There is a great atmosphere at the monthly blues jam at the Red Lion in Malpas. The Tommy Allen band provide great backing to a great night. The atmosphere is lovely with good playing and no monster egos.
This month we were graced by a regular visitor – one of the finest blues musicians in the country Johny Hewitt from Runcorn whose great playing and monster tone is an aspiration to all us harp players. There was also a great slide guitarist hailing all the way from Leicester – my apologies though, I don’t remember the name.
Second Thursday of every month. The next session is Thu 08 April.
Two highly regarded blues artists will be playing dates in the region this autumn. Little Toby Walker is playing Liverpool on 28 Oct and Geoff Achison is playing Warrington on 08 Oct.
There are gaps in the schedules of these two excellent performers and agent John Adams is looking for dates around the dates above to fill the schedule and to make the tours more viable.
If you have any leads or you are a theatre or club owner with available dates then please contact John at john.adams@mail.com.
I have never seen Geoff Achison, but I have heard some great reports. I was lucky enough to see Toby Walker at a brilliant gig in Worthenbury last year.
On Saturday 20th March, 60’s legends The Animals & Friends make their debut performance at the Citadel.
Animals & Friends will be performing songs from the animals catalogue such as ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’, ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’, ‘Baby, Let Me Take You Home,’ and the bands’ multi-million selling anthem and Number One hit across the world – ‘House of The Rising Sun’.
Be sure that the Citadel will turn into the swinging sixties by these fantastic musicians recreating the sounds note for note that will no doubt send a shiver down your spine! With original members John Steel and Micky Gallagher who are joined by John Williamson and Peter Barton. Animals & Friends are still very popular internationally and they stop off in St.Helens for an exclusive North West show.
Animals & Friends will be performing at The Citadel on Saturday 20th March. Tickets are £14 / £12. Doors open at 8pm.
For further information or to book tickets call the Citadel box office on 01744 735436 or visit www.citadel.org.uk
Published on Wednesday 10 March 2010 in News. 0 Comments
BUDDY GUY TO RECEIVE
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
FROM THE BLUES FOUNDATION AT
2010 BLUES MUSIC AWARDS
[For Immediate Release: March 8, 2010] On May 6th, 2010 at the 31st annual Blues Music Awards, The Blues Foundation will publicly honor blues legend Buddy Guy with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The Foundation has commissioned for this special occasion a one-of-a-kind award from Patterson & Barnes, who also created the original artwork that serves as the basis for the 2010 poster. There will also be an oral and video presentation, as well as a special musical tribute, all in the legend’s honor. Buddy Guy will be at the ceremony to receive this honor.
In speaking about this great honor, The Blues Foundation’s Executive Director Jay Sieleman said “Buddy Guy has been a mentor and inspiration to five generations of musicians in multiple genres while he has continued to innovate. He has greatly expanded the blues definition while maintaining the anchor characteristics that first defined the genre, and with this distinction, we are proud to present him with this honor and tribute.”
Buddy Guy’s strikingly unique guitar style enervated his elder Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer album in the early ’60s, expanded on the vision of his contemporary Junior Wells on Hoodoo Man Blues in the mid-’60s, and was a beacon to the British Invasion rockers Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck in the late ’60s.
Soldiering on through the ’70s and ’80s, his visibility and stature refocused through the ’90s and into the 21st century with a series of recordings that underlined to the commercial pop world that he not only was the inspiration for countless musical icons from Jimi Hendrix psychedelics to John Mayer pop, but was still transforming while many of his disciples were reprising decades-old hits.
He obliterated the perceived chasm between blues and rock, leaving the term “crossover” to awkwardly define the efforts of lesser artists in both camps trying to bridge the racial, generational and stylistic borders of each. And he did it with a sense of dynamics and bravado that are rare in artists of any age, but which have been consistent for him throughout his career. You knew you were experiencing a Buddy Guy lick in the first few lines of any number he did in 1960, and the same can be said today. Buddy has been nominated for 41 Blues Music Awards and has received 28 such Awards.
Past recipients of this prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award include Bobby “Blue” Bland, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Ahmet Ertegun, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, B.B. King, Sam Phillips, Koko Taylor and Jerry Wexler.
The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists. The presenting sponsor is The Gibson Foundation and the sustaining sponsor is BMI. Additional 2010 BMA sponsors include ArtsMemphis, band Village, Casey Family Programs, Eagle Rock Entertainment, FedEx, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,
I55 Productions, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. For tickets, please visit www.blues.org or call (901) 527-2583.”
The excellent blues jam is on again this week at the Red Lion in Malpas. Hosted by the talented Tommy Allen Band, there is often a mixture of players from well known local bands and an array of lesser known musicians.
The atmosphere is great and more importantly the quality is very good indeed.
Free entry, plenty of parking, good beer, 9pm start.
Award winning Blues band ‘The Producers’ return to play in Carlisle on the 27th March following a top notch performance at the excellent Blues festival last November.
Dave Saunders and Harry Skinner formed The Producers in 1990. They went on to be one the most popular blues outfit in the country at that time winning the ‘Blues Band of the Year’ award an incredible Four times, releasing 7 CD albums one of which ‘Ain’t No Love in the World’ was nominated for the ‘Best Blues Album’ award.
Throughout the 90’s the Producers regularly sold out venues around the country and appeared at countless major festivals including Colne, Burnley, Stanley Blues, Dublin Templebar, Cork, Farnham, North Wales Blues Festival. Belgium, Ireland, Holland and France played host to Producers tours and a month long tour of New Zealand in 1998 was also undertaken. In fact the Producers became the first band since the Rolling Stones to be banned from New Zealand in 1999 when the musician union refused them entry because it would take work from local artists. They certainly would have done as the history of the band testifies to their raw talent and unmistakeable professionalism that few bands could hope to meet.
They were featured in session on the Paul Jones Blues Show on BBC Radio 2 and have been praised by both Johnnie Walker and Bob Harris. Playing at the Alexis Korner Memorial Concert at Buxton Opera House they were spotted by Peter Greens management during Peters first major gig and asked to support the Fleetwood Mac guitar legend on his first national tour for 25 years, The Producers also featured on the BBC documentary of the Buxton concert.
The Producers gave their last concert on New Years Eve 2001/2 after undertaking a 6 month farewell tour of the UK, needless to say it was a complete sell out.
They returned in 2009 and are touring to sell out crowds yet again. Harry and Dave still front the band ably assisted by Ray Drury on Organ and Piano and Biff Smith on the sticks and percussion. New songs have been written and loyal fans will recognise some reworked stage favourites as they move on from but definitely not forget the past musical history of the band.
The Carlisle gig is being held at the excellent live music venue – The Brickyard – on Fisher Street with support being provided by exciting young Cumbrian band ‘Feed Me’. Doors open 8.00 with Feed Me starting at 8.30. Tickets are £10 in advance from Ticketweb, £12 on the door or ring Chris on 077930 19958.
This gig was booked six months ago before Carlisle football club reached a final at Wembley which is being held the next day! Bad news for Chris – good news for the 20,000 plus who will be going to London so please support the gig and keep music live!
With the light mornings and our temperatures now exceeding 5C, the summer festival season is approaching. Upcoming, we will have some big publicity from our local festivals at Worthenbury, Warrington, Maryport, Colne and Burnley. To whet you appetite though how about some great festival outside the area.
Linton Festival have released a video to show their 2010 delights.
Blues on the Farm, the annual four-day West Sussex based festival, has announced its dates for 2010 as 17th to 20th June, running as follows:
· Thursday 17th June 6.30 pm to 12 midnight
· Friday 18th June 6.30 pm to 12 midnight
· Saturday 19th June 12 noon to 12 midnight
· Sunday 20th June 11.30am to 10pm
Staged in a 40 acre setting on the Sussex Coastal plain a couple of miles south of Chichester, Blues on the Farm has a big reputation for offering a family friendly, safe and relaxed festival atmosphere. In 2008, it was featured by The Sunday Times who dubbed it “The friendliest festival in the UK”; while The Independent has also reported very favourably on the festival, highlighting in particular the “astounding precision” of the event’s organization!
Announcing the dates for 2010, festival organiser Julian Moores said “Blues on the Farm is one of the biggest and longest running festivals in West Sussex and our simple objective is to stage high quality music from world-class musicians, in a warm and friendly festival atmosphere. We try not to be overly commercialised and there’s no huge ticket prices – Just great music, great food and drink, and a great mid-summer atmosphere!”
Always well attended, with a weekend capacity of c. 8,000, Blues on the Farm is now in its 19th year. The festival attracts families and people of all ages. The majority of festival-goers live in and around West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire but a significant number arrive from all over the UK and Europe.
Over the years Blues on the Farm has also been known for a bit of ‘celebrity spotting’. The Rolling Stones Keith Richards is just one of many names from the world of music and showbiz who in recent years have mingled comfortably with other festival-goers in the Sussex sunshine!
Musically, the festival always features world class talent offering different musical styles centred around classic and contemporary blues, blues-rock, soul and roots music. “We’re gearing-up for another terrific festival”, said Julian, “and we’re just putting the finishing touches to a superb line-up, so we’ll be announcing the full programme of bands for this year’s festival in early March”.
Tickets for Blues on the Farm 2010 are available now by calling 01243 773828 and will shortly be available online at www.bluesonthefarm.co.uk. Early bird tickets, offering a 10% saving off all tickets, are available until 31st March.
The roots of the Hollywood Blue Flames stretch back to the 1970s when the majority of the band were in the lineup of the legendary Hollywood Fats Band. Led by the guitar virtuosity of Michael “Hollywood Fats” Mann the band were considered as the fathers of modern West Coast blues. Californian blues would have been very different indeed without a shot of cool of retro grooves into the long hair and denim of the West Coast at that time.
After the very premature death of Mann in 1986 the band separated to follow their separate careers. Many of them playing with a who’s who of modern West Coast legends.
In recent years the band have reformed to include Kirk Eli Fletcher and Junior Watson in the guitar chair and are performing and recording under the name of The Hollwood Blue Flames.
This 2010 release is their third on the high class Delta Groove label and in common with other Delta Groove releases is recorded absolutely beautifully.
The disk covers the spectrum of classic blues from the swinging sounds of the west coast to more down home acoustic tunes and on each tune the band nail the groove perfectly. There are no better rhythm sections anywhere than Richard Innes (d) and Larry Taylor (b). I have praised Fred Kaplan (p) many times on this site and once again he does not disappoint – he is rock solid in the piano chair throughout.
The band is led on harp and vocals by Al Blake with the aforementioned Fletcher and Watson on guitars. Like so many other top end bands comprised of excellent musicians the real strength is the way that the whole band gel and play together, complementing each other perfectly.
Stand out songs for me are “Fly Like The Eagle, Cry Like The Dove” that is played perfectly by all featuring classic Kaplan piano supporting the lead voice and solos. Kaplan is solo on Hushpuppy recreating houseparty mid-tempo blues piano boogie woogie. “Rambler and a Rolling Stone” is a lovely slow blues starting with Blake’s deceptively simple harp intro perfectly backed by the band and a crescendo guitar solo from Fletcher (I think). Great guitar is also evident on “My National Inquirer Baby” with Blake telling of his girl that can be read about in the National Inquirer, the solo on this one by Watson (I think).
Each song is perfectly crafted, the band play together beautifully and the production is simply divine. Not one for the rock blues lovers but if you like your guitar hollow bodied, your bass stand up and your blues West Coast then it’s highly recommended.
The CD also ships with a bonus CD of The Hollywood Fats Band – “Larger than Life V2″ a compilation of material live and outtakes from the classic Hollywood Fats Band of the 70s and 80s. Fat’s guitar is just as exciting and fluent as it ever was. The man really was a true genious and reminds us what a terrible loss his early death was at the young age of 32.
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