Finis Tasby People Don’t Care

Finis Tasby

People Don’t Care

Shanachie

Shanachie, which also is the parent label for Yazoo, is best known for acoustic and world beat music. With this debut album of West Coast bluesman Finis Tasby, the label presents its first modern urban blues release. Playing and singing for over three decades, Tasby’s Texas band, The Thunderbirds, spawned a young Z.Z. Hill. Over recent years he has played with Freddie King, Lowell Fulson, John Lee Hooker and others, and recorded some singles. He finally has his first full album, and he has obviously made friends over the years as Elvin Bishop, Mick Taylor and Vernon Reid each guest on guitar and solo, while Lowell Fulson shares a vocal on Find Something Else to Do, and wrote Just a Kiss. 

Tasby is a gritty singer and guitarist and his music is suggestive of the late sixties and early seventies recordings by Fulson and McCracklin. He also co-wrote four of the ten songs, and producer Charles Collins had his hand in another four. Shanachie describes this as a set of rocking blues, but Tasby’s gritty vocals and guitar is undercut by the vocal choruses and horn arrangements on some of the cuts. Fulson’s Just a Kiss, is a terrific song in which the chorus is successfully integrated in the terrific performance. This and the duet with Fulson, Find Something Else to Do, best display Tasby’s strengths, and even if the horns overplay on Gotta Draw the Line or the shuffle Po’ Boy Blues, Tasby convincingly delivers the lyrics and adds biting guitar. Drinkin’ Bad Whiskey is a slow Tasby original about how alcohol and drugs can’t ease his pain which is fervently sung and sports a fiery solo. Gonna Miss Your Love is a medium tempo number with a latin tinge and a cooing backing chorus that comes across because it is more understated in delivery. 

There is plenty about Finis Tasby to like here, despite the heavy-handed production in some areas. Unfortunately, this album could have some marketing problems, as it seems to be aimed towards the southern black blues audience and Shanachie might have a tough time cracking that market. At the same time, the vocal choruses and horns on several tracks might diminish its appeal among white blues buyers, who are often oriented to guitar solo based albums. This would be a shame, as there is some terrific Finis Tasby to be heard here.

I likely received my review copy from Shanachie. This review originally appeared in the September 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 204). Here is Finis Tasby performing "As the Years Go Passing By."

Grady Champion Recalls His Shanachie Days

Grady Champion has certainly seen his star rise in recent years after his winning of the International Blues Challenge. His success comes after he had recorded several albums for Shanachie which unfortunately at the time did not have the commercial success they were hoping for. In fact, Dennis Walker, with Bruce Bromberg, had produced Robert Cray and Joe Louis Walker amongst others, did some of the production of these recordings. Now Grady has compiled and released a selection of 17 songs from these recordings, Shanachie Days (GSM Music Group).

A number of these songs will be familiar to those who have seen Grady or his recent Live album, such as his anthemic My Rooster Is King, Dreamin’, or Policeman’s Blues, the latter dealing with him suffering police brutality. Other songs, like Lady Luck, about his misfortune at the casino as he asks where did you go are supported by a hard-hitting backing band and sound fresh today.

Mixed in with his fervent singing is some nice harmonica playing which is particularly well displayed on the country-flavored Roberta, with nice dobro, as well as mandolin, set against a lazy groove. There is a more of an urban rhythm and blues flavor with the brass and backing vocals Love Is My Middle Name, where he tells his girl that when she is tired of the games others play, she can count on him to make her happy. It is followed here by the crisp shuffle groove of Let Me Be, as he tells his woman that they have had this conversation one too many times. 

This writer had heard some of the Shanachie recordings when they came out, but it is nice to have my memory refreshed as well as listening to other sides I was not familiar with. The music certainly will please Grady’s fans and may be as good an introduction to his music as his most recent recordings, I do wish they had included the original discographical information (what were the original albums and personnel). Other than that, there is not music to complain about Grady Champion’s Shanachie Days.

My review copy was provided by a publicist. Here is Grady in performance backed by Eddie Cotton on guitar.

Curtis Salgado Makes A Clean Getaway

Vocalist and harp player, Curtis Salgado, fortunately has come back with a vengeance after having very serious health issues. Perhaps marking the clean bill of health from doctors recently, his new disc for Shananchie is Clean Getaway. Recorded with the Phantom Blues Band, it is a terrific disc that showcase what a strong and soulful vocalist he is as he traverses the blues and modern soul genres on the performances here.

The title track opens up with some stinging guitar with Salgado singing about selling everything he has to a pawn shop, leave his past behind and take a long vacation and make a clean getaway from things before giving a litany of complaints about the nature of things today. His vocal is well suited to this unusually thoughtful lyrics. The following Both Sorry Over Nothin’ is a nice soul number with him adding some well placed harp while Who’s Lovin’ You, is a soul ballad with a touch of Sam Cooke.

Johnny Guitar Watson's What’s Going On, is evoked on What’s Up With That, with some shattering Watson-styled guitar throughout and the Horns evoking those old Maxwell Davis studio bands. I Don’t Want to Discuss It,” is a hyper-rocking number while 20 Years of B.B. King, is a terrific blues as Salgado sings about his girl giving him the blues with lyrics that incorporates phrases from B.B. King’s recordings and song titles as he has learned more about the blues from her than 20 years of B.B. King. Some really excellent guitar on this track as well. Another performance to note is his cover of Al Green’s Let’s Gets Married.

This album has worn well, with Salgado sounding better each time I give it a listen. The only thing more welcome than this disc is the fact that Curtis Salgado is back and sounding as good as new.

This review originally appeared in the October 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 309). I do not remember my source for the recording, whether Shanachie, a publicist or Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Curtis singing  20 Years of B.B. King.