Lady Bianca's "What Women Will Do" was the featured album last night on a Star Blues playlist very much on the distaff side. The show turned into a survey of the modern blues scene as practiced by the current crop of blues ladies: the two tracks from Lady Bianca's new release were joined by songs from Janiva Magness, Cassie Taylor and Shakura S'Aida. Add in a rambunctious boogie from Katie Webster and you're there with the girls all holding their own.
As it was the last weekend of the month, it was the last of the Buy-One-Get-One-Free promotions offering pairs of tracks by well-known players. In a difficult choice, I settled on a pair each from Robert Cray and the second Sonny Boy Williamson. The weekly gospel spot had a classic side from a group formed over seventy years ago (making Status Quo appear as mere debutants by comparison) - the Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama; their stirring contribution enough to melt the driving snow outside the studio window.
I closed proceedings with two contrasting blues guitar styles: a magnificent two-hander from a 1928 session by Lonnie Johnson (aided and abetted by "white" jazzman Eddie Lang masquerading as the "black" Blind Willie Dunn), and a 2008 slashing slide piece from Julian Sas done in the Netherlands. The night also had a fabulous solo from Hubert Sumlin on a 1966 song from Big Mac and we went a few steps off the blues highway to mark the death of John Martyn at the age of sixty. In his final interview he was pleased to have made that age with a good time and no regrets but still very much a little boy inside.
The full playlist from the show will be on my web-site http://www.garyblue.co.uk/ from about eight o'clock tonight and I'll return (God willing) at ten on Sunday with more Star Blues both on FM and on-0line at http://www.star107.co.uk/ Until then, take care of yourselves and take care of those that take of you
Gary Blue
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