website here is a description of their band: The SteelDrivers: a group of seasoned veterans – each distinguished in his or her own right, each valued in the town’s commercial community – who are seizing an opportunity…

Continue reading

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…

Continue reading

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…

Continue reading

Weekend Retreat – Tim O’Brien – The Hackensaw Boys

So this weekend I went back in time to revisit some of the earlier work of Tim O’Brien. O’Brien recently received a nomination by International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) as Male Vocalist of the Year for his latest album Chicken and Egg. Unfortunately he did not win the award. The winner was Russell Moore of IIrd Tyme Out. Anyway the album that I listened to this weekend was Tim’s 1995 album produced by Jerry Douglas Rock in My Shoe. I listened to the first several tracks so that I could hear my favorite track on the album “One Girl Cried”….

Continue reading