Big Jim Adam - Rock Island Line

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:46
Size: 111.7 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[2:49] 1. Bring It On Home To Me
[2:17] 2. Kind Hearted Woman
[2:43] 3. Grandma's Hands
[1:03] 4. Intro-John Thayer
[3:20] 5. John Thayer
[3:14] 6. That's The Way It Was
[2:57] 7. Feel Good Day
[3:05] 8. Alone And Forsaken
[3:18] 9. 100 Reasons
[3:14] 10. Love In Vain
[3:25] 11. Need Your Love So Bad
[2:24] 12. Stones In My Passway
[4:29] 13. There Goes The Blues
[1:47] 14. Creole Belle
[2:17] 15. Rock Island Line
[2:33] 16. Samarian Woman
[3:43] 17. Graspin' At The Wind

He ain't young and pretty, He's a long way from thin, But he can really sing the blues. Big Jim's best instrument is his rich baritone voice, which lends him an attention-grabbing authority. His skill at storytelling, emotional singing and the honest musicianship of his acoustic guitar with that right hand thumping the bass while strumming never fails to captivate his audience.

Rock Island Line mc
Rock Island Line zippy

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Big Jim Adam - Cajun Moon

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 47:06
Size: 107.8 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:34] 1. Come On In My Kitchen
[3:32] 2. It's What Owns You
[3:58] 3. If I Was The Devil
[5:25] 4. Frankie And Johnny
[3:35] 5. Cajun Moon
[3:43] 6. Gumbo Yaya
[3:46] 7. Heard It From Big Llou
[5:29] 8. Graspin' At The Wind
[3:17] 9. Get Down On My Knees
[3:13] 10. Henry
[3:48] 11. If It Hadn't Been For Love
[3:38] 12. John Henry

Jim grew up in a small town in southeast Kansas, and while everyone else his age was listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Jim was listening to Lightnin' Hopkins, Jimmy Reed and Son House. He started playing blues clubs at the advanced age of 13, and these legendary blues figures, along with artists like Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett, became great influences on both his vocal and guitar style. His family attended a small Baptist church, and Jim had the opportunity to merge these blues influences with gospel music, which draws strongly from the blues tradition. He led and performed gospel music and sang, along with his four brothers, in churches throughout the surrounding area.

Jim took a four year break from music while he served in the United States Marine Corps, but says "he still had the blues." After his military service, Jim and his family relocated to Southern California. There he picked up his guitar again and made his living as a musician, performing the blues throughout L.A. and Orange County. He also was in demand as a studio vocalist. As a songwriter Jim has several film credits and a couple of songs cut by Edgar Winter. His credits include the film, "The Waterdance", which starred Wesley Snipes, Eric Stoltz and Helen Hunt, in which both his song and performance were used. Jim’s voice and guitar playing can also be heard throughout the critically acclaimed 2010 PBS Documentary “For Love of Liberty”.

Jim eventually moved with his family to Colorado Springs during which time he quickly became a prominent figure on the regional blues scene. While running his own acoustic music venue for several years, Jim also built up and mantained a heavy gigging and festival schedule. Big Jim (along with his duo partner John Stilwagen) were finalists in the 2011 International Blues Challenge Solo/Duo Category.

Cajun Moon mc
Cajun Moon zippy

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Big Jim Adam & John Stilwagen - Present Tippy's Barn: Issue 8 'The Raid'

Size: 103,3 MB
Time: 44:35
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2011
Styles: Blues Country, Modern Electric Blues
Art: Front

01. Look But Don't Touch (3:25)
02. Work Till the Sun Goes Down (4:20)
03. Tippy's Barn (4:21)
04. John Thayer (4:11)
05. I'd Rather Go Blind (5:10)
06. Little Girl (3:08)
07. My Baby's That Fine (4:20)
08. Nothin' to Do (3:47)
09. Fishin' Hole (3:29)
10. Chicken a la Blues (3:42)
11. When It Started to Rain (4:39)

Big Jim Adam and John Stilwagen offer their own refreshing take on the blues with the release of Tippy’s Barn.

It’s a little bit of everything that the duo steals from the past. There’s some New Orleans hoodoo mixed with Mississippi swamp water. Add a little bootleg whiskey and you have the ingredients necessary for a great juke joint party. Once you enter you’ll never want to leave.

The title cut itself is a great boogie-woogie affair with Silwagen’s keyboard recalling Professor Longhair who happened to have a chance meeting with Honey Piazza. Most of the material is original and taps into a backwoods briar patch of American roots music.
Like other contemporaries Rory Block, John Hammond, Paul Geremia, and Roy Book Binder, Adam and Stilwagen seem intent on pursuing their vision of how the blues is meant to be played. Their music would be right at home on an acoustic stage at the King Biscuit Blues Festival.

And though the Foster/Jordan number “I’d Rather Go Blind” has been covered by many other artists, it is Stilwagen’s piano playing that elevates the song into its own blue heaven.

Checking out their website, the Colorado Blues Society sent these guys to the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Most likely it couldn’t have been a better choice. Their music is a Memphis barbeque best served up with a slab of ribs and an ice cold pitcher of Bud.

Listening to these guys you can’t help but feel the influence of The Band, Little Feat and The Radiators. But these gentlemen can’t be labeled as copycats because the sound is uniquely their own.

There is nothing flashy about the guitar work of Jim Adams. The playing is rhythmic at best and works in service to the song. Stillwagen’s keyboard may be in the foreground but Big Jim’s guitar can’t be ignored especially in “Work Till The Sun Goes Down” that smacks of the essence of the hill country with his whiskey drenched guitar lines.

Checking out their touring itinerary on their website, the stops included take place in Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico. People who catch them there can consider themselves lucky. They don’t seem to be heading south which is a shame. Family ties can be preventing these men on spreading the gospel and it’s a gospel that needs to be preached. A listen to the airy “John Thayer” with what sounds like mournful dobro playing stands on its own merits of a tune best having its place at a campfire surrounded by soldiers of the Civil War.
There are probably not too many duos on the circuit willing to present a bare-knuckled approach to the music without a full band blasting in the background. This duo may not have a problem in pulling it off. The music is entertaining enough and doesn’t come off as politically incorrect.

Listener’s wishing to embrace old traditions will want to seek this out. If you’re looking for blues rock, than you’ve come to the wrong neighborhood. But if you are seeking a kinship with Professor Longhair or looking for a backwoods juke joint to indulge in bootleg whiskey, Tippy’s Barn is a good place to start as anything else. Those who are in love with real roots music will have no qualms of kicking back on a recliner with a bourbon on ice and in their mind imagine they are on the back-porch of a shotgun shack where hickory smoke floats in the air and somewhere down the road a traveling musician will be making a stop to play for his next meal. ~Review by Gary Weeks

Present Tippy's Barn: Issue 8 'The Raid'

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