Earl Thomas Helping Raise Blues Hall Of Fame Roof

2012-0729 PA Blues Fest Sunday-1250827, a photo by NoVARon on Flickr.

The highpoint of the 2012 Pennsylvania Blues Festival was the riveting performance by the veteran San Francisco Bay singer Earl Thomas and his Blues Ambassadors. Thomas brought not only a deep soul voice to his program of blues and classic R&B (A killer rendition of the Etta James smash I'd Rather Go Blind) , but his showmanship was dazzling. Definitely a performer of the old school, of which there is too little today. 

Tis image taken from the Blues Foundation's website

Sunday, March 24 Earl Thomas headlines a terrific Raise the Roof Concert for the Blues Hall of Fame to raise money for the Blues Hall of Fame that The Blues Foundation. This takes place starting at 1PM PDT, 4PM EDT and 8PM in Europe. Here is some information from the Foundation's website:

"Blues legend Earl Thomas and his friends will play at Club Fox in Redwood City on Sunday, March 24, 2013. This once in a lifetime event, which will not be replicated anywhere, will be live streamed by VenMundi, making it possible for Blues aficionados all over the world to enjoy these extraordinary artists who are coming together in support of The Blues Foundation's Raise the Roof! Campaign for the Blues Hall of Fame.

Sista Monica (seen at 2012 DC Blues Festival)
among those assisting Earl Thomas
Raise the Roof for the Blues Hall Of fame

Earl Thomas started out wanting to support The Blues Foundation by giving back his time and talents as a Blues artist. As his fellow Blues musicians heard about what Thomas was doing, they wanted to join him. As a result, the show will feature Sista Monica, Syreeta Neal, Lady Bianca, Kenny Neal, Tia Carroll, King Tuffnstuff, Shane Dwight, Daniel Castro, John Nemeth, Kyle Rowland, Greg Nagy, Aki Kumar, the Blues Ambassadors and the list is growing.

Thomas explains, “I’m excited to be part of this event, and even more excited to have my friends join me in supporting The Blues Foundation. I think it is important for all of us to give back to the music that we love and to ensure that the history of Blues is preserved. I’m also grateful to VenMundi for helping us contribute 50 percent of the proceeds in support of the Blues Hall of Fame.”"

Here is the link to the specific VenMundi.com page for this PPV event.

As a full disclosure, I am a member of The Blues Foundation and am currently making a monthly pledge towards the Blues Hall of Fame. I will be watching this PPV tomorrow.

The Blues Foundation's Hall Of Fame Merits Your Supporty

As stated on its website, www.blues.org, The Blues Foundation is currently engaged in a capital campaign to build a physical Blues Hall of Fame. On the website, the Foundation notes the history of the Blues Hall of Fame and its plans:

“Since 1980, The Blues Foundation has been inducting individuals, recordings and literature into the Blues Hall of Fame, but until now there has not been a physical Blues Hall of Fame. Establishing a Blues Hall of Fame enhances one of the founding programs of The Blues Foundation. The campaign calls for up to $3.5 million to create a hall of fame that will be the place to: honor inductees year-round; listen to and learn about the music; and enjoy historic mementos of this all-American art form. The new Blues Music Hall of Fame will be the place for serious blues fans, casual visitors, and wide-eyed students. It will facilitate audience development and membership growth. It will expose, enlighten, educate, and entertain.”

It is a substantial amount to raise but certainly would provide a way to have more than a virtual Hall of Fame to honor the legendary performers, recordings and related individuals of the Blues. More information including the making of pledges and donations can be found at the website with a link on the Blues Foundation’s home-page. I encourage all the blues lovers in the blues community to honor the legends and history of the music and support the Foundation’s fund-raising efforts.

By the way, the graphic is taken from the Blues Foundation's website. The donate button on the graphic here does not work. The donate button at www.blues.org does work.

Celebrating the Blues But Speaking the Musical Language of Rock?

The Laurie Morvan Band was co-winner of The Blues Foundation’s Best Self-Produced CD awarded at the 2010 International Blues Challenge for her album “Fire It Up,” (Screaming Lizard Records). It is odd that the opening song on this 'blues' album that celebrates playing “Nothing the Blues,” sounds like a southern rock anthem and aurally be quite at home on modern country music radio. This is not to diminish the music of Laurie Morvan and her band, but it raises a question of what is contemporary blues.

More rock influences can also be heard on Morvan's “Come On Over To My BBQ,” with its amusing and bawdy lyrics relating to the culinary treats she has to offer leaving little to the imagination. “Good Girls, Bad Girls,” showcases her songwriting as well as her robust vocals. The hook here “I think that good girls are just bad girls that ain’t been caught,” but again this is again blues-rock not blues. “Lay Your hands,” has a soulful tone, while “I Speak the Blues,” is a solid blues-rock number, with some nifty guitar and a vocal that does get a bit over the top when she sings “i speak the blues, the only words I understand.” “Livin’ in A Man’s World” is a blues with a pounding rhythm as she bellows out that one should not feel sorry for her being a guitar playing girl in a man’s world. In contrast “Let Me Carry Your Trouble,” is a nice country-flavored ballad. Gospel styled harmonies support her vocal on “You Don’t Know About Me,” a rocking number with a lyric about being in love with someone who is essentially oblivious to her and a nifty guitar solos. “Skinny Woman” is an amusing counter to songs about big legged woman but when one kicks their kicks, not forget about skinny chicks.

Listening to “Fire It Up,” this reviewer hears in Ms Morvan's music few blues roots, compared to evident hard rock, country-rock and blues-rock roots. Some (maybe many) will consider this blues. These same folk might point to this as an example of how the blues is being extended. Extended would suggest that there is something musically new here. I cannot here anything musically innovative as far as some considers innovative rebadging blues-rock and blues tinged rock as contemporary blues.

Categorizing this recording as blues-rock does establish whether this is a good or bad recording. Laurie Morgan certainly is a forceful and expressive singer and guitarist and she writes very interesting songs. There is much to like about this recording, but one's subjective reaction likely will depend on one's musical tastes. But writing and singing about speaking the language of the blues is not the same thing as producing music in the language of the blues as opposed to the language of southern rock and blues-rock.

I received this record from a publicity firm handling this recording and originally intended to write this review for Jazz & Blues Report. They ran another's review prior to my writing this although I had scribbled notes on the performances earlier. That review appeared in the October 15-December 1 2009 issue (Number 321) on page 15. You can download the issue at www.jazz-blues.com.