blues news – blues reviews – blues gig guide
I posted originally that the Worthenbury date for Harry Skinner and Dave Saunders was Sat 15 Dec. Actually it is Friday 14th Dec.
The calendar has also been updated.
These guys are two of the original members of the top UK band, The Producers who still have a great following.
Can anyone help this Ian Siegal fan?
I had pushed for a Blackpool Ian Siegal gig to be arranged via a promoter I knew but Ian has since been offered the chance to play at a big Belgian festival and so he’s had to postpone his gig until October 2008 instead of May 2008.
I can’t possibly go cold-turkey until October so is there anyone you could suggest have him on any sooner to keep my withdrawals at bay? He’s on in a couple of venues but they’re all about a 2-3hour drive away. I saw him in Warrington on 23rd and he was fantastic.
Anyone prepared to book Ian before October?
…and following on from that, here’s a request from me. I couldn’t go to Warrington myself because I was not home in time. 11pm on a Friday night <sniff!>.
Does anyone wish to post a review or a few words about the Warrington gig? Either email them to me or add a comment to this entry. What about photos, anyone snap a few? I can host them at the bluesinthenorthwest.com Flickr site or I can link to them at your site.
OTIS GRAND
Pacific Road Arts Centre, Birkenhead: 21/11/07
Always one of my favourite bluesmen, it was great to see Otis Grand and his excellent band at Pacific Road, as part of the 19th International Guitar Festival of Great Britain.
After a few difficult years which saw him relocated to North Carolina, the big man is now back in his adopted Croydon – and after a nightmare journey up to Birkenhead on Wednesday, he showed what a true lover of the blues he is with two great sets.
As always with Otis the band were top notch, featuring ex-Ike Turner vocalist Jimmy Thomas, the horn section of Lee Badau (saxophone), Barry Martin (saxophone) and Mike Peake (trumpet), with Henry Carpaneto (piano), Stewart Panneman (bass) and Mark Wade (drums).
The show kicked off with a rollicking swing instrumental, followed by a dynamite slow blues, before Jimmy Thomas came on stage. His vocals shone on a trio of blues chestnuts – Lowell Fulson’s “Reconsider Baby”; T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday” and the tune made famous by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Otis Rush’s “All Your Love” – all complete with brilliant guitar from Otis Grand.
A nice start to the second set saw just Otis and Jimmy Thomas return for a stripped-down medley which included “Catfish Blues” and Howling Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”. The full band then returned for the swinging “Tell Me What’s The Reason”, another tune from the great T-Bone Walker, and another Wolf song, “Built For Comfort”.
The best was possibly saved for last, with the swinging Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown number, “She Walks Right In” – with the horn section trading bars in most impressive fashion.
A series of most deserved encores included the customary John Lee Hooker-style boogie and an impassioned “The First Time I Met The Blues”, a stable of Chicago legend, Buddy Guy.
As ever a great show from a top player, who upholds the memory of the blues greats, and bandleader, as he said – “no rock and no jazz” – a return visit next year would be in order.
GRAHAME RHODES
Here’s Kim and the boys at last weekend’s DNA Blues Ball in Dallas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb2eeiHhjRM
There are other clips of the proceedings from Teebee Ferris.
http://www.youtube.com/user/teebeeferris
Hello dear bluesinthenorthwest.com readers.
I fear that in the next weeks (maybe in the Christmas holidays) I need to upgrade the bluesinthenorthwest.com site to the latest version of the Wordpress software. Although I work in IT for my day job, the truth is that I am woefully bad at technical stuff. The last time I upgraded the site it was down for a number of days, hence my reluctance to move forward. But, an upgrade will provide more security and the site after the upgrade will be less at risk from hackers.
I have considered upgrading the look and feel of the site at the same time as upgrading the nuts and bolts, but on this matter I am undecided. My research last weekend presented a few option for the look of the site. My question is, does anyone have any strong preference for either of the following themes.
Illacrimo – click the link then select Illacrimo from the very top of the screen.
I really like the look and style of Mimbo but alas, I feel that I do not have the style nor the content to do justice to a magazine type layout.
So I think that it’s down to good old K2 (the current theme), Illacrimo or Silhouette.
Any preference?
A couple of days after his excellent show at the International Guitar Festival in Birkenhead, Otis Grand and the Big Blues Band played in France.
_MG_5643, originally uploaded by laurent.lagarde.
The whole set is here.
Damn this is good.
‘Marvelous’ Marva Whitney aka ‘Soulsister Number One’, from the James Brown Revue, sings for TV show ‘MUSIC SCENE’1969
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvY4LOLchMQ
Pete Evans just emailed to remind us all about the celabrations this weekend.
On Saturday 24th November, it will be the 10th anniversary of live blues music being presented in the Wrexham area by the organisers of Hooker blues club and Worthenbury blues and roots club.
To commemorate this event, top British blues rock band Trafficker fronted by one of the country’s finest blues guitarists Tommy Allen will be playing at Wrexham rugby club, the venue at where it all started in 1997.
Supporting Trafficker will be Karac, the Welsh bilingual country rock blues band from the Gwynedd area who were a great success at the Worthenbury festival.
Playing rhythm guitar and on vocals will be Steve Jones aka “Pablo”, the resident artist at Colne and Burnley festivals.
Come along and help us enjoy ten years of live music
The doors open at 7.30pm and the show starts at 8.30pm with the tickets costing £9.
To reserve tickets call me on 01948 770215
The venue capacity is set at 150 and nearly 100 tickets have gone.
PRESS RELEASE
The Stumble
at Fogherty’s Function Room, Liverpool
Saturday 15th December 2007 (doors open at 8.00pm)
The Stumble’s six-piece band has been chosen to open “Blues at Foghertys”, after two vibrant performances at the Harbourside Club. Paul Melville’s stunning vocals are backed by one of the best blues outfits in the country. Together they deliver a broad range of tempo from slow and gritty blues, through bouncing shuffles to fast-moving boogies. The show will begin at 9.00pm.
As a bonus, you will be able to take an authentic recording of their music home with you, by purchasing a copy of their highly acclaimed album, The World Is Tough, which was featured on the Paul Jones blues programme on BBC Radio 2 earlier on in the year.
Link: www.thestumble.com
Fogherty’s Function Room is situated at 1 Blenheim Road, Liverpool L18 3EH (0151 734 3906).
Tickets for the concert (£10 each) are obtainable from John Welsh on 0151 428 2855 or by email to johnswelsh@hotmail.com. Visit http://www.bluesinthenorthwest.com for a fund of information on the region’s excellent blues scene.
The Stumble’s six-piece band has been chosen to open “Blues at Foghertys”, after two vibrant performances at the Harbourside Club. Paul Melville’s stunning vocals are backed by one of the best blues outfits in the country. Together they deliver a broad range of tempo from slow and gritty blues, through bouncing shuffles to fast-moving boogies. The show will begin at 9.00pm.
As a bonus, you will be able to take an authentic recording of their music home with you, by purchasing a copy of their highly acclaimed album, The World Is Tough, which was featured on the Paul Jones blues programme on BBC Radio 2 earlier on in the year.
Link: www.thestumble.com
Fogherty’s Function Room is situated at 1 Blenheim Road, Liverpool L18 3EH (0151 734 3906).
Tickets for the concert (£10 each) are obtainable from John Welsh on 0151 428 2855 or by email to johnswelsh@hotmail.com. Visit http://www.bluesinthenorthwest.com for a fund of information on the region’s excellent blues scene.
SON SEALS
“A Journey Through The Blues – The Son Seals Story”
(DVD – The Vizztone Label Group – SB102)
From the good folk at Vizztone comes this DVD release about the life and music of blues guitarist Frank ‘Son’ Seals – with the man telling his story, interspersed with comment from family and friends. The 30-minute documentary is accompanied by an hour of 12 live performances, containing stage favourites such as “Bad Axe”, “Hot Sauce” and “Funky Bitch”.
Son Seals incendiary guitar found a home on Chicago’s Alligator Records and label boss Bruce Iglauer had a 30 year relationship with him; as well as running the label he also managed him and was his booker, and he is among the interviews – along with legendary singer Koko Taylor, tough-guy actor and bluesman, Steven Seagal and fellow guitarist, Lonnie Brooks.
Seals’ horn-driven blues and gritty voice established him as a giant in the ‘Windy City’ of Chicago, where he moved to from Arkansas in 1971, after playing drums before turning to the guitar – and his dynamite live performances are captured on home turf at Rooster Blues, The House of Blues and also The Chicago Blues Festival.
Despite some very tough times he always remained committed to his music and battled on despite being shot in the face and eventually losing a leg to diabetes – and director Peter Carlson deserves great credit for bringing us the story of a true bluesman, who, as he says in his liner notes “never compromised anything”.
Son Seals died from diabetes complications in December, 2004 – but this fine DVD tells his story, complete with his struggles and tragedies, and reminds us all what a fine player he was, with a most impressive back catalogue – highly recommended to all blues lovers out there!
With film of the likes of Muddy Waters, BB King and Stevie Ray Vaughan being plentiful these days it makes a change to see this portrait of one of the blues more ‘journeyman’ players, but nonetheless still an important figure in the history of Chicago blues.
GRAHAME RHODES
I was reading the list of artists on the Woodsongs Archive page in preparation for posting the Willie Big Eyes Smith post. As I ran down the list there are many acts in the archive that I am sure have some appeal to the bluesinthenorthwest.com readers. I have mentioned a few over the years but I missed quite a few. Here is a selection of the just some of the artists…..
I only went back to show 384. It’s a great archive. Even better if you like Americana, Bluegrass, Country and Folk.
Woodsongs 461 has a live appearance by blues star Willie “Big Eyes” Smith.
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith was born in Helena, AR in 1936. At the age of 17 he ventured to Chicago where he heard Muddy Waters for the first time and was hooked on the blues. Willie played drums with Muddy Waters for over 20 years including appearances on all of Muddy’s Grammy-winning albums and Muddy’s performance in The Last Waltz. Willie also backed John Lee Hooker in the movie The Blues Brother. Willie is also a dynamic blues harp master and vocalist and will be playing material from his new CD Way Back.
As ever the Woodsongs site allows download of High Quality video along with Lo and Hi bitrate MP3 and WMA.
For the download go to the Woodsongs archive page and look for Show 461.
As you all probably know I have been a great fan of podcasts for many years. The podcast format suits me well as I am rarely able to commit to a time and place each week to listen to my favourite shows. I much prefer to take them with me in the car, on a walk or even abroad.
I have been taking the podcasts from Dave Raven and Bandana Blues for a long time. Now I have added Jonesy to the list. The BBC have announced that Paul Jones’ blues show on BBC Radio 2 is now available as a podcast.
Follow the link….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/pauljones/
**STOP PRESS**
It’s not all good news – it’s not the full show, just an edited segment.
Yah! Boo! I guess they couldn’t sort out the licensing.
Here’s a short interview with the Hammond master Jimmy McGriff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfkmclGHWQM
… and here is a great clip from the BBC2 Culture Show about the incredible instrument that is the Hammond Organ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ck__wghRww
One day I will own a vintage tonewheel Hammond Organ with Leslie Speaker.
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