Steve Freund's Guitar and Vocals Hits Right Notes.

Guitarist Steve Freund established himself as part of the Chicago scene several decades ago working with blues legends like Sunnyland Slim. Relocated to the San Francisco area, he has matured into a terrific blues guitarist, rooted in the classic Chicago blues (one hears tinges in his playing that evokes Muddy Waters, big Broonzy, Luther Tucker and others, but he has mixed in with a jazzy style that also shows his listening has extended to Grant Green, Wes Montgomery and others. He has just issued his first album in six years, “Lonesome Flight” (9 Below Records), with some originals and several choice covers.


The disc opens with a tribute to Big Bill Broonzy, “Hey Mr. Bill,” with some deft guitar evoking Broonzy’s masterful swinging style with a lyric asking Big Bill to play the blues as Steve feels so lowdown. and his music helps Steve more than Bill can realize. The title track has tinges of Muddy and Luther Tucker in Freund’s playing backing about hearing his father died and Steve Freund packed his suitcase, went out into the night and caught that Lonesome Flight. The backing band includes some pretty fine harp from Scot Brenton. “Boogie in the Rain,” has an easy shuffle groove with the backing including droning guitar and harp one that lends this a sound like it was a tribute to the original version of Canned Heat with Henry Vestine and Alan Wilson. What’s nice about this performance is how relaxed the groove is. “LaMorr is Blue,” is a jazzy instrumental with Freund using an box to get an organ-like tone, while “Still Pickin’” is based on Elmore James’ “Pickin’ the Blues.” which allows Freund to pay homage to James as well as Earl Hooker with his playing here. John Brim’s “Tough Times,” receives a lyrical updating with references to lacking health insurance and bills being long overdue and Brenton contributes more fine harp here. “On Highway 101” is a rocking number (musically a reworking of the “Rollin’ & Tumblin’ & “Meet Me in the Bottom”) with a lyric about riding to the West Coast with Sunnyland Slim. He does a more than credible version of King Curtis’ “Let Me Down Easy” (Freddie King did the original), followed by a nice shuffle rendition of mandolinist, Johnny Young’s “Keep On Drinking,” further illustrating Freund’s ability to take a tune and make it his own.


Freund may not be a great singer, but he is ably delivers the songs in a genuine sounding manner. His fine playing and the understated backing by his find band anchored around bassist Burton Winn and drummer Robi Bean, is responsible for much of the success of the performances. Five selections, including “Still Pickin’,” “Tough Times,” “Let Me Down Easy,” and “Keep On Drinking,” have Randy Bermudes on bass, and former Robert Lockwood drummer, June Core. All these elements make Freund’s “Lonesome Flight” a noteworthy new release for blues enthusiasts.


The review copy was provided by the record label. It is available from cdbaby, amazon and other sources.

Storyville's Nicely Varied "The Blues Box"

“The Blues Box” is a 7CD compilation of a variety of mostly downhome blues that has appeared on the Scandinavian Storyville label over the decades. The recordings were made by touring blues artists and mostly date from the sixties and early seventies and include some of the most important artists alive at the time. The overwhelming majority of these recordings are solo or duo, or in a few cases there are small groups. the overall flavor is intimate recordings although using the word intimate with a rambunctious barrelhouse performer like the great pianist Speckled Red seems like an oxymoron.

One complaint in a written review I have seen is that they should have included the complete Storyville Recordings of the artists presented (they may have done so with respect to Lonnie Johnson). I do not disagree with that assessment, but can also appreciate the sense of bringing together a wide group of performers as they have done here. I should point out that some of the recordings by Lonnie Johnson, Otis Spann, Roosevelt Sykes, Sippie Wallace and Sleepy John Estes have been issued in the United States after being licensed from Storyville. I am not sure what may be currently readily available stateside although I believe Roosevelt Sykes and John Estes sides may be on CD reissues on Delmark.

Here is a brief summary of what you get here. CD One provides 13 sides by Lonnie Johnson, accompanied by Otis Spann on all but one with a remake of “Tomorrow Night,” and a mix of blues and ballads. there are also 8 excellent performances by Spann including a terrific “Trouble in Mind,” where Johnson backs him as well as a nice rendition of Johnson’s “Jelly Roll Baker. CD Two features 13 terrific piano blues by Speckled Red with his barrelhouse renditions of “The Dirty Dozen,” and “St. Louis Stomp,” along with Sunnyland Slim’s eight strong tracks including moving renditions of his Aristocrat single “Johnson Machine Gun,” and Leroy Carr’s “Prison Bound Blues.” Both pianists often provide brief spoken introductions that enliven the superb performances. CD Three brings together recordings by two of the greatest blues pianists Roosevelt Sykes (9 selections including a remake of “44 Blues”), and 5 tracks by Little Brother Montgomery and the two of them provide accompaniments to 8 of the nine excellent Sippie Wallace vocals. Sippie accompanies herself on “Up the Country Blues.”

CD Four shifts the focus to blues guitarists with 10 energetic and exuberant Delta blues by Big Joe Williams whose “El Paso Blues,” is clearly inspired from “Sweet Home Chicago” and “Kokomo Blues.” Sleepy John Estes and his long-time associate Hammie Nixon are heard on 7 songs with Estes crying vocals and Nixon’s sympathetic harmonica with “Diving Duck Blues,” being a highlight. the final 7 selections are by Robert Pete Williams in his mesmerizing style. CD Five has the earliest selections here, live 1956performances from Copenhagen’s legendary Club Montmartre by Big Bill Broonzy as well as 6 1964 recordings by John Henry Barbee, a solid if unspectacular bluesman influenced by Broonzy among others turning in a rendition of “Dust My Broom.”

More piano is featured on CD 6 which opens up with 11 selections by Memphis Slim including a nice “Fattening frogs For Snakes.” Champion Jack Dupree performs seven selections, some solo and some with a small group including Leroy Carr’s “Blues Before Sunrise.” Eddie Boyd and Jay McShann each have three selections. Boyd reprises “Five Long Years,” while McShann performs “Kansas City Blues,” which is credited here to Little Willie Littlefield and not Lieber & Stoller. Littlefield has long claimed to have written the song (originally issued as “K.C. Lovin’” on Federal) and sold it to the more famous duo. CD Seven shifts the focus to harmonica (well not entirely) and 9 recordings by the second Sonny Boy Williamson, some with Matt Murphy’s guitar and Memphis Slim’s piano of which the quasi-autobiographical “The Story of Sonny boy Williamson perhaps demonstrates his surreal blues poetic lyricism. The remaining 10 selections are by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and are strong performances by the pair.

There is also a bonus DVD which open with some excellent vintage and intimate performances by Champion Jack Dupree and Sonny Boy Williamson. Then there are performances by Robert Lockwood, Jr., James Booker, Henry Gray, Boogie Bill Webb & Harmonica Slim, and Cousin Joe that are excerpted from a series of videos recorded at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans that I believe were filmed around the time of the ill-fated New Orleans World Fair.

There is a generous amount of music in the box with the bonus DVD. The performances are never less than good and many are exceptional and provide a wide variety of musical performances and styles.

Last Century's Blues Dream

Has it been 40 years since Mike Vernon had traveled to Chicago and recorded Sunnyland Slim and Johnny Shines for the Blues Horizon label. With Willie Dixon on bass and organizing the sessions, and a band that also included Walter Horton on harmonica and Clifton James on drums, two albums were produced, Slim's Midnight Jump, and Shine's Last Night Dream. The two albums along with a few alternates from Slim's session are now available on the just issued CD, Sunnyland Slim & Johnny Shines, The Complete Blue Horizon Session.

Mike Vernon's notes in the booklet gives a pretty thorough account of the lives of both of these legends as well as what went on the June, 1968 day when these were recorded. Sunnyland Slim today is remembered by those lucky enough to have seen him perform. He could band that piano out exhibiting an occasional stutter step in his phrasing matched by his booming voice that delivered the songs with an authority that is missing among the living blues pianists with the possible exception of David 'Omar Sharif' Alexander. Equally impressive solo or fronting the band that would be Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All Stars here, Slim does not disappoint with a few staples of his repertoire, Get to My Baby, one of the songs heard in alternate takes, the fine Stella Mae with some exquisite harp from Shakey Horton, as well as Slim's topical Depression Blues.

Slim sets out the ten performances by Shines, although Otis Spann sits in for Pipeline Blues. The Shines performances include somewhat more intimate performances with piano or harp, and all feature Shines, certainly one of the most adept slide guitarists and one of the great blues singers of all time (with echoes of Howling Wolf, Lonnie Johnson and Robert Johnson). Certainly there are echoes of Johnson on several songs such as Baby Don't You Think I Know (a reworking of Sweet Home Chicago), Solid Gold and Last Night's Dream (both echoing Walking Blues), as well his rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson I's Black Panther (although I prefer the version of Otis Spann he recorded for Testament). Vernon talks about some issues of Shines and Dixon being in tune and Clifton James' timing occasionally drifting, but Shines' voice simply cuts through any shortcomings.

Slim died in 1995, a few years after Shines had. Listening to these recordings by the Delta natives today one simply must recognize that the what is called Mississippi blues today simply pales in comparison to what these two produced four decades ago. Highly recommended and available from various online sources.

Sleepy John's Electric Chicago Blues

Sleepy John Estes was one of the great blues poets and vocalists whose prewar recordings were highly influential on the likes of John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson and others. A creative lyricist who often spun songs from his own experiences, his crying vocals (and rudimentary guitar playing) backed by the vocalised harmonica of Hammie Nixon and the mandolin of Yank Rachell produced numerous classic songs that became part of the blues repertoire, such Diving Duck Blues, Drop Down Mama, and Everybody Oughta Make a Change. Rediscovered in the sixties, Estes had a revived career recording and performing world wide, producing several excellent albums for Delmark. Delmark’s reissue, On the Chicago Blues Scene, makes available for the first time on CD an album originally released as Electric Sleep, a play on the psychedelic recordings of Muddy and Howling Wolf, although this was simply presenting Estes in a Chicago blues setting with a backing band that included Sunnyland Slim on piano, Jimmy Dawkins on guitar, Carey Bell on harp, Odie Payne on drums and various bassist including Earl Hooker. Koester recalls seeing Estes participate in a jam in Europe with Hubert Sumlin, Rice ‘Sonny Boy Williamson’ Miller, Sunnyland Slim and others and able to sing with such modernists and a few years later cut an album in that vein and with the sympathetic backing by a band that does a fine job in backing Estes who could sometimes not be easy to follow. The vocals are marvelous as can be expected and its a joy to hear familiar Estes songs take on a fresh sound and here the music played with such joy and soulfulness. Recommended.

Interesting new jazz and blues podcast

Tim Niland, who has a fascinating blog of jazz and blues reviews just has put forth a new podcast of jazz and blues with a diverse playlist that includes Otis Rush, Sunnyland Slim, Big Joe Turner, Earl Hooker and James Hunter with Williams Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Shirley Scott and Clifford Thornton amongst others. Click on podcast on his entry on the podcast and you can download it to listen to on your computer. A lot of fresh musical surprises are ins tore for those who give it a listen.