Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges - Man Without A Home

Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges - Man Without A Home - Armadillo

Another new album on Armadillo is Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges, Man Without a Home. This writer is not familiar with Bridges, but this is apparently his second album, but he is among the younger blues-soul singer guitarists, and I suspect he is from around Memphis. Produced by Bridges with former DC Blues Society President Michael Roach, this is a terrific disc that merits wider exposure as he writes and sings about the heartaches and joys of the male-female relationship. 

Bridges recounts how he Used to Sing Love Songs with bright brassy horns backing his vocals and clean, fleet guitar playing, but now all he sings is the blues, the rocking shuffle that opens this disc. If I was going to compare him to other bluesmen, I might suggest Bridges is a bit more vocally intense version of the late Mighty Joe Young or Fenton Robinson. One can hear more than a touch of Sam Cooke in his gospel-rooted singing. You're Gonna Miss Me is a walking tempo blues with a down-home groove, Bridges' declaration he is a Bluesman borrows a bit from the Isley Brothers' Fight the Power, while he takes the tempo into the alley on the slow blues where he feels so alone like a Man Without a Country, Man Without a Home. 

Movin' and a Groovin' is one of two numbers associated with Sam Cooke, the other being the ballad I'm Fallin' In Love, and Bridges' vocals evoke the legendary soul giant. He is that good a singer. I'll skip the track by track analysis except to note that the band is really solid, Bridges' fluid fretwork is a delight throughout, and the horns add punch and musical coloring behind his powerful performances,

I believe I received a review CD from Armadillo, This review originally appeared in the June 2002 DC Blues Calendar, although I have made some minor edits to the original review. Amazon shows copies of this CD, new as well as used, as being available. It is available on streaming platforms. Here is Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges performing.

Hideaway Bridges Heard Live in San Antonio

For me, one of the highlights of the 2012 Pennsylvania Blues Festival was seeing Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges for the first time in a few years. He was backed by a tight band that included Eric ‘Lollipop’ King on bass, Justine M. Miller on trumpet and Seth Kibel on tenor saxophone. It was a strong set filled with his fluid guitar runs and soulful vocals. For those who have never heard this gentlemen perform I might suggest that he is a cross between Sam Cooke and sixties B.B. King.

At the Festival I purchased Live in San Antonio (Armadillo Music) that was recorded at Chango’s Havana Club in San Antonio. King, Miller and Kibel are present on this 2009 CD release along with David Webb on keyboards. Many of the songs performed in the Pennsylvania Blues Festival are on this recording and the feel of the performances are very similar although Webb’s keyboards and the presence of a percussionist in addition to drums give a slightly different sound.

From the opening I Got the Blues, through the closing Jump the Joint, Bridges’
Bridges vocals recall Sam Cooke as readily apparent on Movin’ and Groovin’, which Cooke wrote with Lou Rawls as well as Rome Wasn’t Built in A Day, that Johnnie Taylor originally recorded for Cooke’s SAR label. It is not a matter of imitating Cooke as the fact his voice is similar.

The album provides a nice and representative overview of Bridges’ blues including the hot Giving Up On Love; his homage to the working folk on Real Hero with its Hootchie Kootchie Man based melody; Bluesman with its incorporation of the Isley Brothers’ Fight The Power groove; the James Brown influenced funk of I Know That You Love Me on which the band members all take solos; and the closing Jump the Joint, that concludes this superb live recording of a considerably underrated blues artist.

Here is a video of Hideaway Bridges performing.

2nd Pennsylvania Blues Festival Keeps Tradition of Blues in the Pocono

Teeny Tucker will be at this year's Pennsylvania Blues Festival

Michael Cloeren, and the others involved with the Pocono Blues Festival found a new location to carry out the tradition of bringing the best blues to the Pocono Mountains with last year’s “1st Pennsylvania Blues Festival” at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, not far from Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania. They have put together the “2nd Pennsylvania Blues Festival” at the Blue Mountain Ski Area that will take place the weekend of Friday July 27 through Sunday July 29.

Eugene 'Hideaway' Bridges

Once again they will be presenting a variety of top-draw blues acts to appeal to diverse blues tastes. Friday night they will host a blues jam featuring Mikey Junior & the Stone Cold Blues Band. Saturday, July 28 they present the first of two full days of blues on the main stage and tent stage. Acts scheduled for the main stage include Marquise Knox; Big Sam’s Funky Nation; Joe Louis Walker and Billy Branch & the Sons of the Blues with Lurrie Bell, Carlos Johnson & Demetria Taylor. In the Tent Stage will be the Canadian duo of Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers; Wallace Coleman along with an acoustic set from Billy Branch & Lurrie Bell and another set of New Orleans Funk by Big Sam’s Funky Nation. Saturday Night will feature Steve Guyger and the Excellos.

The main stage on Sunday will open with Daptone Records artists Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens. Others up include Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges; Teeny Tucker; Earl Thomas and the Brooks Family Blues Dynasty with Lonnie, Ronnie and Wayne Baker Brooks. Corey Harris will be featured in the tent along with an acoustic set from the Brooks Family, and sets by Hideaway Bridges and Teeny Tucker.

Joe Louis Walker returns to play blues in the Pocono Mountains at the Pennsylvania Blues Festival

As can be seen by the list of performers, the Festival promises a full weekend of real deal blues. 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. They are offering last years pricing for tickets until June 8th. For more information and on the festival, directions and the festival schedule, check out the Festival website, http://www.skibluemt.com/SkiBlue/special-events/pa_blues_fest.aspx. The Festival also has a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pennsylvania-Blues-Festival/195740310453821.

Michael Burks was originally scheduled to play at the Festival on Saturday, July 28, but passed away very tragically. He is being replaced by Otis Taylor and his very distinctive and original approach to the blues.

Photos copyright Ron Weinstock.

Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges

Armadillo Music (England) has issued a new, eponymously titled disc by Texas native, Eugene ‘Hideaway Bridges. Unlike Bridges' earlier albums which had him backed by tight, swinging backing combos, this finds Bridges in a more informal setting of his own guitar with some guests on various tracks. These tracks were recorded at different locations across several different continents. The spare setting perhaps enhances how Bridges evokes Sam Cooke and such songs as Piece of the Mountain. Never Alone, with its gospel flavor makes that Cooke comparison more evident. The Soul Stirrers are evoked with the vocal backing provided on this number. Pedal steel player Lucky Oceans enhances the blues-ballad lament Life has No Meaning, the country-tinged Baby Your Love, and the Latin-flavored In Your Arms Tonight. Special Friend, a tale of infidelity, features nice guitar from Ian Moss with what I would be presumed an overdubbed vocal backing. Look at Me Now is a wonderful ballad with spare backing and a light percussionist effectively framing Bridges’ singing, whereas he plays acoustic guitar and adds foot stomp to Ain’t Got Time, as he sings about having a bad attitude but no time to mess with a lady if her heart ain’t true. With Clayton Doley on the Hammond, Bridges handles a T-Bone Walker-B.B. King vein on Love’s Got the Best of Me. Ray Wylie Hubbard adds slide guitar to I Can’t Wait, a nice song with a Jimmy Reed-flavored groove, while Doley again adds Hammond to the closing Man and His Guitar, once again suggests Walker and King with Bridges singing so soulfully about not having or needing much, just being a man with a guitar. Even with the spare accompaniments heard herein, Bridges establishes how soulful a singer he is with the convincing delivery of these twelve songs. While I would suggest one check out his band albums like the superb Jump the Joint or Man Without a Home, Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges is a change of pace to delight fans of this extraordinary blues talent.