Sweet Home
Sweet Home: July 2009
Whole Lotta Music Goin’ On The bright spot in an otherwise drab and dreary spring is the group of high-quality new releases that have crossed my desk for review. I am especially pleased to see that Chicago labels are recording local talent — a trend I hope continues. As I have said many times before […]
Sweet Home: June 2009
TURNING 20 On June 9th, 1989, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells performed a memorable set of acoustic blues at the Front Porch stage during the Chicago Blues Festival. This writer was there, MCing that particular stage. Once the show was over, I was directed to announce to the lingering crowd that they should make it […]
Sweet Home: May 2009
Sweet Home Steppin’ Out If you have been out on the town over the past year or so, hanging out at premier blues and jazz clubs such as Andy’s, Buddy Guy’s Legends, or House Of Blues, you may have happened upon up-and-coming guitarist/ vocalist and songwriter Guy King. King is a young guitar master with […]
Something Old, Something New
Listening to Chicago Blues: A Living History (Raisin), a two-CD set that covers 1940 to the present and features an all-star band of blues traditionalists including Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer, Billy Branch, and Lurrie Bell, led me to think about Jimi Hendrix. A space-age bluesman, Hendrix took the genre in a new direction. He […]
Sounds Like An Angel
“There hasn’t been a lot of growing in the blues. I don’t see any reason why it cannot grow. So many blues artists were innovative. Muddy Waters, he plugged in.” Shemekia Copeland Never Going Back (Telarc) reflects the ongoing evolution in the life and music of contemporary soulful blues diva Shemekia Copeland. Produced by guitarist/songwriter […]
Passing The Torch: Odetta & Miriam Makeba
Two vital women, American folk singer and civil-rights activist Odetta and South Africa’s voice of hope and freedom, Miriam Makeba, passed away within weeks of one another in late 2008. Makeba, 76, died of cardiac arrest after performing in Italy November 9th, and Odetta Holmes, 77, succumbed to heart disease December 2nd. Though they weren’t […]
A Tribute To Chico Banks
The Chicago blues community gathered on Wednesday, December 10th at the West Side’s United Baptist Church to celebrate the life of one of their own. Guitarist/singer-songwriter Vernon “Chico” Banks, aged 46, passed away December 3rd of an apparent infection of a heart valve that was replaced more than a year ago.
Barack Rocks The (White) House
While watching the celebration unfold in Grant Park last month on television, in which President–elect Barack Obama celebrated his victory with some 240,000 jubilant supporters, I felt as though I was watching another type of history in the making. Racial stereotypes were being shattered left and right as the major networks and cable channels sent […]
Reviewapalooza
Many CDs have been unreviewed during the past few months as I have focused more on the news side of the business. In a slight change of format, I will devote this entire column to playing catch up with pithy reviews of CDs from legends and newcomers alike, covering the gamut of traditional blues to […]
A Tribute To Phil Guy
The Chicago blues community lost part of its soul August 20th when guitarist/vocalist Phil Guy, 68, passed away from prostate cancer complications. Just a month earlier, Guy was onstage with other blues luminaries at the Pritzker Pavilion to watch his older brother, Buddy, receive the very first Great Performer Of Illinois Award. He was also […]
Whole Lotta Lovin’
On July 20th in front of an adoring crowd of roughly 4,000 fans, blues icon Buddy Guy took to the stage of Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion and received the first annual Great Performer Of Illinois Award. As Chicago Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg presented Guy with the award, the audience exploded into “Buddy! Buddy! Buddy!” […]
A Skin Deep Preview
By the time you read this, Chicago’s premier axe man, Buddy Guy, will have received the first annual Great Performer Of Illinois Award on July 20th at Millennium Park. He will have hosted a record-release party at Legends on the same night, and, two days later, will have officially released his new album, Skin Deep […]
Perpetratin’ The Blues
The Byther Smith, Blues On The Moon: Live At Natural Rhythm Social Club (Delmark) DVD/CD is a false document – fiction, cooked up by writer David Whiteis and the Delmark Records folks desperate to return the “negro” to his natural habitat.
Boogie Woogie Chillun
Can’t Stop Now (Electro-Fi) by Juno Award winning keyboardist/singer-songwriter Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne is a CD to get excited about. Recorded in various locations from St. Louis to Whitehorse, Canada, it is a pleasing gumbo of contemporary and traditional blues with a distinctive New Orleans flavor.
Return To The Blues
“Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out/Here comes something, you never dreamed about/Life is so unpredictable, that’s the way it is. It gets a little hard to bear sometime/Things out of nowhere to blow your mind/But one thing I know for sho’/You’ve got to let life flow.” Kenny Neal – “Let Life […]
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