New Blues News – 1/14/2020
New Blues News – 1/14/2020
Carnes & Shew – Carnes & Shew (Self-produced): This blues duo is located in Indiana and as far as I can detect this is their first release. Mark Carnes (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Dane Clark (percussion) and Jeff Shew (bass, vocals) bring back the old style with four Shew originals, two Carnes originals and one they composed together. The style is straightforward and down-home like the older style blues in the 30s and 40s. Click here to listen to a song from this disc entitled “Dwight Carnes” apparently in honor of Mark’s brother.
Nicholas David – Yesterday’s Gone (Wild Heart): Nicholas David is a former member of Devon Allman’s band and as he began to write and polish his own songs, he was offered a contract with Samantha Fish’s Wild Heart label. The result Is this compilation of eleven original compositions. David sings and plays keyboards throughout and is accompanied by Duane Betts (lead guitar), Jonathan Long (guitar), Charlie Wooten (bass), Scott Graves (drums) and R. Scott (percussion) with Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph and Kayla Jasmine adding backing vocals on a few songs. Most of the songs are ballads. This is David’s third release. Click here and scroll down to listen to a song sample from this disc.
Mark Hummel – Wayback Machine (Electro-Fi): Veteran harp player and singer Mark Hummer has gathered some friends together to create this collection in honor of the blues styles of the 30s and 40s and included two new songs in the same style. The players include Joe Beard (vocal, guitar on 3 songs), the Deep Basement Shakers featuring Aaron Hammerman (piano, vocal), Dave Eagle (washboard, percussion), R.W. Grigsby (bass on 1 song), Kid Andersen (bass on the rest), Billy Flynn (guitar on 10 songs), Rusty Zinn (guitar, 1song) and Alex Pettersen (drums on 1 song). The music is most assuredly authentic in style and delightful to hear. Recommended especially for those who enjoy old-time blues while also encouraging other fans of blues as well. Click here to listen to samples of the songs on this disc.
Rebekah Meldrum – Rebekah Meldrum (Slippery Noodle Inn): “Rebekah Meldrum delivers the blues with deliberate precision. Every track on her self-titled debut, is steeped in the love and the passion she has for the genre. It’s almost a religious reverence, which makes perfect sense considering she’s a preacher’s daughter who grew up singing gospel in church. “Gospel and blues have always been so closely related,” she opines. “It’s like there’s a fork in the musical road, one way it’s gospel and the other is the blues. I was exposed to Koko Taylor when I was eight years old, and right then I knew which road I was going to take.” But her precision is by no means cut and dried or predictable; she is methodical, if not hypnotic, weaving a spell across seven songs that reflect the multi- decade journey it’s taken for her to get here as much as the destination itself. From the way the very first notes drop you right into the delta, through excursions that go from back country to steamy, inner-city grooves and all the way through to New Orleans-inspired horns that wind the album down, she is in firm command of every aspect of the songwriting process. “Everything took a big turn when I stopped writing on guitar and started singing the melodies in my head,” she relates, ” even the guitar riffs and the solos. Then Paul (longtime collaborator, guitarist/singer Paul Holdman) translates it all and embellishes it with his own nuances—when we put it together like that, the magic happens.” (https://rebekahmeldrum.com/bio) Click here to listen to samples of the songs on this disc.
Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado – Come On In (Ruf): Veteran band based in Denmark has been performing since 2003. They have released several discs since that time and joined the Ruf label in 2014. This is their eleventh release. The band members are Thorbjørn Risager (vocals, guitar), Emil Balsgaard (piano, organ), Joachim Svensmark (guitar, back-up vocals),
Kasper Wagner (tenor/alto/baritone saxophone), Hans Nybo (sax, back-up vocals), Peter Kehl (trumpet/flugelhorn, back-up vocals), Søren Bøjgaard (bass / synthbass / samples) and Martin Seidelin (drums and back-up vocals). The group is a modern blues group that swings and honors the core of blues style. They can rock, but this is a true blues band that has not been swallowed up by rock. Truly solid in every way! Click here to check out the title song.
Kopasetically,
Professor Bebop
