Kurt Crandall - Get Wrong With Me

Album: Get Wrong With Me
Size: 119,4 MB
Time: 51:43
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2009
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. Shorty's Got To Go (3:44)
2. Boogy Fool (2:37)
3. Speak Up (2:22)
4. Get Wrong With Me (4:56)
5. Gourment Ice (3:32)
6. Annie (2:39)
7. Dissatisfied (3:27)
8. Take My Love (4:43)
9. Pets Ain't People (5:34)
10. Late Night Rendezvous (3:56)
11. Spider In My Stew (6:07)
12. Hypomanic (4:46)
13. Barroom Light (3:12)

Producer and blues researcher Dick Shurman wrote the liner notes to Kurt Crandall's second self-produced CD, recorded in Chicago. The follow-up to his superb 2004 debut is presenting his individual blend of styles. It was William Clarke who changed Kurt's life in 1993 when Kurt heard him perform at the Chicago Blues Fest. Sometimes Kurt is recreating the easy-swinging, fat-bodied tone of the master. But there's more to his music: westcoast jump, Kansas City swing, and Chicago style blues. Great band, featuring Lee McBee's guitarist, a.o. As a vocalist, Kurt has been influenced by the original blues shouters like Jimmy Witherspoon. Cool set for all lovers of original style blues, and fine harp blowing.

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Kurt Crandall - True Story

Album: True Story
Size: 119,7 MB
Time: 51:53
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2004
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. But One Regret (3:04)
2. Marinara Mambo (3:47)
3. Sammy (4:49)
4. Quibble With A Nibble (4:23)
5. Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah (3:13)
6. Self Servin' Woman (6:31)
7. Ella Roo Blues (3:11)
8. Bed Has One Pillow (4:58)
9. Bumpity Bump (4:07)
10. My Little Machine (9:10)
11. Evans Shuffle (4:35)

Since graduating in 1991 harp player Kurt Crandall has been on a musical and intellectual sojourn that has taken him to several places in the US. After passing through Charlottesville, Kansas City, Washington DC and Macon, Georgia he recently wound up in Atlanta. It is the influence of the harp playing of Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter in particular that come through most strongly though. The Sonny Boy Williamson II influence shines through strongly on the opener, "But One Regret." Crandall has a good voice and a nice fat tone to his harp playing. There is a retro feel to this track which persists throughout the album, which is helped by the use of vintage instruments and amplification. Having said that, the band never really sound dated.

Whilst there is quite a strong Chicago harp influence running through the album, the overall sound is more West Coast than Chicago. Every now and again, Crandall will throw in some jazzy phrasing. This is most notable on the opening to "Sammy," which opens out into a Louis Jordan style song. This style is also used to very good effect on "Eeep Opp Ork Ah Ah" - a title Jordan would have been proud of. The first eight tracks on the album are all originals, but the album rounds off with a trio of covers. "Bumpity Bump," which is most usually associated with Smiley Lewis is followed by a fine extended workout on Sonny Boy Williamson I's "My Little Machine." The last word is left to "Evans Shuffle" - attributed here to Little Walter, rather than Muddy Waters - which takes things home in style.

Harp fans in particular will find much to admire on "True Story." If you are looking for reference points, William Clarke and R.J. Mischo are probably the nearest thing to the band's overall sound. Crandall gets excellent support throughout, with guitarists Karl Angerer and Pete Kanaras working particulalrly well together. "True Story" offers plenty of promising signs that mark Kurt Crandall out as a talent to watch out for.

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Kurt Crandall - Take It Off

Album: Take It Off
Size: 100,2 MB
Time: 43:23
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. 8th Event (3:11)
2. Take It Off (5:01)
3. Can't Dance (3:47)
4. Loser (4:17)
5. Taquito Under My Seat (5:20)
6. TV Mamma (4:37)
7. Dirty Pete (4:16)
8. Figgy Bag (3:50)
9. Why You Do (3:59)
10. Bolivar Blues (5:01)

After more than seven years since his last album, Kurt Crandall has a new release – thankfully it is worth the wait. He follows up his sophomore release, Get Wrong with Me (recorded during his tenure in Chicago) with his most ambitious and focused effort to date. Once again this album finds Kurt navigating the worlds of jazz, swing, jump, as well as blues from Chicago and New Orleans. Consistent throughout, however, are Crandall’s clever songwriting and infectious grooves.

As with all of his music, he chose not to rehash well-worn blues idioms and instead relies on personal experience and observational humor. For this album he chose to tackle such topics as being love-struck by a female heptathelete (8th Event), coping with male pattern baldness (Take it Off), dismissing a woman due to her lack of rhythm (Can’t Dance), exploring what it means to be down on your luck (Loser), the powerful attraction of pheromones (Dirty Pete), the silent treatment in a relationship (Why You Do) – as well as a couple of original instrumentals (Figgy Bag & Taquito Under My Seat).

Finally, the CD closes with an ambitious cover of a Thelonious Monk song – Bolivar Blues. All told, this album offers a glimpse at an independent artist ready to break into the mainstream and make people aware what fellow musicians and blues insiders already know – Kurt Crandall is a triple threat with his ability to write honest, original material that is propelled by his facility on both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas.

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Kurt Crandall - Starts On The Stops

Album: Starts On The Stops
Size: 98,5 MB
Time: 42:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues
Art: Front

1. Skedaddle (4:04)
2. Early Bird Special (3:46)
3. Razz My Berries (3:09)
4. Devil Got A Hold on You (5:18)
5. Beignets And Coffee (3:10)
6. Home At Last (4:48)
7. Goes Without Saying (4:10)
8. Bull Headed Woman (4:56)
9. Blue Bird Blues (5:14)
10. Sidecramp (4:00)

Singer, songwriter and harmonica player Kurt Crandall began his career in Maine, a career that has led him to Virginia, Kansas City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago and Seattle. Back again in Virginia, he presents a new recording, where he makes evident his wide mastery in performing blues related styles such as jump, jive, swing and classic Chicago, Texas or Memphis blues, showing his quality both in the vocal resolution to attack and develop each song as well as in the way he blows both chromatic and diatonic harmonica, displaying a wide range of colors, a big fat tone, good resolution and creativity.

Deeply influenced by William Clarke, in this new recording Crandall presents ten varied cuts with deep influences of West Coast swing, jazz, rhumba and different Chicago grooves and shuffles. The album gathers two different sessions, in the first five songs he is backed by Karl Angerer on guitar, Aaron Blinder on drums, Rusty Farmer on double bass, Bill Heid on piano and the backing vocals of Jaisson Taylor and Lawrence Olds. In the other five cuts he is surrounded by Karl Angerer and Reid Doughten on guitars, Johnny Hott on drums, John Sheppard on electric bass, Clark Stern on piano and Carl Bender on sax.

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