Roy Gaines is a player of great substance with an enviable pedigree, he is playing in LA, taking about his work and musing on the history of rock'n'roll and blues. By all accounts he has a new live album, which is eagerly anticipated around here - we went to the opening track from his "Tuedo Blues" project, big bold brassy swinging stuff, just the job now the nights are drawing in.
Duke Robillard has similar depth to his canon and he is today's epitome of T-Bone Walker's cool. I dipped into a two disc survey on Stony Plain from 2007 to help mark his birthday this week; in truth we could have picked anything there is no such thing as a bad performance from the Duke.
Righteous old-time gospel flavour imbues the brand new album from the Holmes Brother, my only gripe is why has it been three years since the previous one. Top notch performances as you'd expect. I also felt I was 13 again this week: discussing favourite guitarists. I said Albert Collins was my no.2 to T-Bone Walker but there were pretty compelling arguments to counter from fans of Freddie King. He loses half a point from me because of those unfeasibly large wing-collars he wore in the mid-70's (I worried a small gust and he'd be up there with the Flying Nun). Albert also had the knack of getting that off-centre humour into his singing courtesy of his wife Gwen's lyrics. I broke all the rules last night by giving him 7 minutes to tell us why the lights were on but no-one was home. Ultimately you can't sensibly measure who is the better man but by crikey there's a fairly rich seam to mine from either man in trying to find out.
Kirk Fletcher has a couple of decent albums under his belt and his Delta Groove release gave us a splendid opener last night. Both Joe Tex and Robert Cray did covers of songs written by Don Covay and Earl Thomas has a criminally small catalogue of discs but a tasteful go at Rev. Gary Davis' song "Twelve Gates Of The City" did gospel duties for us.
Carla Thomas' unreleased session done at American Studios finally get to see light of day and her supple vocals made a nice pairing with the classic Sugar Pie DeSanto cut for Chess. Barbara Lynn cut a fine figure on left-handed guitar and Little Joe Blue was similarly edgy on his piece. Pre-war blues came from Bo Carter and from one of just six sides Willie Brown did. His track came from a disc given as companion piece to the book "Chasin The Devils Music". Not sure if its still in print but the bonus disc does have that rare Tommy Johnson track just auctioned on eBay for $37000. A further curio in our two hours was one of the pair of uncredited Muddy Waters tracks to be found on a Memphis Slim album claimed to be done live at Carnegie hall in 1959 but actual studio-based from 1961.
Two hours was up before we knew it and you were truly magnificent, all being well we'll get together for some more stuff centred on blues at 10pm next Sunday. Until then take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you.
| track.title | track.artistsort | index | album.title | album.artistsort | label |
| Club Zanzibar | Kirk Fletcher | 5 | Shades Of Blue | Kirk Fletcher | Delta Groove |
| He Don't Know | Robert Cray | 2 | Back To The Streets : Music Of Don Covay | Various Artists | SHANACHIE |
| Lights Are on But Nobody's Home | Albert Collins | 4 | Crucial Guitar Blues | Various Artists | Alligator |
| Jump the Blues for You | Duke Robillard | 1 | Duke Robillard's World Full Of Blues | Duke Robillard | STONY PLAIN |
| Need Your Love So Bad | dee shine eye | 1 | need your love so bad | dee shine eye | {world exclusive} |
| stayed at the party | Holmes Brothers | 1 | brotherhood | Holmes Brothers | alligator |
| Johnson's Early Morning Blues | Larry Johnson | 3 | Railroad Man | Larry Johnson | JSP Records |
| my baby's gone | Dave Riley | 9 | Whiskey, Money And Women | Dave Riley | fedora |
| Twelve Gates to the City | Earl Thomas | 6 | Plantation Songs | Earl Thomas | jp boman |
| Soulful Dress | Sugar Pie Desanto | 1 | Go Go Power • The Complete Chess Singles 1961-1966 | Sugar Pie Desanto | Kent |
| hi de ho | carla thomas | 5 | sweet sweetheart | carla thomas | stax |
| Send for Me | Roy Gaines | 1 | Roy Gaines and His Orchestra: Tuxedo Blues | Roy Gaines | |
| He Won't Bite Me Twice | Big Amos Patton | 7 | Rivertown Blues / R'n'b Sessions / Soul Years | Various Artists | HI |
| Dirty Work Goin' on | Little Joe Blue | 19 | Chess Blues | Various Artists | CHESS |
| Sound the Bell | Clarence Garlow | 26 | Rhythm 'N' Bluesin' By The Bayou | Various Artists | ACE |
| (Real) Fine Boogie | Snooky Pryor | 9 | An Introduction To Snooky Pryor | Snooky Pryor | FUEL 2000 |
| Lights Out | Jerry Byrne | 16 | Rock On | Various Artists | ACE |
| She Said Yeah | Joe Tex | 25 | Have Mercy! The Songs Of Don Covay | Various Artists | ACE |
| Watch the One (That Brings the Bad News) | Barbara Lynn | 5 | A Good Woman | Barbara Lynn | Kent |
| I'm an Old Bumble Bee | Bo Carter | 1 | Bo Carter's Advice | Bo Carter | CATFISH |
| future blues | willie brown | 3 | Chasin' That Devil Music | Various Artists | BACKBEAT BOOKS |
| flyright little girl | Sunnyland Slim | 4 | Chess Blues | Various Artists | CHESS |
| Johnson Machine Gun | Sunnyland Slim | 3 | Chess Blues | Various Artists | CHESS |
| rock me | muddy waters | 2 | broken soul blues | memphis slim | b g o |
| Harpin' on a Riff | Charlie Musselwhite | 1 | Harpin' On A Riff | Charlie Musselwhite | MUSIC CLUB |
| Midnight In Memphis | J. J. Cale | 5 | Collected | J. J. Cale | Universal Music Group |
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