Dave Specter Knows The Blues From the Inside

Dave Specter
Blues From the Inside
Delmark Records

This latest recording by the veteran Chicago blues artist Dave Specter is the first to sport his vocals, in addition to his ingenious, twisty guitar and songwriting. He has a number of musicians supporting him, including Brother John Kattke on keyboards and vocals, Harlan Terson on bass, Marty Binder on drums, and the Liquid Soul Horns on three selections. Also, Jorma Kaukonen guests on guitar for two tracks.

Specter wrote 11 of the 12 songs (some with Bill Britcha) opening with the title track with its more memorable lyrics about various hardships and paying the dues and playing the blues. It is one of three selections on which he sings, and if not a great singer, he sings quite credibly. His guitar playing is terrific as his band gets a nicely paced shuffle groove together. Specter and Britcha also wrote the lively "Ponchatoula Way," with its Crescent City groove that Kattke takes the soulful vocal on. There are some tempo shifts. Still, it is fascinating listening to Specter builds his solos as the horns riff. Kattke, on piano, also solos here. Kattke also takes a soulful vocal on "March Through the Darkness," a number with a Muscle Shoals feel, with Tad Robinson and Devin Thompson providing the vocal backing. Of course, Specter dazzles again on guitar with his taste and solo construction with Kattke soloing on the organ.

"Sanctifunkious" is a funky instrumental in the manner of a classic Meters recordings. Another instrumental is the Latin-flavored "Minor Shout," that sounds inspired by Santana. Like his playing throughout this recording, Specter's playing is sterling, full of unexpected, imaginative twists with his thoughtful, uncluttered attack. Jorma Kaukonen adds guitar to "How Low Can One Man Go?" with Specter delivering a convincing partially talking vocal with the two trading guitar lines. He also wrote the lyrics to "The Blues Ain't Nothing," a gem of an uptown blues with another first-rate vocal from Kattke and superlative guitar from Specter and then Kaukonen. Sarah Marie Young sings the gospel-blues ballad from Bill Britcha, "Wave's Gonna Come." Britcha plays acoustic guitar on this song while Specter's fretwork accents her superb, gospel-rooted vocal.

An atmospheric instrumental "String Chillin'" closes another recording from Specter that is wonderfully recorded and has excellent material, some first-rate singing, and outstanding playing. It is another notable addition to Specter's body of recordings.

I received my review copy from Delmark Records. This review appeared in the January-February 2020 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 388). Here is a video of "How Low Can One Man Go?"

Rockwell Avenue Blues Band Heads Back to Chicago

Rockwell Avenue Blues Band
Back to Chicago
Delmark Records

As keyboardist and vocalist Ken Saydak observes that the title of this album is fitting  for veterans of the Windy City's blues scene who came together for this project. The title of the band is also a nod to Delmark Records North Rockwell address.

Saydak was joined by guitarist and vocalist Steve Freund, harmonica player and vocalist Tad Robinson, bassist Harlan Terson and drummer Marty Binder. Collectively they have played with and recorded with Chicago legends like Big Walter Horton, Sunnyland Slim, Otis Rush, Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, and Buddy Guy. Saydak, Freund and Robinson also have established well regarded solo careers with heard on five vocals. Along with bassist Terson, they contribute to the originals here, with one song a collaboration between Mary-Ann Brandon, Fred James and Saydak. There is one Elmore James cover.

One should be not surprised by the strong music heard here. This is one terrific band with the three frontmen all having plenty of solo space. Robinson is particularly impressive with his harmonica playing here such as his sax-like backing behind Saydak's vocal on "That Face," a performance that featured Saydak's strong singing that has tonal qualities (but not the country drawl) reminiscent of Elvin Bishop. At the same time, Robinson plays more in a Junior Parker vein on the soulful "Free To Love Again," Freund channels Robert Nighthawk on his terrific slow blues "Lonesome Flight." In addition to his strong singing and guitar, the band is superb with Saydak pounding the ivories. One cannot praise Terson and Binder enough as they anchor this and the entire recording.

Saydak's "Chariot Gate" evokes early James Cotton, while Freund's rendition of "Stranger Blues" has a fresh arrangement, and is not a copy of Elmore James' original recording. Binder superb on this. It is  followed by a rootsy rocker by Saydak, "For a Reason." Other notable tracks include Robinson's "Hey Big Bill," with a spirited guitar solo and Robinson's fine harp as he calls on Big Bill to help lift him up from his blues. Terson, Saydak and Robinson collaborated on the title track, a nice West Side Chicago styled blues that like the entire album is wonderfully played displaying marvelous interplay between the band members.

The Rockwell Avenue Blues Band may have been assembled for this recording, but they come off as one terrific band. With solid vocals, strong solos, and choice material, "Back to Chicago," is a most welcome musical delight for Chicago blues lovers.

I received my review copy from Delmark. This review appeared originally in the May-June 2018 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 378), but I have made some stylistic and clarifying changes to the published review.

Al Miller's In Between Time

Harmonica player and singer, Al Miller, is a contemporary of Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite and Mike Bloomfield who was among the first wave of white Chicago bluesmen. He worked with Chicago Slim and Johnny Young, was in a band The Wurds which was the first white blues band signed by Chess, spent a couple years in San Francisco working with Bloomfield, and returned to the Windy City. In the early 1990s he recorded a debut CD, “Wild Cards” for Delmark which featured Willie Kent, Dave Spector, Tad Robinson and Steve Freund. In 1999 and 2000 he assembled some of Chicago’s finest talent including John Primer, Dave Spector, Willie Smith, Ken Saydak, Billy Flynn, Harlan Terson and Kenny Smith, which Delmark has just released as … In Between Time.

This album is one of straight-ahead Chicago blues. As Scott Dirks says in the liner booklet, “Al Miller isn’t out to reinvent the wheel, or shoehorn disparate genres into an ill-fitting blues hybrid and call it “original … .” He mixes in a few idiomatic originals with covers of songs by Johnny Young, Jimmy McCracklin, Percy Mayfield, Elmore James, and Eddie Taylor. The varying line-ups share one thing in common, and that is playing old school blues, whether a slow blues and rocking shuffle. 

Whether listening to Miller reprise Johnny Young’s My Baby Walked Out with Barrelhouse Chuck contributing two-fisted piano; or John Primer channeling Magic Sam (on vocal as well as guitar) for a strong rendition of B.B. King’s I Need You So Bad, this recording shines. Miller is an able vocalist, but his harp really shines such as his original Old Friends, with a nice latin groove. The title track is a Muddy Waters flavored original with Billy Flynn on slide followed by a rollicking take of Johnny Young’s instrumental I Got It, with more tough harmonica from Miller. 

On A Better Day, Flynn channels Earl Hooker’s wah-wah slide guitar on a recording that evokes Hooker’s recording, You Gotta Lose. Another Johnny Young cover, Tighten Up On It, has more explosive harmonica. It is followed by John Primer taking the vocal on Elmore James’ 1839 Blues, on an accompaniment (Ken Saydak on piano) suggesting Otis Spann’s Hungry Country Woman. Billy’s Boogie is a lively feature for Flynn’s fretwork followed by Flynn channeling Bo Diddley on Miller’s cover of Little Walter’s Make It Alright. Rob Waters adds organ as Miller imaginatively reworks Percy Mayfield’s uptown Bachelor Blues into a Chicago blues, while Primer is featured in a tribute to one of his mentors, Sammy Lawhorn, on Primer’s Lawhorn Special.

Al Miller is a capable singer and an excellent harmonica player. He is complemented by some excellent players on a mix of originals and covers of songs that have not been over-recorded. With a generous helping of over an hour of music, … In Between Time is an exceptional, straight-ahead, Chicago blues recording.

Delmark sent me a review copy of this.  

Nora Jean Is Going Back to Mississippi

The following review originally appeared in the October 2004 DC Blues Calendar as well as the November-December 2004 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 271). I have made a few stylistic changes since the original review. I likely received a review copy from Severn Records and it is available. She has a new recording Good Blues from 2011 which I have not heard but will have to check out. Nora Jean is now Nora Jean Wallace and her website is website is http://norajeanblues.com/music.html.

I recently reviewed a cd from Nora Jean Bruso, a Chicago based blues singer, who really impressed many at this year’s Pocono Blues Festival. That cd was comprised of interpretations of some well known and lesser known blues. Severn has just issued a new album by her, Going Back to Mississippi (Severn Records), which is comprised solely of originals, so she is presenting her own “musical vision of the blues, rather than interpreting the vision of others.” 

Nora Jean Bruso at 2004 Pocono Blues Festival
Photo © Ron Weinstock

She has a strong backing band that include Carl Weathersby or Dave Spector on lead guitar, Rob Waters on keyboards, Ron Graham on saxophone, Harlan Terson on bass and Marty Binder on drums. Bruso’s powerful vocals will suggest Koko Taylor to many (Koko is her idol). She does have a similar background, as she, like Taylor, moved to Chicago after having deep southern roots (Bruso grew up in Mississippi).  Her roots are lyrically expressed in the title track, a shuffle where she talks about going back because that’s where her baby is as well as Miss Mae’s Juke Joint, that celebrates the juke her grandmother operated. 

She gets down in the alley on a superb slow blues, All My Life, with some nice sax in the accompaniment, while sings in a more relaxed manner on Broken Heart, with its caribbean-flavored groove. She takes us to New Orleans on the rhumba, I’ve Got Two Men, (one of whom has to go) with a nice solo break from Dave Spector. Don’t You Remember is a slow blues that evokes Someone Loan Me a Dime, with Bruso telling her baby how sweet their love used to be and how their relationship changed. Carl Weathersby is particularly impressive here in his instrumental responses to Bruso’s vocal and his solo. 

With this new release she has gone beyond the promise shown on her earlier disc and has shown herself as among those who will carry on and follow Koko Taylor and keep “this great music alive and vital.” 

Here she is singing Going Back to Mississippi.