Tony Holiday Soul Service

Tony Holiday
Soul Service
VizzTone

The Memphis-based Tony Holiday came to my attention with his "Porch Sessions," that featured his collaborations with several blues performers. It was a highly entertaining recording, although it showcased his guests as much, if not more, than Holiday himself. This is rectified in this new release. It places his songwriting and singing to the forefront along with his harmonica playing. Ori Naftaly, of the group Southern Avenue, produced this album that was recorded at Zebra Ranch, the Dickinson family studio in Independence, Mississippi. In addition to Holiday's vocals and harmonica, this recording features Landon Stone on guitar, Max Kaplan on bass and background vocals, Danny Banks on drums, and special guests Naftaly on guitar and Victor Wainwright on keyboards. Holiday wrote all eight songs (some with John Nemeth).

Holiday is a very good, straight-forward singer with a fat tone on the harmonica. He also is a songwriter with a way to craft memorable tunes starting with "Payin' Rent on a Broken Home," a song with a catchy bass figure that may evoke an Albert King number. There is plenty to enjoy in the songs on this album from the Chicago blues of the opening number to the rocking flavor of "She Knocks Me Out," with Stone's keen slide guitar and Wainwright's boogie piano. "It's Gonna Take Some Time" is a marvelous swamp pop flavored number with Stone adding twang while Holiday sounds like he is channeling Lazy Lester here. Perhaps the top track is "Good Advice," where he strings together of various homilies his grandma gave as good advice. It is played at such a nice tempo. Holiday lays down exceptional chromatic harmonica on "Checkers on the Chessboard," and The Hustle." on "Checkers," Wainwright adds a marvelous keyboard accompaniment. The closing "Ol' Number Nine" is a solid piece of Rolling Stones' flavored rock and roll.

One might complain about the short playing time (only 30 minutes), but there is little fat or gristle in these performances that provide a welcome showcase of Tony Holiday's music.

I received my review copy from VizzTone Records. Here are Tony Holiday and Max Kaplan performing ""It's Gonna Take Some Time."

Gracie Curran & Friends Come Undone

Gracie Curran & Friends
Come Undone
VizzTone

Originally from Boston but now living in Memphis, "Come Undone" is singer and songwriter Gracie Curran's second release. Her first album, 'Proof of Love," was nominated for a Blues Music Award as Best New Artist Debut. She co-produced this new release with Damon Fowler who plays guitar on it — also playing on this Matt Walker on guitar, bass and Wurlitzer; Pat Harrington on guitar on the first track; Victor Wainwright and Jeremy Powell each playing on keyboards for two of the eight tunes; Doug Woolverton on trumpet; Mark Earley on sax; and Reba Russell on backing vocals.

Some of the publicity material compare her vocals to that of Mavis Staples. I would not go quite that far, but she certainly impresses the listener on the title track, which is a very appealing serving of Memphis soul with a reggae accent. In contrast, "Ernestine" is a folk-roots styled performance with Reba Russell complementing her country-flavored singing. "Stay Up!" is a jump-style party blues with plenty of swagger in her vocal with a crisp guitar solo and the horns doing a call and response with each other. Trebly guitar adds to the atmosphere to her insistent vocal on "The Things We Like" as she sings about not wanting to but having to let one go.

"Sweet Sativa" is a blues about marijuana with stinging slide guitar (could be lap steel guitar) taken at loping tempo. "If Mama Ain't Happy" is a rocking blues with some outstanding piano from Wainwright and a brief, crisp guitar solo. Perhaps the most outstanding song is a soulful ballad, "Love Is The Cruelest Thing I Know," It shows how nuanced a singer she is and how convincing she is with the restraint exhibited here. The closing track "Chasing Sunset" shits gears to a delightful country roots rocker.

The strength of Gracie Curran's performances is that while she can belt out a lyric, she focuses more on timing, phrasing, and vocal dynamics. The songs were fascinating, and the backing excellent. The only fault might be the eight songs only last a little over a half-hour. There are no complaints about the actual music heard on a very notable album.

I received my review copy from VizzTone. Here is a performance of "Come Undone."

Mitch Woods - Jammin' On The High C's

Mitch Woods is a real solid conveyor of boogie woogie piano and jump blues and for over a decade has been running Mitch Woods Club 88 on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues cruises. It started simple enough when as an invited guest on the cruise, he noticed the ship had a piano bar that wasn't being used, so he simply started playing and people came by to listen and musicians came by to sit in. Soon the jams were lasting until daybreak and someone put up a sign saying Mitch Woods' Club 88 which became the Club 88 Piano Bar and Blues Lounge n the cruise with now 4 piano players on every cruise alternating shifts from early evening to until ?.

Woods had a variety of performances from the January 2015 cruise recorded and they have just been issued on Club 88 Records (distributed by VizzTone), "Jammin' On The High C's" which is subtitled "Live From Mitch Woods' Club 88 on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise." Its a fun recording with his boogie and jump piano joined on different selections by members of Roomful of Blues, Julia Magness, Billy Branch, Victor Wainwright, Papa Chubby, Coco Montoya, Lucky Peterson, Tommy Castro and Dwayne Dopsie.

Mostly the music is renditions of well known blues standards played in an ebullient fashion with Woods handling the old Smiley Lewis classic "Big Mamou" to open it up. Highlights are Lucky Peterson singing Jimmy Reed's "Bright Lights, Big City," Billy Branch reprising Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind," Papa Chubby handling "Wee Wee Hours," and Dwayne Dopsie joining on a rocking "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On." One also gets entertained by Tommy Castro singing Little Richard's "Rip It Up," and a nice "Rock Me Baby" from Coco Montoya.

My major criticism is the lack of fuller personnel information (although I might imagine it would be pretty lengthy), and more seriously the lack of composer credits. These performances are entertaining and fun if not classic and the sense of good times comes though on this nicely put together recording which includes Woods reciting the history of Club 88. Certainly one of aspects of the Cruise that makes it a consistent sell-out.

I received my review copy from VizzTone. This review originally appeared in the September-October Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 362). Here Mitch previews this disc.

J.T. Lauritsen - Play By The Rules

Blues has become an international music and a recording by Norwegian harmonica-accordion player (Jan Tore) J.T. Lauritsen, Play By The Rules (Hunters Records) illustrates this. For nearly 20 years he has led The Buckshot Hunters who have had several well received recordings. The present recording was recorded at sessions in Memphis and Oslo, Norway and has appearances by Victor Wainwright, Anson Funderburgh and others on various tracks. Greg Gumpel or Willie C. Campbell on bass, Wainwright on keyboards and Josh Roberts are common to the Memphis recordings while Atle Rakvåg on bass, and Ian Frederick Johannessen on guitar are on the Oslo sessions. Jon Grimsby is drummer throughout while guitarist Arnfinn Tørrisen and keyboardist Paul Wagnberg are heard on both sessions.

Lauritsen impresses on this marvelously varied group of performances. One would be surprised listening to him sing to discover English is not his first language. He sings in a natural,relaxed fashion and the supporting musicians do a bang-up job in backing him on some nice covers and originals. William Bell’s Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday starts this recording off on a nice southern soul vein followed by the Crescent City groove on Lauritsen’s original Next Time, with  zydeco flavor provided by the leader’s accordion with Wainwright taking a rollicking piano solo. Te title track is a nice slow blues with Josh Roberts adding slide guitar. Billy Gibbons on harp joins Lauritsen on a easy rocking shuffle rendition of Walter Horton’s Need My Babe, taken as a medium shuffle which is followed by Wainwright’s Memphis Boogie, that he gets off to a rollicking start followed by Roberts crisp solo and then more boogie woogie piano before the leader steps up.

We are taken back to New Orleans on Big Joe Maher’s Ever Since The World Began, which then followed up by a fine take on the Cookie and the Cupcakes swamp pop classic Mathilda. Like the rest of this recording, it is wonderfully played and sung at the right tempo. Anson Funderburgh adds strong guitar to Find My Little Girl as Lauritsen sings about going back to Dallas, Texas to find his little girl while plays rhythm guitar on the atmospheric take on Gillian Welch’s Valley of Tears.

The performances on Play By The Rules never come off as hurried or frantic and there is a genuine soulful quality to J.T. Lauritsen’s vocals that make this release well worth noting.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is a video of J.T. Lauritsen.

Long Tall Deb Says Raise Your Hands

Its always a pleasure to hear a previously unfamiliar talent and to my delight, I discovered Long Tall Deb with her release Raise Your Hands (VizzTone). A Texas native, but currently based in Ohio, Deb Landolt, is a marvelous singer that can range from a whisper to a scream (to paraphrase an Allen Toussaint song title) and backed by some marvelous musicians including John Popovich on keyboards, Sean Carney and Dave Clo on guitars, Melvin Powe on bass and Jan Roll on drums. To this core band are appearances on various tracks by (amongst others) Damon Fowler, JP Soars, and Jimmy Thackery on guitars, Victor Wainwright and Reese Wynans on organ, Phil Pemberton, Shaun Booker, Big Llou, Nikki Scott, Michelle Swift on vocals and background vocals, and the Roomful of Blues Horns. 

This album has its origins in a series of impromptu writing sessions, affectionately referred that began in the fall of 2011. Landolt, John Popovich and bassist Melvin Powe would gather with new song ideas and jam on themes and variations. Often in between his international tour dates, Columbus stalwart Sean Carney joined the fun. These songs would be developed by their collaboration and Nashville producer dave Clo further refined these originals along with two covers, Tom Waits’ New Coat of Paint and Ian Moore’s Muddy Jesus, that comprise Raise Your Hands. 

The music here is quite striking. Its wonderfully produced but Deb Landolt is clearly the star who possesses a rich, expressive voice and sings in a natural fashion exhibiting nuance as well as power. The songs are first-rate as well starting with the opening What Would A Good Woman Do, in which Deb sings her complaints about an overbearing husband that wants her to do her bidding and ends in a spirited verbal repartee with Phil Pemberton. A theme of unworthy men also marks Hush Your Mouth, where she basically is telling the fool the best time is when he just shuts up, and Finally Forgot Your Name. These are wonderfully soulful performances but contrast with Let’s Get Lost where she tells her man that they need to get away and just get down to it. 

Train To Tucson is a lively celebration of taking the west-bound train to Tucson with some nice slide guitar from Colin John with the band providing a rockabilly feel. The title track is a gospel-tinged song about lifting herself (and listeners) from down times and the efforts of naysayers to cut oneself down. Damon Fowler’s blues-rock guitar and Victor Wainwright’s organ add punch to Ian Moore’s Muddy Jesus which transfers the Christian story from the Middle East to the Rio Grande who gets shot down crossing the river. Colin John’s slide guitar opens To Find His Home with Nikki Scott sharing the lead vocal on a gospel-based plea for tolerance and love of one’s fellow man no matter what their race, nationality or religion (“I see so-called Christian people killing their brothers in your name.”). 

This recording closes with Deb, backed just by Popovich’s piano, providing a lovely rendition of Tom Wait’s New Coat of Paint. It is an intimate sounding performance which provides a nice contrast to the varied band performances. Long Tall Deb shows poise and maturity throughout Raise Your Hands. There is plenty of heart and soul exhibited by her and band on this excellent album.

I received my copy from the record label. Here is Long Tall Deb and Muddy Jesus.