Lurrie Bell & The Bell Dynasty – Tribute to Carey Bell

Lurrie
Title: Tribute To Carey Bell

Artist: Lurrie Bell & The Bell Dynasty

Label: Delmark

Formats: CD, Digital

Release Date: May 18, 2018

 

Released before Father’s Day—that special time in June set aside for men we call dad, father or pops—the Bell household’s man of honor is Carey Bell. The late blues harpist moved to Chicago the decade after Little Walter and Chess legend Muddy Waters, and went on to play with both as well as many other Chicago blues legends. What better way to pay homage to dad, especially a man the stature of Carey, then with a new album by Lurrie Bell & The Bell Dynasty titled Tribute To Carrey Bell. Paying the tribute is Carey’s son Lurrie (vocals, guitar) and the other siblings—Tyson (bass), Steve (harmonica), and James (drums, vocals). And wait, Charlie Musselwhite and Billy Branch get in on the fun too. Delmark Records picked up Carey for his 1969 debut, Carey Bell’s Blues Harp, so it’s fitting they releasing this special project.  

The blues is and always will be about storytelling. The first track, “Gone To Main Street,” is all about that “All Yeah” feeling. When you listen closely, you may hear references to The Doors’ “Road House Blues”—I kid you not. “I Got To Go” switches it up, and by that I mean the tempo. “So Hard To Leave You Alone” is a slow tune and again, a great story being told. “You’re my midnight dream, my all day stint,” Lurrie Bell spills his guts and you feel it. It’s the blues baby! Billy Branch takes over on “Carey Bell Was a Friend of Mine,” explaining his love for this man, both on and off the stage.

I never heard of Carey Bell before this, but Tribute To Carey Bell made me a fan. Though he left us well over ten years ago, his memory will live as long as the Bell family dynasty has something to say.

Reviewed by Eddie Bowman

Sharon Lewis and Texas Fire – Grown Ass Woman

sharon
Title: Grown Ass Woman

Artist: Sharon Lewis and Texas Fire

Label: Delmark

Formats: CD, MP3

Release date: November 22, 2016

 

 

For Sharon Lewis, singing the blues is her method of communicating her experiences as a Black woman in America. Her new release, Grown Ass Woman, showcases her music deeply rooted in the Chicago blues tradition. This edgy album, her second on the Delmark label, features harmonica player Sugar Blue and slide guitarist Joanna Connor.

Opening with “Can’t Do It Like We Do,” Lewis boldly defends the unique sound of her Chicago music scene with the full strength of her powerful voice. The energizing party anthem, “Hell Yeah!” features a horn section with Kenny Anderson on trumpet, Hank Ford on tenor sax, and Jerry DiMuzio on baritone sax. Lewis emphasizes the strength of womanhood with “Chicago Woman,” a song that opens with a classic Chicago electric blues guitar rhythm and shredding instrumental breaks.

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Guitarist and songwriter Steve Bramer collaborated with Lewis on several songs, such as “Don’t Try to Judge Me,” “Walk With Me,” and “Freedom.” Singing about autonomy, fair treatment, and life experience, Lewis’s lyrics are fiercely straight shooting and unforgiving. For instance, on “Old Man’s Baby” she sings:

An old man will wine and dine you
A young man’s love will bind you
That’s why I’d rather be an old man’s baby than a young man’s fool

Lewis performs two cover songs that fit in this album seamlessly: B.B. King’s “Why I Sing the Blues” and Warren Haynes’ “Soul Shine.” Her title track, “Grown Ass Woman” may be one of the most satisfying songs on the album. She fearlessly accentuates her independence in the final verse, “I want you – I don’t need you. You can’t do half the shit I do, ‘cause I’m a grown ass woman.”

As the title track demonstrates, Grown Ass Woman is a fiery new collection of electric blues and soul music from Sharon Lewis and Texas Fire.

Reviewed by Jennie Williams

Omar Coleman – Live at Rosa’s Lounge

omar
Title: Live at Rosa’s Lounge

Artist: Omar Coleman

Label: Delmark

Formats: CD, MP3

Release date: June 17, 2016

 

Last year we reviewed Omar Coleman’s Delmark debut, Born & Raised, released in June 2015. Due to that album’s success, Delmark decided to follow up immediately with a live recording. The result is Live at Rosa’s Lounge, recorded over three dates at “Chicago’s friendliest blues bar.”  Six out of 10 of these live tracks appeared on the previous album, though in the new release you get some nice, extended versions, a couple of which are nearly double in length. Both albums feature the same line-up: Peter Galanis on guitar, Neal O’Hara on keyboards and organ, Dave Forte (tracks 1-5) and Ari Seder (tracks 6-10) on bass, and Marty Binder on drums.

New to the live album are four cover songs including the opener, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy’s “Snatch It Back and Hold It.” Coleman’s rendition inserts a dose of funk with a grooving bass line and organ riffs, and other than a brief harmonica appearance in the intro, he wisely makes no effort to improve on Junior Wells’s harp solo. This is followed by a hard-driving version of Willie Dixon’s “I’m Ready,” with O’Hara taking over the solo on keyboards.  From the Stax catalog there’s Rufus Thomas’s “Give Me the Green Light.” Coleman states in the intro, “As you can guess, we like our blues with a dose of funk, soul, and all kinds of other stuff,” before the band lays into a heavy groove, deftly fusing Southern soul with electric Chicago blues. Another Dixon song popularized by Junior Wells, “Two Headed Woman,” closes the album in a fast and furious rendition that pits Coleman’s harp against Galanis’s guitar.

Though it’s impossible to recommend one of these albums over the other, Live at Rosa’s Lounge captures a younger generation of musicians, proving that the blues club scene is alive and well in Chicago.

Reviewed by Brenda Nelson-Strauss

Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection

alligator-records
Title: Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection

Artist: Various

Label: Alligator

Formats: 2-CD set, MP3

Release date: June 10, 2016

 

Alligator Records started in 1971 as one man’s dream to record the Southside Chicago blues artists who packed a tiny venue called Florence’s. Bruce Iglauer, then working at Delmark Records, began his label with just one record per year and one employee—himself. In 1991 he released a 20th Anniversary Collection to commemorate the growth of his label to Grammy-award status. Robert Mugge’s film, Pride & Joy: The Story of Alligator Records, documented the promotional tour for that compilation, and an album of live performances from the tour was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Compilations followed for the 20th, 25th, 30th and 40th anniversaries, each compiling tracks from the label’s early days and pairing with newer material. Over the years the label added artists, including many from outside of the Chicago tradition, who were either dropped from other labels or were floundering after the demise of the 1960s blues revival. Still a small label, Alligator continues to produce several albums a year and has re-released albums acquired from other labels.

Iglauer’s introduction to the 45th Anniversary Collection sets this collection apart as a retrospective not of the entire backlist, but mainly of the artists who have recorded since the 2011 40th Anniversary album, plus select tracks by those who have died recently. The living and the dead are interspersed, but most of the current Alligator performers are on the first of the two disc set. Their tracks illustrate a vibrant tradition that still speaks to audiences around the world.

Disc One opens with a “house-rockin’” performance of “Hold That Train” by Lil’ Ed and the Imperials (2008). They invite the listener to “get on board … next stop: Chicago.” Since Alligator’s signature sound is “house-rockin’ music,” this track is a perfect choice to represent the label. “Cotton Picking Blues” (1973) by Son Seals (d. 2004) follows with a long, lugubrious electric guitar solo backed by organ, drums and bass that takes up much of the track. Having been cheated out of his share-cropping pay he has to “put it down.” This is the source of Chicago’s blues inheritance: musicians migrating from the Delta cotton fields to Chicago.

“Devil’s Hand” (2015) by Shemekia Copeland represents the present. The daughter of Johnny Copeland, she began recording for Alligator in 1998 at the age of 18. Tracks in the previous anniversary compilations find her sometimes struggling to compete with her horn section, but in “Devil’s Hand” her voice is robust and soulful, and the production gives her room to breathe. She has come into her own. “Can’t Even Do Wrong Right” (2015) by Elvin Bishop  is a witty take on classic blues themes with the best line: “What goes on in the dark will surely come to light.” Toronzo Cannon’s “Bad Contract” (2016) is a funkalicious blues concoction with lyrics that echo the Son Seals’ track, but instead of being cheated by a farmer, Cannon gets burned by a pre-nuptial contract!  Who wouldn’t sing the blues?

Harmonica maestro Charlie Musselwhite tells a true story of how the courage of Jessica McClure, the girl who fell into “The Well” (2010), inspired him to quit drinking and “to be a better man.” You might have to listen twice for the story though, because the harmonica solos overshadow everything else in the track. He is a true gift to the blues. Marcia Ball (2014) sings “The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man,” a boogie woogie song complete with a horn section and retro piano licks, telling the story of a pair of freak show performers.

In case you feared that civil rights music was a thing of the past, fear not. “Common Ground” (2015) by The Painkillers & Tommy Castro urges us to “stand together on common ground… everybody’s looking for someone to blame but we’re not as different as we are the same.” This mid-tempo gospel-tinged anthem tells us “It’s time to build a brand new day.” Preach it, Tommy! Carey Bell (d. 2007) & his son Lurrie Bell, sing “The Road Is So Long” (2004), an acoustic, Piedmont-inspired duo with Carey on harp and Lurrie on guitar. The track shows Alligator’s reach as well as some impressive instrumentals by the Bells.

Koko Taylor (d. 2009), Alligator’s vocal powerhouse for many years, penned a very southern “Voodoo Woman” (1975). She has a crawfish on her “shoulder, looking dead at you.” Rough and bare, backed by guitar and sax, you can believe her claim that she could make the sky begin to cry. “Don’t Call No Ambulance” (2013) is a hard-driving house-rockin’ song with a ripping horn section. Selwyn Birchwood’s gravelly voice would sound right at home on any Delta classic but has the driving force and powerful diction (yes, diction!) to hold his own against his funkelectric band. Birchwood burst onto the scene in 2013 but he is an old soul with much to say and many years ahead of him. “Don’t you call no ambulance—I’ll find my own ride home.” Oh yes, he would, and I bet he could also walk it if he had to!

Rick Estrin & The Nightcats “Callin’ All Fools” (2013) is a retro-mod song backed by organ, drums and guitar. Lorenzo Farrell’s organ solo is not to be missed. “Too Drunk to Drive Drunk” (2012) by Joe Louis Walker is a hard-driving song about not driving. This is one of the most unique tracks in the collection. Imagine if 1950s Jerry Lee Lewis had a baby with Stevie Ray Vaughan. “I know you mighta done it a million times before, but you ain’t driving outta here like this no more.” “Crazy When She Drinks”(2007) by Lee Rocker, former member of the Stray Cats, sounds a bit like his former group’s work, which isn’t a bad thing but isn’t core to the Alligator wheelhouse. The lyrics fit into a blues house, though: “It don’t make her happy – it just makes her mean.” She probably shouldn’t drive home, either.

“Take Me With You (When You Go),” from Aaron Moreland and Dustin Arbuckle’s 2016 debut album for Alligator, is roots house-rock that has them pulling out all the stops. “Your Turn to Cry” (1977), by Jimmy Johnson, is one of the few older songs by a living artist. Johnson, who is still alive and gigging at 87, lets the guitar do most of the crying but his powerful falsetto recalls the classic R&B artists of the 1950s while staying true to the blues. Texan Delbert McClinton’s “Giving It Up for Your Love” is from a live album recorded at Austin City Limits. It is a multi-tinged gumbo of roots rock styles with full horn section and no holds barred.

Hound Dog Taylor (d. 1975) and the Houserockers were the band that inspired Iglauer to start the Alligator label. “Take Five” (1974) is hard-driving house-rock song that’s light on lyrics and heavy on bottleneck guitar. “Gotta go… gotta go…. sure ‘nuff … baby.” It’s easy to imagine this quickie (2:42) as a prelude to a bathroom break or a rockin’ closer after a long night at Florence’s. New Orleans’ Anders Osborne’s “Let It Go” (2013) is a plea to give up drugs, with references to psychedelic sounds of the 1960s in the incessant driving rhythm and soaring guitar solos. There’s no resolution, just sinking deeper into a quagmire of hypnotic sounds. According to the notes, Osborne has overcome his troubles but they clearly left a soulfully felt scar. Mavis Staples sings “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” (2004) to a croaking bass harmonica (that sometimes sounds like a didjeridoo) and slide guitar. Inspired to resume her career after the events of 9/11, this track points to her bright future.

Disc 2 opens with “Cotton Mouth Man” (2013) by James Cotton, featuring Joe Bonamassa, and includes the line “The Blues cannot be killed!” What a great track to open a disc that includes many deceased artists.

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Toronzo Cannon – The Chicago Way

torenzo cannon_the chicago way

Title: The Chicago Way

Artist: Toronzo Cannon

Label: Alligator

Formats: CD, Digital

Release date: February 26, 2016

 

 

Fresh off of an appearance at a private party for the Democratic National Committee held at  Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live, Chicago blues guitarist Toronzo Cannon has been busy representing his hometown. Since his last album, John the Conquer Root, he’s jumped over to Chicago’s other famed blues label, Alligator Records, which released his latest project. Fittingly titled The Chicago Way, the album features 11 self-penned songs that reflect Cannon’s life in the Windy City, using “timeless stories of common experiences in uncommon ways.”

The opening track, “The Pain Around Me,” is full of the pathos of growing up in a dystopian urban environment near the Robert Taylor Homes on the South Side of Chicago. Following a blistering guitar intro, Cannon sings: “Six kids on a corner up to no damn good, that’s six broken homes struggling in my neighborhood. You’ve got liquor stores everywhere on my side of town, I don’t want my kids to go outside ‘cause the thugs are hangin’ around.” Apologizing for painting such a grim portrait of inner city life, he sings in the chorus, “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sing this song about the pain around me, but this is what I see, what I see.”

In the more traditional songs “Bad Contract” and “Walk It Off,” Cannon sings the blues about getting the short end of the stick when relationships go sour, with the latter song featuring some especially fine guitar solos. The following track, “Fine Seasoned Women,” opens with a swinging jazz intro before settling into a steady groove powered by Brother John Kattke on the Hammond B3 and a fine, tight horn section—superbly arranged by Kattke—that features Doug Corcoran on trumpet, Steve Eisen on tenor sax, and Robert Collazo on bari sax. This is definitely one of the best tracks on the album, especially when Cannon punches in the guitar solos, fitting perfectly into the groove.  Also adding to the mix are Larry Williams on bass and Melvin “Pookie Stix” Carlisle on drums.

Another highlight on the album is “Chickens Comin’ Home to Roost,” featuring some of Cannon’s best guitar work and concluding with an extended blues-rock solo that goes out blazing in an inferno of psychedelic guitar riffs.  The heat continues with “Strength to Survive,” with Cannon digging deep into his soul on the vocals, then following up with the melancholy slow burner, “When Will You Tell Him About Me?” On the emotional closing track, “I Am,” about the multiple temptations and the choices one makes, Cannon is joined by singer Melon “Honeydew” Lewis and they bring down the house with a gospel fueled blues-rock masterpiece.

The Chicago Way offers contemporary, complex songs that are above and beyond standard blues fare, convincingly delivered by Toronzo Cannon with soulful vocals and searing blues-rock guitar virtuosity. This might well be the best blues album of 2016, and serves as proof that Cannon is poised to take over the crown as Chicago’s leading blues guitarist.

 

Reviewed by Brenda Nelson-Strauss

 

Magic Sam Blues Band – Black Magic, Deluxe Edition

magic sam_black Magic deluxe edition

Title: Black Magic, Deluxe Edition

Artist: Magic Sam Blues Band

Label: Delmark

Formats: CD

Release date: December 29, 2015
 

 

The Magic Sam Blues Band performed quintessential Chicago blues, from the classic rhythm section led by Odie Payne, Jr. to the tenor saxophone played by Eddie Shaw. Now their 1969 album, Black Magic, has been remastered from the original analog tapes and reissued by Delmark as a deluxe edition, including two previously unissued tracks and 16 pages of liner notes, beautifully illustrated with never-before-seen photos from the 1968 recording sessions.

Black Magic
includes irresistible blues jams such as “I Just Want A Little Bit” and “Keep On Loving Me, Baby,” as well as more funk-inspired ballads like “You Better Stop.” No matter the style, every song is full of the soul and top notch musicianship of the 1960s Chicago west side blues scene. This was the last studio album recorded by Magic Sam, released just days after his premature death at the age of 32, Black Magic’s endurance stands as a testament to his legacy in the world of blues music.

Reviewed by Anna Polovick

Linsey Alexander – Come Back Baby

Linsey

Title: Come Back Baby

Artist: Linsey Alexander

Label: Delmark

Formats: CD, MP3

Release date: August 19, 2014
 

 

Linsey Alexander, better known as the “Hoochie Man,” is a veteran Chicago blues musician. His most recent Delmark release, Come Back Baby, features what Alexander does best: soulful guitar playing, solid vocals, and no-nonsense lyrics. Alexander reflects on the past (“Things Done Changed”), shows he still loves to have a good time (“Call My Wife”), pays homage to the blues tradition (“I Can’t Quit You Baby”), and Chicago winters (“Snowing in Chicago”).

The result is a fun, and at times naughty, release. Come Back Baby breaks no rules, but is a confident statement from an elder of the blues.

Listen on Spotify here

Reviewed by Douglas Dowling Peach