One of the most celebrated blues of all time is Richard Jones' "Trouble in Mind." Here is the celebrated original recording that featured Jones piano and the cornet of Louis Armstrong. It was a recording that Armstrong celebrated being part of and redid this for his musical autobiography in 1957 which he introduced.
One of my favorite recordings of this is Dinah Washington's 1952 Mercury recording with Ben Webster taking the tenor sax solo.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of many who put their own stamp on this classic.
Here is Lightnin' Hopkins putting his distinctive touch to this.
It is a song that has become a staple of American music. Here is Merle Haggard doing a Western Swing based rendition. Bob Wills, a major influence on Merle, recorded this years before.
Here is Big Bill Broonzy.
Here is B.B. King performing it. Sounds like one of his many recordings for the Bihari Brothers in the 1950s or early 1960s with probably a Maxwell Davis arrangement.
Here is the legendary Sam Cooke's take on this classic.
Finally the greatly neglected Georgia White
Hope you enjoyed this look at a blues classic and some of its interpretations.
There is a 'blues revue" called "Ghosts of the Blues" whose notion of blues is pretty unimaginative and seems tailored for blues that weenie rock fans might have heard of and like. Well here are five examples of early blues featuring guitar that certainly need exposure. I mean do we need another mediocre rendition of Crossroads or Red House.
First up is Blind Blake with Police Dog Blues. One of the premier guitarists of early blues recordings, this song was also a favorite of the late John Jackson. Blake's recordings should be pretty easy to find.
Next up is Big Bill Broonzy, who we know was influenced by Blake and whose early recordings displayed his marvelous approach to the guitar. Mississippi River Blues (from 1934) is a melodic precursor of Key To The Highway, and one is surprised that folks don't delve into this and cover it as opposed to the more familiar blues standard.
Lonnie Johnson was a significant influence on Robert Johnson (who used to claim he was one of the Johnson boys). He was a brilliant guitarist who was not only a popular recording artist but also recorded with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Here is a gem of his early recordings.
It is easy to forget just how accomplished and great Blind Lemon Jefferson was. His Matchbox Blues was be adapted by a number of blues and rock artists with its line about wondering if a matchbox would hold his clothes. His self-accompaniment is stunning.
We close this blog entry with Robert Wilkins' marvelous song about a night at a down home juke joint Old Jim Canaan's. Wilkins would give up the blues for the church. He would take one of his most famous recordings That's No Way To Get Along, and make it a gospel number, The Prodigal Son, that the Rolling Stones would cover. My friend, Memphis Gold, grew up in the Memphis Church of God in Christ Church that Wilkins was associated with and was one of those who mentored my friend's musical development.
The last year and a half saw two books about the great Chicago-based blues artist big Bill Broonzy. Bob Riesman’s I Feel So Good, emerged as the major chronicle of Broonzy’s life, correctly information about his date and place of birth and his development of his musical career. While he made use of archival interviews and other materials, one of his sources was bluesman Billy Boy Arnold was captivated by Broonzy as well as Broonzy’s friend, John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson and while Billy Boy wanted to record with Broonzy, Broonzy directed him to musicians more in keeping with the contemporary blues scene.
Now over fifty years after Broonzy’s passing, Billy Boy has recorded a tribute album, Sings Big Bill Broonzy on Electro-Fi. It is produced by Eric Noden who plays acoustic guitar and others supporting Billy Boy are Billy Flynn on electric guitar and mandolin, Beau Sample on acoustic bass and Rick Sherry on washboard, percussion and clarinet. The 15 songs, all written by Broonzy, selected were recorded between the late 1930s and the early 1950s.
Bob Riesman in his liner notes that they attempt to play in the spirit of Broonzy’s work, rather than recreate the recordings. The lack of piano as well as Billy Boy’s harmonica helps to insure that. Arnold’s vocals also do not possess the ebullient quality that Broonzy brought to his recordings (the late John Cephas was one of the few singers of the past few years who had a comparable vocal style), but then again Muddy Waters’ vocals also lacked Broonzy’s good-natured exuberant quality when he recorded his Broonzy tribute shortly after Broonzy’s passing.
There is the lament of Sweet Honey Bee followed by the lively, relaxed swing of Going Back To Arkansas where Sherry contributes washboard and clarinet to help contribute a flavor of some of the Broonzy-Washboard Sam collaborations. Arnold added additional lyrics to the nice slow blues, Girl In The Valley a.k.a. Water Coast Blues, with Sherry again adding washboard while Flynn contributes mandolin in support. Key to the Highway is among the best known songs heard here and done quite strongly with some nice guitar in the backing.
These performances do also highlight Broonzy’s gift at crafting sophisticated songs with irony and wit in his expression of the blues, analogizing to a rooster in Looking Down At Me, or take the voice of a prisoner in Cell No. 13 Blues. The rendition of the former song is done in the fashion that Sonny Boy Williamson might have performed the song with a nice harmonica break. There is the mix of the contemporary and traditional in I Want You By My Side, that adapts the melody of Careless Love, and has a crisp Billy Flynn guitar solo.
The easy swing is also present when Billy Boy sings about Living On Easy Street, where he tells women if you want money get your man on the WPA but if you want good loving you got to do what I say. When I Get To Thinkin’, is nicely reworked and a bit more laid back than the Muddy Waters more emphatic 1960 recording that is a bit more threatening towards his lover. Arnold also provides his own spin to Broonzy’s fanciful It Was Just a Dream with its surrealistic imagery has been revived and reworked by a number of bluesman, most notably the late Louisiana Red, as he sings about waking up in the White House and the President shaking Bill’s hand.
This recording was heralded in Bob Riesman’s Broonzy biography, and its release has met the expectations for it. Today, one might find it hard to appreciate how significant Big Bill was in the history of the blues. Along with Riesman’s book, this tribute recording addresses that in a fine and spirited manner.
I was provided my review copy from the label. Here is a video clip of the legendary Big Bill Broonzy.
Here is Billy Boy Arnold doing a Sonny boy Williamson number.
Empire Musicwerks issued back in 2007, Josh White Comes A-Visiting Big Bill Broonzy Comes A-Singing, which makes available on CD music originally issued on two 10-inch LPs originally issued on the Period label. The album notes calls the two among the greatest exponents of the folk-blues idiom and that would not be unfair description of these discs as both artists are quite urbane in their presentation.
White, who had gone from a Piedmont blues and gospel singer-guitarist to a member of the emerging folk scene in the post-World War II era is heard backed by a small rhythm combo as well as a vocal chorus that included his daughter Beverly. Material ranges from the opening Bonbons, Chocolates, and Chewing Gum; Bury Me High and She’s Too Much For Me, which are very ably performed with deft musicianship and very appealing vocals.
The Big Bill Broonzy selections were recorded in Paris and include a rendition of Baby, Please Don’t Go (miscredited to Broonzy) along with Do Right Blues, Backwater Blues, and Hollerin’ and Cryin’ the Blues, all wonderfully sung and played with some crisply delivered guitar, if perhaps the vocals are taken with a certain self-consciousness.
I suspect no one call these performances by either essential, but certainly there is quite a bit that is very enjoyable.
This review originally appeared in the August 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 296) and that publication likely sent me the review copy of the CD. This is shown as still available on amazon.
Since today is what would be the 98th Birthday of Big Bill Broonzy. it is appropriate to alert folks around Washington DC about the upcoming appearance in Washington by Broonzy biographer Bob Riesman.
Thursday evening, July 7, Bob Riesman, author of “I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy” (2011 University of Chicago Press) will be appearing at Politics and Prose to discuss his biography of the Chicago blues legend who passed away over half a century ago, but whose music and life still influences the blues world of today. He is scheduled to speak starting at 7:00PM
On its website, Politics and Prose (http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/bob-riesman-i-feel-so-good) notes “Riesman’s life of Big Bill Broonzy (1903-1958) encompasses the bluesman’s many pivotal roles. From melding the traditional, rural blues of his native Arkansas Delta region with the urban sound in 1930s Chicago, to influencing the resurgence of folk music after World War II and inspiring the blues-rock musicians of the 1960s, Broonzy was a key figure for 20th-century popular music.”
Riesman, in compiling this biography did considerable research as well as interviewed countless people including “ including blues man Billy Boy Arnold (who was mentored by Big Bill and is scheduled to have an album of Broonzy’s music released), members of Broonzy’s family, Bill Randle who produced the last interviews of Broonzy, Studs Terkel, David ’Honeyboy’ Edwards, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Pete Seeger, Rambling Jack Elliott, Jody Williams, Jimmie Lee Robinson and Ron Sweetman. He also explored the archives of Yannick Bruynoghe, and Jim O’Neal provided tapes of an interview with Blind John Davis and a transcript of one with Memphis Slim.
In his research of Broonzy, Riesman was able to ascertain that Big Bill Broonzy’s real name is Lee Bradley and he was born in Jefferson County, Arkansas on June 26, 1903, the fourth and last boy of Frank and Mittie Bradley, and the Bradley Family lived in Jefferson County outside Pine Bluff from the 1880s through the 1920s. Riesman traces his musical and recording career, including both his prominence in the Chicago blues from the thirties until his death, the significant role he played in establishing the folk music circuit as his pioneering tours of Europe.
In a May 2 review on this blog, I concluded “I Feel So Good was a compelling read and a biography worthy of the subject, whose blues are timeless. Highly recommended.” Politics and Prose is located at 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008 and the phone number is 202-364-1919 or 800-722-0790. Directions to it can be found on their web page.
Bob Riesman is also scheduled to appear on Sirius-XM’s B.B. King’s Bluesville with Bill Wax on Monday, July 11, although as I post this it is not clear whether he will be on live or taped for later broadcast.
Blues Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy
Roger House
2010: Louisiana State University Press
I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy
Bob Riesman
2011: University of Chicago Press
This is the second part of my consideration of two recent Big Bill Broonzy biographies. Today the focus on the just published I Feel So Good.
Bob Riesman’s I Feel So Good stands as the biography on Broonzy. Going beyond the mostly library sources of House’s book, Riesman described the challenges he faced:
"Over the course of researching and writing the book, I’ve learned that Bill was exemplary in many respects, flawed in others, and capable of exquisitely contradictory behavior. He left invaluable material for future historians by writing dozens of letters to correspondents in Europe, Great Britain, and the United States, who preserved many of them. During the same period, he provided substantial amounts of misleading or just plain wrong information about himself, his family, and his colleagues to interviewers, readers, and audiences on three continents that would take decades to untangle.
"Because of Bill’s success at what magicians call misdirection—directing the audience’s attention away from where the crucial action is being performed—the challenges facing a would-be biographer have not been simple or straightforward. He specified incorrect marriage dates to wives whose names he changed in the telling, heaped praise on a favorite uncle who is absent from all family records and memories, relocated his own birth to a different state and set it in a different decade, and gave himself different first and last names. It turned out that it was necessary to retrace his steps in Europe to find out who he was and where he came from.”
Key to uncovering this was when he interviewed “Pim van Isveldt, the Dutch woman with whom he had fathered a son, Michael, in 1956. “Near the end of our conversation, Pim handed me a shoebox in which she had kept the many letters Bill had written her. He had written one of them while visiting his sister, Lannie Bradley Wesley, in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Her home address, which Bill had given as the return address, was a vital clue."
He would later meet and interview Broonzy’s grand-niece and grand-nephew, who helped establish some of the facts that Broonzy obscured. “Bill’s imaginative powers enabled him to obscure his origins and many portions of his journeys, while illuminating the worlds he grew up in and passed through. In my view, Bill’s life and work can best be understood and appreciated by considering both the facts and the truth—as Studs Terkel put it, “Bill is speaking the truth—his truth.” Here is my version of Big Bill Broonzy’s story.””
In the course of compiling this story he interviewed countless people including blues man Billy Boy Arnold (who was mentored by Big Bill and is scheduled to have an album of Broonzy’s music released), members of Broonzy’s family, Bill Randle who produced the last interviews of Broonzy, Studs Terkel, David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Pete Seeger, Rambling Jack Elliott, Jody Williams, Jimmie Lee Robinson and Ron Sweetman. He also explored the archives of Yannick Bruynoghe, and Jim O’Neal provided tapes of an interview with Blind John Davis and a transcript of one with Memphis Slim. This is just to give a sense of the depth of research and material used for this biography.
And through his research (collaborated by other blues researchers), we know that Big Bill Broonzy’s real name is Lee Bradley and he was born in Jefferson County, Arkansas on June 26, 1903, the fourth and last boy of Frank and Mittie Bradley, and the Bradley Family lived in Jefferson County outside Pine Bluff from the 1880s through the 1920s.
While from the 1930s on, Broonzy claimed he was born in Scott, Mississippi, ten years earlier than his actual birth date, Riesman observes that “the documentary evidence is clear that the facts are otherwise. Lannie Bradley Wesley’s granddaughter Rosie Tolbert keeps the family records. She and her older sister Jo Ann Jackson remember their uncle Bill and his sister (their grandmother Lannie), their great-grandmother Mittie, their great-uncle Frank Bradley Jr., and their great-aunts Gustavia and Mary. The censuses of 1900, 1910, and 1920 all show Frank and Mittie Bradley and their children living at home in Jefferson County. Tax records, marriage licenses, Social Security applications, and death certificates all confirm and reinforce the fact that Big Bill Broonzy was Lee Bradley of the Bradley clan.” Yet while he might misdirect on specifics as to his family and his early dates, Big Bill provided “an indelible sense of what it was like to be in a particular place at a particular time. This was both his gift and his artistry.” The truths he spoke were more general truths than the life he may actually have lived.
Riesman helps us understand and follow his life in considerable detail. The book opens with a chapter with an account of Broonzy’s funeral and notes that the arrangements were taken care of by Win Stracke, who had toured the Midwest with Big Bill in a folk song review, as well as also appearing on Studs Terkel’s radio program, and he helped launched Big Bill’s European concerts tours. Bill trusted Win enough to name him executor of the estate. While House summarizes Broonzy’s funeral, Riesman goes into depth about the participants and their roles and the deliberate choice of four black and four white pallbearers.
Riesman continues in tracing his musical career as a country fiddler, often playing for white folk, to the brilliant guitarist who became the preeminent blues artist in Chicago. More context is placed in discussing his appearance at From Spirituals To Swing, including the fact that Blind Boy Fuller was in jail, led to Broonzy, not Fuller, being the ‘primitive’ blues artist in lieu of the deceased Robert Johnson. He covers more fully Bill’s performances in taverns as well as touring with Lil Green. The time he spent in Iowa is also fully detailed as is the European travels, with much new information presented that gives a sense of him as a person and how he was regarded by so many from such different backgrounds.
For this review I read a proof of Riesman’s text which included footnotes, a selected discography (actually recommended reissues) and Big Bill on film. It did not include photographs that likely will be in the published version nor an index.
I Feel So Good was a compelling read and a biography worthy of the subject, whose blues are timeless. Highly recommended.
Blues Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy
Roger House
2010: Louisiana State University Press
I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy
Bob Riesman
2011: University of Chicago Press
It is rather intriguing that two books on the life and music of legendary Chicago bluesman Big Bill Broonzy have been published within a year. I had purchased and read, Blue Smoke, by Roger House when I became aware of Bob Riesman’s I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy. While the latter book will be available in early May, 2011, it provides a very different book than House’s and, as discussed below, is the preferred biography of Broonzy, although House’s book, while consolidating information that was known when he wrote it, is valuable as a cultural history of Broonzy and his songs, but accepts perhaps too much of Broonzy’s sometimes fanciful autobiography Big Bill’s Blues: William Broonzy’s Story As Told To Yannick Bruynoghe.
For those who are not familiar with him, Broonzy was a very popular blues singer, guitarist and songwriter who had moved from the deep South after World War I and was mentored by Papa Charlie Jackson and Blind Blake before commencing a recording career in 1927 when Paramount issued his House Rent Stomp. By the mid-1930s he had become established as a popular recording artist who recorded regularly for what was known then as Race Records series and, after World II, “Rhythm and Blues.” Such songs as Key to the Highway, It Was a Dream, When I Get to Drinking, I Feel So Good, Southbound Train, and others established Broonzy as a major star in the Chicago blues world and became part of the blues repertoire. He also played a significant role in the live club scene and was ready to take someone under his wing to mentor.
Broonzy also was one of the first bluesmen to cross over to a more general audience, starting with his appearance at the fabled From Spirituals To Swing concerts that John Hammond presented at Carnegie Hall in the late 1930s. Broonzy was a replacement for Robert Johnson who Hammond originally sought, but had died before he had been contacted. It was the beginning of a relationship with the white audience that included performing at the famed Cafe Society, concerts organized by Alan Lomax at Carnegie Hall and other venues in the late forties, and he later participated in early folk revival concerts in the United States, and he was amongst the earliest ‘folk’ bluesmen to tour Europe where he had lengthy engagements as well as developed some close personal relationships. His repertoire included ‘folk songs’ including those associated with other artists like Leroy Carr or Leadbelly, reworked renditions of his commercial recordings and protest songs like Black, Brown and White.
House’s Blue Smoke is a less detailed attempt at a biography. It is reliant on Big Bill’s Blues for facts on Broonzy’s early life as well as until he moved up north. He takes the basic parameters presented in the books, such as the claim of his parents being together during slave time, being born in Mississippi, serving in Europe in World War 1 and leaving the South after experiencing the white supremacist backlash against blacks after he returned from the War. The problem is that Broonzy’s account of his early days is a fantasy that reflects the image that Broonzy wishes to project about his origins, but is not consistent with some of the facts of Broonzy's early life. That said, it isn't the only source of information on Broonzy's early life as Broonzy wrote a short account for Art Hodes magazine The Jazz Record, and was also interviewed by Alan Lomax.
House's strength is focusing on Broonzy and his recording in the socio-cultural context they took place in. Broonzy was one of many blacks that migrated from the racist deep South to the urban North and places his music in the context of the house and rent parties, taverns and theaters and shared experiences the migrants had in the northern urban ghettoes. He traces Broonzy's recording career from Papa Charlie Jackson's introduction of him to Paramount Records through his establishing himself as one of the most recorded blues artists in the thirties and forties. Broonzy's recordings evolved from guitar duets where Broonzy displayed the influence of the great Blind Blake, to spectacular piano-guitar duets with Black Bob, and Joshua Altheimer, and then the small group blues with horns with Memphis Slim and Blind John Davis.
In considering Broonzy’s crossing over to white audiences starting with the Spiritual to Swing, House does not note that Broonzy was a replacement for the dead Robert Johnson, and notes how Broonzy was presented as an authentic primitive in contrast to his status as a significant urban blues artist of the time. But while he recites facts about Broonzy’s life, he also does not go into depth about, for example, the relationship Broonzy had with Lil Green, which went beyond simply playing guitar on many of her sessions, but also writing songs for her and accompanying her on early tours before she was connected with Tiny Bradshaw’s Big Band.
After the roughly 160 pages on Broonzy, Blue Smoke also contains an extensive and invaluable 60-odd-page discography of all known recordings that Broonzy made as well as those by other artists on which he played. While flawed as a biography, there are insights and issues raised as well as some astute consideration of Broonzy’s music that makes it worth considering. I do not regret purchasing this book despite its flaws.
I will conclude this survey tomorrow with the focus on Bob Reisman’s I Feel So Good.
Listening to the opening field holler inspired fragment “Ratty,” followed by some Delta to Chicago slide guitar “Believe I’ll Make a Change,” was this person’s introduction to the music of Little Joe McLerran, and it certainly caught my attention. McLerran was the 2009 winner of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in the solo-duo category, and his latest recording on Roots Born Reborn, “Believe I’ll Make a Change.”
McLerran was originally from the Boulder area and started playing in a band at the age of 9 playing Beatles, Bob Markey and old-time blues from Big Bill, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt. When the family moved to Tulsa, his music grew resulting in several recordings as well as winning the IBC. The present recording includes several solo performances as well as several with his band. I appreciate his splendid musicianship as well as his creative use of older material and his band that subtly embellishes his lead.
Just like the title track is a nice adaptation of an old Casey Bill Weldon number, “Down at the Village Store” is a lively, mellow Washboard Sam shuffle, with Dexter Payne’s reed adding a bass line, while Jack Wolfe’s restrained and subdued organ adds to the performance’s swing. Special kudos must be given to drummer Ron McRorey, who uses brushes on the last number. “Cocktails For Two,” is a solid Piedmont -blues styled original with McLerran’s Blind Boy Fuller-ish guitar runs complemented by Payne’s harmonica. The low-key reworking of Leroy Carr’s “Blues Before Sunrise,” is striking again because of the down-home trio and his relaxed, moving, vocal. A bit of old-time blues is provided by the interpretation of the Delmore Brothers’ “Blue Railroad Train,” indicating his wide ears for strong material as well as a being an additional showcase for his adept finger-style guitar.
On “Duck Yas,” Payne’s slap-tongue sax and bluesy clarinet adds a bit of traditional jazz to this delightful piece of hokum blues, while the traditional gospel number“Jesus Make Up My Dyin’ Bed,” is taken at a lively tempo set by McRorey, with McLerran playing some nice, precise slide runs. It is followed by a lovely small group rendition of Blind Willie McTell’s “B&O Blues,” with Payne’s harp in the musical mix. The band is a bit more energized on a rocking rendition of Homesick James’ “Baby Please Set a Date,” and again it is striking how with how much restraint he plays with avoiding the sometimes hyperactive renditions of say a George Thorogood. After an unusual original blues ballad about a Memphis policeman on the beat, and a Big Bill inspired “She’s Got Something,” where he celebrates his “sweet wife,” Little Joe closes with another field holler. It is a fitting close to a gem of a recording.
Little Joe McLerran understands that the mere possession of formidable musical technique does not translate into strong blues performances and he understands the value of restraint, both vocally and instrumentally, in putting together strong musical performances. He is also familiar and respectful of the blues tradition, yet places his own stamp on that tradition resulting in this gem of a recording. Recommended.
This review originally appeared in the January15-March 1, 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 323) on page 8. Minor stylistic changes have been made.
For FTC regulations purposes, my review copy was supplied by a publicist for this artist or recording label.
Here is a review that I wrote earlier this calendar year by a wonderful singer and guitarist, Mary Flower, one of the most accomplished fingerstyle guitarists alive today. It was originally written for Jazz & Blues Report and appeared in the April 2009 issue which can be downloaded at www.jazz-blues.com, and go to download issues. Dr. John is on the issue's cover
Mary Flower is one of the unsung heroines of traditionally oriented blues and roots music. She is one of the finest fingerstyle guitarists alive and Yellow Dog records has followed up her acclaimed CD “Bywater Dance” with a new release, “Bridges,” sure to please her fans and introduce her to many others. She has recently relocated to Portland, Oregon after spending decades around Denver, and on this new disc collaborates with a variety of Portland artists including transplanted New Orleans saxophonist Reggie Houston,guitarist and banjoist, Tony Furtado, keyboard players Janice Scroggins and Matt Potts, her sons Jesse Withers on bass and bluegrass legend Tim O’Brien on mandolin and fiddle. The program for this CD includes obscure gems from the songbooks of 1920s and ’30s America to complement her own rootsy compositions, enabling Flower to explore and illuminate the complex relationships between Piedmont blues, ragtime, jazz, and old-time gospel music. With varying instrumentation, the tenor of the songs range from traditional Piedmont style blues to more contemporary folk-blues oriented roots.
The opening “Rhythm of the Road,” has a folky air as she delivers a world weary vocal about her travels down the road as Furtado complementing her fingerstyle lead with his banjo and slide guitar fills. It is followed by ”There Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears,” a delightful number new to these ears with a jaunty backing and nice piano solo from Janice Scroggins. A reflective treatment of Bessie Smith’s “Backwater Blues,” follows with Scroggins spare piano supporting Flower’s melancholy vocal. “When I Get Home I’m Gonna Be Satisfied,” is a gospel number handled at an easy tempo and featuring some adept lap slide guitar from Ms. Flower. The original instrumental, “Columbia River Rag,” is one example of her marvelous fingerstyle work in the Piedmont tradition. A highpoint during her rendition of Emmett Miller’s “The Ghost of the St. Louis Blues” is the interplay of the laughing clarinet from Doug Bundy and Reggie Houston’s soprano sax. “A medley of “On Revival Day” with “There’s Gonna To be the Devil to Pay,” is a delightful performance with Scroggins buoyant piano complementing Flower’s spirited playing and vocal. “Portland Town” evokes some classic Piedmont blues, but this fresh original Flower co-wrote has a nice lilting rhythm with an interesting accordion accompaniment. Another stunning fingerstyle instrumental, “Daughter of Contortion,” is followed by a strong rendition of“Big Bill Blues,” a Big Bill Broonzy recording. Next is a fine small group rendition of Thomas Henry Lodge’s 1909 composition,“Temptation Rag,” that has lovely interplay by Flower with Robin Kessinger on flatpicked guitar before Spud Siegel kicks in on mandolin and takes the tempo up a notch. Tim O’Brien adds his fiddle to “Up a Lazy River,” which comes off as a nod to Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti before Flower adds a nice vocal. With O’Brien on mandolin and Courtney Von Drehle on accordion, she concludes this delightful recording with a lovely original “Blue Waltz.” “bridges” is yet another enchanting recording by a marvelous acoustic blues artist. This should be available at cdbaby.com, itunes or better stores. You can also order this from Mary’s website, www.maryflower.com.
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