Professor Louie & the Crowmatix Crowin' the Blues

Professor Louie & the Crowmatix
Crowin' the Blues
Woodstock Records

Professor Louie & the Crowmatix is a Woodstock, New York based Americana/roots musical group led by Aaron Louis Hurwitz, who collaborated with The Band for over fifteen years. He is a musician and producer, nicknamed "Professor Louie" by Rick Danko, and also a regular at the workshops of Common ground on the Hill in Maryland. Originally a studio band, the Woodstock NY based aggregation who now perform regularly and this is their third album. The Crowmatix are Professor Louie (vocals, accordion, piano, Hammond organ, keyboards); Miss Marie (vocals, percussion, piano); Gary Burke (drums, percussion); Frank Campbell (bass, vocals); John Platania (electric /acoustic guitars); Josh Colow (lead guitar) and special guest Michael Falzarano (guitar).

This is a solid and a very likable set of well played straight-forward blues and roots tunes. Professor Louie and Miss Marie are solid vocalists, although this listener would not call either an outstanding singer. The tone is set on the opening rendition of Marie Adams "I'm Gonna Play the Honky Tonks," with the Professor handling the vocal and taking a nice piano solo. There is chugging groove on the original "Prisoner of Sound" and followed by their rendition of "High Hell Sneakers," with Platania taking a short solo. Miss Marie handles the lead on the melancholy ballad "Love is Killing Me," while there is some rollicking piano and slide on a credible cover of Elmore James' "Fine Little Mama."

Professor Louie handles the vocal on Jimmy McCracklin's "I Finally Got You," with an insistent, driving rhythm. It sounds like an accordion creates hornlike riffs on Big Bill Broonzy's "Why Did You Do That to Me,"  a performance that  suggests the classic "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor." There is a creative reworking of the Jay McShann-Walter Brown classic "Confessing the Blues," erroneously credited to B.B. King. Miss Marie ably handles the lyrics against a solid backing that sounds derived from Ray Sharpe's "Linda Lu." Similarly, they rework the Jimmy Reed shuffle "Bright Lights, Big City," into a slow R&B flavored groove. Jimmy Rogers' "That's Alright," has been covered so often that it takes more than the listenable performance here to leave a deep impression. The album closes with Professor Louie on a bouncy instrumental, "Blues For Buckwheat," an affectionate tribute to the late zydeco legend.

This is a well played and sung recording, with a nice choice of material, but overall while there is  good music here, nothing left a deep impression. I have a feeling I might enjoy them more live than on this recording.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is "Love is Killing Me," from the recording.

Guy Davis Kokomo Kidd

MC Records has just issued Guy Davis' latest release "Kokomo Kidd," with nine originals and four covers. Davis is joined by Professor Louie on piano, John Platinia on slide and electric guitar, Mark Murphy on bass and cello, Gary Burke on drums, and Chris James on mandolin and rhythm electric guitar. Charlie Musselwhite and Fabrizio Poggi each guest on harmonica for one track while Ben Jaffe adds tuba to the opening title track.

Davis is an appealing folk and blues performer and the songs here provide a varied palette of blues that can be seen from the jaunty opening title track about a gentleman who was the grease in the corrupt prohibition era to keep the machine running. The next song, "Wish I Hadn't Stayed Away So Long," with its wistful sense about regretting his hobo's life. He adds some marvelous harmonica and banjo that adds to the flavor of the performance. "Taking Just A Little Bit of Time" has some nimble fingerpicking and a restrained, gruff, vocal.

Davis suggests Bob Dylan at times with several of his vocals including the cover of "Lay Lady Lay," but also "She Just Wants To Be Loved," about a lady who keeps going back for pain when all she wants to be loved with Professor Louie's organ and Chris James' mandolin helping the performance build in intensity. Charlie Musselwhite adds some nice harmonica to a pretty straight rendition of "Little Red Rooster," with Professor Louie adding strong piano as Davis singing capably, but Platania's slide guitar comes off as a bit over the top. Much better is the gem, "Maybe I'll Go," with an accompaniment and a vocal that evokes Mississippi John Hurt. The jaunty "Have You Ever Loved A Women" has Poggi adding his country blues styled harmonica for a lively acoustic performance. Tommy Johnson's "Cool Drink of Water" is a hauntingly beautiful recording and unfortunately Davis' gruff vocal nor the somewhat stilted rhythm suffer compared to the original. The reggae groove adds to the appeal of the closing "Wear Your Love Like Heaven."

"Kokomo Kidd" features a number of gems as well as some less successful songs, but as a whole displays his maturity as a performer and his open ears and imaginative approach to his music.

I received my copy from MC Records. This review originally appeared in the November-December 2015 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 363), although I made few stylistic changes and corrections. Here is Guy chatting and then performing.