Billy Gibson's Southern Livin'

This is an older review from 2007 and I did select this recording to be an outstanding blues recording of 2007. It appeared in the March-April 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 291). I received my copy from wither Inside Sounds or a publicist.

Born in Mississippi where he developed his distinctive soulful singing and harp, Billy Gibson has established himself as among the strongest blues acts in the Memphis area today. Gibson has a new album on Inside Sounds, Southern Livin’, that focuses on his marvelous vocals although he does not ignore his harp. Gibson’s band includes guitarist David Bowen and bassist James Jackson, both veterans of Albert King’s band along with drummer Cedric Keel and keyboardist Charlie wood along with some taut horns on several tracks and guest appearances from guitarists Preston Shannon and Daddy Mack Orr.

Bowen’s original Fireman opens with Bowen playing some guitar evoking Albert King before Gibson’s delivery of the clever lyric. Bowen & Gibson collaborated on Mississippi, a funky celebration his roots and the state’s people with a short harp break. Preston Shannon guests on guitar on Bowen’s I’m Single, a rocking shuffle about no longer being tied up and out having fun, while Too Many Times, is a soul-blues ballad reflecting on a relation gone bad as his woman tries to take two and make three with a killer line about how hard it is to forget her for as Willie Nelson says “you’re always be on my mind.”

Gibson's Hey Hey Pretty Baby. has him telling is woman he is going to rock and sock it to his woman that she’ll know it can’t be wrong, throwing in a short, focused chromatic harp-break. One of three covers included here is a tasty reworking of Sam Myers, I Got a Thing for the Voodoo Woman. Other covers include the fine rendition Booker T & the MG's classic, Hip Hug-Her, with exceptional harp, and the closing Sex Appeal (from Willie Dixon’s Pen, on which Daddy Mack takes the guitar lead), with another nice vocal.

There is hardly anything i can fault on this impressive release. The band is tight and Bowen and Wood are as impressive on their instruments as Gibson is on harp, but the focus remains on the songs and Gibson’s authoritative and convincing vocals. Highly recommended.

Here is Billy performing at the North Atlantic Blues Festival in 2007.

Daddy Mack's Enjoyable BluesStones

The Memphis based band led by Daddy Mack Orr has a new disc on inside Sounds, BluesStones, that brings the leader’s vocals and guitar together with his solid band that includes brothers James (rhythm guitar) and Harold Bonner (bass) and drummer William Faulkner with Charlie Wood adding color on keyboards, for a collection of recordings that are performed straight with little artifice.

This has a nice selection of material and the band plays with a driving groove that is almost suggestive of Magic Slim although Daddy Mack is not as compelling a vocalist as Slim. The album opens with a solid rendition of the Z.Z. Hill hit, Shade Tree Mechanic, followed by Junior Bonner’s Plain Man. Slim Jenkin’s Joint is an instrumental from the Booker T & the MG’s songbook whose melody seems based on the Freddy King recording Going Down. It is a feature for Daddy Mack’s stinging guitar work. Savin’ My Love is an original soul-blues ballad, while the band gets a nice groove. Mack’s guitar is very effective on Royal Shade of Blues, as he describes his style of blues. Here he sings while he does not claim to be king, he plays a royal style of blues. He is not quite able to vocally handle the soulful That’s Where Its At.

Overall this was an enjoyable, if not exceptional recording.

This review was written for Jazz & Blues Report but may not have been published. I likely received a review copy from the record label or a publicist for the label. According to Amazon, Daddy Mack Blues Band has at least one more recent release.  

Here is the Daddy Mack Blues Band doing an Albert King classic.

Charlie Woods Is More Than Lucky

A fixture on Beale Street playing the Hammond B-3, with whom legendary guitarist Calvin Newborn would often join, Charlie Wood has a new Inside Sounds release, Lucky, that brings a soulful, jazzy sophistication to the blues.


Through the magic of overdubbing, Wood plays virtually all of the instruments here aided by Kirk Smothers’ saxophones. The opening Can’t Teach That Stuff is a sizzling rocking boogie woogie where he talks about his musical life, including how Albert King took him on the road, with hot solos from Smothers on tenor and Wood on the B-3. It is followed by a nice down-in-the alley rendition of Percy Mayfield’s The River Invitation, with his evocative, smoking singing.


Echoes of Professor Longhair reverberate on Wood’s celebration of the Crescent City and his hopes for its survival with his faith in the human spirit, Never Gonna Stop New Orleans. What’s It Gonna Take is rollicking piano blues where he asks his woman what it will take to slow her down and get to her. Ray Charles’ Lonely Avenue is slowed down in a nice reworking while Ear Candy has a nifty lyric about telling one’s lover what she or he wants to hear.


There is a fine cover of Mose Allison’s One of These Days, with Wood sounding very comfortable handling the vocal and laying down some choice piano, while the closing rendition of W.C. Handy’s Beale Street Blues is a wonderful performance with Wood and his piano joined by Billy Gibson who adds some harp on this intimate sounding performance.


There is a funky ambiance throughout this and plenty of space for Wood’s keyboards and solid vocals. Wood also adeptly provided a full ensemble sound although the rhythm sounds a bit mechanical (although certainly better than a rhythm loop). Overall Lucky is a most enjoyable release.


This review originally appeared in the August 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 296). I likely received my review copy from Inside Sounds.