Cyril Neville's Not So Magic Honey

Cyril Neville's new recording Magic Honey (Ruf Records) under his own name is one that will certainly appeal to many with its mix of New Orleans grooves, funk and blues-rock. His first album for Ruf has him backed by Cranston Clements on guitar, "Mean" Willie Green on drums, Carl Dufrene on bass, Norman Caesar on keyboards with Cyril on percussion as well as singing. Making appearances here on selected tracks are Allen Toussaint and Dr. John on keyboards, and guitarists Mike Zito (a fellow member of the Royal Southern Brotherhood), David Z (who produced this) and Walter Trout, with backing vocals from his wife Gaynielle and son Onari. 

For these ears, this release is a mixed bag. The title track certainly opens this music on a strong note with its tough, strutting groove and a terrific vocal about his queen bee who drips her honey on him with some fine, uncredited harmonica in the backing. Its followed by a terrific piece of New Orleans funk on Dr. John's Swamp Funk, (on which Dr, John is on organ and Allen Toussaint on piano) that could have been from three decades ago. However the following track, "Something's Got a Hold On Me, is a heavy handed blues-rock performance that perhaps is tightly played but the backing (including David Z's guitar solo) will sound to many as way over-the-top. The latin-flavored Another Man (co-penned with his wife) is an appealing song that will evoke Santana's bluesier recordings including Clements spicy guitar. 

Still Going Down Today, that Mike Zito co-wrote with Neville, is one of several topical lyrics on this and followed by a cover of Paul Butterfield and Henry Glover's You Can Run But You Can't Hide. The blues-rock backing perhaps contributed to neither performance standing out to these ears. I found the rendition of Warren Haynes Invisible catching my attention with Neville singing about acting as if he was invisible to those around him because of race or class. Blues Is The Truth is an original blues about what the blues is and sometimes the down home blues can heal the pain. There is some intense singing although the backing would have benefited from more nuanced guitar.

Walter Trout co-wrote Running Water, with a relaxed, funky groove and a very clever lyric, with Trout providing the effective guitar pyrotechnics on a short guitar break as well as responding to Neville's vocals during the song's coda. Otis Rush's original recording of Working Man was originally done as a Stax oriented R&B performance on Rush's Cotillion album that Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites produced. Neville's vocal fronts a heavy metal blues-rock jam. The closing Slow Motion, is an infectious with its steady rocking reggae groove and the more supple backing.

As the comments above suggest, this listener found "Magic Honey" to be a mixed bag of performances with first-rate tracks mixed in with others that did not stand out (and a couple tracks were forgettable). I recognize that there are fans of album rock and blues-rock who will differ with that opinion, and may you enjoy this. 

I received this from a publicist. A few years ago, I was quite a bit more positive regarding Cyril's Brand New Blues on M.C. Records. I note that it is a Blues Music Award nominee for Contemporary Blues Album.  From this recording, here is Cyril doing Working Man.

Royal Southern Brotherhood Get Rocking Hard

Royal Southern Brotherhood (RSB) is a 'supergroup' comprised of Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Mike Zito, Charlie Wooten and Yontico Scott. It has been booked and played at a variety of music (including blues) festivals and as I write this its eponymously titled Ruf Records debut is high on the Billboard Blues charts although to these ears this is a rock record, with very little blues on it. However one classifies RSB does not go to the quality of the music and the music on this is excellent.

The hard-hitting New Horizon musically evokes the Rolling Stones’ rendition of Harlem Shuffle as Cyril takes the lead vocal about a new day dawning and at the crossroads where one chooses peace over politics with some hard rocking guitar with nice interplaying between Zito and Allman. It is followed by the Santana-like groove of Fired Up!, a celebration about a woman who can make Cyril feel higher than low. Devon Allman takes the lead on his wistful Left My Heart in Memphis, with his vocal and the band exhibiting a fine sense of musical dynamics.

The lyric to Moonlight Over the Mississippi by Zito and Neville incorporates some blues songs and lyrics. I presume that it is Zito taking the marvelous and soulful vocal and there is some strong guitar playing. Fire on the Mountain incorporates a lazy island groove while Ways About You is a terrific bluesy Zito performance of a break-up song as his woman was singing about freedom sing their love was first cast with some nicely shaped blues-rock guitar (and again exhibiting some terrific interplay between Zito and Allman. Allman and Neville collaborated on Got to Keep Rockin’, a driving hard rock number, while Hurt My Heart has an Allman Brothers feel and a lyric about homelessness, rich people in their mansion and how things hurts his heart. Neville’s Sweet Jelly Donut, is a straight blues with an amusing lyric that allows Cyril to talk about taking her to some of his favorite New Orleans haunts while the band gets into a rocking groove.

A hot instrumental Brotherhood closes this impressive hard rocking recording. This is a terrific contemporary band that brings together a wide range of musical influences together including blues, southern rock, soul country and more. With three vocalists who leave strong impressions on the listeners, two fine guitarists and a solid rhythm section, they have produced a debut album that will make people take notice. The eponymous debut by Royal Southern Brotherhood is not a blues album anymore than it is a ragtime album. This does not change the fact that it is a terrific recording.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is a video for the song New Horizon.

New Orleans Social Club Sings Its Way Home

In April 2006 I wrote reviews on several post-Katrina benefit albums. This is the third and last review of those I am posting. Here is the first which originally appeared in the April 2006 (issue 281) of Jazz & Blues Report as well as the April 2006 DC Blues Calendar, then the DC Blues Society’s newsletter. I likely received a review copy, not sure if from the record company, a publicist or Jazz & Blues Report. There is also a live recording of them from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival that is available from jazzfestlive.com. Sadly some acts including Willie Tee have passed on.

The New Orleans Social Club’s Sing Me Back Home (Burgundy Records) is a collection of performances Cut last October in Austin. Dr. John and Irma Thomas (here with Marcia Ball) are the only performers on the Nonesuch disc, Our New Orleans, that are here.

Cyril Neville opens with the Impressions’ protest ballad, This is My Country, followed by Ivan Neville (Aaron’s son) funk reworking of Fortunate Son, with the lyrics about the “millionaire’s son” and “I ain’t no fortunate one,” reverberating with a once again timely message. Somewhere from “West Side Story,” takes a new meaning in light of Katrina as Henry Butler sings “There’s a place for us.” Irma Thomas & Marcia Ball sing about keeping a smile and a sense of things being better on Look Up, while Dr. John, with band, revisits Bobby Charles’ Walking to New Orleans (originally Fats Domino’s hit), although this time with a funk groove and not as gloomy as the take he did that closed one of the televised Katrina benefits.

Troy ‘Trombone Shorty’ Andrews, a threat on both trumpet and trombone, gets the spotlight on Hey Troy' Your Mama's Callin' You, a lively Caribbean-flavored instrumental. The Mighty Clouds of Joy contribute a gospel number while the Subdudes take on Earl King’s Make a Better World. New Orleans legend, Willie Tee contributes First Taste of Hurt, while the Sixth Ward All-Star Brass Band Revue featuring Charles Neville do Where Y’at, a medley of songs associated with Brass bands including Jesus is on the Mainline, I’m Walkin’, and (When) The Saints Go Marching In).

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux’s Chase is set to a reggae grove with its lyric questioning why one wants to send him away from home. Singer John Boutté closes with the moving ballad by Annie Lennox, Why, which is an amazing performance to close another album of terrific music.

1st Pennsylvania Blues Festival Celebrates 20 Years of Blues in the Poconos

Kenny Neal, one of the featured performers at the Pennsylvania Blues Festival

Shemekia Copeland

It was a shock when the word came out that the Big Boulder Ski Resort would no longer be holding the annual Pocono Blues Festival after 19 years. The Pocono Blues Festival had established itself as the signature blues festival in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with a commitment to bring the finest real deal blues, mixing in major names like Luther Allison, Shemekia Copeland, Mavis Staples, Ruth Brown, Taj Mahal with legends who rarely toured like Jimmy McCracklin, Jimmy Johnson and Jody Williams. A change in policy at the resort ended what was an annual tradition that attracted blues fans from all over the United States and countries around the world.

Michael Cloeren, and the others involved in the Pocono Blues Festival have found a new location to carry out the tradition of bringing the best blues to the Poconos with the 1st Pennsylvania Blues Festival at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, not far from Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania. The Festival is Saturday and Sunday, July 30 and 31 and the line-up is as strong as any blues festival anywhere on an outdoor stage and a tent stage. This first Pennsylvania Blues Festival celebrates 20 Years of Blues in the Poconos.

Performers that have been announced for the festival include Shemekia Copeland, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, Bettye Lavette, Kenny Neal, Cyril Neville, Shakura S’Alda, John Nemeth, The Lee Boys, Big Daddy Charles Stallings, Samuel James, Otis Clay, Linsey Alexander and Steve Guyger & Billy Flynn. Its quite a line-up of some of the best known blues performers and some lesser known ones. There is a mix from traditional Chicago styled blues of Magic Slim, Lil’ Ed and Steve Guyger & Billy Flynn, the deep soul of Bettye Lavette & Otis Clay, the sacred steel of The Lee Boys, the swamp blues of Kenny Neal, and the personal blues interpretations of Samuel James and Charles Neville. Shemekia Copeland is always a favorite but this writer is also looking forward to seeing Shakura S’Alda, another formidable female blues talent. Then a chance to see at another festival Baltimore’s Bog Daddy Stallings get exposure leading a jam after hours on Saturday night as well as two sets on Sunday with his down home back porch blues that is mixed with Louis Jordan, Albert King and James Brown.

For more information on the festival, check out the Festival website, http://www.skibluemt.com/SkiBlue/activities/pa-blues-fest.aspx, for the line-up and more information including directions. I have my hotel reservations already and I know folks from as far away as San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest that have there plans for this as well. Incidentally, Mike has produced the Vermont Blues Festival at Mount Snow, usually in later August, but apparently this will now be the Vermont Blues and Roots Festival and will take place on July 22-24, the weekend before the Pennsylvania Blues Festival. I will have more on this festival when more information is available.

Cyril Neville's worldly blues.

The following review appeared originally in Jazz & Blues Number 315 (April 2009) and downloadable from www.jazz-blues.com.

The youngest member of the Neville Brothers, Cyril Neville, like his brothers has long engaged in a variety of projects including exploring reggae and other world musics, and revisiting some Crescent City classics along with adding his voice and conscience to the Neville Brothers. M.C. Records is bringing out his latest disc, “Brand New Blues,” which has a most definite blues focus.

Producer Brian J. plays most of the music here but most tracks are supplemented by such artists as older brother Art, his nephews Ivan and Ian, guitarist Tab Benoit, harmonica whiz Johnny Sansone and washboard from Waylon Thibodeaux. There are some originals but also some intriguing covers like Jimmy Reed’s “I Found Joy,” that opens the album with its simple groove (Art Neville’s cheesy organ fits in so well) with a vocal that suggests a hint of Taj Mahal. It is followed by the title track, where he sings about having all types of blues, from the hole in shows to broken hearted blues, but when he thought he had seen it all, she walked in his life with the brand new blues, spending his money as if no tomorrow, with Ivan Neville on Hammond B3 while Tab Benoit adds guitar fills and a solo after which the lyric takes a slightly topical twist. “Shake Your Gumbo,” is a funky, dance oriented number as he encourages his woman to shake her gumbo all night long.

With Art Neville returning on organ, Cyril does a marvelous version of “I’ll Take Care of You,” modeled on Bobby Bland’s classic recording. He can really lay down a blues ballad. “Cream Them Beans,” with washboard and Johnny Sansone’s harp, is a lively ditty with a hot creole groove. “Cheatin and Lyin,” has a sparse percussion heavy backing as Cyril wonders how some people sleep at night “as something so wrong can be seen as right” with “cheating and lying from the White Horse on down,” makes Cyril want to beat those scoundrels down and it makes him sad. “Mean Boss Groove,” with Ivan on organ and Tab on guitar, has a protest lyric about a bad boss and credit card bills piling up with a haunting, accompaniment evocative of some of John Lee Hooker’s brooding slow blues. “Blue Blue Water,” is another lesser known Jimmy Reed number with Sansone returning on harp, with Brian J on acoustic guitar and Andy Cotton adding bass on this unplugged number. After a heavy dose of blues, a gospel-tinged number “Don’t Move My Mountain.”

The album closes with a highly expressive, blues-infused rendition of Bob Marley’s “Slave Driver.” Many of Cyril Neville’s recordings have had limited distribution. Hopefully, M.C. Records will be able to get his music out to wider circulation as he has a voice that is well worth hearing on its own, just like with his brothers.

For purposes of FTC regulations, the review copy was sent to me by the record label.