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New Blues News – 4/27/2021

Tia Carroll – You Gotta Have it (Little Village): How has the Blues and Gospel music influenced your views of the world and the journeys you’ve taken? That is quite a question and I’m really glad you asked. Gospel music gives me hope and makes me feel protected and safe. Gospel music lets me know that God is always with me, no matter what I may be going through so that means He is with us no matter what the world is going through. It’s a powerful music that makes it’s way through almost all of the genres of music in one way or another. It cannot be denied, nor can it be held in any box that can be checked off on an application for a loan. Gospel music is fair and just and that is because of who it ultimately represents and not who represents it. So, my views of the world as far as gospel music goes it bright and loving.
Blues music is underrepresented by its lineage. Where and why blues started is a long but well-known story. The journey that the blues has taken is a wild and crazy, sometimes tragic ride. It almost mirrors inequality and that is a hard thing to have to say and hear. I feel like the blues is shrinking and it is my job as well as others like me to help keep it’s shape. We have to work together to preserve cultures and traditions and many have forgotten that or forgotten how to do it. My views of the world as it pertains to blues music…We have work to do. (https://www.hd-radio.net/theblues/interview-with-tia-carroll-west-coast-blues-is-a-thing-people-video-photos/) Carroll offered three originals for this release and she is a knock-out on the remainder! The musicians are Kid Andersen (guitar), Jim Pugh (piano, organ) and Steve Ehrmann (bass), with Mike Rinta (trombone), Rob Sudduth (tenor sax), Aaron Lington (bari sax), Jeff Lewis (trumpet) and guests Igor Prado (lead guitar one song), Charlie Hunter (guitar & bass on one song) and the Sons of the Soul Revivors on vocals. This is a certified Professor Bebop “Wax Devoid of Cracks”! I regret that I am unable to find a sample from this disc.

Bob Corritore & Friends – Spider In My Stew (VizzTone / SWMAF): “Bob Corritore is one of the most active and highly regarded blues harmonica players on the scene today. His style passionately carries forward the old school of playing that Corritore learned as a young man directly from many of original pioneers of Chicago Blues. His sympathetic, yet fiery harmonica playing is featured on over 100 releases to date, on labels such as VizzTone, Delta Groove, Delmark, HighTone, HMG, Blue Witch, Blind Pig, Earwig, Ruf, Putumayo and many others. Many of Bob’s acclaimed releases have been nominated or winners for various Handy, Grammy, Living Blues, Blues Music Awards and Blues Blast Music Awards. Bob is also widely recognized for his many roles in the blues, as band leader, club owner, record producer, radio show host, arts foundation founder, and occasional writer. His amazing website http://www.bobcorritore.com and his weekly e-newsletter reflect a life thoroughly invested in the blues.,,, Corritore worked with Tail Dragger, Big Moose Walker, Willie Buck, Louis and Dave Myers, and Eddie Taylor in the late 70s and early 80s. He also produced his first recordings during that time, taking unheralded harmonica greats such as Little Willie Anderson and Big Leon Brooks into the studio to produce their now classic debut albums…. In 1991, Bob opened the now famous Blues and Roots Concert Club, The Rhythm Room. Having a club created yet another catalyst for Bob’s musical projects. He would often invite great artists to come to Phoenix, and Bob’s band, the Rhythm Room All-Stars would back these visiting artists on shows and in recording sessions. Bob’s archives of these sessions are now famous, and include sessions with Bo Diddley, Little Milton, John Brim, Jimmy Rogers, Henry Gray, Pinetop Perkins, Ike Turner, Jimmie Vaughan, Henry Townsend, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Jack Johnson, Ike Turner, Smokey Wilson. Lil’ Ed, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Nappy Brown, R.L. Burnside, Louisiana Red, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Sam Lay, Barbara Lynn, John Primer, Eddy Clearwater, and numerous others.” (https://bobcorritore.com/bio/) Corritore has continued to perform and produce other blues players with both well known and less well known. The music is always right at the heart of the authentic BLUES. This release includes Alabama Mike (vocals), Lurrie Bell (vocal, guitar), John Primer (vocal, guitar), Francine Reed (vocal), Johnny Rawls (vocal), guitar), Bob Margolin (guitar), Junior Watson (guitar), Kid Ramos (guitar) and Fred Kaplan (piano, organ) and many others. This is straight-up blues and it is a certified Professor Bebop “Wax Devoid of Cracks”! Click here to listen to “Big Mama’s Soul Food” by Sugaray Rayford from this disc.

Reverend Freakchild – Supramundane Blues (TreatedandReleased): “Upon finding the world in our present crisis, the Reverend decided to cast his gaze into the abyss of suffering and confront the confusion sonically.  Ministering to a larger flock of blues, roots and spiritual seekers for years the Reverend Freakchild has now directed his musical ministry to the legions of fans who follow the Grateful Dead, the San Francisco sound and its offspring of hippies and new 21st century psychedelic warriors. The Rev’s latest release, Supramundane Blues, is a collection of thirteen rocking holy blues songs inspired by the psychedelic spiritual quest. The tunes run the gamut of styles from Delta Blues to Funk, Soul, Modern Jam Band, Rock & Roll and Americana.  Plus a bonus disc, the Psychedelic Trip Hop Mass that will test your musical sensibilities and your classic rock knowledge, as well as provide you with some healing sounds to help you get through these tough times and prepare you for what is yet to come. The Reverend invited several like-minded musicians, artists and poets to join him on the mission of making peace with his psychedelic vision, including guitarist Mark Karan (Rat dog), drummer Chris Parker (Aretha Franklin, Donald Fagen, Quincy Jones, Brecker Brothers), percussionist Jason Hann (String Cheese Incident), producer and multi-instrumentalist Hugh Pool, keyboardist Steve Sirockin, Malcolm “The Minister of Bass” Oliver, The poet Her Majesty Reverend Galaxy, Kevin Griffin the rocker and author of One Breath at a Time (Buddhism and the Twelve Steps), Songwriter Jake La Botz, and the Grammy-nominated vocalist and harmonica player, The Reverend Shawn Amos.” (http://www.www-reverendfreakchild.org/supramundane-blues) The Freakchild has spoken. Each one of us will have to interpret wisdom within. Some kind of discretion may be necessary before sharing the contents with any other rational being! Click here to listen to “Keep On Praying!”

Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band – Dance Songs For Hard Times (Thirty Tigers): “The new album from Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band was written by candlelight and then recorded using the best technology available in the 1950s. But listeners won’t find another album as relevant, electrifying and timely as “Dance Songs for Hard Times.” …“Dance Songs for Hard Times” conveys the hopes and fears of pandemic living. Current BMA nominee, Rev. Peyton, the Big Damn Band’s vocalist and world-class fingerstyle guitarist, details bleak financial challenges on the songs “Ways and Means” and “Dirty Hustlin’.” He pines for in-person reunions with loved ones on “No Tellin’ When,” and he pleads for celestial relief on the album-closing “Come Down Angels.” …Far from a depressing listen, “Dance Songs” lives up to its name by delivering action-packed riffs and rhythms across 11 songs…. “I like songs that sound happy but are actually very sad,” Peyton says. “I don’t know why it is, but I just do…. “It’s crazy,” Peyton says of “Too Cool to Dance.” “It almost feels like a song from the 1950s that’s been lost. At the end of the day, it still somehow feels like us…. Conditions aren’t ideal when compared to pre-pandemic adventures that allowed the Big Damn Band to play for audiences in nearly 40 countries. But those days will return, and in the meantime we have “Dance Songs for Hard Times. Despite the hardships of this moment in history, it created this music that I hope will maybe help some people through it,” Peyton says. “Because it helps me through it to play it.” (https://www.bigdamnband.com/about/) Click here to listen to “Ways And Means”, the opening track from this release.

Patti Parks – Whole Nother World (VizzTone Boogie Music): “After hearing Patti at the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, famed American Bluesman Kenny Neal signed her to his Booga Music label and brought her to his Baton Rouge, Louisiana studio to produce, arrange, and perform on this eclectic gem. Neal joins Patti for a vocal duet on the track “Baby Bee,” also providing harmonica and guitar on that song as well as others on this diverse, satisfying album. Whole Nother World is scheduled for release through Booga Music/VizzTone on May 28, 2021. In addition to being a sizzling blues performer, Patti is also a working nurse, and the creator of the Nurs’n Blues education program, which she developed to help high risk children at drug rehab centers.” (https://www.americanbluesscene.com/patti-parks-gears-up-for-new-album-release-whole-nother-world/) Straight-forward singing and playing that draws the listener in. Parks and Neal are a solid combination. Click here for “Baby Bee”,  a duet by  by Parks and Neal on this release.

Kopasetically,

Professor Bebop