blues news – blues reviews – blues gig guide
This Thursday 3rd April Doug MacLeod is at The Harbourside in Liverpool then the following night Fri 4th at The Lawrence House studio at The Grand Theatre, Blackpool.
“Doug MacLeod, now there’s a man who can really play the blues” – David “Honeyboy” Edwards
Liverpool – £10 from John Welsh on 0151 428 2855 or johnswelsh@hotmail.com
Blackpool – £10 from the box office on 01253 290190
SEAN COSTELLO
“WE CAN GET TOGETHER”
(Delta Groove Music, Inc. – DGPCD120)
The Philadelphia-born, Atlanta-raised bluesman, Sean Costello first came to be noticed when he won the Beale Street Blues Society’s new talent award at 14, and followed this with his debut album, “Call The Cops”, in 1996, at just 16, before featuring on Susan Tedeschi’s huge “Just Won’t Burn” album, and becoming a member of her touring band.
The following dozen years have seen his profile rise with a string of fine releases – all featuring his hot guitar playing and a voice that has matured in time, and on this new album his mix of rocking blues, gritty soul and more, shows what a great all-round artiste Sean Costello is.
Kicking off with a terrific guitar groove on “Anytime You Want” and the equally rocking “Same Old Game”, with its classic Stones riff, Costello and his band hit a lovely soul feel on “Can’t Let Go” – with a couple of gorgeous guitar solos.
“Told Me A Lie” is quite unlike anything else on the album – a melting pot of styles, complete with tuba and accordion, and very rootsy, before the pace is taken up again on “Hard Luck Woman”, with its strutting guitar intro again hitting the spot, with a Led Zeppelin-like chord change mid-song.
Costello and the band get ‘down and dirty’ on the lowdown shuffle of “How In The Devil”, with other highlights being the soulful ballad “Have You No Shame” – featuring one of the best vocals on the album – and the funky blues of “Going Home”, which again has a great feel and groove.
To sum up, Costello’s best release so far for a talent, that at only aged 28, is destined to be around for a long, long time – he is a fine player, writer and singer – ably accompanied by his rhythm section of Paul Campanella Jr. (drums) and Aaron Tubic (bass) and several other top-notch guest players.
For all lovers of blues, classic soul and more – “We Can Get Together” comes highly recommended, definitely one of the best things I have heard this year!
GRAHAME RHODES
“So much of the blues these days is the same thing over and over,” says Costello. “I wanted that feeling I get when I listen to my favorite records. I wanted to take a different spin on every song. I was trying to make it all sound fresh.”
I saw Kevin Brown back in the 80s at the Band on the Wall in Manchester. I think that he was supporting Joe Louis Walker. It was Ben Felten at the music site Music Ramblings that reminded me of Kevin.
Here’s a sweet original called “all around the world”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6Tj7BJZH8
TODAY’S CHICAGO BLUES: CD Review: Dennis Gruenling, I Just Keep Lovin’ Him
The blues website “Today’s Chicago Blues” feature a review of the new CD from Dennis Gruenling. Dennis is great, he’s a fabulous player with a monster tone.
http://www.myspace.com/gruenling
Here’s Ian Collard from the highly rated Australian band Collard Greens and Gravy.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=z163dzvLDzY
http://www.collardgreensandgravy.com/
New York City guitarist and singer, Chris Bergson, and his manager, Kate Ross, have kindly sent us some of his back catalogue:
BLUES
(Self-release, 2003)
Recorded live at Smoke in New York City, “Blues” catches Chris Bergson in trio format, with Brian Charette (Hammond B-3) and Matt Wilson (drums), on a five-track EP, comprising three originals and two covers.
The mood is mainly laid back and jazzy – the opening two songs, “Staring At The Clock” and “Come And Gone”, show what Bergson is all about – very tasteful guitar work and his wonderful rich vocals, embellished by Charette’s tasty organ, particularly on the latter.
The trio get out and out jazzy on the Rodgers/Hart tune, “Little Girl Blue”, before a return to the blues on the classic “The Stumble” – who doesn’t love a Freddie King tune? Bergson’s version is taken a more of a mid-tempo than many versions around, and contains some quite lovely guitar.
Closing proceedings is his own, “Cold November”, a slow heartfelt blues – again with the Hammond of Charette adding tasteful flourishes, with Matt Wilson’s subtle drumming to the fore.
ANOTHER DAY
(2 Shirts Records – CD1002)
This is the release prior to the current “Fall Changes”, coming out in 2005, and features Matt Wilson on drums again, with current band members, Jay Collins (tenor sax) and Chris Berger (bass).
The seven tracks kick off with the swampy grooves of “Come And Gone”, featuring a great saxophone solo from Jay Collins and plenty of Bergson’s fine guitar. This is followed by the country-flavoured “High Above The Morning”, with maybe a nod to The Band along the way.
The album songs were developed while the band had a longstanding residency at Jazz Standard in New York City, and was recorded entirely live in the studio, with no overdubs – impressive stuff indeed.
Possibly the album’s standout track is the medley of “Three Sisters/Death Letter” – with Bergson doffing his cap to the legendary bluesman Skip James, on a powerful, acoustic solo performance – before dipping into Son House’s “Death Letter”, and showing his prowess is not just confined to electric guitar.
Elsewhere the band get funky on “Greyhound Station”, with Collins saxophone excelling again, as it does on the sweet, jazzy instrumental “Up In Buffalo” and the album closes with the title cut of “Another Day” – a moody piece with Bergson providing a smoky vocal – again a little reminiscent of The Band at their finest.
GRAHAME RHODES
http://www.bluesinthenorthwest.com/
Check-out http://www.chrisbergson.com/
There will be an all-day blues festival in North Wales in May.
Colwyn Blues Festival at Theatre Colwyn, Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay (Nr. Llandudno) in North Wales. Sat 31st May 2008
It will feature the cream of the region’s bands and headlined by the Smokehouse Blues Band with support from the theatre techs. to guarantee the best sound and lighting possible.
The event will start at 3pm and go through until 10.30 – 11.00pm
Currently there are six bands booked to appear, all totally different to each other ranging from Hooker to Hendrix with BB King to SRV thrown in
Smokehouse Blues
The Slowhand Blues Band
Comfy Chairs
Movin’ on
Backscratch
Tickets will soon be available all priced at £10.00 ea. from the theatre box office 01492 534263
The theatre has its own bar facilities and a close by (like minded) pub/restaurant will be a serving a special menu as well as having their own in house blues band playing.
We hope that this will become an annual and growing event and any help and support you and your superb website can offer would be much appreciated
Flickr photo Smokehouse Blues – Johnny, originally uploaded by Darlington R’n'B Club.
Here is the new T-Birds line-up as will be gigging in Birkenhead on 10 April
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wweq19Gduv0
I only saw the Hoax one time in their whole career. I thought that they were pretty good. At the time that the Hoax were pushing their music careers onwards to national fame I wasn’t.
I have seen Jon Amor solo three times at the excellent venue Telfords Warehouse here in Chester. The last time only two weeks ago and the band were absolutely excellent.
The mixed news for Hoax fans is that the rumours are true and the Hoax will reform this year to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their big CD Humdinger. The bad news is that there is only one UK gig and it’s nowhere near here. The Jon Amor mailing list message says…
THE HOAX ONLY UK GIG – TICKET INFORMATION
As you may know by know, Jon and his former band mates in THE HOAX are rereleasing their highly acclaimed ‘Humdinger’ album this year, to mark its 10th anniversary. In tandem with the release, the band is playing 3 festivals in the Netherlands, plus a one-off UK gig in Chiddingfold, Surrey.
Tickets for the gig at Chiddingfold Club on Mon 5th May are available from Chiddingfold Post Office, Pockford Road, Chiddingfold, GU8 4TP, tel 01428-682046. Tickets are £17.50 (£20 on door, subject to availability), and may be purchased by card over the phone (subject to small surcharge), by cheque in the post (with SAE), or over the counter (9am – 1pm Mon – Sat, 2pm – 5:30pm Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri).
Being on a bank holiday Monday, the gig will run on `Sunday’ times, ie doors open at 7pm for start around 7:45, and finish around 10:30pm.
Sadly, bass player Rob Davey will not be able to appear at the shows, but the line-up will still include Jon, Jesse Davey, Hugh Coltman and Mark Barrett.
This spring, along with the regular blues at the Harbourside, there are other notable bluesy events in Liverpool and elsewhere on Merseyside.
The Harbourside
Liverpool Philharmonic
Southport Arts Centre
By the time that you read this I’ll be in Spain – Madrid como siempre. Some work and some fun, so not all bad.
The site is on auto-publish but I will be checking in each day as usual.
This year you will see much less auto-publish as I have promised myself that I will travel less. I made 30 foreign trips last year and that is way way too many for a healthy life. So far this year, I have been at home nearly every week (this is only my third foreign trip) and I aim to maintain this level throughout 2008.
So… hasta pronto y disfruta la musica.
There is a plethora of blues available in my part of the bluesinthenorthwest.com region this Friday 28 Mar 2008.
I have already posted about the first appearance of The Backbones at Warrington and the first appearance of Roland Chadwick at Worthenbury. So two excellent nights are in order this Friday.
Unfortunately neither of bluesinthenorthwest.com’s Chester representatives will be able to make the gigs this Friday. I shall be in Madrid enjoying tapas and cervejas and my good friend Grahame Rhodes is without car this week and unable to get to any of the gigs either.
I have two suggestions…..
A reminder of the email address for bluesinthenorthwest.com, written strangely to confuse the spam bots. It’s….
nwblues <-*at*-> gmail <-*dot*-> com
Roland Chadwick
Goin’ Up The Country Blues & Roots Club, Worthenbury Village Hall
Friday 28th March @ 8pm
Australian guitarist Roland Chadwick will be making his first appearance at Worthenbury Village Hall this Friday 28th March.
As a classically trained guitarist he has performed with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and The Boston Symphony Orchestra and has recorded with The English Chamber Orchestra, Lesley Garrett, Sir George Martin and Michel Legrand.
In a more contemporary field he has performed and recorded with Level 42, Jethro Tull, American rock giant Steve Vai and British folk legend John Renbourn.
His live performance encompasses all of these styles also including a good deal of blues and roots music and allied to a very amusing series of anecdotes, jokes and stories makes for a very entertaining evening.
The ticket line is 01948 770215.
I was looking forward to seeing Hamilton Loomis a couple of times as part of his UK tour this spring. Unfortunately the Warrington gig has been cancelled but the Liverpool Harbourside gig is still on.
Hamilton comes highly recommended by bluesinthenorthwest.com. His gig in Warrington two years ago was excellent and I hear that he went down a storm at Burnley last year.
The UK dates are below. Please note the two in the region….
1. Monday, April 21st: Monday Night Blues @ The Bullington in Oxford – http://www.famousmondayblues.co.uk/
2. Wednesday, April 23rd: Riff’s Bar in Swindon, England – http://www.riffsbar.biz/gigguide.htm
3. Thursday, April 24th: The Running Horse in Nottingham – http://www.runninghorsemusic.co.uk/s_whatson.asp?v=1&m=4&y=2008
4. Friday, April 25th: The Café Jazz in Cardiff, Wales – http://www.bluesdragon.org.uk/
5. Saturday, April 26th: The Retreat in Bocking – www.theretreatbocking.co.uk
6. Wednesday, April 30th: The Jam House in Birmingham – http://www.thejamhouse.com/html/welcome.html
7. Thursday, May 1st: The Harbourside Club, Liverpool – http://www.bluesinthenorthwest.com/index.php/2006/10/09/venue-the-harbourside-club-liverpool-marina/
8. Friday, May 2nd: The Isle of Man Blues Festival – http://www.bigwheelblues.com/
As usual there are web sites to check out…….
http://www.hamiltonloomis.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/hamiltonloomis
Press release for Blue C
17 April – Fletcher Christian, Cockermouth
18 April – New Inn, Hoff near Appleby
Appearing in Cumbria in April.
———————————
Raphael Callaghan and Christine Purnell bring their brand of Mersey Delta blues to Cumbria in April.
Under the name Blue C, the Liverpool slide guitar/bass duo have made a big impression on the British blues scene over the past fifteen years with their special mix of traditional blues and a collection of original blues and gospel songs.
Their song “When Will The Blues Leave” was chosen for a Best of British Blues compilation album and Callaghan’s “Someone Else’s Blues” was the first winner of the Blues Song of the Year at the Great British Blues Festival at Colne.
Their album “Swimming against the Tide” is in much demand in the America after the USA based magazine Blues Revue praised…
“the seamless combination of driving bass and highly accomplished guitar…secret ingredient is the calibre of the original compositions…a unique blues sound that has, at its heart, a thorough soaking in Anglo-Irish folk traditions”.
Blue C have worked in recent years with stars like Bonnie Raitt and Eric Bibb, but Callaghan’s own pedigree goes back to the 60’s playing harmonica with Alexis Korner and Jo Ann Kelly.
See them in Cumbria at the Fletcher Christian, Cockermouth on Thursday April 17th and at the New Inn, Hoff near Appleby on Friday April 18th, both gigs start at 900pm.
Latest Comments