The John O'Leary Band - Two For The Show (2 CD)

Album: Two For The Show
Size: 118,1 + 161,6 MB
Time: 51:09 + 70:18
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2010
Styles: Electric blues, harmonica blues
Art: Front, back

CD 1 - Sins:
1. Early In The Morning (4:24)
2. Snatch It Back (4:13)
3. I'm Tired (4:21)
4. Blue Water (3:04)
5. Who's Been Talking (5:25)
6. Waiting For You (4:12)
7. And Everything (4:30)
8. House Of Ice (4:09)
9. Black Cat Bone (3:53)
10. Move Away (4:39)
11. Chiswick Roundabout (4:28)
12. Save My Soul (3:46)

CD 2 - Live At Mr. Kyps:
1. Born In Chicago (7:32)
2. Snatch It Back (7:41)
3. Early In The Morning (10:15)
4. Butterfingers (7:45)
5. Little By Little (7:47)
6. Who's Been Talking (11:17)
7. Black Cat Bone (11:11)
8. Look On Yonder's Wall (6:47)

Voted Top Blues CD of 2010 by Blues Matters magazine, this 2 CD set has received excellent reviews, reflecting John O'Leary's status as one of the godfathers of British blues harmonica. Acrobat has always had a powerful commitment to the blues, and has a large catalogue of historic and classic blues recordings. With our new Trapeze imprint, however, we will be looking to work with current working blues acts, and this is the first release in that series. Harmonica wizard John O'Leary is a veteran of the British blues scene, having been a founder member back in the 60s of the Savoy Brown Blues Band, who developed British blues into a stadium rock attraction in the USA, and was a member of the John Dummer Blues Band and Mainsqueeze.

He has often toured Europe over the years playing with visiting US blues luminaries. For the last couple of decades he has put together successive highly professional line-ups of European talent working clubs and festivals on a regular basis. This 2 CD comprises the 2004 self-released studio album Sins, well-reviewed at the time of original issue, and a hitherto unreleased 2006 live album recorded at Mr. Kyps club in Poole. The two albums present the top class musicianship of the outfits in the contrasting environments, and are a worthy showcase for one of the great names of British blues.

(For personnel details, see info file included.)

Two For The Show (2 CD) mc
Two For The Show (2 CD) zippy

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John O'Leary, Dr. Project Point Blank Blues Band - As Blue As I Can Be

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:54
Size: 121.1 MB
Styles: Electric blues, Harmonica blues
Year: 2002
Art: Front

[3:37] 1. Give Me A Reason
[4:02] 2. Ain't Gonna Call
[8:07] 3. 19 Years Old
[3:41] 4. Roadhouse Man
[2:44] 5. Downtown Walk
[3:35] 6. Say What You Mean
[9:39] 7. Drinkin' Again
[5:35] 8. Blues Train
[5:53] 9. Freedom Road
[5:45] 10. Divin' Duck
[0:10] 11. Ha, Ha

Finally it happened! One of the true blue blues legends recorded a CD in Yugoslavia, in our studio, with our backing band and released it on our label. That legend is Mr. John O’Leary of Savoy Brown, The John Dummer Blues Band, Sweet Pain, and Mainsqueeze fame; the CD is “As Blue As I Can Be”, the band is Pointblank, the studio is Focus and the label is ITMM. In the middle of March, John and the band played two promotional gigs in our country during John’s all to brief visit. In Belgrade, he played The Bitef Art Café and in Senta, a city near the Hungarian border, he played The Mojo Club. I was lucky on both occasions to share the energy, the emotion and a lot of great blues moments which were exchanged between the musicians and audiences in these packed clubs. John and the band took advantage of not having too many rehearsals, they were relaxed, they improvised, but at the same time we all had the impression that they had known each other for a long time. The evening’s programme was based on their CD material, John’s and Dr’s (Pointblank’s guitar player and leader) originals which were carefully mixed with inspired covers of some great blues standards (among them, I would like to mention Sleepy John Estes’s “Divin’ Duck Blues”).

The greatest news brought to us by the CD was, of course, John’s singing. He had spent many years with great vocalists ( Dave & Joanne Kelly, Tony McPhee, Victor Brow, etc) which is probably why it took so long for him to decide to start singing. From what we have heard on the CD and at gigs, it seems that he has picked the right moment. Great emotional delivery is the main characteristic of John’s voice and it is perfectly suited to his powerful and colourful harp playing. Pointblank backed him with respect and feeling, but John gave them enough spaceto prove themselves as the seasoned blues musicians they are.

The audiences at both gigs showed great enthusiasm, and at all times were willing participants in the events, which I am sure, inspired and willed the band to finish these gigs in triumph. When the stage lights finally went dark, all of us had the feeling that we had been part of something really big and were hoping it will not be long before we see John and Pointblank together again!…. ~Valdislav Pejak, Radio Index, Belgrade

As Blue As I Can Be mc
As Blue As I Can Be zippy

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