Franklin and Mindte Go Dancing With Their Babies

Piedmont blues guitarist Rick Franklin and bluegrass mandolinist Tom Mindte have collaborated on a new Patuxent Music release Dancing With My Baby. This writer has known Franklin for close to three decades (including when we both were on the board of the D.C. Blues Society) and enjoyed his live performances with Neil Harpe and Rick Usilton and more recently with his Delta Blues Boys. His previous recordings included some with Harpe, a self-produced CD of Hokum Blues and the excellent Searching For Frank (on Patuxent) with Mike Baytop that was issued on Patuxent several years ago. Mindte, in addition to playing mandolin, is the chief force behind Patuxent Music. 

This is an affable recording from the opening reworking of Cecil Gant’s I’m a Good Man But a Poor Man, to the closing gospel number The River of Jordan. If Franklin takes most of the vocals, Mindte’s own high tenor harmony and also his leads have definite natural appeal. Mindte’s mandolin bridges his bluegrass background with the mandolin of such blues masters as Charlie McCoy and Yank Rachell. It lends a nice flavor to the performances. 

On nice relaxed rendition of Hank Williams Half As Much, Mindte’s supporting vocal lends a bluegrass flavor to it. An instrumental original Guitar & Mandolin Rag, is delightful while Crazy About Nancy Jane is a lively rendition of a song associated with Washboard Sam and a favorite of Western Swing bands. Two White Horses In a Line is a spirited rendition of an older spiritual number based on the recording by Joe Evans and Arthur McClain. while the interchange between black blues and early country music is displayed in He’s in the Jailhouse Now, first recorded by Blind Blake and later by Jimmie Rodgers.

The popular hymn “I’ll Fly Away” is heard along with Mississippi John Hurt’s Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me, with a backing that suggests some of Jimmie Rodgers blue yodels (without the yodels). This latter tune is followed by a rendition of Rodgers No Hard Times with Mindte taking the strutting vocal suggestive of the late Piedmont blues master John Jackson. Rocks in My Pillow, while credited to Son Tillis goes back at least to Roy Brown’s Hard Luck Blues with Mindte contributing another heartfelt vocal. It is a number associated with Washington DC area blues legend Warner Williams who has recorded it for Patuxent.

Engaging renditions of such folk and blues staples You Are My Sunshine and “Goodnight Irene, along with the hokum of You Can’t That Stuff Anymore round out this attractive and varied recording that will appeal to a wide range of acoustic roots listeners. For more information of this recording check out http://www.pxrec.com. 

Rick Franklin gave me a copy of this release. Rick and his Delta Blues Boys are playing Saturday February 22 at Cassatt's (http://www.cassattscafe.com) in Arlington, Virginia starting at 7:00 PM. You can enjoy some kiwi tweets along with some wonderful acoustic blues. Here is Rick in performance.

Chris Biesterfeldt Jazzy Mandolin

Mandolin is not a common instrument in jazz ensembles and outside of the world of bluegrass or a Brazilian Choro Ensemble, it is not a common lead instrument. Chris Biesterfeldt is known as a guitarist, but on his self-produced new recording, Urban Mandolin, he handles a variety of jazz and pop tunes leading a trio of mandolin, bass and drums. 

On this recording he is accompanied by Adam Armstrong on upright bass and Eric Halvorson on drums on a fairly broad range of material here including jazz classics from Eddie Harris (Freedom Jazz Dance), Jaco Pastorious (Teen Town), Chick Corea’s (Armando’s Rhumba), Thelonious Monk (Bye-ya), Wayne Shorter (Witch Hunt) and Jimmy Smith Back at the Chicken Shack); pop classics like I Can’t Make You Love Me, and God Only Knows); Pixinguinha’s choro classic Segura Ele; and Frank Zappa’s Rollo Interior, that closes this recording

A torrid take on Dizzy Gillespie’s Bebop, opens this recording and immediately establishes how deft and commanding a player Biesterfeldt is with a fast, cleaning picking complemented by Armstrong’s and Halvorson’s lightly played drums. The metallic (tinny) staccato sound of the mandolin lends these performances with a unique tone. There follows a relaxed rendition of Charlie Parker’s Quasimodo that displays exemplary interplay between the leader and Armstrong while Halvoson employs a light touch here. 

The mandolin’s brittle, metallic tone may put off some listeners and the trio format perhaps does not work with every single number (Freedom Jazz Dance sounds a bit clunky),  but his playing on Bye-Ya is exhilirating.  Other high points include the exhilarating Segura Ele, a marvelous rendering of God Only Knows and the invention he brings in his improvisation to Shorter’s Witch Hunt. Biesterfeldt’s adventurous playing throughout Urban Mandolin merits careful and attentive listening. 

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here he can be heard playing from the album,  Teen Town.

Bert Deivert's Acoustic Blues Delight

Born in Boston, Bert Deivert has taken this passion for the blues to Sweden which he calls home and has just issued his tenth album Kid Man Blues (Hard Danger). This writer was not familiar with him but perusing the accompanying booklet I note that my friend Memphis Gold contributes two backing vocals among the twelve tracks and among the albums he has played on was Memphis Gold’s Gator Gonna Bitchu! Three of his earlier albums were collaborations with Eric Bibb and he also is among those who have adapted the mandolin in addition to guitar, acknowledging the influence of such early masters as Yank Rachell and Carl Martin.

Deivert’s skill with the mandolin is on display on most of this release which is my first exposure to his music. It is a varied collection of songs ranging from adaptations of R.L. Burnside’s North Mississippi Hill Country Blues to fingerpicking classics from Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Blake and the deep blues of Skip James and Son House and was recorded in Sweden, Thailand, Mississippi and Germany with a variety of folks assisting Bert. Augmented by backing vocals, R.L. Burnside’s Goin’ Down South, has a string band feel with violin in addition to Deivert’s mandolin 9and he doubles on lap steel guitar. Its followed by some rollicking piano by Willie Salomon for the barrelhouse flavored State Street Pimp, that comes from Carl Martin’s repertoire. Bill Abel adds guitar and the late Sam Carr played drums on Rob and Steal, a nice medium tempo blues recorded at Abel’s Mississippi studio with more hills country flavor. Sven Zetterberg’s nice harp on this was added later in Sweden.

Walter Davis’ Come Back Baby was recorded in Bangkok and this brooding blues originally recorded by Walter Davis has a definitely more modern, electric flavor with guitar from one Dulyasit “Pong” Srabua with some overdubbed mandolin added in the latter part of this performance. The title track was from Carl Martin and is about a younger man being a married woman’s kid man, and features some nice mandolin as well as fiddle and my buddy Memphis Gold is among those adding to the vocal here “if you let me be your kid man I’ll always treat you right.” For some reason, Deivert attributes Keep On Truckin’ to Blind Blake but I believe he meant Blind Boy Fuller, the great Piedmont blues artist of the thirties. A vocal duet with Tom Paley of the New Lost City Ramblers, it is a lively, raggy performance with lively picking from Paley and Deivert and one cannot ignore the resonator slide guitar of Frederick Karlsson here.

Deivert may not be as powerful a singer as Skip James or Son House but his renditions of James’ Cypress Grove and House’s Death Letter Blues, are quite moving. On Cypress Grove, the harp of Mats Qwarfordt helps provide the ethereal quality that James’ vocals and guitar provided. Death Letter Blues is a credible solo cover with rhythmic slide guitar and a solid vocal. Blind Blake’s Diddie Wah Diddie is done as a lively duet with guitarist Lasse Johansson and sports some wonderful mandola playing.

It is often said that blues has become an international music. Certainly the fine music here is evidence of that. Deivert himself notes that this recording was not meant to simply be a solo vehicle, “but, rather a showcase for this fine music that is being made all over the world, and great musicians who are not recognized by a larger audience.” Deivert’s Kid Man Blues is a delightful acoustic blues showcase that it was intended to be. This is being distributed through cdbaby.com and his website is www.deivert.com/blues.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here are some videos of Bert performing.

Johnny Young's Big Fat Chicago Mandolin Blues

There have been few blues mandolin players recorded. One of them was Johnny Young, a traditionally rooted Chicago based bluesman who passed away over thirty-five years. Rich DelGrosso celebrated the music of Young and other blues mandolin players on “Mandolin Man” from the recent album he did with John Del Toro Richardson, “Time Slips By”.

Young was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, learned from an uncle who was part of a string band in Rolling Fork, and later was associated with the Mississippi Sheiks as well as with blues legends Houston Stackhouse and Robert Nighthawk. He moved permanently to Chicago in 1940 and played in clubs with John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson as well as engaged in a number of day jobs. In 1947 he was playing on the Maxwell Street Market and with a cousin, Johnny Williams recorded Money Taking Woman, for the Ora Nelle label on which he played mandolin and sang. He accompanied his cousin on the flip side on what was one of the earliest post-war Chicago blues recordings.

He made a few more 78s and in the fifties backed Snooky Pryor on a Vee-Jay recording session. Blues and jazz writer Pete Welding extensively recorded Young on his Testament label with selections appearing on anthologies and eventually a full album of recordings with sidemen including harmonica players Big Walter and Little Walter; guitarists John Lee Granderson and Robert Nighthawk, and pianists Jimmy Walker and Otis Spann. Approximately half of these recordings featured him on mandolin. Young was recorded as part of Vanguard’s Chicago the Blues Today! series although only one of the tracks had him on mandolin. Two albums were recorded on Arhoolie, one of which included members of Muddy Waters band and some selections included his mandolin playing.

In June 1969, Young recorded with pianist Otis Spann, and guitarist/bass guitarist Sammy Lawhorn, harmonica player Paul Oscher and drummer S.P. Leary, who all were then members of Muddy Waters Band for an album that was issued in England on the Blue Horizon label as Fat Mandolin. Mike Vernon, founder of Blue Horizon, estimated the initial release only sold in the hundreds, which says more about marketing and popular tastes than the quality of the music. Sony/Blue Horizon issued a few years back Johnny Young’s The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions with some alternate takes, false starts and unissued songs. As Vernon observes in his liner notes, this is the first digital reissue of this material.

The album provides a healthy dose of Young’s mandolin starting with the opening Moaning and Groaning. where the clipped mandolin sound is complemented by Spann’s typically strong piano accompaniment as well as solos to take it out. Taken a lively, but unhurried tempo, Young’s robust vocal here is straightforward and heartfelt. There is nothing innovative here; simple strong Chicago blues sung and played with authority few today can deliver. One can hear the influence of the pioneering Leroy Carr in such Young originals as Heard My Doorbell Ring, as well as the remake of Carr’s Prison Bound, a staple of the Chicago blues scene of the time. On My Trainfare Out of Town, where Young plays guitar, Oscher evokes Walter Horton with his harmonica, while Spann pounds out another solo. 

Lula Mae is a marvelous duet of Young on mandolin backed by Lawhorn on bass guitar, while John Lee Williamson’s Shotgun Blues is titled here as Jackson Bound, and we are provided the incomplete first take as the master take as he sings the terrific line Lake Michigan Ain’t No River, Chicago Ain’t No Hilly Town. Walking Slow opens with some classic slow blues piano from Spann before Young starts his vocal and Vernon suggests Lawhorn is the guitarist here. Mandolin returns for the two, somewhat different takes of Deal the Cards, with a philosophical delivery of the lyric about always being dealt the losing hand. Lend Me You Love has some incomplete takes before a memorable rendition of a Memphis Slim inspired song that fans of the late Junior Wells should recognize. Other highlights include the wonderful rendition of Prison Bound, with just Young on mandolin and Lawhorn on bass guitar and Victoria Spivey’s Mean Old Black Snake. Also included are previously unissued recordings including a lively version of the old Memphis Jug Band’s Stealin’ that he had recorded at least twice before.

It is an important and valuable reissue that should be available from better retailers. I purchased this.