Sunnyland Slim & Friends - Sunnyland Special: The Cobra & J.O.B. Recordings 1949-56

Album: Sunnyland Special
Size: 182,9 MB
Time: 79:25
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2001
Styles: Blues, piano blues
Art: Full

1. Sunnyland Slim - When I Was Young (2:40)
2. Sunnyland Slim - Bassology (2:52)
3. Sunnyland Slim - Worried About My Baby (2:42)
4. Sunnyland Slim - Down Home Child (2:52)
5. Sunnyland Slim - Sunnyland Special (2:36)
6. Sunnyland Trio - Mary Lee (3:01)
7. Sunnyland Trio - Leaving Your Town (3:02)
8. Sunnyland Slim & His Boys - Shake It Baby (2:38)
9. Sunnyland Slim & His Boys - Woman Trouble A.K.A. Overnite (2:55)
10. Sunnyland Slim - City Of New Orleans (2:57)
11. Sunnyland Slim & His Playboys - That Woman (2:48)
12. Sunnyland Slim & His Playboys - Four Day Bounce (2:24)
13. Sunnyland Slim - Highway 61 (Master) (3:01)
14. Sunnyland Slim - It's You Baby (2:21)
15. Sunnyland Slim - Highway 61 (Alternate Take 1) (3:03)
16. Sunnyland Slim - Highway 61 (Alternate Take 2) (3:14)
17. Sunnyland Slim - Highway 61 (Alternate Take 3) (3:09)
18. Sunnyland Slim & Jimmy Rogers - Blues (0:36)
19. Floyd Jones - Big World (2:56)
20. Floyd Jones - Dark Road (3:13)
21. Floyd Jones & His Trio - I Lost A Good Woman (2:49)
22. Floyd Jones & His Trio - Skinny Mama (2:12)
23. Floyd Jones & His Trio - Rising Wind (2:50)
24. Floyd Jones & His Trio - On The Road Again (3:11)
25. Robert Jr. Lockwood - Aw Aw Baby (2:37)
26. Robert Jr. Lockwood - Sweet Woman From Maine (3:01)
27. Robert Jr. Lockwood - Dust My Broom (2:27)
28. Robert Jr. Lockwood - Pearly B (2:24)
29. Robert Jr. Lockwood - Dust My Broom (Alternate Take) (2:41)

Exhibiting truly amazing longevity that was commensurate with his powerful, imposing physical build, Sunnyland Slim's status as a beloved Chicago piano patriarch endured long after most of his peers had perished. For more than 50 years, the towering Slim had rumbled the ivories around the Windy City, playing with virtually every local luminary imaginable and backing the great majority in the studio at one time or another.

He was born Albert Luandrew in Mississippi and received his early training on a pump organ. After entertaining at juke joints and movie houses in the Delta, Luandrew made Memphis his home base during the late '20s, playing along Beale Street and hanging out with the likes of Little Brother Montgomery and Ma Rainey. He adopted his colorful stage name from the title of one of his best-known songs, the mournful "Sunnyland Train." (The downbeat piece immortalized the speed and deadly power of a St. Louis-to-Memphis locomotive that mowed down numerous people unfortunate enough to cross its tracks at the wrong instant.) Slim moved to Chicago in 1939 and set up shop as an in-demand piano man, playing for a spell with John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson before waxing eight sides for RCA Victor in 1947 under the somewhat misleading handle of "Doctor Clayton's Buddy." If it hadn't been for the helpful Slim, Muddy Waters may not have found his way onto Chess; it was at the pianist's 1947 session for Aristocrat that the Chess brothers made Waters' acquaintance.

Aristocrat (which issued his harrowing "Johnson Machine Gun") was but one of a myriad of labels that Slim recorded for between 1948 and 1956: Hytone, Opera, Chance, Tempo-Tone, Mercury, Apollo, JOB, Regal, Vee-Jay (unissued), Blue Lake, Club 51, and Cobra all cut dates on Slim, whose vocals thundered with the same resonant authority as his 88s. In addition, his distinctive playing enlivened hundreds of sessions by other artists during the same time frame. In 1960, Slim traveled to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, to cut his debut LP for Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary with King Curtis supplying diamond-hard tenor sax breaks on many cuts. The album, Slim's Shout, ranks as one of his finest, with definitive renditions of the pianist's "The Devil Is a Busy Man," "Shake It," "Brownskin Woman," and "It's You Baby."

Like a deep-rooted tree, Sunnyland Slim persevered despite the passing decades. For a time, he helmed his own label, Airway Records. As late as 1985, he made a fine set for the Red Beans logo, Chicago Jump, backed by the same crack combo that shared the stage with him every Sunday evening at a popular North side club called B.L.U.E.S. for some 12 years. There were times when the pianist fell seriously ill, but he always defied the odds and returned to action, warbling his trademark Woody Woodpecker chortle and kicking off one more exultant slow blues as he had done for the previous half century. Finally, after a calamitous fall on the ice coming home from a gig led to numerous complications, Sunnyland Slim died of kidney failure in 1995. He's sorely missed. /Biography by Bill Dahl, AllMusic

(Note: The track/artist listing on the back cover isn't completely accurate. However, the one stated in the booklet will give you the correct track/artist listing.)

Sunnyland Special: The Cobra & J.O.B. Recordings 1949-56 mc
Sunnyland Special: The Cobra & J.O.B. Recordings 1949-56 zippy

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The Porkroll Project - Papa Didn't Raise Me Right

Album: Papa Didn't Raise Me Right
Size: 131,7 MB
Time: 56:56
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2021
Styles: Modern electric blues
Art: Front

1. Papa Didn't Raise Me Right (5:55)
2. Down In Mexico (4:21)
3. Going To The Station (5:08)
4. Crescent Moon (7:08)
5. Better You Than Me (4:52)
6. Mama Put The Gun Down (5:01)
7. Dancing With The Angels (4:22)
8. Nothin' Yet (5:17)
9. The Next Thing Smokin' (4:02)
10. Sentenced To The Blues (6:12)
11. A Taste Of Malt Liquor (4:35)

Philadelphia-based blues band, The Porkroll Project is back with their latest album, 'Papa Didn't Raise Me Right'. Fronted by Neil 'Porkroll' Taylor on vocals and guitar, the band is a collective comprising of seasoned session musicians, and the resulting record is a delightful trip into the blues. ‘Papa Didn’t Raise me Right’ is the third release by The Porkroll Project. Recorded at Noisy Little Critter Studio outside of Philadelphia, the musicians have excelled themselves in the recording sessions, unleashing tales of dark humor, drinking, and redemption as only the blues can do.

Tales of family disputes often run deep within the genre and here on the bombastic opening title track, Taylor delivers an introspective tale of failed parenthood resulting in the protagonist’s reflective look back on their wayward life with regret. Similarly, a rich vein of black humor runs through the funky ‘Mama Put The Gun Down’ – another tale featuring a failed patriarch and means of their disposal. Murder and treachery underpin the blues-noir tale unfolding in ‘Nothin’ Yet’, while the gospel -fuelled ‘Dancing With The Angels’ changes the course of the record from the dark to the light. Stories of tricksters have always had a place in the blues and ‘Better You Than Me’ is a hilarious anthropomorphic romp featuring some quick-witted subjects that would light up any wildlife documentary given the chance. Going back to basics, ‘Crescent Moon’ and ‘Sentenced To The Blues’ are two standard blues arrangements that allow the full band to shine. The horns on both tracks are simply wonderful.

Given that the various members of The Porkroll Project are successful musicians in their own right and the fact that ‘Papa Didn’t Raise Me Right’ is only their third album release in twenty years, the listener might be forgiven for thinking that they might not be fully committed to the job in hand. Yet, if anything, the album shows that with Taylor at the helm, the band has given one hundred percent on this album and it shows in every song. In fact, there isn’t a bad track on the album.

A hugely enjoyable release by a band that delves deep into the genre and delivers some amazing playing and great songs, while maintaining the fun. /Gerry McNally

Personnel: Neil “Porkroll” Taylor (guitars, vocals); Buddy Cleveland (harmonica, vocals); John “JT” Thomas (drums); Walter Runge (keyboards); Anthony Pieruccini (bass); Chris Neal (trumpet); Andrew Whisler (trombone); David Renz( saxophone); Paul Matecki (vocals).

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Jimmy Reed - Sings The Best Of The Blues

Size: 197 MB
Time: 31:05
File: Flac
Released: 2007
Styles: Chicago blues
Art: Full

1. St. Louis Blues (2:27)
2. Trouble in Mind (2:36)
3. Wee Wee Baby (2:22)
4. How Long Blues (2:59)
5. C.C. Rider (2:45)
6. Roll 'Em Pete (2:49)
7. Outskirts of Town (3:23)
8. The Come Back (3:08)
9. Cherry Red (2:50)
10. Worried Life Blues (2:19)
11. Five Long Years (3:22)

The most popular blues singer of the '50s, with simple lazy shuffles and a laconic drawl that made him the most influential as well. There's simply no sound in the blues as easily digestible, accessible, instantly recognizable, and as easy to play and sing as the music of Jimmy Reed. His best-known songs -- "Baby, What You Want Me to Do," "Bright Lights, Big City," "Honest I Do," "You Don't Have to Go," "Going to New York," "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby," and "Big Boss Man" -- have become such an integral part of the standard blues repertoire, it's almost as if they have existed forever.

Sings The Best Of The Blues FLAC

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Corey Stevens - The Dreaming Man

Size: 144,8 MB
Time: 62:34
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2010
Styles: Blues, rock
Art: Full

1. Good for the Soul (4:22)
2. Why These Blues (4:22)
3. Killer Blues (4:47)
4. Too Good to Be True (5:22)
5. Running Away (6:07)
6. Ronda Vista Shuffle (5:36)
7. Ride It Out (3:56)
8. The Dreaming Man (4:43)
9. Lost Shadows (5:46)
10. True Blue (4:32)
11. Another Sad Goodbye (6:55)
12. Never Had A Read (6:00)

A journey above and beyond the blues rock genre encompassing uptempo blues rockers and introspective singer songwriter gems. Mature contemporary blues for blues lovers who want something new.

The Dreaming Man MP3

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Sven Zetterberg & The Chicago Express - The Blue Soulution

Album: The Blue Soulution
Size: 115,7 MB
Time: 49:48
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1990
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues, soul-blues
Art: Full

1. Never Like This Before (3:38)
2. Pouring Water On A Drowning Man (4:10)
3. Sloppy Drunk (2:59)
4. Tight Budget (3:02)
5. I Need Me Somebody (5:09)
6. Further Information (2:45)
7. I Grew Tired Of It (3:11)
8. The Chokin' Kind (4:03)
9. I'll Never Do You Wrong (3:28)
10. Jump The Boogie (2:50)
11. Had You Told It Like It Was (It Wouldn't Be Like It Is) (3:28)
12. My Nerve's Gone Bad (4:58)
13. Back Track (3:10)
14. Morocco (2:49)

Scandinavian bluesman Sven Zetterberg impressed Swedish audiences beginning in the early '70s with his guitar, harp, and raw soulful vocals. He was born in 1952 in Skärblacka, Sweden, and started playing harmonica at the age of 12 when he discovered the music of Little Walter. His first band, Telge Blues, was formed in 1972 and played the Swedish club scene for a number of years, followed by the formation of Sven Zetterberg & the Chicago Express. This band, for the better part of ten years, held the top position in the Swedish blues scene and recorded four albums - The Blue Solution (1990), Watch Your Step (1991), Permanently Blue (1995), and Steppin' Out (1996) - before breaking up. Through the years, Zetterberg learned from and played with a host of American blues greats who traveled through Scandinavia, including Jimmy Rogers, Sunnyland Slim, and Jimmy McCracklin.

In 1979, Zetterberg made his first trip to America, heading directly to Chicago, making further contacts with several important musicians. This culminated in the 1983 album Chicago Blues Meeting, featuring Sunnyland Slim and S.P. Leary. Zetterberg continued to tour and release discs, including his first solo recording, Blues from Within, issued by the Amigo label in 1999. Let Me Get Over It followed in spring 2001, and he remained prolific over the next decade and a half, releasing such albums as Moving in the Right Direction (2004), Southern Soul Agenda (2006), Hollerin' Up a Storm (2007), Grounded in Reality (2010), Mileage (2012), and Something for Everybody (2016). After concluding a Christmas tour in mid-December of 2016, Zetterberg died of heart failure in Stockholm on the 18th of that month. He was 64 years old. /Biography by Al Campbell, AllMusic

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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T-Bone Walker - Stormy Monday (Live 1968)

Size: 152.6 MB
Time: 65:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1992
Styles: Electric Blues, Texas Blues
Art: Full

01. Every Day I Have The Blues (4:45)
02. I Woke Up This Morning (6:15)
03. When I Grow Up (7:42)
04. Long Lost Lover (9:05)
05. Shake It Baby (4:53)
06. Stormy Monday Blues (4:51)
07. Why My Baby (5:07)
08. Late Blues (8:50)
09. Sail On (5:07)
10. T-Bone Blues Special (4:16)
11. Treat Me So Low Down (4:44)

Personel: T-Bone Walker: Vocals, Guitar
Hartley Severns: Sax, Fiddle
Johnny Summers: Bass
Vinton (Vinnie) Johnson: Drums
Paul Pena: Guitar, Vocals

T-Bone and his ensemble shows us exactly how rock & roll formed in this live album. He is a primary influence for those credited for creating rock & roll, including B.B. King and Chuck Berry.

The recording itself is a bit of an enigma. There's no information whatsoever in the liner notes regarding anything except the track listing. I find one source that suggests it was recorded in 1968 in Paris, yet I found another that flat out states that it was a bootleg recording from the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1972. The latter makes more sense, since Paul Pena (the phenomenal guitarist on this recording) wasn't active with T-Bone Walker's group until that time. None of the sources I used to come up with this information are concrete, so I just have to make the best guess here.

The music is fantastic and full of energy. Paul Pena is brilliant on guitar and really steals the show. The entire ensemble nails it, including the sax and fiddle players. Yes, fiddle player - this adds an element of country to an already eclectic live performance. Due to the nature of the recording, there are some unnatural fades, but they are only slightly noticeable. There's at least one instance where T-Bone is speaking to the crowd, and you have to lean in to the speakers a bit to hear what he's saying - but the music is there in full force. Overall a decent, but not great, remaster - but that's a good thing considering the source of the recording itself.

Presentation:
I have a real issue with albums that provide no information. The disc comes with a single-fold liner. Open it up, and ... there's nothing inside. It's blank. What I'm able to gather I had to sleuth it up online using unscrupulous sources, or obtain from T-Bone's own words on the recording itself.

Overall, I recommend this to anyone who is a blues or early rock & roll enthusiast. ~Daniel Graham

Stormy Monday (Live 1968) MP3
Stormy Monday (Live 1968) FLAC

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Tom Principato - It's Tele Time: A Tribute To Roy Buchanan & Danny Gatton

Size: 117.9 MB
Time: 50:58
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Apricot Brandy (4:53)
02. 8 Counts For Rita (5:05)
03. One For Danny (3:15)
04. See See Rider (6:07)
05. Don't Think Twice (It's Alright) (4:30)
06. Saturday Night Fish Fry (5:07)
07. Done Daddy Dirty (7:19)
08. Slow Down (5:31)
09. The Messiah Will Come Again (9:07)

I have never thought of myself in the same category as Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton--these guys were my heroes, and through them I heard the playing of my other heroes like Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Roy Nichols, Charlie Christian and James Burton. And although I have played different models of Fender and Gibson guitars over the years, (Roy and Danny didn't always play a Telecaster either), I have always thought of myself in my own way, as being part of the ""Washington D.C. Telecaster tradition"". I always brought more than one guitar on a tour or to a concert, and one of them was usually a Telecaster. There would be a part of the show where I would strap on a Telecaster, joke about ""it's Tele time!"" and ""unleashing the chickens"", and for a part of the night everything that I learned or absorbed from Roy and Danny would come pouring out. This is a collection of live recordings showing those influences and my tribute to 2 of the greatest Fender Telecaster guitar players ever. Tom Principato"

It's Tele Time: A Tribute To Roy Buchanan & Danny Gatton MP3
It's Tele Time: A Tribute To Roy Buchanan & Danny Gatton FLAC

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Clint Morgan - Scofflaw

Size: 180.8 MB
Time: 75:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Blues, Rock, Country
Art: Front

01. This Little Light Of Mine (Intro) (0:50)
02. Waco (5:45)
03. Wild One (2:35)
04. I Got A Gun (3:08)
05. I Don't Know Where To Turn (Feat. Diunna Greenleaf) (3:37)
06. Eastham Farm (Feat. Diunna Greenleaf) (7:22)
07. D.B. Cooper Blues (3:23)
08. I Love Robbing Banks (2:48)
09. Bad Man Blues (4:24)
10. Thief In The Night (5:20)
11. Wanted Man (4:24)
12. The Face In The Mirror (5:09)
13. A Sackful Of Cash (3:12)
14. Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair (Feat. Diunna Greenleaf) (5:31)
15. Softly And Tenderly Jesus Is Calling (Feat. Maria Muldaur) (4:21)
16. I Remembered You (5:49)
17. I Done Made It Up In My Mind (Feat. Maria Muldaur) (3:52)
18. This Little Light Of Mine (Outro) (0:40)
19. I Got A Gun (Alternate Take) (Bonus Track) (3:18)

SCOFFLAW is pianist-singer-songwriter Clint Morgan’s sophomore effort, following on from 2008’s You’re Really Bugging Me, and a mightily impressive effort it is, too. It’s an album of pure Americana, with liberal helpings of blues, country, gospel and roots rock, all played with zip and passion. It also almost qualifies as a concept album, with the lyrics to each song combining to tell the story of a fictional person not dissimilar to the outlaw of yore such as John Wesley Hardin, Frank and Jesse James, or Robert “Butch Cassidy” Parker, all of whom were raised in good families but then chose an outlaw path. Morgan divides the narrative action between three distinct time periods – the Old West, the Depression and the modern day – while the songs explore and articulate the internal contradictions of hardened criminals who never entirely lose their Christian faith or the moral compass of their early upbringings, with confusion, remorse and self-doubt to the fore.

Morgan wrote the vast majority of the tracks, however he also included some superb covers, from Maria Muldaur’s modern gospel of “I Done Made It Up In My Mind” (also featuring Muldaur as guest vocalist), to Johnny O’Keefe’s early Australian rock and roll of “Wild One” and Bob Dylan’s “Wanted Man” (most famously covered perhaps by Johnny Cash, whose deep baritone is not dissimilar to Morgan’s own voice). A particular high point is Morgan’s loose, swinging reading of the old Bessie Smith classic “Send Me To The ‘Lectric Chair”.

With superbly sympathetic support from his array of backing musicians, Morgan uses each song both to drive the overall album narrative and to capture an individual moment, such as in the harrowing pain of the Billy The Kid-inspired “I Got A Gun” on which Morgan draws a historically accurate picture of the young Henry McCarty as he sings “I got me a job out of Abilene. A dollar a day and a bowl of beans. Until the foreman called me a scrawny mutt, then he was lying there with a slug in his gut. Now I’m out on the road again, buck-toothed and dirty, short and thin. They laugh and ask me why I never grew, then they learn what a .44 slug can do.”

SCOFFLAW opens and closes (if you don’t count the bonus track of an alternative take of “I’ve Got A Gun) with haunting acapella verses of the traditional “This Little Light Of Mine” sung by the Abingdon, Alabama Children’s Choir, sounding as if they were recorded in the 1930s. In between, highlights abound, from the grinding roots rock of “Waco”, with Kenny Vaughan’s howling electric guitar to the fore, to the rollicking upbeat blues of “I Don’t Know Where To Turn” (featuring some joyful singing from Dianna Greenleaf), the bouncing countryish “D.B. Cooper Blues” (with its knowing nod to Jimmie Rodgers’ “California Blues”) and the traditional rock’n’roll of “I Love Robbing Banks”.

In SCOFFLAW, Clint Morgan has produced an outstanding album of modern Americana with its tales of loss and redemption. Let’s hope it doesn’t take eight years for his next release. Recommended.

Scofflaw MP3
Scofflaw FLAC

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Larry McCray - Blues Without You

Size: 152.5 MB
Time: 65:17
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Front & Back

01. Arkansas (4:35)
02. Without Love It Doesn't Matter (4:50)
03. Good Die Young (4:41)
04. Down To The Bottom (Feat. Warren Haynes) (5:42)
05. Breaking News (6:28)
06. Roadhouse Blues (6:19)
07. Drinkin' Liquor And Chasin' Women (Feat. Joanna Connor) (5:36)
08. Blues Without You (For Paul) (5:09)
09. Mr. Easy (Feat. Joe Bonamassa) (7:11)
10. No More Crying (4:16)
11. Don't Put Your Dreams To Bed (5:09)
12. I Play The Blues (5:14)

Underrated and overlooked blues guitar veteran Larry McCray finally gets his due with the help of producer team Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith. After growing up with his incredible talent, Joe and Josh felt it was time for the world to discover this gem. With 11 original tracks (plus one cover song), this new album showcases Larry's powerhouse, soulful vocals, blazing guitar playing, and amazing songwriting. Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes and Joanna Connor all appear as featured guests.

Blues Without You MP3
Blues Without You FLAC

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VA - Blues Singles Collection Vol. 43

Size: 224.1 MB
Time: 96:03
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Front

01 Pontus Snibb & Wreck Of Blues - 15 Days (Feat. Chips Kiesbye) (3:22)
02 Delbert McClinton - Ain't That Lovin' You (2:19)
03 Chris Thomas King - Andromeda Blues (3:24)
04 Ghost Hounds - Baby We're Through (3:56)
05 Irma Thomas - Carnival Time (Feat. Cyril Neville & George Porter Jr.) (3:29)
06 Sharon Lewis - Crazy Love (4:21)
07 Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs - Electric Gypsy (4:35)
08 The Sheepdogs - Find The Truth (2:53)
09 Doug Henthorn - Forewarned And Failing (3:54)
10 Simon McBride - High Stakes (3:39)
11 The Mystix - I Guess I Lose (3:28)
12 Brigitte Purdy - I Just Want To Make Love To You (3:57)
13 Jackie Venson - I Surrender (3:44)
14 The Nighthawks - I'll Come Running Back To You (4:11)
15 John Illsley - It's A Long Way Back (5:50)
16 Roberto Lessa - Lay Down On The Road (3:52)
17 ElectroBluesSociety & Boo Boo Davis - Lowdown Dirty Blues (Rose Sunset Remix) (5:22)
18 Bonnie Raitt - Made Up Mind (3:40)
19 Edgar Winter - Mean Town Blues (Feat. Joe Bonamassa) (5:05)
20 Mick Clarke - Night School (4:57)
21 Fantastic Negrito - Oh Betty (3:56)
22 Son Of Dave - Someday Soon (2:24)
23 The Bros. Landreth - Stay (2:51)
24 Seth Walker - The Future Ain't What It Used To Be (3:21)
25 Albert Cummings - Too Old To Grow Up (3:21)

A collection of blues singles released in February/March 2022 compiled by myself.

Blues Singles Collection Vol. 43

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Albert Castiglia - I Got Love

Album: I Got Love
Size: 109,6 MB
Time: 47:29
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric blues
Art: Full

1. I Got Love (3:16)
2. Don't Pray With The Devil (3:23)
3. Burning Bridges (3:57)
4. Sanctuary (4:25)
5. Double Down (2:59)
6. Long Haul Daddy (5:29)
7. What's Wrong With You? (4:59)
8. Depression Blues (4:27)
9. Freedomland (4:01)
10. You Don't Know Hell (4:28)
11. Take My Name Out Of Your Mouth (6:00)

Miami’s own Blues Music Award-winning guitar sensation Albert Castiglia catches some big air on his brand new release I Got Love. The 11 new songs here capture the essence of the pandemic experience for Castiglia and likely mirror what many of his fans have endured, as well. “I Got Love is a musical essay documenting the last two years of my life: two years of many highs and lows,” Castiglia says. “It’s about falling, failing, adapting, reinventing, surviving and becoming triumphant.” The record is, indeed, Castiglia’s most theme-centered album to date and effectively graphs the internal tug-of-war between darkness and light he had to overcome to survive, bring these songs to the world, and continue onward in his chosen vocation. Mike Zito produced the sessions brilliantly, capturing Castiglia at full strength backed by heavyweight players including Justine Tompkins (bass and vocals), Ephraim Lowell (drums and vocals),and Lewis Stephens (Hammond B3 organ and piano).

Castiglia is no stranger to heavyweights. He was jumped into the blues scene as the guitarist for Chicago harp master Junior Wells, one of the most definitive harmonica players to ever emerge from the City of Big Shoulders. He also went on to back up vocalist Sandra Hall before going all-in and becoming a solo artist. Since then, Castiglia has won the Blues Music Award for Blues Rock Album of the Year for his record Masterpiece and was also nominated for Blues Rock Artist of the Year. He’s established himself as one of the USA’s mightiest contemporary roots musicians and there’s no end to his achievements in sight. Castiglia gets busy immediately, leading off the record with his title track “I Got Love.” It’s a hard-hitting track that rocks with a kinetic, survival-based energy that’s bound to pump up anyone feeling the stress of modern life. His vocals are bold and cathartic and his guitar notes sting and soar. The band is tight and bright behind him, creating a solid pocket that drives Castiglia forward.

The snarling funk of “Don’t Pray With The Devil” finds Castiglia preaching and reaching, dispensing sage advice on the mic while simultaneously ripping his strings off with the kind of aggressive phrasing that threatens to crash but never does. AC walks the line between chaos and music in a way that only those who have felt the edge can and truly lets us feel what’s in his soul. If this doesn’t move yours, you don’t have one. “Burning Bridges” is more hard-edged funk/rock and speaks to the need to cut negative, smack-talking people out of one’s life and contract one’s inner circle. It’s an angry song and Castiglia goes at it full-throttle, showing some spleen to those who have tried to slow his roll. His crisp rhythm playing and overdriven leads are on-point and channel the intense emotions that inspired this honest and entertaining track.

Castiglia gives his slide a workout on the shuffling “Long Haul Daddy.” This is upbeat, party blues as it was meant to be played and is guaranteed to get any crowd up and moving. Again, Albert leaves it all out there on this one, playing with a fury that could power the lights of Miami. It’s a genuine bone-shaker with a call-and-response chorus that’s nothing but fun. Other prime Castiglia moments on I Got Love include Melvin Taylor’s “Depression Blues” and the closer “Take My Name Out Of Your Mouth.” This is without a doubt Albert Castiglia’s finest effort to date and shows him to be one of the best players and songwriters working today. Anyone seeking high-test blues/rock that speaks the Truth will find it right here. /Mike O'Cull, Rock & Blues Muse

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Cash McCall - Cash Up Front

Album: Cash Up Front
Size: 102,3 MB
Time: 44:19
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1988
Styles: Blues, R&B
Art: Full

1. Girlfriend, Women, And Wife (3:45)
2. My Heart Is Cryin' (4:05)
3. Your Lovin' Don't Come Free (4:14)
4. Doesn't Matter At All (3:31)
5. Don't Change On Me (4:25)
6. Mama Didn't Lie (4:41)
7. You Were Talkin' In Your Sleep (4:34)
8. It's My Turn (5:04)
9. Slipped, Tripped (5:01)
10. You Make The Sun Shine (4:55)

Guitarist Cash McCall has segued from gospel to soul to blues over a distinguished career spanning more than three decades. Born Morris Dollison, Jr., he found that the best way to exit his rural existence was to enlist in the Army. After completing his hitch, he relocated in Chicago (where his family lived for a time when he was a child). Gospel was Dollison's initial passion - he sang with the Gospel Songbirds (he also played guitar with the group, recording with them for Excello in 1964 with fellow future R&B hitmaker Otis Clay singing lead) and the Pilgrim Jubilee Singers.

He waxed his first secular single, the two-part workout "Earth Worm," for One-derful Records' M-Pac! subsidiary in 1963 as Maurice Dollison. In 1966, he made a demo of a soul number called "When You Wake Up" that he had penned with producer Monk Higgins. He was doubtless shocked to learn of its subsequent release on the Thomas label, billed to one Cash McCall! The tune proved a national R&B hit, sending the newly christened McCall on the road with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars (others on the bill: Lou Christie and Mitch Ryder).

Similarly tasty R&B follow-ups for Thomas and Checker failed to hit the same commercial heights. McCall was a valuable session guitarist and composer at Chess, learning the business end of his trade from Chess in-house legend Willie Dixon. McCall's blues leanings grew more prominent during the next decade. He cut an LP for Paula in 1973 called Omega Man before relocating to L.A. in 1976. In 1983 McCall released his first solo record in ten years, No More Doggin', and followed it up with Cash Up Front in 1987.

McCall's ties to Willie Dixon remained strong, he co-produced Dixon's Grammy-winning Hidden Charms in 1988 and worked as a sideman with Dixon's band, the All-Stars. McCall has since toured frequently as a solo blues artist and has often appeared on stage with the Chicago Rythym and Blues Kings (who were formerly known as the Mellow Fellows), backed singer Big Twist, and performed in the Chicago Blues Review. /Biography by Bill Dahl, AllMusic

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Albert Collins - Don't Lose Your Cool

Size: 93.9 MB
Time: 40:09
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1983
Styles: Electric Blues, Texas Blues
Art: Full

01. Get To Gettin' (3:04)
02. My Mind Is Trying To Leave Me (7:36)
03. Broke (4:07)
04. Don't Lose Your Cool (4:42)
05. When A Guitar Plays The Blues (5:14)
06. ... But I Was Cool! (3:11)
07. Melt Down (4:05)
08. Ego Trip (4:35)
09. Quicksand (3:31)

Keeping up with his "Iceman" moniker, Albert Collins delivers with his fourth Alligator release Don't Lose Your Cool. The title cut was one of his first instrumental hits back in the late '50s and here it's given a gritty, organ-driven workout à la one of his heroes and onetime collaborators, Jimmy McGriff. Forging on in this impressively diverse set, Collins revels in the humorous, spoken commentary of Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "But I Was Cool" (reminiscent of Collins' spoken interludes on the John Zorn piece "Spillane"), updates the jump-blues antics of Big Walter Price's "Get to Gettin'," and closes the set out with a faithful take on Guitar Slim's "Quicksand." He also adds a few of his own impressive cuts here, including the funky, syncopated New Orleans groove "Melt Down" and the Stax 'n' blues cut "Ego Trip." Throughout, of course, Collins comes up with plenty of his grating, barbed wire guitar licks and rough-hewn vocals. Riding atop his crack, seven-piece Ice Breakers band (including a fine horn section), Collins certainly keeps things burnin' on this set, while still living up to all the icy allusions with some of the most cool and urbane modern blues on record. ~Stephen Cook

Don't Lose Your Cool MP3
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Diunna Greenleaf - I Ain't Playin'

Size: 128.5 MB
Time: 55:01
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Soul
Art: Front

01. Never Trust A Man (4:17)
02. Running Like The Red Cross (Feat. Walter Morgan, James Morgan, Dwayne Morgan) (3:43)
03. If It Wasn't For The Blues (5:52)
04. Answer To The Hard Working Woman (3:39)
05. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (3:41)
06. Sunny Day Friends (4:37)
07. When I Call Your Name (Feat. Alabama Mike) (3:58)
08. I Don't Care (2:58)
09. Damned If I Do (3:55)
10. I Know I've Been Changed (Feat. Alabama Mike) (3:21)
11. Back Door Man (5:58)
12. Let Me Cry (4:57)
13. My Turn, My Time (4:01)

Diunna has one of those distinctive, powerfully emotive voices that just stops you in your tracks the first time you hear her. This dynamic and gifted singer from Houston has an absolutely amazing voice, full of soul, emotion, feeling, finesse, and strength! Even though Diunna is always winning or nominated for best traditional blues female singer of the year, this is remarkably her first album in over 10 years (since 2011’s highly acclaimed ‘Trying to Hold On’) and her first that was not self-released on her own Blue Mercy label.

Executive producer Noel Hayes excels in thoughtfully picking out killer songs from the past to fit the style of his favorite current singers, like Diunna.

This winning team of Noel with co-producer Jim Pugh and his Little Village record label and co-producer Kid Andersen and his Greaseland studio have helped to create magic again in the studio and unearthed a batch of buried treasure blues, soul, R&B, and gospel songs that perfectly match Diunna’s distinctive and expressive vocals.

In addition to the four outstanding originals from Diunna, many of these fascinating songs are from singers from her own home state of Texas, which she has transformed to make them all her own. Lone star state standouts are the funky “I Don’t Care” from Long John Hunter, the deep blues of “Let Me Cry” from Johnny Copeland, and “Damned If I Do” from the vastly underrated singer/songwriter Joe Medwick.

Diunna, with the help of Alabama Mike (one of our other favorite real deal blues singers of today) created a new version of a classic gospel song done by The Staples Singers, “I Know I’ve Been Changed,” and they also killed it on a soulful country gospel duet, “When I Call Your Name” from Vince Gill. The head turning opening Koko Taylor track, “Never Trust A Man” is also available on YouTube where you can see how it was masterfully done at Greaseland with this all-star band of Kid, keyboardist Jim Pugh, drummer D’Mar and the legendary bassist, Jerry Jemmott, who “lays down the groove that could anchor the solar system!” “If It Wasn’t For the Blues” was one of Mighty Sam McClain’s favorite songs and it really says how Diunna feels, too, and “Answer To The Hard Working Woman” is a twist on Otis Clay’s hard funk soul song, where she flips the script. Be sure to check out one of the most meaningful, powerful songs that still resonates today, “Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” where she eerily channels Nina Simone; I don’t know anyone else but Diunna who can pull this off so well.

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Levee Town - Trying To Keep My Head Above Water

Size: 71.1 MB
Time: 30:09
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues
Art: Front

01. Music Martyr (3:29)
02. Locked Up For Days (2:39)
03. Lookin For My Baby (3:46)
04. Gala (2:43)
05. Outside Child (3:00)
06. Tarantino (3:06)
07. She Might Kill You (3:14)
08. Weight Of The World (4:22)
09. The Stumble (3:46)

Levee Town is truly reminiscent of the old rock n roll energy that very first dominated the stage, but with a searing blend of blues and rockabilly stylings. Since forming in 2002, the band has taken their powerhouse sound from the fertile Kansas City blues scene to festival stages all over the US. Known for their explosive live shows, this foursome has won adulation and critical praise the old-fashioned way - they earned it.

Fronted by a trio of talented singer-songwriters, Levee Town is never at a loss for fresh new material. In addition to playing an average of 250 dates a year, the band is constantly writing new songs and revamping the classics.

Their 2004 live debut Snapshot displayed the band's on-stage prowess and blistering live performance. In 2006, they released their first full-length studio effort Unstable Table which displayed a strong penchant for solid songwriting and inventive lyrics. Their 2009 album entitled simply LEVEE TOWN shows that the group continues to grow musically and contains the band's finest songwriting and production to date. Their current release, "Pages of Paperwork", offers a solid set of original blues rooted firmly in the traditional blues sound, but also mixed with traces of rock, country, and even a little bit of pop.

Trying To Keep My Head Above Water MP3
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Norman Beaker Band - Live In Split 2021

Size: 147.4 MB
Time: 63:07
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Option On You Baby (Live 2021) (3:25)
02. You Can Talk (Live 2021) (4:45)
03. Talko To Me Baby (Live 2021) (6:22)
04. Tough On Me, Tough On You (Live 2021) (5:37)
05. It's Over (Live 2021) (2:41)
06. Love Her Like The Sky (Live 2021) (5:53)
07. Loaded For Bears (Live 2021) (3:26)
08. Only I Got What The Other Guys Want (Live 2021) (4:45)
09. White Room (Live 2021) (7:49)
10. Tame Me To Your Pleasuredome (Live 2021) (6:39)
11. Long Before You Came Along (Live 2021) (6:24)
12. I Tried (Live 2021) (5:14)

Norman Beaker has been at the forefront of the British Blues scene for over 4 decades playing with Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, Jack Bruce, Tony Ashton, Paul Jones, Eric Burdon and many others. BB King commented, “Norman is like a white Freddy King”, a compliment indeed, and not one wasted on the many artistes Norman has subsequently worked with including: BB King, Jimmy Rogers, Buddy Guy, Lowell Fulson, Fenton Robinson, Chuck Berry, Carey Bell James Booker, Jon Lord, Larry Garner and Ruby Turner to name just a few.

The Beaker Band are one of the hardest working bands on the circuit and one of a the few acts, playing songs relevant today. Recently the band have been touring Europe with Chris Farlowe and Van Morrison. They have a new album “Between The Lines” and are permanently on the road in their own right and with Larry Garner, and of course Chris Farlowe for nearly 20 years. The band mix a blend of all types of blues with a lot of energy and also with a lot of humour. The band consists of 5 of the most sought after blues musicians in the UK. Norman has played and recorded with US and UK greats such as BB King, Buddy Guy, Jack Bruce, Alexis Korner Graham Bond, Chuck Berry, Robert Plant, Lowell Fulson and too many more to mention. ~ Norman Beaker: Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Piano, Harp and Percussion.

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David Lumsden - Rooted In The Blues

Size: 87.1 MB
Time: 36:59
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Full

01. I Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down (2:17)
02. Runaway (Blues Train) (2:25)
03. Ruthless Boogie (4:03)
04. Hound Dawg (3:54)
05. Your Memory (3:46)
06. Hooked On Something (4:33)
07. Josie (5:36)
08. Everyday I Have The Blues (2:55)
09. Ode To Jimi Aka Slow Burn (4:19)
10. Everything Is Broken (3:06)

The iconoclasm of Guitar Heroes is such a universal ideal that a successful video game was created to honor the purveyors of the art, who wielded the instrument that filled the imagination of generations of musicians, who strived to followed in their footsteps. Midwestern guitarist David Lumsden has been chasing the guitar hero muse, since he got his first guitar at 10 years old in 1965, beginning his journey during the British Rock invasion and the Golden Age of Electric Blues, the birth of soul, funk, and mainstream rock 'n' roll.

Lumsden's sophomore album, "Rooted In The Blues," could easily be described as a tribute to those heady days when guitar heroes dominated the airwaves and turntables of young music fans. The ten-song collection of three original tracks and seven reimagined classics run the gamut of blues, blues rock shuffles, boogies, a countryfied train beat, FM pop and a few surprises. Lumsden is backed by his hard-working band featuring Tim Bahn on keys, Gary Davis on bass and drummer Jim Engel, who together have built a firm foundation for this six-string salutation.

The cavalcade begins with a faithful rendering of a Chuck Berry prototype from Eddy Clearwater, 'I Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down,' complete with barrelhouse piano and rumbling baritone sax. Lumsden's 'Runaway (Blues Train)' is a down home chicken pickin' good time with a classic country train beat and hot licks reminiscent of Nashville aces Alvin Lee and Danny Gatton. John Lee Hooker created the mold for electric guitar with 'Boogie Chillen'' in 1948, and Lumsden's 'Ruthless Boogie' follows that patented form and mashes in a little ZZ Top and Deep Purple to bring it into this century. The band then transforms Lieber/Stoller's 'Hound Dawg' into a 70's funk number fueled by electric piano and more baritone sax from Ian Buschmann. The lovely ballad 'Your Memory,' composed by Lumsden's old friend, jazz guitarist Greg Pasenko, sits in the middle of the set as a fine palette cleanser and reminds us that six strings also come in the acoustic variety.

The bump and grind blues, 'Hooked On Something,' is a revival of the time Lumsden spent with guest vocalist Reggie Britton and his band, Black Magic Johnson. The spot-on instrumental cover of 'Josie' not only pays homage to Guitar God Larry Carlton, but also to the vaunted session players, who created a catalog of hit songs for Steely Dan. The 12-bar blues, 'Everyday I Have The Blues,' that became a blues hall of fame standard with renditions recorded by numerous artists, is Lumsden's opportunity to acknowledge the impact on his life of all those records. He then honors arguably the best electric guitarist of all time with a loving 'Ode To Jimi AKA Slow Burn' quoting several well-known themes from the Hendrix Experience sonic lexicon. Recorded live at the end of 2021 'Everything Is Broken,' serves as a charming bonus track for the collection featuring Kylan Davis, son of the bass player, on snarling lead vocal. David Lumsden has spent his life as a student of the guitar arts and pays it forward with this heartfelt offering. ~Rick J Bowen

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Angela Brown & Jan Luley - Wings Of Blues

Size: 155.6 MB
Time: 66:44
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2004/2022
Styles: Piano Blues
Art: Front

01. St. James Infirmary Blues (5:51)
02. Jailhouse Blues (5:34)
03. Please Send Me Someone To Love (5:34)
04. Wild Turkey (4:56)
05. I'm A Fool (5:29)
06. Million Dollar Secret (5:41)
07. I Got A Good Thing (3:57)
08. Sunday Kind Of Love (5:34)
09. Can We Do That (4:17)
10. Oh, Daddy (4:38)
11. You Didn't Want What You Had (3:29)
12. Back Water Blues (7:07)
13. C.C. Rider (4:31)

Angela Brown is certainly a Blues Diva – "raucous, raunchy and rumbustious" are just some of the words used to describe this great singer. Born in Chicago, Illinois. Angela began her musical career by singing gospel music in church and performing with school choirs. And, although she was aware of the blues, she didn´t devote herself to singing them until around 1980, when she played the role of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey in a stage musical. Inspired by the music, she worked, honing her craft, in numerous Chicago blues clubs, often accompanied by pianists Little Brother Montgomery, Erwin Helfer or Lovie Lee, or sharing the stage with her music friends, the likes of Blind John Davis, Pinetop Perkins, B.B. King, Georgie Fame, Long John Baldry... the list goes on. Her Debut recordings were released by the Red Beans label in 1983, and the first album under her own name was made in 1987 for the German label, Schubert Records. She was dubbed "The Bessie Smith of the Eighties" and later the 90´s, a deserved title given her strong renditions of vaudeville blues material. Her powerful voice is also well-suited to more modern blues and jazz styles, becoming a popular attraction at festivals all over the world; not only vocally, but for her onstage presence and oomph!! Angela has been included in The Guinness Book, Who´s Who of Blues, and the new Virgin´s Encyclopedia of the Blues. Making her one of the few Living Legends in Blues Music today. Past years have seen Angela voted in France "International Chanteuse De L´Annee 1999", and in the U.K. "Overseas Female Artist of the Year" and her album Thinking Out Loud with her English band The Mighty 45s was runner up as the UK Album of the Year 2000. 2005 C.D. Release Angela Brown and Jan Luley´s Wings of Blues. 2006 sees the release of Angela and her favourite 4 piece band, The Mighty 45s, new C.D. In A Dangerous Mood.

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Alberta Adams - Detroit Is My Home

Album: Detroit Is My Home
Size: 120,6 MB
Time: 52:07
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2008
Styles: Blues, piano blues
Art: Full

1. Keep On Keepin' On (3:20)
2. Tired Of Being Alone (4:53)
3. Hello Little Boy (3:08)
4. I'm So Worried (5:53)
5. Detroit Is My Home (3:05)
6. Dr. Blues (4:28)
7. Always Home (4:08)
8. Wet Clothes (3:34)
9. Struttin My Stuff (3:39)
10. Long Gone (3:48)
11. I'm On The Move/Every Day (4:31)
12. Hopin' It Will Be Alright (3:59)
13. Just A Little Bit (Bonus) (3:37)

Alberta Adams has had a long career in music stretching back to her days touring with Louis Jordan, Cleanhead Vinson & T-Bone Walker. She has been recording since the 1950's & this new release has her paired with three talented pianists - Mark Braun (Mr. B), Ann Rabson (from the group Saffire) and Al Hill (from Bettye Lavette's band). The songs are a mix of swinging blues with a wonderful band in support.

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Paul Buchanan's Voodoo Preachers - Live At Moechella 2021

Album: Live At Moechella 2021
Size: 89,9 MB
Time: 38:50
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2021
Styles: Electric blues
Art: Front

1. Out Of Time (5:42)
2. Pool Hall Vinnie (4:59)
3. Never Loved You Anyway (3:25)
4. Some Kind Of Voodoo (4:28)
5. Champagne & Reefer (3:29)
6. Smoking Gun (3:38)
7. The Law (5:08)
8. Sleeve (3:42)
9. One Way Out (4:13)

With nowhere to play and no one to play to, Paul Buchanan gathered members of Amnesia Blues Band (Ning Hopkins, guitar; Darryl Kerr, bass and Stuart Anderson, drums) and The Blues Lizards (Marc Leyshan, guitar) in a shed outside of Maffra to create Paul Buchanan’s Voodoo Preachers.

In the brief window between Victorian Lockdown 3.0 and Victorian Lockdown 4.0, gigs were back. We came, we played, we recorded! Moechella 2021 was a rock festival held on 22nd May 2021 at The Moe Hotel in memory of Riley “Choppy” Pearce. Riley battled his own mental health issues which tragically resulted in him ending his own life on 24th of January 2021. Choppy was a respectful and well-loved young man who was only 17 years old at his time of passing.

Personnel: Paul Buchanan (vocals); Ning Hopkins (guitar); Marc Leyshan (guitar); Stuart Anderson (drums); Darryl Kerr (bass). Special guest: Wes Hopkins (bass).

Thanks to Gio

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Louis Myers - Wailin' The Blues

Size: 214 MB
Time: 36:06
File: Flac from vinyl
Released: 1983
Styles: Chicago blues
Art: Front, rear

1. Give Me A Drink (3:12)
2. Mean Black Spider (5:04)
3. Sweet Home Chicago (3:41)
4. Going Down South (6:41)
5. Tomorrow Night (4:10)
6. Wailin' The Blues (3:30)
7. Outskirts Of Town (5:35)
8. Re-Consider Baby (4:13)

One of my favorite guitar players at backing up a harp player is the brilliant Louis Myers. Perhaps it was because he also played harmonica so well himself that Louis was such a gifted and empathetic accompanist. He is prominently associated with two of the greatest modern harmonica masters - Little Walter & Junior Wells. Louis and his talented brother Dave, along with brilliant drummer Fred Below,formed one of the absolute standout modern blues ensembles, the Aces. Louis' musical range was truly impressive. His playing was possessed of strong traditional roots along with an appealing modernity. He was capable of great sensitivity as well as tremendous drive and intensity. Mr. Myers’ linear concept and chordal work were both rhythmically incisive and propulsive. His playing is chock full of memorableand innovative hooks - both single line and chordal. --- Peter Parcek, bostonblues.com

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Lazy Bill Lucas - Lazy Bill Lucas

Size: 234 MB
Time: 41:35
File: Flac from vinyl
Released: 1974
Styles: Chicago blues, piano blues
Art: Front

1. Wake Me Up In The Morning (3:20)
2. Poor Boy Blues (4:32)
3. Blues Before Sunrise (2:44)
4. Cabbage Head (4:32)
5. Coal Black Mare (6:07)
6. She Got Me Walkin' (3:01)
7. Bring It On Home (3:52)
8. I Had A Dream (4:00)
9. Greyhound Bus Blues (4:18)
10. Old Ship Of Zion (5:09)

Not till 1974 did he cut an album as “Lazy Bill Lucas.” That self-titled LP came out via the Vermont-based Philo label and mostly featured Lucas’s raw piano stylings (rather than guitar) and delightfully raspy, seasoned voice. In 1979, Lucas began hosting his own regular radio program, The Lazy Bill Lucas Show, on KFAI in Minneapolis, but he died of natural causes on December 11, 1982. Lucas’s legacy lives on, though. He’s been included on so many blues compilations and reissues since the 60s (the most recent in 2019) that I’d need another column to detail or even mention them all. Lazy Bill Lucas may not be a household name, but his place is firmly cemented in blues history—as it should be.

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Chris Harper and Sharade Band - Blues Is My Life

Size: 434 MB
Time: 64:46
File: Flac
Released: 2007
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. Sweet Honey Sunshine ( 4:41)
2. You've Got Me Baby ( 6:28)
3. Groove Machine ( 4:54)
4. Help Me ( 8:19)
5. Stormy Monday (10:31)
6. Lie Lie Lie ( 6:06)
7. I'm Checkin' Up on My Baby ( 2:26)
8. Sweet Sixteen ( 5:19)
9. Deep Blue Sky ( 5:27)
10. Blues Is My Life ( 6:43)
11. Soul Blues ( 3:46)

Chris Harper, a late calling musician? Somehow, Swiss-born and now Chicago-based Harper has been connected to the blues and its offshoots most of his life. He is now primarily focused on music, having picked up a harp at age 12, switching to bass a year later and playing it in a number of hard rock, jazz rock and dixie jazz bands. Since 2002 Harper has been more at the pulse of music and in the 'Windy City' he met some bluesers, jammed in the clubs with Melvin Taylor, Billy Branch and Sugar Blue, among others. He owes a lot to the latter, for it was he who made sure that the Swiss changed his harp style »from the lip to the tongue block technique«. So Sugar Blue, whose real name is James Whiting, made sure that the tradition of a Little Walter was passed on. In 2004 Harper met the Italian Sharade Band and there was a successful collaboration, which is now also available as an album with "Blues Is My Life". A full 65 minutes of blues are on the record program and it's clear that you also have to like the music of the people who make the reeds of a harmonica vibrate through different air currents and bending. Six original compositions, one with the band, face five cover interpretations. Other musicians have been invited to Chicago's Delmark Records' Riverside Studios for some pieces, and alongside Billy Branch, another harper, and the Chicago Horns, guitarist Chico Banks will also be giving three guest appearances. Chris Harper's blues express really gets rolling in the opener "Sweet Honey Sunshine". Crisp horns, the best backing vocals from the three ladies Kay C. Reed, May Koen and Vanessa Holmes as well as a furiously playing Swiss who uses his instrument in a variety of ways. Then you step on the brakes and the intonation becomes much softer. Especially the slow blues show what people are capable of and I take my hat off to Harper, because his "You've Got Me Baby" is a ballad to die for. And I stay close to the ground, because with this "Help Me" version, even if Billy Branch is there with his work equipment and on the vocal microphone, one presents one of the mercilessly good interpretations. When the two harps, clean, channel-separated, groovy blues and saxophonist Gianluca Baroncelli passes the solo baton to keyboardist Giacomo Lauria and then two harp interludes follow, the blues heart is happy. You can do the funky gait twice. On the one hand it's the heavier interpretation with the "Groove Machine" that shines with the guitarists Stefano Moruzzi and Chico Banks. Hell, what a 6-string solo effort and behind it the saxophone is constantly accelerating. The slightly more airy version makes up the title track "Blues Is My Life", but with a good portion of soul delivered by the female voices. Contrasts are also provided, as Banks at times plays an almost psychedelic wah wah electric guitar. If we already had a sung slow blues, Harper and the Sharade Band present an instrumental pandon with "Deep Blue Sky". A filigree work of art with a yearning harp and another great Moruzzi, which unleashes a fiery solo into the world at slow beats. Of course, the length of many tracks leaves room for many solo interludes. This is also the case here, because Baroncelli doesn't splash out and sets the wooden reed of his instrument in vibration. With more than ten minutes, the classic "Stormy Monday" is celebrated in epic breadth, very well by the way. The Swiss sings with a sometimes rough-sounding voice and the saxophonist gives the piece a jazzy rebuff. In contrast, the swinging-grooving "Checkin' Up On My Baby" is a 'shorty', but no less worth listening to. Chris Harper and the Sharade Band and their guests are met with an open door from the reviewer and that should also be the case for many of our readers from the blues faction, because you can feel that the 12-stroke is Harper's life and that's how diverse it is CD. As the info material says: »Together with them he realized his Swississippi dreams.« That translates to 8 out of 10 RockTimes clocks. Line up: Chris Harper (harp, vocals) The Sharade Band: Gianluca Baronelli (saxophone) Stefano Moruzzi (guitar) Giacomo Lauria (keyboards) Albano Castrese (bass) Enrico Cecconi (drums) Special guest: Billy Branch (harp, vocal - #4) Chico Banks (guitar solo - #3, guitar, vocals - #5, wah wah rhythm guitar - #10) Chicago Horns: Bill McFarland (trombone) Kenny Anderson (trumpet) Hank Ford (tenor saxophone) Kay C. Reed (backing vocals) Mae Koen (backing vocals) Vanessa Holmes (backing vocals)

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Joe 'Guitar' Hughes - Texas Guitar Slinger

Album: Texas Guitar Slinger
Size: 140,5 MB
Time: 60:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1996
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. A Blues Song (5:14)
2. Texas Guitar Slinger (4:18)
3. My Baby Told Me (3:47)
4. U Turn (4:40)
5. Walk On (4:55)
6. Put It In Writing (7:15)
7. Ouchee Baby (4:57)
8. Bad Dreams (3:45)
9. Bystanders (5:35)
10. That's Life (4:34)
11. Moving To The Country (Blues Jam) (6:49)
12. Don't Turn Your Back On Me (4:46)

The versatile Hughes at times slips a little soul influence into his Lone Star blues conception on this satisfying album. He stakes his undeniable claim as a "Texas Guitar Slinger" on one of the set's best songs, a gent who deserves enshrinement right alongside Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins. No argument there - he was there when they all got started. /Bill Dahl, AllMusic

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins - In Paris

Album: In Paris
Size: 91,3 MB
Time: 39:24
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Blues
Art: Front

1. Baghdad Blues (2:46)
2. Do The Breakdown (3:25)
3. Melody Midnight Cruise (2:58)
4. What'd I Say (4:14)
5. Lonesome Widow Blues (4:22)
6. Blues Ain't What It Used To Be (4:03)
7. Sugar Baby Swing (2:22)
8. You Send Me (5:20)
9. Red Mama Blues (6:15)
10. Get Out On The Floor (3:34)

If you ran across Beverly “Guitar” Watkins playing at Underground Atlanta, you might never know that she was a guitar veteran who had been in the trenches with Piano Red, James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles. By the time these recordings were made in 2012, Watkins had regained some of her notoriety with a string of groove-heavy albums for Music Maker that focused on her stellar songwriting. The bulk of these songs is original material, with one reprise of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say.”

On this fiery set recorded in Paris, Watkins is backed by vets, including rhythm guitarist Albert White (Elvin Bishop, Clarence Carter, Ben E. King, Ray Charles, Joe Tex), keyboard player Eddie Tigner (formerly of The Ink Spots), and Lil Joe Burton (Bobby Womack, Otis Clay, B.B. King). Everywhere she played, from Atlanta taverns to Lincoln Center, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins was beloved, but in few places was she more treasured than in France. Listening back a decade later, one can imagine Watkins slinging her guitar behind her head and giving an all-out, wild, sweaty performance to an admiring crowd.

(Beverly Watkins died of a heart attack on October 1, 2019.)

In Paris mc
In Paris zippy

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Monaco Bluesband - Sneakin' Out The Backdoor

Album: Sneakin' Out The Backdoor
Size: 118,9 MB
Time: 51:28
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1997
Styles: Electric blues, rocking blues
Art: Full

1. Come Back (3:55)
2. Ride Me Like A Pony (3:16)
3. Sweet Bottle Of Wine (5:05)
4. Sneakin' Out The Backdoor (3:12)
5. She Won't Let Me Roll That Thing (5:28)
6. Deep Down (3:08)
7. I'll Tell You What Love Is (3:26)
8. Voodoo Dance (2:54)
9. Love Control (3:28)
10. Burning From (5:31)
11. Waiting For The Milkman (3:11)
12. 2-Step Boogie (2:33)
13. That's Enough Of That Stuff (2:49)
14. T-Bone (3:26)

The Monaco Blues Band started in 1982 in the city of Västerås, Sweden. The name came from the Monaco night club where the band was formed after a request from the owner who needed a little more action on Sunday nights. This was in the time of jazzrock with John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola and other super exilibristic performers that the audiences by that time had gotten tired of. MBB began with strictly John Mayall and Paul Butterfield covers, with their versions of blues material and it was an absolute success. People got crazy, flipped out totally and danced on the tables when they heard MBB's boogie-jump-shuffle versions of those old songs.

It didn't last long till the first tours started, first in Scandinavia and then Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and USA. Germany became like a second home for the band, with 54 tours and many TV and radio performances. The list of artists that MBB have shared stage with is long: Joe Cocker, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duke Robillard, Champion Jack Dupree, Eddie Harris, Louisiana Red, Ten Years After.

Personnel: Björn Werngren (guitar, vocals); Jenny Bohman (harmonica, vocals); Benny From (bass, vocals); Björn Gideonsson (drums).

Sneakin' Out The Backdoor mc
Sneakin' Out The Backdoor zippy

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Various Artists - Let's Move: A Heavy Blues Collection

Album: Let's Move: A Heavy Blues Collection
Size: 115,2 MB
Time: 49:31
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2012
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. R.L. Burnside - Goin' Down South (4:48)
2. Magic Sam Blues Band - I Feel So Good (4:35)
3. Junior Kimbrough - I Gotta Try You Girl (5:24)
4. Howlin' Wolf - Shake For Me (2:12)
5. Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers - Give Me Back My Wig (3:33)
6. Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right (2:51)
7. Lightinin' Hopkins - Let's Move (2:14)
8. Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band w. Buddy Guy - Chitlin Con Carne (2:10)
9. John Lee Hooker - Devil's Jump (2:50)
10. Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied (2:40)
11. Bo Diddley - Watusi Bounce (2:54)
12. Elmore James - Rollin' & Tumblin' (2:26)
13. Jimmy Dawkins - Triple Trebles (2:42)
14. B.B. King - She's Dynamite (2:27)
15. T-Model Ford & Gravelroad - How Many More Years (5:37)

This month the conversation at MOJO HQ has revolved around Celebration Day, the exceptional film of Led Zeppelin's triumphant show at London's O2 Arena in December 2007. In his introduction to Trampled Underfoot, Robert Plant namechecks Robert Johnson as well as a set of musical adventures in Mississippi. It was the mention of these escapades that sent us back to listen to a bunch of blues records. We started with Johnson's seminal "King Of The Delta Blues Singers", but as the month progressed, our choice of records shifted into electric blues territory as we graduated to classic recordings by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Magic Sam, and then on to the likes of R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford and Junior Kimbrough.

Suddenly we were deep in heavy blues territory, creating a bunch of playlists packed with hard-driving, swinging music. This 15-track compilation is an edited version of those playlists. It is designed to refect the breadth and depth of the genre, but ultimately it is engineered as the soundtrack to a night of mischief.

Some of these tracks will be familiar, some won't. Let's Move by Lightnin' Hopkins is a tune that Jools Holland played us a few years back when he compiled a list of his favourite boogie albums for MOJO. Somehow, it seemed to encapsulate the intention of this compilation, hence its inclusion as the title track. "The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has meaning", said John Lee Hooker prior to his death in 2001. Listen up and hear what these songs have to say. /Liner notes by Phil Alexander, Editor-In-Chief, MOJO Magazine

Let's Move: A Heavy Blues Collection mc
Let's Move: A Heavy Blues Collection zippy

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Rick Holmstrom - Get It!

Album: Get It!
Size: 86,6 MB
Time: 37:28
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Instrumental blues
Art: Front

1. Looky Here (3:09)
2. All About My Girls (2:24)
3. FunkE3 (2:57)
4. King Freddie (3:16)
5. Bubbles (2:23)
6. G Like Junior (1:45)
7. Weeping Tana (3:04)
8. Erlee Time (2:30)
9. Robyn's Romp (2:04)
10. Surfer Chuck (2:15)
11. Kronky Tonk (2:07)
12. Taghazout (2:57)
13. Pour One Out (3:06)
14. Walking With Diane (3:25)

Guitarist Rick Holmstrom’s new album is an all-instrumental collection of toe-tappers, thigh-slappers and finger-snappers. There’s an irresistible backbeat, and the mood is upbeat. Grin and hear it. Holmstrom, who has worked with Mavis Staples for the past 15 years, draws on antecedents reaching back much farther than that, to the days when the electric guitar was ubiquitous on the pop charts. His playing is a stylish swirl of hipster funk, twang, the blues and garage rock – in fact, most of “Get It!” was recorded in a Los Angeles garage.

Accompanied by drummer Steve Mugalian and bassist Gregory Boaz, Holmstrom tears through 14 tunes, all original, in less than 40 minutes. There’s plenty of playful interplay and the rhythm always jumps, whether Holmstrom’s band of joy is evoking a prayer meeting, sock hop, beach party or juke joint. Holmstrom plays a distinctive mix of lead and rhythm guitar, as he does with Staples. His neck excursions combine dips and scoops, lyrical runs, toggles between registers and shimmering chord clusters. Notes cascade, collide, argue and agree. It’s all in good fun, and words would just get in the way.

Get It! mc
Get It! zippy

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Alberta Hunter - Remember My Name (OST)

Size: 88.9 MB
Time: 38:08
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1978/2013
Styles: Blues Jazz, Soundtrack
Art: Front & Back

01. Workin' Man (aka I Got Myself A Workin' Man) (3:43)
02. You Reap Just What You Sow (4:03)
03. The Love I Have For (3:39)
04. I've Got A Mind To Ramble (2:38)
05. Remember My Name (3:37)
06. My Castle's Rockin' (3:08)
07. Downhearted Blues (5:40)
08. Some Sweet Day (4:20)
09. Chirpin' The Blues (4:01)
10. I Begged And Begged You (3:14)

Although the cover on this album makes it look as if this is a soundtrack album (the singer had written several songs for the film "Remember My Name"), this is actually an important studio set. Alberta Hunter, a veteran of the 1920's who was 82 at the time, was at the beginning of a remarkable comeback after having been out of music for 20 years (working as a nurse). The singer is absolutely delightful and often saucy on such numbers as "You Reap Just What You Sow," "I've Got A Mind To Ramble," "My Castle's Rockin'" and "Downhearted Blues," making this her definitive late-period album. In addition to Hunter and a fine rhythm section (pianist Gerald Cook, guitarist Wally Richardson, bassist Al Hall and either Connie Kay or Jackie Williams on drums), three veteran horn players (trumpeter Doc Cheatham, trombonist Vic Dickenson and tenorman Budd Johnson) help out with short solos. Highly recommended. ~Scott Yanow

Remember My Name (OST) MP3
Remember My Name (OST) FLAC

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Popa Chubby - Emotional Gangster

Size: 124.6 MB
Time: 53:03
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Full

01. Tonight I'm Gonna Be The Man (4:34)
02. New Way Of Walking (5:15)
03. Equal Opportunity (4:18)
04. Hoochie Cootchie Man (5:14)
05. Save The Best For Last (3:28)
06. When You Wanna Make War (3:27)
07. Dust My Broom (3:19)
08. I'm The Dog (3:11)
09. Doing OK (4:32)
10. Fly Away (5:58)
11. Why You Wanna Make War (French Version) (3:27)
12. Master IP (Bonus Track CD Only) (6:14)

Twelve new tracks featuring the Chubbfatha on many instruments and doing all the mixing and recording duties. "This record definitely reflects happier times and good solid dose of classic blues!", says Popa from his studio full of guitars in the Hudson Valley. "l specifically included covers like Hoochie Coochie Man and Dust My Broom to show respect for the Fathers. Willie Dixon has always been my idol, you know."

But the real gems here come in Popa's original compositions. "Equal Opportunity" is a light hearted sing along that celebrates the feminine at a time when ii is seriously needed. And songs like "Fly Away" and both versions French and English of "Why You Wanna Make War?" Are big standouts! There is more than an ample amount of pure guitar bliss on this record and slide guitar on tracks like "Tonight I'm Gonna Be the Man" add flavor to a savory mix!

For an added bonus, Harmonica Wizard Jason Ricci joins Popa on the Blues Rock anthem "New Way of Walking" and the swing shuffte "Save the Best for Last".

This record is indeed made in the spirit of new shoes!
A new way of walking. lt's created with the intention of moving forward to an old truth and a new reality that all are appreciated for the unique energeticcontribution they bring to our collective life. Love is all there is.

I love you all ~Papa Chubby 2022

Emotional Gangster MP3
Emotional Gangster FLAC

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