CD Review Archives - Page 4 of 23 - Cascade Blues Association Archive

Ty Curtis

Blame Me
Self Produced

Ty Curtis makes authentic music from his heart. His songwriting skills are amoung some of the very best I have heard as of late with lyrics and instrumentation finely melded together to appeal far more than to just one defined genre of listeners. Like his previous recordings, his newest release Blame Me explores new realms in the sound of the blues. It may not be the traditional blues that we’ve been exposed to since the beginning of the twentieth century, but it is an exciting track that he is taking us on and it is undeniably blues for this modern world. And like the very best in music, Blame Me is a collection of songs that you want to listen to repeatedly.

It’s easy to see that Curtis has the feel for blues rock in his blood. He is a master at over the top, exceptional, and burning guitar work as seen in the rocking title track “Blame Me.” But he also knows how to write some of the most heart-endearing ballads imaginable, as he proves in the number “Heaven Save Me.” There is emotion that runs deep in the song that speaks with complete honesty. Then he can trip into a reggae piece without missing a beat with “Urge And Temptation” and can also bring out complete funky soulfulness on “I Can Say.” There are a lot of melodies, harmonies and groove in Ty Curtis’ music and it’s clear that he is game to take on every angle in his craft. His efforts and commitment make it all come out with exceptional results.

Blame Me was recorded in Austin, where Curtis now calls home while still splitting time with trips back and forth to his native Oregon. It was engineered by Grammy winner Anton Pukshansky with mixing from Chris Athens. Both have worked with some major artists in a variety of genres, from hip hop to R&B, country to rock. The musicianship at hand for this recording is absolutely impressive, with regular bandmates Jerry Jacques on drums and Tony Valdez on bass, with additional help from some of Austin’s best: Nick Jay, Dane Farnsworth, Carmelo Torres, and Jeff Bryant.

Ty Curtis once again convinces us that he is a triple threat, singer, guitarist and songwriter that we have to watch with anticipation that greatness is directly at hand. Blame Me shows us once again that his development is racing faster than we can keep up and it’s time for the rest of the world to catch up and take note.

Total Time: 44:18

That Good / Blame Me / Back Again / I Can Say / Heaven Save Me / Shake It Up / Urge And Temptation / Blow Me Away / Who Are You / Never Get My Love

Rose City Kings

CD Review

A Love So Strong
Self Produced

A Love So Strong represents the return of the Rose City Kings after a hiatus of several years after band leader Dan Berkery decided to step away from music for a little while. Always an exceptional songwriter with a knack for catchy, sing-along, and danceable tunes, Berkery steps right back into the fold with a new collection of material every bit as fun and exciting as before.

The revised band includes some old friends and newer members, but they’re all right in line with Berkery’s mindset. Well-known local players like keyboardist Steve Kerin, harmonica ace David Lipkind, bass man Tim Shaughnessy, Blues Music Award winner Jimi Bott, trumpet player Joe McCarthy, conga player Heidi Shuler, and vocalist Katy Oberg are amongst this star-studded cast behind the music here. This diverse grouping brings a lot of history and different approaches to the format. The recording were laid down at Jimi Bott’s Roseleaf Studios, with all but three tracks penned by Berkery.

There’s a lot of kick behind these numbers and right off the bat you’re going to hear the strong impact that Lipkind provides with his harp. Also front and center is the voice of Oberg, whether teaming alongside Berkery on a piece like “All Your Love” or taking the lead on her own as she does in “Working Girl Blues” where Steve Kerin and Berkery offer some exceptional accompaniment.

The title track “A Love So Strong” is classic Berkery at his best. With his soaring vocals and lyrics that invite you to join in on the chorus. The group throws down a funky little jazz instrumental on “Superbee” where several musicians get a bit of spotlight. “A Sight To See” brings a little flavor of Louisiana to the mix, with Steve Kerin working the accordion and harmonies from the band. There is a bit of humor as Berkery sings about being knocked out by the girl with the “Love Karate Chop” who grabbed his full attention with such ease and gained his attraction beyond his own belief. The album closes out with another fun number titeld “Nah Nah Nah” where the storyteller speaks about the women he has known, lounge-like backing from Kerin, Shaughnessy and Bott stand out nicely.

This is a welcome return from the Rose City Kings, one of Portland’s favorite bands from the past who should step right back into place from where they left off. With a recording like “A Love So Strong” it should be an easy step. Very much recommended.

Total Time: 54:14

One Lonely Morning / A Love So Strong / Just Like I Treat You / Working Girl Blues / My People / Superbee / All Your Love / Love Karate Chop / Rumba All Night / Sight To See / No Justice / Nah Nah Nah

Sammy Eubanks

CD Review

Sugar Me
Underworld Records

Sugar Me, Sammy Eubanks new album, kicks off with a little swampy and gritty guitar riff as he describes that what ever he’s listening to it’s “It’s All Blues to Me.” And it’s hard to argue as he explains how he was touched from first hearing BB King through his father and that led to further discoveries of artists that all rang true to him in a bluesy vein. It is an opening to a well-conceived collection of songs that shows Eubanks knows a little bit about the blues himself. A little bit? Hell, this man can bring it on home every time and with Sugar Me, his fifth release, he has it nailed down perfectly.

Eubanks has long been renowned throughout the Northwest and beyond for his tasty guitar work, clever songwriting, and a voice that has few equals. All three are expressive and impassioned. Sugar Me was recorded in Nashville and is his debut on the Underworld label. The disc offers three original tracks, including the opening “All Blues To Me,” along with the title number “Sugar Me” and the closing piece “I’m Gonna Leave You.” Along the way he covers a wide variety of songwriters, including well-known people such as Willie Dixon and Don Robey alongside others like Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas, Indigenious’ guitarist Mato Nanji, and Portland-based DK Stewart.

Backed by a great rhythm section of bassist Darren Theriault and drummer Chris Kimmerer that enhances the openings for Eubanks’ guitar solos, the trio is also joined by former Double Trouble keyboardist Reese Wynans. Guitarists Bob Britt and Matt Hauer add their accompanying licks. Together this group of players is known at Underworld Records as “The Club Roar Players,” a spot-on collection of ace musicians.

His cover of “I Just Wanna Make Love To You” is presented in his own jumping method, but with his frenetic guitar it still maintains the flavor that Willie Dixon had in mind when it was composed. There’s a bit of country going on in the tune “Born To Love You” that showcases yet another side of music that Eubanks touches on occasionally with appreciation. On “It’s My Life Baby” his voice roars on the Bobby Bland classic as Wynans lays out some of the best piano work on the album. And he closes everything out with “I’m Gonna Leave You,” a rockin’ number that may contain one of the best original lyrics in this whole package, “I’m gonna leave you, if you don’t come back.”

There’s so much to like about Sugar Me. It is Sammy Eubanks at his very best. This is one that has repeat play all over it … again and again!

Total time: 34:18

It’s All Blues To Me / Stop That Grinnin’ / Blues All Mornin’ / I Just Wanna Make Love To You / My Baby’s Gone / Sugar Me / No Excuse For The Blues / Born To Love You / It’s My Life Baby / I’m Gonna Leave You

Alligator Records Forty-Fifth Anniversary Collection

CD Review

Various Artists
Alligator Records

When you write anything about Alligator Records, you might as well be writing the history of the blues itself during the past four-and-a-half decades. Bruce Iglauer created the label to provide an outlet to record blues musician Hound Dog Taylor, one of many artists who worked in the venues and along Maxwell Street in Chicago who were not receiving the recognition that they deserved. Taylor was Iglauer’s sole client at the time, but it was from that point that one of the greatest and longest lasting blues labels began, and it still rules today.

Literally, I am not fooling when I say the history of the blues. Every five years, Alligator offers a collection of its music to celebrate its anniversary, and all you have to do is open the latest collection to hear that history. On Alligator Records forty-fifth Anniversary Collection you’ll find legendary names of artists long held in the highest revere such as Johnny Winter, Luther Allison, Koko Taylor, Charlie Musselwhite, Albert Collins, Bonnie Raitt, Big Walter Horton, Mavis Staples, James Cotton, and Billy Boy Arnold, many of whom are no longer with us. But they also display just how much the label continues to bring forth the best and the brightest of the industry today with the likes of Selwyn Birchwood, Curtis Salgado, Jarekus Singleton, Moreland & Arbuckle, Toranzo Cannon, Tommy Castro, and Shemekia Copeland. Each of these artists could fill hundreds of pages documenting their individual contributions to the genre and Alligator could probably fill a warehouse to store the awards that their recordings of these and many others have reaped over the years.

But by no means does this signify the end of the label. As long as there are creative musicians with their visions of the blues, Alligator will continue to provide an outlet for there music even as it expands into other musical realms like gospel, rockabilly, and Americana. The blues may not get a lot of notice from other labels that receive high media attention. But as long as Alligator Records keeps going there will always be an open door, and may that door remain open for many more decades to come.

Total Time: 2:37:55

37 Tracks

Shawn James

CD Review

On The Shoulders Of Giants
Self-Produced

Shawn James hails from Fayetteville, Arkansas and is the leader of the successful band The Shapeshifters whose music encompasses a unique mixture of heavy rock, bluegrass, and folk. The band tours seemingly endlessly across the country (recently playing Portland at Dante’s in May). But for his latest recording, “On The Shoulders Of Giants,” Shawn James went into Memphis’ famed Sun Studios and laid down a collection of intense and sometimes haunting original and live solo tracks.

The originality behind his music is showcased by how well his vocals and instrumentation matches one another. Both come across quite mournful at times and the selections are raw. James provides all the accompaniment to his singing with resonator guitars, kick drum and tambourine. And in the case of the closing number, “Preacher Foretold,” it is a cappella, just his voice and clapping hands.

But as dark as the music may seem, it still filled with bluesy overtones that just may bring to mind early artists of the genre like Robert Johnson, Son House, and especially Blind Willie Johnson. The latter Johnson’s best-known song “The Soul Of A Man” seems almost to be a theme to several of the pieces on the album. And there is often religious inspiration (“Delilah”) and tales of personal demons and tribulations (“Belly Of The Beast” or “When It Rains, It Pours”).

The music is spell-binding, somber and maybe a little foreboding. But there is something about its hypnotic trance and haunting presentation that continually mesmerizes and draws you back into its fold.

Total Time: 32:33

Hellhound / Belly Of The Beast / When It Rains, It Pours / Snake Eyes / Delilah / Back Down / Lift Us Up / Captain Stormalong / Preacher Foretold

Mr. Stress Blues Band

CD Review

Live At The Brick Cottage 1972-1973
Smog Veil Records

Take note — sound-wise, Live At The Brick Cottage 1972-1973 may not come across as the best recording that you’re going to hear of a live performance. After all, it was recorded using an old reel-to-reel tape recorder in a crowded bar in Cleveland during a couple of shows back in 1972 & 1973. It also was never meant for official release when these shows were taped. But what you get here is a showcase of stellar proportions featuring one of the legends of the Cleveland blues scene, Bill “Mr. Stress” Miller. He may not be a familiar name outside of Ohio, but he was one of the first white performers in the city playing the blues and drawing crowds.

These dates were recorded at The Brick Cottage in Cleveland where the Mr. Stress Blues Band held regular weekly stints. The music offered on this album are all covers, mostly of the Chicago blues brand and are familiar to any blues fan. Numbers like “Sweet Little Angel,” “Crosscut Saw,” “Big Boss Man,” “Rock Me Baby,” “Help Me” — you know, the standards. Miller was an avid fan of Paul Butterfield, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Little Walter, and his own playing reflects that to a tee. Among the musicians who passed through the band over the years were many of the city’s biggest artists, such as Peter Laughner (Pere Ubu), Anton Fier (The Golden Palominos), and Vito San Filippo (Tower of Power). The band on these recordings features the fiery guitar playing of Chuck “Pontiac Slim” Drazdik, Tom Rinda on bass, Mike “The Professor” Sands on piano, and the drum duties are split between Dr. Pete Sinks on the 1972 dates and Kenny Ruscitto on the 1973 sessions.

Mr. Stress passed away this last year after blowing his harp for more than five decades as one of Cleveland’s best blues artists. Sadly, his prominence never really traveled beyond the city and he was unfortunately under-recorded. Gotta say though, this is some downright, greasy, deep-in-the-alley harmonica work backed by a heavy blues band that understandably brought in devoted followers to their shows for many years. I know I would’ve been right there to listen to these guys myself had I lived in Ohio. Also, glad to see quite an extensive history about the musicians and the band included in this release obviously painstakingly compiled by Nick Blaky. Bill “Mr. Stress” Miller may be gone now, but hopefully this posthumous release brings some attention to a very deserving musician who laid groundwork to make Cleveland’s blues scene shape and grow.

Total Time: 1:15:30

How Many More Years / Walkin’ Through The Park / Good Time Charlie / Scratch My Back / Chicken Shack (Break Song #1) / Get Out Of My Life Woman / Big Boss Man / I Feel So Sad / Sweet Little Angel / Rock Me Baby / Crosscut Saw / Help Me / Black Night / Chicken Shack (Break Song #2)

Too Slim and The Taildraggers

CD Review

Blood Moon
Underworld Records

Over the length of his career, Tim “Too Slim” Langford has delivered us with a multitude of directions he’s pursued on the guitar. Whether it’s slide, swampy, rockin’, psychedelic, acoustic, or back porch country blues, he delivers all in the same splendid fashion that keeps our ears in tune. Now I have heard over the years that he sounds just like this guitarist or that guitarist. Pointing to one person sounding like another is a bit easy at times to do. But perhaps that is because Langford can be so chameleon-like and possesses the skills of his craft to come across exactly in any direction he wishes. They say that imitation is a form of flattery. But just wait a minute, maybe it’s those other guitarists who are trying to sound like Langford.

Case in point, just take a look at the most recent recordings of the Too Slim and The Taildraggers discography. This past decade has seen great releases, from Fortune Teller, Free Your Mind, Shiver, Broken Halo, and Blue Heart, with the band jumping across many musical pathways. Each of them are awesomely fantastic with directions showing so clearly and true. It’s as if they keep reinventing themselves and get better every time out. If that’s possible for a band that has brought home the goodies every time already.

Underworld Records has just released Blood Moon. It is the band’s nineteenth recording. And guess what? It is another exemplary collection of enchanting tales with descriptive lyrics that set you on the edge of your seat. And these stories truly do capture your mind. The onset of death is prevalent on “My Body”(“don’t want no wood box wrapped around my bones”). There’s the “Gypsy” who cast her spell causing our hero to fall in love with her. And the traits of the most despicable of people noted in “Evil Mind” who just want you to fail or to be looked down upon for their own pleasure. The humor behind the man waiting for his baby to get ready to go out on the town, but she keeps him waiting and waiting in “Get Your Goin’ Out On.” But in the end he thanks his friends for being there in a “Letter” and after years of traveling and playing around the globe it just does work out sometimes that “Good Guys Win.”

Blood Moon is another masterful recording for Too Slim & The Taildraggers. Musically and lyrically this disc has it happening. So “come on giddy up giddy up giddy up” and get out and pick up your copy of Blood Moon right away. It’s going to make want to you play a little air guitar along with a smile on your face all day long! Fun indeed!

Total Time: 48:43

Evil Mind / Blood Moon / Twisted Rails / Get Your Goin’ Out On / Gypsy / My Body / Dream / Letter / Good Guys Win / Twisted Rails (Slight Return)

Moreland & Arbuckle

CD Review

Promised Land Or Bust
Alligator Records

Band co-founder and guitarist Aaron Moreland describes Moreland & Arbuckle as “gritty blues and roots rock from the Heartland.” Hailing from Wichita, Kansas, they couldn’t be more centrally located in America’s Heartland and they’ve developed their own unique sound that could also be viewed as Kansas Hill Country (with apologies to Mississippi for the term). Influenced by artists stemming from Mississippi like Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside, alongside Chicago legend Hound Dog Taylor, a hint of The Black Keys and even a slight dose of punk, the trio takes raw energy and blends it with clever lyrics inserted with their own reflections and perhaps an occasional touch of humor. And as the years roll forward, this band consistently gets better.

Moreland & Arbuckle’s latest release, Promised Land Or Bust, is their seventh recording and their debut on the Alligator label. They’re the perfect mix for the label who have been at the forefront of exposing new acts and sounds as well as developing established artists to an even higher plateau. The band brought back renowned producer Matt Bayles who helmed their previous release 7 Cities. Bayles also contributed his own playing on a couple tracks on guitar and keyboards. Alongside Aaron Moreland’s exceptional guitar work on electric, acoustic and cigar box, Dustin Arbuckle’s harmonica, and Kendall Newby’s drums, the album also features guests Scott Williams on keys and Mark Foley on bass.

Promised Land Or Bust is filled with tunes that tell the tales of a variety of unsavory characters. The lowest of society (“Mean And Evil”), the cheaters and betrayers (Long Way Home”), jealous lovers who take things to the extreme (“Hannah”), and other people that should be avoided at all costs. It’s greasy and often filled with sexual tension and strutting (“When The Lights Are Burning Low”). And the music delivers in spades! Listen to the intensity of the guitar and harmonica pairing on Slim Harpo’s “I’m A King Bee” and the cover of fellow Kansas native Lee McBee’s “Woman Down In Arkansas” is exemplary or spot on target.

When people speak of how music must evolve to bring in newer audiences then Moreland & Arbuckle just may be the group to best display exactly that. They began following the patterns of those who influenced them, but they’ve expanded into their own sound that reflects Americana and roots music’s new directions, but still maintain their true base in the blues. Powerful and magnificent, Promised Land Or Bust is another winning disc from Moreland & Arbuckle.

Total Time: 39:01

Take Me With You (When You Go) / Mean And Evil / Hannah / When The Lights Are Burning Low / Woman Down In Arkansas / Mount Comfort / Long Did I Hide It / Waco Avenue / I’m A King Bee / Long Way Home / Why’d She Have To Go (And Let Me Down)?

Janiva Magness

CD Review

Love Wins Again
Fathead Records

Janiva Magness continues with her tales of love and its power and pain on her latest disc Love Wins Again. Her songwriting is personal and full of imagery that can only be reflected through experience. Happy or sad, Janiva draws us into her lyrics and as we have seen in the past she can show us the skeletons in the closet or the over-abundance of happiness she has found through true love. For Love Wins Again she is joyfully taking us on the latter of those two directions.

It is clearly evident in tracks like “When You Hold Me” or “Say You Will” that her new-found love fills her life. She bares her soul to everybody to see that she has discovered the feeling that she felt may never come her way again.

But there is often pain through love, too, and she has not forgotten how that emotion can still hold true from the past, as she lets us in within “Just Another Lesson” or “Moth To A Flame.” The attraction may have been there, but was it only one-sided? Was it really that easy to push away?

Funkified “Your House Is Burnin’” has an upbeat flare starting out that is quite James Brown-like, right down to the opening “Get up!” But even here she speaks of coming to terms and starting again, ”You have to rise on up if you care.”

The lone cover on the album is John Fogerty’s “Long As I Can See The Light.” In Janiva’s hands it is beautifully rendered and flows evenly with the theme of the entire album.

“Who Will Come For Me” closes the disc and allows us to enter Janiva’s thoughts about what is ahead of us. When all may be lost, when we’ve aged and we’re no longer as young as we once were, who is it that will be there for us?

Love Wins Again follows suit with Janiva’s previous outing, Original. This is solid material, an exceptionally crafted collection that is meaningful, touching emotional and honest. Janiva Magness and Dave Darling have become one of the foremost songwriting teams working today. Love Wins Again easily ranks amongst the best recordings of the decade, in the blues or any other genre hands down.

Total Time: 43:04

Love Wins Again / Real Slow / When You Hold Me / Say You Will / Doorway / Moth To A Flame / Your House Is Burnin’ / Just Another Lesson / Rain Down / Long As I Can See The Light / Who Will Come For Me

Clint Morgan

CD Review

Scofflaw
Lost Cause Records

Clint Morgan’s sophomore disc, Scofflaw, follows a theme that portrays the lives of society’s downtrodden, outcast, and outright bad guys. These are people with often very little remorse, living on the edge, and given the option would probably do things the same way all over again. How else would you explain titles such as “I Love Robbing Banks” or “Bad Man Blues”?

Morgan is a prolific piano player as well as a songwriter. He has been an instructor and performer at the Pinetop Perkins Foundation Workshops in Clarksdale, Mississippi and he plays a blues and boogie-styled piano. Yet his stories on Scofflaw take a route through blues, alt-country, and even a little gospel. His vocal delivery is sometimes reminiscent of Johnny Cash or Tom Waits — almost deadpan, but often with humorous and sometimes vivid descriptions.

The cast on Scofflaw is also an astonishing group. Guest vocalists include both Grammy winner Maria Muldaur and Blues Music Award winner Diunna Greenleaf. The musicians backing Morgan on the album is superb. The session players’ credentials read like a who’s who of some of the biggest names going that they’ve worked with, from Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakum, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, kd Lang, Vince Gill, and more.

But, this collection of stories reflects those from the wrong side of the tracks. And Morgan’s sense of phrasing in his lyrics depict the characters into believable figures. In “I Got A Gun,” a man feels he’s become so empowered that when somebody calls him scrawny butt, he reacts by shooting him in the gut. Or the fast-paced run in “A Sackful of Cash” where he states that Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so, but I bet that Jesus is pretty mad seeing how I turned out this bad. Of course he has this running through his mind since he’s running from the law with a sackful of cash and a body in the trunk. Or the judge giving a sentence of five years so that maybe he’ll learn the lessons he’s been taught in “Eastham Farm.” Even the cover songs Morgan includes are based on reckless abandon such as Bessie Smith’s “Send To the ‘Lecrtic Chair” or Johnny O’Keefe’s “Wild One.”

Well, maybe there is a bit of remorse in the thoughts of the protagonists by the time Scofflaw reaches towards the end, as the songs begin to speak directly to the Lord seeking redemption in numbers like “Softly And Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling,” “I Remembered You “ and Muldaur’s “I Done Made It Up In My Mind.” And the inclusion of “This Little Light Of Mine” opening and closing the album also may show that there is a hope of salvation that these bad men may be wishing for after all is said and done.

Scofflaw is truly a prime example of Americana at its best. Deeply rooted in folklore and legend, bringing images from the old west and the depression years up into modern times. The characters are timeless and this is an album that will continue to grow on you with each subsequent listen. Each number is like watching its own movie. Spectacular story-telling done right.

Total Time: 1:15:42

This Little Light Of Mine (Intro) / Waco / Wild One / I Got A Gun / I Don’t Know Where To Turn / Eastham Farm / DB Cooper Blues / I Love Robbing Banks / Bad Man Blues / Thief In the Night / Wanted Man / The Face In The Mirror / A Sackful Of Cash / Send Me To The ‘Lectric Chair / Softly And Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling / I Remembered You / I Done Made It Up In My Mind / This Little Light Of Mine (Outro) / I Got A Gun (Alternate Take)