Ivas John Band - 2 albums: Doin' What's Natural / Street Music

Born in Chicago as a first generation Lithuanian American, Ivas John’s self made career stems from the musicality of his family. His working class father, who Ivas credits as his biggest influence, appeared in productions for the local opera company and was a regular fixture on the vibrant folk and blues scene in Chicago during the late 60’s. Ivas picked up a guitar at sixteen and hasn’t put it down. At first focusing on the instrument, and later adopting his father’s short and sweet “three verses and a chorus” theory of songwriting.

Together, between Ivas’ ability with the guitar and the songwriting assistance from his father, Ivas John’s sound is a blend equal parts Ry Cooder, Mose Allison, Robert Cray, Van Morrison, Keb Mo, and Delbert McClinton. The music pleases the casual bar patron and the scrutinizing critic alike. Though he is an artist who understands the debt that is owed to his predecessors, and how important it is to honorably carry traditional music on, Ivas John is no copycat. As such, fans may have a hard time pinpointing exactly in what blues style Ivas is playing, but none will question that it is the genuine article.

Album: Doin' What's Natural
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:57
Size: 112.1 MB
Styles: Chicago blues, Electric blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[3:19] 1. Light Of Day
[3:57] 2. Carolene
[5:09] 3. Don't Say I'm Running
[2:56] 4. The Way Things Have To Be
[3:01] 5. Good Potatoes
[3:32] 6. Would It Make A Difference
[2:26] 7. Used To Be
[4:16] 8. The River Crossing
[4:32] 9. Cruel To Me
[3:04] 10. I Won't Make A Move
[3:26] 11. The Carnival Song
[4:49] 12. Hot Rod Mama
[3:14] 13. It's Too Soon
[1:09] 14. The Last Act

Doin' What's Natural mc
Doin' What's Natural zippy

---

Album: Street Music
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:42
Size: 111.5 MB
Styles: Chicago blues, Electric blues
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[4:39] 1. I've Got A Woman
[4:34] 2. Honky Tonk Girl
[5:52] 3. Fool For Men
[4:40] 4. The Streetlife
[3:59] 5. The Woman I Want
[5:32] 6. Playhouse To Poorhouse
[4:39] 7. Remember The Day
[3:38] 8. Baby By My Side
[5:34] 9. Halfway With You
[5:32] 10. Live Your Own Way

Street Music mc
Street Music zippy

---

Ivas John - Good Days A Comin'

Size: 106,3 MB
Time: 41:34
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Americana
Art: Front

01. Goin' Back To Arkansas (2:59)
02. Here I Am (3:15)
03. Roll Mississippi (3:59)
04. Dark As A Dungeon (4:37)
05. Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound (3:54)
06. Greenville Trestle High (3:26)
07. All Along (4:39)
08. Things Ain't Been The Same (3:38)
09. Keep Your Train Movin' (3:11)
10. Payday Boogie (2:20)
11. Wrong Road Again (3:24)
12. Sunday Morning Blues (2:08)

The Ivas John Band’s longtime lineup consists of Ivas John on guitar and vocals, accompanied by Jamie Pender on bass guitar, Shannon Meyer on guitar, and Charlie Morrill on drums. Frontman and songwriter John was born in Chicago, but has lived in Southern Illinois since his teens. Forging a blues/jazz/honkytonk sound that varies audibly in influence from one song to the next, but which has been compared to the likes of Keb’ Mo’, Van Morrison, and Mose Allison, John and his band have played more than one-thousand shows together around the Midwest.

The new album, Good Days a Comin’, is John’s fifth full-length offering, but his first that is all-acoustic, and on it, he’s up to some other new tricks. John has ditched the piano he’s sometimes featured in the past; instead you’ll hear fiddle, dobro, and mandolin on Good Days a Comin’, along with upright bass and snare drum.

Its sound is more traditional than his previous work. John described it to Nightlife as “folk, country blues, and bluegrass music with a high polish.” These old and truly American musical styles are, he says, “a deep well to draw from.”

John also has new collaborators. Appearing on the album are husband-and-wife folk duo the Gordons, as well as Robert Bowlin, Tim Crouch, David Davis, and Ross Sermons, who John describes as “perhaps Tasmania’s greatest standup bass player,” with whom he communicated— and recorded— by Skype. John speaks positively of the recording process. “Being the youngest player on it by twenty-five years, I certainly learned a lot,” he says.

All of the songs are original— written by John or cowritten with his father, musician Edward John— except for nods to folk, bluegrass, and country greats Doc Watson, Tom Paxton, John Hartford, and Merle Travis.

MC
Ziddu

---