Birthday girl Bonnie Raitt started last night's show with a fine version of Chris Smithers' "Love Me Like A Man" - something that showed off her vocal and slide guitar talents. We also had chance to include tracks from the new albums by Anni Piper and Nicole Hart, two further styles of blues from the Blues Leaf imprint that has hit a purple patch lately. Anni's "Texas HoldEm" has a neat lyric and a swinging old-timey feel and Nicole's sultry vocal is in contrast to the crisp guitar and arrangements on her "Heart Trouble" - we will hear more from these two artists. On the same label, Todd Wolfe went to an old classic from Leslie West's Mountain, "Missisippi Queen" and marked his conscious move back towards a down-home blues feel.
Del Taylor has been at the centre of the Blues scene for many years (Sanctuary, SPV etc), he's back with the new label Superbird and they have three debut platters due in January 2010 and on Star Blues last night as world exclusives. The one from the Sam Lay Band and the one from Homesick James come from 1990's projects arranged by Fred James and both contain many previously unissued items and will be eagerly awaited by fans of these guys. The third collection raids the 1960s archives of several small labels based in and around Nashville with several songs appearing on cd for the first time - we featured a bluesy offering from Sam Baker and we will return for more in upcoming shows.
The classic Chicago scene of the Sixties gave us Eddie Taylor, JB Lenoir, Willie Mabon and Jimmy Reed; Robert Cray followed Blind Willie McTell and Big Joe Turner was there after Ray Charles in the running order.
I recently joined the Piano Blues group on facebook, and had a rummage through the lovely gallery of photos and album sleeves over there and celebrated them with selections from Huey Piano Smith and Sunnyland Slim on Star Blues yesterday. I stretched the definition of "gospel" to include Leon Bibb in duet with son Eric Bibb on "Fields Of Gold" - this was to mark Remembrance Sunday and I hope Leon's rich tones set the right spiritual mood.
Legendary guitarist Johnny Jones death was confirmed last week and we rounded off the show with a recap of his life and tracks from two of his recent projects. His big tone from Gibson ES345 guitar will be missed, not just from his own work but for the stuff he did accompanying Gatemouth Brown, Freddie King and Bobby Blue Bland. You should check out his work on YouTube where there is also an interview he gave talking about an up and coming whippersnapper by the name of Hendrix.
Your company every week means a lot and I'm grateful for the invite to your place with my armful of music, I hope we get chance to spend another two hours together next Sunday at ten pm on the Commercial Radio station of the Year 2009 on 107.9FM for Cambridge Ely and the Fens - and streamed live from www.star107.co.uk for the world. Until then take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you
Gary Blue
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