John McNamara Rollin' With It

John McNamara
Rollin' With It
Bahool Records

John McNamara is an Australian whose music took him to Beale Street, not simply because he competed at the International Blues Challenge, but because the influence of soul and blues that can be heard in his music. His new album was recorded in Memphis at the Ardent Studios and found the singer, songwriter and guitarist backed by such Memphis studio stalwarts as drummer Steve Potts; bassist James Kinard; guitarist Michael Toles; and keyboardist Lester Snell (who did the arrangements) along with a strong horn section. McNamara wrote six of the ten songs. along with his renditions of songs associated with Bobby Bland, Otis Redding and Little Willie John.

McNamara impresses as a singer as well as guitarist from the opening "One, Two Of A Kind," that evokes the brassy Memphis sound with his soulful, natural sounding singing and biting guitar set against the horn riffs. The idiomatic originals and choice covers continue with "Bad Reputation" delivered in his slightly whisky parched singing, whose musical structure is a cousin to "Fever," and a lyric of ignoring his reputation as he is "all about loving you." There is the slow, moody "Under The Weight Of The Moon," as he laments about laying awake about being without her, with very apt backing.

The covers are straight-forward and delivered in a relaxed fashion ranging from the Bobby Bland classic soul ballad "Ask Me Nothing (But About the Blues)," to an Otis Redding Stax classic "Security," another strong Bobby Bland cover "Blind Man" (that Little Milton also covered five decades ago) and the closing rendition of Little Willie John's "Suffering With the Blues." With heartfelt singing and the handsome arrangements, McNamara displays not simply his love of the music that influenced him but how ably he interprets these classic songs in addition to his marvelous originals. One gets impressed by his strong performances on a striking new recording to delight fans of sixties-seventies Memphis soul and blues.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here John performs "Ask Me Nothing (But About the Blues)."

Johnny Rawl's Time To Win

The English JSP label continues to issue a number of important albums by under recorded artists and has discovered many others. At the same time it has repackaged some of its earlier albums that had gone out of print. Among its latest albums is a new Johnny Rawls release, My Turn to Win.

Having worked with his idol O.V. Wright, Rawls became known to blues fans from an excellent soul-blues album he did with LC Luckett for Rooster Blues. More recently, he has found a home at JSP for whom he also has produced albums by Lonnie Shields, Chris Beard and Deitra Farr. My Turn to Win provides more of his unique blend of Memphis soul (in the vein of the classic Hi Records sound) mixed with some Chicago shuffles.

There is a relaxed quality about both his vocals and his guitar playing that gives his music an appealing, understated quality whether singing about how glad he is about his woman on I Been Lookin'. It does not hurt that he writes good lyrics about people and relationships as opposed to “my baby mistreated me” type of songs. Nicely recorded and crisply played, it is another solid addition to Rawls' discography.

This review was written in 1999, most likely for the DC Blues Society’s newsletter which I edited at the time. I may have received review copies from JSP. JSP reissues its back catalog from time to time (and this was reissued in 2005). This is available as a digital download and used copies may be relatively easy to find. Amazon has this available as a cd-r and as a digital download. 


Here is a video of recent Johnny Rawls in performance.

Memphis vocalist Joyce Cobb's Diverse Set of Tunes

Memphis based vocalist Joyce Cobb has been a part of that city’s scene for decades, first signing with Stax, later having a hot for Cream Records (later Hi Records) and shared stages with numerous musical legends. Her rhythm ’n’ blues stylings decades ago was always imbued with jazzy elements and in more recent years her focus has been more on the jazz side. She has a fascinating new release on Archer Records, the eponymous Joyce Cobb with the Michael Jefry Stevens Trio, Pianist Michael Jefry Stevens is a New Yorker who moved to Memphis and his trio consists of Jonathan Wires and drummer Renardo Ward.

Thee may be some who may find Ms. Cobb’s vocals, described on the publicity materials as “honey sweet,” an acquired taste with her sometimes less than precise diction. Her vocals here suggest was Jimmy Scott and if the performances may not quite pull at the heart strings as much as Scott, her performances still struct these ears in a most positive fashion. It helped that the Stevens Trio provide excellent support and Stevens takes any number of fine solos in addition to his harmonious accompaniments.

She sings classic standards mixed with vocal-ese adaptations of jazz classics including Bobby Timmons’ Moanin’, Fats Waller’s Jitterbug Waltz, Hoagie Carmichael and Johnny Mercer’s Skylark, the juxtaposition of I’m in the Mood For Love with Moody’s Mood For Love, the Ellington-Strayhorn ballad Daydream, and My Heart Belongs to Daddy. Cobb contributes some atmospheric bluesy harmonica, before launching into Moanin’, delivering the Jon Hendricks lyrics with her overdubbing a backing vocal chorus that perhaps lends a sense that her vocal should have been a bit looser. Jitterbug Waltz is a delightful performance with Stevens accenting her horn like delivery of the lyrics with Wires taking a solo. Skylark opens with several choruses from Stevens in a reflective, lyrical mode before Cobb wistfully sings about her yearning for her lover. Like a horn, she chants Jon Hendricks’ lyric for Thelonious Monk’s Well That Was a Dream, capturing the angular aspects of Monk’s tune.

A bit more mainstream vocally is her rendition of My Heart Belongs to Daddy, with the trio’s delicious tango accompaniment. There is a delightful extending of the lyrics of I’m in the Mood For Love which deftly transitions into Moody’s Mood For Love, with a more staccato, trumpet-like vocal delivery. Another delightful medley is Blues Skies and In Walked Bud, with a peppy delivery of Blues Skies with bass and piano solos followed by the concise rendition of In Walked Bud. If You Know Love, is a marvelously delivered lament. followed by a wistful If You Never Come to Me, from the pen of Antonio Carlos Jobim and others. The rendition I Thought About You, opens pensively before before the tempo and vocal heat up. She delivers a hauntingly beautiful vocal on the Ellington-Strayhorn Daydream, before closing with another playful nod to Thelonious Monk, It’s Over Now (Well You Needn’t).

It is an ambitious and diverse group of songs/tunes that Joyce Cobb has selected here for a strong vocal jazz compilation on which she reveals how comfortable she is with a ballad as with Jon Hendricks lyrical adaptation to a classic Thelonious Monk number. Joyce Cobb has a myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/joycecobb and the label has a website http://archer-records.com from which this may be purchased as well as from cdbaby.


This review first appeared in the March 15-May 1 2011 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 334). I received my review copy from a publicist.

Calvin Newborn Strong Guitar

The following review of the underated guitarist Calvin Newborn’s “New Born” (Yellow Dog) originally appeared in July/August 2005 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 275). If you somehow missed out on this when it first came out This CD is still available.

Guitarist Calvin Newborn came from a celebrated Memphis musical family. His father Finas led a celebrated orchestra in the Memphis area, and his older brother Phineas would later become a renowned jazz pianist whose career was often plagued by bouts with mental illness. Calvin himself has bridged the worlds of blues and jazz over the decades. The late Charlie Rich did an absolutely marvelous jazz-blues date before he died which benefited from Calvin Newborn’s jazz-inflected blues playing.

Newborn self-produced a couple of CDs on his own label but had not recorded for some time when the Yellow Dog label (named after a W.C. Handy song I believe) got him in the studio for New Born. Much of this date has the flavor of a classic Blue Note session from the late sixties – early seventies with some fine horns from Herman Green on sax and flute and Scott Thompson on trumpet with Donald Brown on piano and Charlie Wood on organ.

With the exception of Newborn Blues from his brother’s pen and Billy Strayhorn’s wonderful Lush Life, Calvin Newborn wrote all of the selections. It opens with a nice bluesy organ groove on When Kingdom Comes/Sho’ Nuff on which Newborn takes the first solo which is followed by some nice tenor from Herman Green. Newborn’s fleet single note runs are deftly and imaginatively delivered here and on the modal The Streetwalker’s Stroll, with Donald Brown’s post-bop piano providing the foundation with Mr. Green heard on flute while Thompson plays some fiery trumpet. One cannot forget bassist London Branch and drummer Renardo Ward who keep the pulse moving along as well.

On Newborn Blues, Calvin’s late night, down-in-the-alley guitar is backed by Woods’ greasy organ and the rhythm section as he displays how good a blues player he is, while a Latin flavor is present on Spirit Trane/Omnifarious, which features some nice horn voicings. There is some lovely guitar on Lush Life (what a beautiful tone Newborn provides here), while After Hours Blues, a marvelous slow instrumental inspired by the classic After Hours, features some more strong blues playing.

A marvelous return to the recording world by a guitarist whose reputation is far less than the quality of his music.



For purposes of FTC regulations, Yellow Dog Records provided me with a review copy of this.