Thursday Music Part 1 – JP Blues Band and Hill Country Review

So today was a mixed listening day – two blues albums followed by a jazz great and then some Native American flute! FIrst up was a blues album by an artist I was unfamiliar with the JP Blues Band, followed by more of a blues rock album from Hill Country Revue. Then The Essential Oscar Peterson. The day concluded with Bill Miller’s latest instrumental album Spirit Wind East The JP Blues is a power blues trio led by John (JP) Pagano and their latest album I Will Not Go Quietly is a strong album. JP is a fantastic guitarist who…

Continue reading

Walter Trout – Common Ground (Do we share a Common Ancestor??)

  “If there’s a place where the truth can still be found, Lord, lead us to the common ground.” so sings one of my favorite blues artist Walter Trout on the title track of his new album Common Ground. Common Ground is Trout’s 20th album and only a few are in my collection, but those that are get listened to a lot! From his website Trout says this about the song “I am blown away by the polarization and cruelty in the world today,” Trout explains. “It goes beyond my understanding. I wrote the lyrics to that song as an…

Continue reading

Blues Wednesday – Walter Trout – Common Ground

“If there’s a place where the truth can still be found, Lord, lead us to the common ground.” so sings one of my favorite blues artist Walter Trout on the title track of his new album Common Ground. Common Ground is Trout’s 20th album and only a few are in my collection, but those that are get listened to a lot! From his website Trout says this about the song “I am blown away by the polarization and cruelty in the world today,” Trout explains. “It goes beyond my understanding. I wrote the lyrics to that song as an attempt…

Continue reading

Blues Wednesday – James Cotton – Giant

So sometimes artist fall into that category of you know their name, you know they’re great and yet you’ve never listened to their music. An artist like that for me is the great James Cotton. I’ve known the name since the 60’s then the James Cotton Blues Band, but never really sought out his music only hearing it now and then on the radio’ So when I saw that the 75 year old Cotton had released a new album Gianta few weeks ago I said in my best Toyota Commercial Voice “Now is the Time!” and downloaded the album on…

Continue reading

New Blues – The Ty Curtis Band

Ok so yesterday when I was reviewing the Roots Music Report Blues Chart and at number 25 sat The Ty Curtis Band and their album Cross the Line. Since they were one of the names I didn’t recognize I went to Rhapsody to check them out. Rhapsody didn’t have the new album but did have some previously releases and I listened a bit to Down on My Luck. The first couple of tracks sounded good but I moved on and listened to some others. Well today I went back and listened again to the whole album and boy am I…

Continue reading

Blues Wednesday – Hubert Sumlin

Near the end of the day today I put on some Hubert Sumlin from his two albums from the 2000’s About Them Shoes and Heart and Soul and both of the albums have the later heart and soul! Sumlin played guitar for Howlin’ Wolf in the 60’s and is till going strong as a matter of fact he was the winner of The Blues Music Award for Best Tradition Artist of the Year!  You can check out his gallery here with pictures of Hubert with a boat load of stars! Ok so now I’m listening to The London Howlin’ Wolf …

Continue reading

Blues Wednesday – J Edwards – Lulu’s House

Ok so I hate the computer that I get to use most of the time! It’s an old slooow emachine and I spend half the night waiting for things to load! Anyway tonight I was looking over the Roots Music Report Blues Chart and I came across a name at number 36 that I didn’t recognize J Edwards and his album Lulu’s House. I listened to the second track “You Said You Loved Me” and it sounded pretty good! Then we lost the Internet connection and I’ve spent the rest of the night waiting for Rhapsody to reload! Anyway, as…

Continue reading

Tommy Castro – Hard Believer

So this morning I had the mp3 player on shuffle and was listening to some of the music I’ve been listening to over these last few months. Some blues came on and  it took me a minute before I recognized Tommy Castro and his latest release Hard Believer.(actually I didn’t remember that I still had the album on the player) So when I went to the store I listened again to the great album! I’ve enjoyed Castro’s music since I picked up a cassette tape of his first album Exception to the Rule. Exception to the Rule and Painkiller are…

Continue reading

Reconnecting with Robben Ford

So the last two days I’ve been up early and out all day in that pollen ladened air surveying and at night I have been tied and itchy and not in the mood for writing, more in the mood for sleeping! Anyway Blues Wednesday has come and gone as well as Thursday which is often a jazz day so this afternoon I decided to listen to someone who combines the two blues jazzman guitarist Robben Ford! I first listened to the album that introduced me to Robben Ford Discovering the Blues released in 1997 by Avenue Jazz Vault Classics the…

Continue reading

Twang Tuessday from Grasstowne to .357 String Band!

So this Twang Tuesday started out with one of the albums I picked up at the Princeton Record Exchange The Other Side of Towne the most recent release from Grasstowne. This is a really good bluegrass album from some excellent musicians. The album has songs about hard workin’, heartbreaks, momma and the Lord! The good picking comes from one of the best mandolin players Alan Bibey. Alan was named the 2010 Mandolin Player of the Year at the SPBGMA (Society for thr Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) in February of this year. Steve Gulley provides the lead vocals and…

Continue reading