bluesinthenorthwest.com

GIG AT WORTHENBURY, SAT MAY 30th

FRUTELAND JACKSON with BOB HALL and HILARY BLYTHE

Goin’ Up The Country blues and roots club is delighted to welcome top American acoustic blues guitarist Fruteland Jackson to Worthenbury village hall on Saturday May 30th as part of his extensive tour of the UK and Europe.

Mississippi born but now resident of Chicago, Fruteland is a regular performer at the top venues and festivals of the USA but this is only his 2nd visit to this country.

His music is composed of all the traditional aspects of blues but it encompasses more modern issues and subjects. He is a superb guitarist and possesses a haunting voice and is very active in promoting the blues and its history amongst the younger generations in the national “Blues in the schools” programme.

Fruteland is accompanied by Bob Hall on piano and Hilary Blythe on bass.

Bob is one of the world’s top blues pianists and was a founder of the legendary Savoy Brown Blues Band in the early 60s. He has also played with Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones and many of the legendary American blues men like John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter.

The doors open at 8pm and the music starts at 9pm . Tickets are £11 and obtainable by ringing in the evenings 01978 780807 or 01978 312755.

Best CD of the year.

I wasn’t as impressed by the CDs that I heard this year as I was last year. I bought some of acts that I’d heard live but as often happens, the CD didn’t do the live performance justice.  However there were one or two gems.

The Stumble were justifiably one of the UK’s top rated bands and go from strength to strength and their recent release “The Houngan” will help keep the momentum going - a great release and my choice as UK CD of the year. In close contention were Sonny Black’s “The Best of Days” and The Cadillac Kings “Trouble in Store”

My favourite American CD of the year was more difficult as I was disappointed by CDs from some of my favourite artists like Watermelon Slim and Sonny Landreth, however I did like Buddy Guy’s latest release “Skin Deep” and whilst Jon Cleary is originally from London, I think he is recognised more as an American musician and “Mo Hippa” was live and brillant.

A CD I’ve been trying to get for a few years was  ” Mel Brown and The Homewreckers- Blues - A Beautiful Thing”. Although two years old, I only bought it a few months ago and it was worth the wait - a superb CD.

However, the act which I thought was the best at this year’s King Biscuit Festival was Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm and their recent CD “2 Man Wrecking Crew” released on Delta Groove gets my vote as American CD of the year.

Best DVD of the year

Each year there are more DVDs being released and especially some showing old footage of long gone musicians and places. There have been some really interesting ones available and one that I picked up at Roger Stolle’s Cathead store in Clarksdale was the last ever recording in January 1993 of Doctor Isiah Ross just four months before he died - “Doctor Isiah Ross - The Harmonica Boss - The Last Concert”. It’s a lovely historical recording of a grand old gentleman, just slightly past his best, but nontheless an important influence on many modern bluesmen (including well known to us in the north west - Ray Stubbs).   It must be remembered that he recorded at Sun Studios at the same time as Elvis and had tracks recorded by Cream and Jethro Tull and won a Grammy in 1980 for “Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording” for his release “Chicago Breakdown”.  It’s released on Spacevision Video Productions and can be bought from www.Cathead.biz.

Also of historical interest is “And This is Free - The Life and Times of Chicago’s Legendary Maxwell Street”. Again of social historical interest, it does contain great previously unseen footage of some of the old Maxwell Street musicians. On Shanachie, it’s available from Red Lick Records.

However, I have two favourite DVDs of the year that I can’t separate, M For Mississippi by Roger Stolle and Jeff Konkl (full review earlier in November on this site) and “Bobby Rush- Live at Ground Zero” which although recorded last year was made available this year and is a brilliant example of the excitement of a full Bobby Rush musical review. Again contact Cathead or Red Lick.

Best book of the year

I’ve read four blues books this year and thoroughly enjoyed each one.

Although it has been released 6 years, “The Voice of The Blues” by Amy Van Singel and Jom O’Neal only came into my possession at the beginning of the year. The authors are the founders of top American magazine Living Blues and the book is a collection of interviews taken from the magazine over the years. It is a great read as included are most of the legends, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Freddie King, John Lee Hooker and many more. It is available on Routledge.

The other American book I’ve enjoyed was “The Life of Mary Shepard - Queen of the Legendary Club Ebony”. The little blues club in Indianola is possibly the most famous blues club in Mississippi and for over 30 years, the remarkable Mary Shepard kept it going, presenting all the legends of the blues to this small community. The book tells us of her history and life in 40s/50s Indianola before she bought the club and the subsequent years of running it. Faced with retirement, she thought the club would close, however Indianola’s most famous son BB King has guaranteed its existence by buying it off Mary. The book  is released by The University of Mississippi Printing and Graphic Service.

The two British books were “Riding Shotgun” by Gerry McAvoy and tells of his life story and the years he spent on the road as Rory Gallagher’s bass player before leaving to join Nine Below Zero and my favourite book of the year Paul “Sailor” Vernon’s “Last Swill and Testament”. This is a marvellously funny account of Paul Vernon’s early days in early 60s London at the start of the blues craze in the capital. It has been fully reviewed on this site.

Best Festival of the Year

No competition really - Worthenbury Blues and Roots Festival …. no seriously, it was The Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival otherwise known as The King Biscuit. This was reviewed at length on this site in November. I couldn’t go to Colne or Burnley but having said that, there was not a lot on to attract me to either especially Colne. I enjoyed my one day at Maryport (Saturday) with Jon Cleary outstanding. I think over the years I prefer the more informal smaller festivals although the Biscuit is larger but very informal and relaxed.

Best Gig of the Year

Apart from a couple of gigs at John Welsh’s excellent Harbourside venue in Liverpool where I was impressed with always reliable Eddie Martin, most of my gigs were  based on Worthenbury and I was really happy with the way the year went with some really memorable moments. The Spikedrivers were superb as was Michael Messer and also Sonny Black and Roland Chadwick. The new look Trafficker and Harper both gave us great gigs along with the veteran Mojo Buford in April, however my favourite gig was when Jim Crawford played for us in March. As a native north westerner it’s a shame we don’t see him more often since he has been based in Devon for many years. A superb musician he kept us in raptures with his tales and banter - it was more like Peter Kay meets Robert Johnson … “What a raight miserable bastard he moost ‘ave bin” was how he described the legend.

So there we have it - I hope it might stimulate more people to submit their choices.

Can I wish everyone who visits bluesinthenorthwest.com and everyone involved in the local blues scene a great New Year and can I suggest a resolution for next year - every time you go to a gig, why not bring someone new to the gig - we need to keep it going for everyone’s sake.

PETE EVANS

Harper at Worthenbury “Goin’ Up The Country” blues and roots club

Fri 19 December 2009

Australian harp and didgeridoo player Harper played his 1st ever UK gig in July 2007 at Worthenbury and it was a packed village hall that greeted him and his American band once again.

His young band of Marc Dixon on drums, Ralph Reitinger on bass and Mike Howe on lead guitar clearly show that they gig on average 250 times each year in the USA, so tight is their musicianship. This enables Harper who originally hails from Haslemere but was brought up in Perth before emigrating to Michigan a few years ago, to demonstrate the art of the didgeridoo and his fine harp playing and even more so, his superb soulful vocals.

Every track bar two was self penned and most came from his two Blind Pig recordings “Day By Day” and “Down To The Rhythm” and most introduce rhythms that Harper has absorbed whilst spending time with the Aborigines.

The first set opened with Sure there’s a Place an instrumental which gave the band the chance to get into the groove and was followed by a new song One Day and a track which was taken from “Day By Day” , Just What You’re Looking For which was a prize winning entry in the Sonic International Song Writing Competition and is being recorded by John Mayall on his forthcoming album.

The 2 didgeridoos are called Mary and Roger and they create an amazing effect as they start the rhythm which is then taken up by the rhythm section before the guitar keeps the momentum going. This was superbly demonstrated on the standout track “I’ll Go Home” which is tells of how the aborigines are always able to find their way home. A driving pulsating track in which guitarist Mike Howe suddenly took over the drums enabling Marc Dixon to continue the rhythm on a washboard. The track then segued into sections of “Not Fade Away” with audience clapping participation. Wonderful stuff.

The second set folowed the pattern of the opener with Harper in fine form especially in his stage chat, possibly fueled by some of the local real ale supplied by members of the north Wales Formation Drinking Team! The feature tracks were Big Brown Land again with superb didgeridoo taken from “Down To The Rhythm” , Give Me The Money
with great harmonica and the only cover of the night, Don Nix’s Going Back To Iuka in which Mike Howe gave a superb bluesy guitar solo.  Quite funny this as Harper explained that “Iuka is a small town in Mississippi that none of you will have heard of” - when four members of the audience announced that they had stayed there at the home of frequent UK visitors Eddie and Frank Thomas!

The set then finished with the long stirring aptly named Soul Food which featured each musician individually. The demand for an encore was long and loud and the band returned for the song that Harper dedicated to his favourite vocal group The Blind Boys of Alabama, the title track from the 1st Blind Pig recording, Down To The Rhythm.

It really was a magnificent night of great entertainment from four excellent musicians. Whilst there were only 5 dates on this tour, they will be returning in September next year for a longer UK tour so, promoters out there, get booking.

PETE EVANS

http://www.harper.biz/

Gig Review

Trafficker -Worthenbury Village Hall

05 Dec 2008

This was the night when Tommy Allen really killed off the “sold out to rock” merchants in great style. Having announced that he had turned right back to the blues, he brought a new Trafficker brimming with first rate musicians to a packed Worthenbury village hall.

Opening up with Jimmy Rodgers’ “Who’s Loving You Tonight” the line-up for the first set was Chris Lomas on bass, Mickey Barker on drums and Johny Hewitt on harp and the band quickly got into the groove following on with an upbeat version of Robert Johnson’s “Milkcow Calf Blues” with Tommy demonstrating superb slide guitar.

Johny Hewitt then took over vocal duty and showed yet again why he is considered by many to be the UK’s top harp player on Little Walter’s “Can’t Stop Loving Her”

Robert Johnson’s “Walking Blues” demonstrated a super solo from Tommy before the first set finished with JB Hutto’s “Too Much Alcohol” again with great slide work and the rocking “Mystery Train” by Junior Parker.

The second set commenced with the introduction of the brass section,Oliver Carpenter on trumpet and Mark Shaw on tenor sax and they immediately lifted a couple of Trafficker favourites “Texas Love” and “Talk It Over” with some superb funky brass lines.

The Delbert McLinton track “Read Me My Rights” had a distinct Stax feel to it with Tommy playing a Steve Cropper style of guitar and the brass section having a distinct Memphis Horns sound to their playing before Tommy went back to slide guitar on a superb arrangement of “Proud Mary”.

The dance floor eventually got a good pounding on the final three tracks with Dave Edmunds’ “Standing at The Crossroads” followed by Trafficker’s anthem track “Memphis Nights” when all the musicians soloed long and hard to great applause. This was repeated for the encore of “Johnny B Goode” which ended a superb evening with the message loud and clear - Tommy Allen and Trafficker are back at doing what they do arguably better than most British blues bands - and that is playing damn fine blues.

PETE EVANS

Some advance news about the gig at Worthenbury on December 5th with Trafficker.

Since the band’s acclaimed but rather rocky last album “Fade To Black”, Tommy Allen has moved into the region and has brought in a tried and tested rhythm section in Micky Barker on drums and Chris Lomas on bass.  With that has come a dramatic swing back to basics with the band concentrating on a virtually total blues set.

They have been in the studio and have recorded a number of new tracks and have updated a few old ones bringing in a superb brass section, The Black Country Horns.

The whole big band accompanied by Graham Toone on piano and special guest Johny Hewitt on harmonica will make December 5th a night to remember.
Listen to some of the recently recorded tracks on My Space:-
www.myspace.com/traffickerbanduk and
www.myspace.com/tommyallenjohnyhewitt

for ticket  info call Pete Evans on 01948 770215

M FOR MISSISSIPPI - A Road Trip through the Birthplace of the Blues

The DVD M for Mississippi was released on Saturday October 11th at a packed first public showing at the Delta cinema in Clarksdale in Mississippi.

It was the brainchild of two enthusiastic young men Roger Stolle of Cathead Delta Blues and Folk Art and Music Store in Clarksdale and Jeff Konkel of Broke and Hungry Records of St Louis both of whom are firmly committed to the maintenance of the raw rural blues still surviving in the Mississippi Delta.

It is based on a weeklong journey that the two men made in the Delta earlier this year with musician and sound recorder Bill Abel and film maker Damian Blaylock trying to capture “the real deal” blues in the juke joints, the front yards, house parties and cotton fields with all the sounds, sites and images.

The film opens with an amusing take on how to make a film set to Big George Brock’s song M for Mississippi and then introduces Mr Tater, the Music Maker a local Clarksdale resident and celebrity more than a regular musician whose main proclamation is that he doesn’t like George W Bush!

Day 1 continues with Terry “Harmonica” Bean at Ground Zero Blues Club and Wesley Jefferson at the Stovall Plantation where he used to work, following on to a gig at The Doo Drop Inn juke joint in Shelby.

Day 2 saw the crew move to Como to interview guitarist RL Boyce at a house party at his home complete with some local characters and Steve “Lightning ” Malcolm joins him on guitar and drums.

The next day sees the crew move south to the town of Leland, home of Pat Thomas, son of late bluesman James “Son” Thomas. Like his father, Pat is also an artist and sculptor of interesting collectable pieces of work.

Down the road in nearby Greenville, one of the real characters of the area, James “T Model” Ford is interviewed at his home. Often quite cantancerous, “T” served time on the chain gang at the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm, for murder and he talks of the hatred he had for his father who used to beat him and his mother. He is joined on drums by his 10 year old son Stud on the recorded track.

Day 4 introduces us to The Mississippi Marvel thus named to protect his identity. This is due to the conflict he has with playing blues music and his role as deacon of his local church. His identity is thus a sworn secret but his CD is now available on Jeff Konkel’s Broke and Hungry label.

Moving on to Bentonia the crew then visit one of the legendary juke joints of the Delta, The Blue Front Cafe and its owner Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, probably the last exponent of the Bentonia style of blues made popular by Skip James and Jack Owens.

The crew then move on to Renova the next day to meet 82 year old harp player Cadillac John who performs regularly with Bill Abel, before moving back to Clarksdale and to Sarah’s Kitchen juke joint to meet the eccentric Robert “Bilbo” Walker who has modelled himself on Chuck Berry but was prevented from performing any of his songs for the film by Berry’s attorneys - a rather unnecessary gesture.

The final two days were spent at Clarksdale juke joint, Red’s Lounge to meet the lovely gentleman Robert Belfour and then to the home of 80 year old LC Ulmer in the town of Taylor. A fine musician who makes the point that Elijah actually sang the blues in The Bible - I’m not sure how well that point would be accepted in some blues circles!!

It is worth noting that the out takes and edited portions of the film are also very amusing and entertaining.

All in all, this DVD is a first class documentary on what is actually happening today in the Mississippi Delta and I hope it will encourage any blues fan to actually make this sort of trip.  Congratulations must be offered to the producers for their excellent work - in time this film will a memorable document of a sadly diminishing era.

To purchase the DVD contact :- www.mformississippi.com
Also check www.cathead.biz and www.brokeandhungryrecords.com

PETE EVANS

The 22nd ARKANSAS BLUES AND HERITAGE FESTIVAL 2008

9th to 11th OCT 2008

The festival (formerly known as The King Biscuit Festival) takes place in the little town of Helena, Arkansas on a beautiful grassy bank of the levee of the Mississippi river looking down on to a permanent stage, named after Sonny Boy Williamson, whilst there is a smaller second stage set amongst some of the older decaying buildings of this town which saw much prosperity many years ago when cotton was the king.

The weather was pleasantly warm on the first day when for the first 5 hours the emerging bands that had won the right to appear at the festival by winning the various competitions set by the different blues societies graced the stage. Of these winners there were a number of very fine performers indeed including from Natchuk Russia, Arsen Shomakhov who won last year’s festival’s emerging artist competition. He was backed by a Canadian rhythm section and really was a superb guitarist. Two other bands of note were The Brethren from Arkansas  playing a raw harp and guitar blues and Trampled Under Foot, the 2008 Memphis International Blues Challenge winners whose guitarist Nick Schnebelen won the 2008 Albert King Award for the best guitarist. This Kansas band also had Nick’s sister Danielle a super vocalist on bass and brother Chris on drums.

The star of the 1st day then took the stage. Reba Russell, a powerful vocalist in the Etta James/Janis Joplin mould has been singing blues around the Memphis area for years mainly as a session and backing vocalist and featured on U2’s Rattle and Hum album. In recent years she has put together a cracking band full of experience and they powered through a superb set and her sexy, sassy delivery immediately raised the tempo especially on the track “Heaven Came to Helena” and on her closing “When Love Comes To Town”. It is hoped that she may visit the UK next year.

Next up was country boy Webb Wilder and The Beatnecks from Nashville with their Hillbilly based Rock ‘n’Roll . Great entertainer Webb kept the party going in true country fashion before giving way to Alligator recording artist Tinsley Ellis. Alligator boss Bruce Iglauer introduced guitarist Tinsley and said that on occasions he might be slightly rocky.  In all honesty, his set was very rocky and whilst there is no denying that he is a superb guitarist, some of the solos did stretch on a little too far. However his song “Sell my soul to the devil for a dime” was a cracking track.

The day finished with “The Champions of R’n'B” and featured Al Garner, James Nixon, Johnny Jones, Earl Gaines and regular UK visitor Charles Walker. Time permitted us to see only Al Garner and James Nixon and they performed 3 or 4 tracks each of very pleasant soul drenched R’n'B with the ever present Fred James on guitar and calling the shots.

Day 2

Friday was even hotter than the previous day and the second stage came into action firstly as the acoustic Houston Stackhouse stage and then after 5.30pm as the electric Robert Junior Lockwood stage. First up on this stage was the duo Elam McKnight on National Steel guitar and Bob Bogdal on harp and they played a very pleasant opener although round the corner on Cherry Street, Terry “Harmonica” Bean was drawing a big crowd with his one man band - a very slick performer indeed who will be appearing at Shakedown Blues Club in Castor, Peterborough early next year.

The main stage opened with a regular visitor to the UK in young Texan guitarist Hamilton Loomis who whilst not possessing the strongest of voices, can certainly play the guitar. He reminds me of Aynsley Lister though is possibly more versatile. He also plays rack harp and the stand out track was “The Best Worst Day of My Life”.

On the acoustic stage Sweden based American Bert Deivert gave a superb set of covers on the resonator guitar and resonator mandolin joined by Clarksdale area regular Bill Abel on guitar. Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Broke and Hungry” was the top number, performed in the style of Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell.

On the main stage last year, the legendary but very poorly Sam Carr came out of hospital in a wheelchair to spend 10 minutes on the stage. It was therefore wonderful this year to see him looking much better and able to perform a good half hour with his band The Delta Jukes fronted by guitarist Dave Riley who took vocals on “The Jelly Roll King”. Also on stage were Fred James and his wife Mary-Ann Brandon.

Chicago guitarist Carl Weathersby is a firm favourite in Helena and his first number involved a long walkabout amongst the main stage crowd - always a good opener to get the pulses racing. He performed superbly with the standout tracks, the title of his last release “Hold On” and his own dedication track to Isaac Hayes.

Some of the Muddy Waters alumni then took the main stage to great applause. Guitarist Bob Margolin was joined by Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums and guest Bob Stroger on bass. They performed Margolin’s “Going to Chicago” with superb Muddy style slide guitar before 95 year old Pinetop Perkins spectacularly dressed all in red entered the stage. Playing remarkably well he went straight into the vocals of “Down in Mississippi” before another of Muddy’s old boys, 82 year old Calvin “Fuzzy” Jones took over bass guitar duties as the band went through a repertoire of classics including “Got My Mojo Working” and “Kansas City” - all wonderful stuff.

This was going to be difficult to follow but Mem Shannon and his band from New Orleans managed to keep the groove going with some great funky music but meanwhile there were some great acts appearing on the second stage. Moreland and Arbuckle are a very good acoustic guitar and harp duo from Kansas and their playing has more than a hint of the North Mississippi style of music.

After them came Arthur Williams, originally from Mississippi but now St Louis via Chicago. He is a 71 year old harp player in the typical Chicago style and with a very good band behind him was a treat to see. His closing “Bright Lights, Big City” was the perfect encore to a great set.

He was then followed by, in my opinion, one of the best sets of the whole festival when Willie King and The Liberators took the stage. Willie from the woods of Alabama has one of the tightest bands around and they soon had the whole audience up and dancing.
With Englishman Rick Asherson on keyboards and his wife Debbie Bond on guitar, the top tracks were “Run Sally Run” and his version of Wolf’s “Spoonful”.

Meanwhile on the main stage the recording meter went into the red zone when the phenomenal guitarist Michael Burks took the stage. He is a great favourite in Helena and played and sang superbly throughout and especially on his debut cd title track “Make It Rain”.

Back to the second stage, Guitar Mac from Arkansas but a resident of Saramento for some years, gave a rather disjointed performance on electrified resonator despite having the superb backing band of Bob Margolin, Robert Stroger and Willie Smith. He didn’t seem to be communicating with them too well. As the set moved on though it did improve and he does possess a fine voice.

Closing up the second day was the Severn Records 10th anniversary Soul and Blues Revue. It started off superbly with a great brass section and girlie backing vocals with firstly Darrell Nulisch and then Tad Robinson taking the vocals. Playing excellent guitar throughout was Alex Schultz. Sadly, a commitment meant that Lou Pride was missed.

Day 3

The final day commenced with a very fine set by Canadian guitarist Sean Kellerman and his band. A nice slide guitar opener continued in that vein - someone to look out for.

In the street there were some really good performers, and with the temperature in the high 80s, Little Jimmy Reed played for 3 hours in the mid afternoon sun drawing a good crowd. He played electric guitar to backing tapes and did a superb job. Another interesting street guitarist was a young girl from Tennessee, Valerie June who had a lovely soft haunting voice and was accompanied by her male partner on mandolin. Nice to hear such passionate acoustic blues from a young African American. Also of note was guitarist 19th Street Red from New Orleans with a voice uncannily like Ian Siegal or was it Howling Wolf, and harp player Deak Harp (That is his second name!).

Eb Davis originally from Arkansa is now resident in Germany and is a very popular soul, R’n'B singer over in that country having won a number of music awards. His set, backed by a superbly tight backing band featuring his German keyboard player, Nina Davis featured a good mix of soul and blues with the standout tracks “Might Be Your Man, I Don’t Know” and “I Just Like To Sing the Blues”

The last time I saw guitarist Eddie Turner was in Chicago with Otis Taylor in 2005. Since parting company, Eddie, also from Colorado has been fronting his own band with his loud, funky groves. “Blues Fell Down Like Rain” was the standout from a vey good set.

On the second stage a very impressive young one man band by the name of Ben Prestage had gathered a large audience with his form of Florida swamp blues. With an amazing rig of drums and cymbals and playing cigar box and other guitars, his driving rhythms of mainly covers made him someone to look out for - very impressive.

Since Little Charlie left his Nightcats in the capable hands of harpman Rick Estrin, it was going to be interesting to see the result. There was to be no disappointment - they were excellent with Norwegian “Kid” Andersen outstanding on guitar. The silky smooth swing of this tight band excelled on “That’s Big”.

All I can say about Janiva Magness is …WOW. With the busiest man of the weekend Bob Margolin on guitar, she belted out an awesome set of bluesy soul to prove why see is one of the biggest festival draws in the USA. With her powerful vocals and stage presence, her top numbers were “I’m Just A Prisoner” and “That’s What Love Will Make You”.

Texan Anson Funderburgh has played at every “King Biscuit” but his band were very slow to get into the groove and seemed directionless until he introduced Joe Jonas to take over vocals and the effect was immediate. With his powerful, deep voice he lifted not only the audience but also the band and from what started out as a very ordinary set was transformed to an excellent conclusion with such covers as “Everyday I have The Blues” and “The Thrill is Gone”.

An interesting character then appeared on the second stage. Guitarist Sterling “Mister Satan” Magee was Mississippi born before he moved to New York playing the blues in Harlem. On stage with him was Adam Gussow (Professor of English at Oxford University, Mississippi)on harp who hitched up with him in the 80s and whilst they only played a short set due to a technical delay, it was very enjoyable.

With Bob Margolin (again!) on guitar, Bob Stroger and Willie Smith now on his first instrument, the harp, Hubert Sumlin took the stage perhaps not as sprightly as in the last few years but nonetheless as good as I’ve heard him in that time. Going through a selection of his standards, he played with real assurance and control.

On the second stage two of the young men in whom the blues future rests, Cedric Burnside on drums and Lightning Malcolm on guitar gave one of the best performances of the weekend keeping alive the legacy of the north Mississippi driving blues of their illustrious predecessors R.L. Burnside (Cedric’s grandfather) and Junior Kimborough.
The whole of the second stage area was absolutely bouncing with a juke joint atmosphere being created with dancers climbing onto the stage - absolutely superb. With respect - look out The Black Keys.

The final act on the second stage was to be Muddy Waters harpman Mojo Buford with veteran Memphis guitarist Papa Don McMinn and his two sons Doug on drums and Rome on bass but sadly 78 year old Mojo was taken ill on the morning so at the last moment Reba Russell and her keyboard player Robert “Nighthawk” Tooms took over and a great set was delivered.

There had been a number of acts that it was just not possible to see due to many commitments and so apologies to those acts not reviewed .It was therefore over to the main stage for the final act of the three days, the amazingly fit looking 72 year old Bobby Rush. He had received the Sonny Boy Award for 2008 in appreciation for what he had done for blues prior to his appearance on the main stage. He had appeared earlier on the second stage playing acoustic guitar but the stage area was packed solid so it was impossible to get anywhere near it. However, on the main stage he presented the whole revue - risqué remarks, big girls shaking their booties, oversized ladies drawers and phenomenally tight music that had the whole festival area up and dancing -what a show. It was a remarkable occasion and the perfect way to end a festival. Oh to see that revue headlining a major UK festival. The Brits would love it. Promoters take note.

Yet again the organisers of “The Biscuit” have delivered the goods - a brilliant three days and our thanks go to Bubba Sullivan, Rayne Gordon, Jerry Pillow and all the organisers and volunteers who continue to work so hard to make this festival the best blues event in the world .

PETE EVANS

Last Swill and Testament

Paul “Sailor” Vernon

Music Mentor Books - ISBN 0954706846

The hilarious, unexpurgated memoirs of Paul “Sailor” Vernon - blues fanatic, rare record dealer, ligger, erstwhile bon viveur and friend to the stars.

It’s not often that reviews of books apppear in Blues in The North West, but having read this recently released book by Paul Vernon, I really must recommend it to all genuine blues lovers as it is one of the funniest and most absorbing books I’ve read in ages.

Paul Vernon got into blues music in the early 60s whilst in his teens in London. He soon developed a passion that would quite literally take over his life and became not only one of the most passionate collecter/dealers in rare 78s, but also the founder of “Sailor’s Delight”, the collector’s bible for rare and collectable blues releases. He also founded the excellent award winning magazine Blues and Rhythm.

Read about some of the gigs he attended like Son House, Fred McDowell, Freddie King and a whole week of Muddy Waters at a country club in NW London.

Visualise some of the characters he used to hang around with like the Scottish railway worker, an Elvis fanatic called Railhouse Jock.

Follow him around the southern American states trawling old stores for rare 78s and read about his discovery in a cellar in Prague of a very rare, never heard before 1951 recording of John Lee Hooker.

It really is a great read and is published by Music Mentor Books of York at £12.99. I note that it is also featured in the new edition of Red Lick.

PETE EVANS