Born in 1988 in Richmond, Virginia, Andrew Alli delivers a straight-ahead, no-frills collection of harmonica blues. Recorded at Jon Atkinson's Bigtone Studio, this is old-school blues in the vein of Little Walter and George "Harmonica" Smith. Backing Alli's vocals and harmonica are Atkinson on guitar and bass, Danny Michel on guitar, Carl Sonny Leyland on piano, and Devin Neel or Buddy Honeycutt on drums.
There is a no-nonsense quality to Alli's blues, starting with the title track where he proclaims with his robust tenor that he is a hard-working man and lays down some raw, amplified harmonica. This song is followed by a tight instrumental, "AA Boogie," and an excellent interpretation of George 'Harmonica' Smith's "Good Things, with biting guitar fills and cohesive rhythm. "Walter's Sun," is an instrumental performed in the manner of the recordings Walter Horton made for Sun Records and the Modern label before he moved to Chicago. Then there is Alli's original "30 Long Years," where he sings about being in this town for 30 years, but it feels like he has to break out. Alli lays down some chromatic harmonica on the rollicking instrumental "Chron-A-Thick," delivers a brisk tempo shuffle, "Easy Going Fellow," and solidly covers Little Walter's "One More Chance."
With strong originals and the complimentary backing provided for Andrew Alli's strong singing and robust harmonica, "Hard Workin' Man" is a splendid debut album.
I received my review copy from Ellersoul Records. Here is a brief preview of this recording.
Jontavious Willis
Spectacular Class
Kind of Blue Music
I became familiar with Jontavious Willis on a blues forum on Facebook. Initially, I watched videos of him performing songs from Frankie Lee Sims and Willie Baker that was astonishing to see someone so young perform and sing with such skill and expressiveness. He is also as much a scholar of the blues as he is a person who is creating his own vision of traditionally rooted blues. His self-produced recording "Blue Metamorphosis" was found to be the Outstanding Self-Produced Blues Album by the Blues Foundation. In the interim period, he has become more prominent and came under the wing of Taj Mahal and Keb Mo with whom he has opened shows. In fact, Taj Mahal is the Executive Producer and Keb Mo the producer of this recording.
As a preface to this review, I did not share the enthusiasm that many had towards Blue Metamorphosis. While enjoying his performances, I was not enthused about the songs and lyrics on most of that. That is not the case with this release. Perhaps it is result of the mentoring and production by Taj Mahal and Keb Mo. Whatever the reason, his song lyrics here strike me as more developed and stronger. This release also has a variety of musical settings for Willis, with some backing him with an ensemble and a couple find him solo. A variety of individuals are heard backing him. The most significant of these are Andrew Alli on harmonica, 'Keb 'Mo on electric guitar, Eric Ramey on bass, Phil Madeira on keyboards and banjo, Martin Lynds or Thaddeus Witherspoon on drums, Roland Barber on trombone and Doug Mosher on clarinet.
The opening "Low Down Ways" is a solid small ensemble blues making use of the "44 Blues" riff with nice organ behind him. "The Blues Is Dead" opens with Madeira's piano before Willis enters on slide guitar as he talks about scratching his head about people saying blues is dead singing that blues ain't going nowhere so long as people have situations and problems on their mind. In addition to a nice piano solo, and Willis' rhythmically charged slide Alli adds some nice harmonica in the tight small group performance. "Resting On My Mind" is another song where he wraps his lyric around a traditional blues musical groove. It is a heartfelt blues lament that is warmly sung with a lovely, clean guitar solo.
Willis takes us to the Delta for "Daddy's Dough," singing about a woman who took his dough and now soured on poor Jontavious. His playing here evokes Willie Brown and there is fine harmonica backing. "Country" is a superb acoustic blues in the manner of Blind Boy Fuller and Buddy Moss in which he celebrates the pleasures of country living. "Long Winded Woman," is a gently swinging performance change of pace with its relaxed pace in the manner of some 40s Bluebird recordings. Mosher's clarinet and Barber's tailgate trombone in the accompaniment contribute to this feel.
"Friend Zone Blues," a lament about a woman who won't take Willis' advances, is spoiled by a heavy-handed drummer who plays with the nuance of a drum machine. This is the only blemish on what is otherwise a terrific recording by a bluesman who may be traditionally rooted but taking the music into the present.
I received as a download from a publicist. Here is a video of Jontavious and Andrew Alli.
An d here Jontavious performs Frankie Lee Sims' Lucy Mae Blues.
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