Clarence Spady Surrender

Clarence Spady
Surrender
Nola Blue

As Bill Dahl observes in the booklet accompanying "Surrender," "You wouldn't call Clarence Spady a prolific recording artist." He recorded "Nature of the Beast" in 1996 and "Just Between Us" in 2008, both highly praised and nominated for Blues Foundation Awards. Now 13 years later comes "Surrender," a disc that is likely to enjoy similar acclaim as the previous albums.

Varying groups of musicians back Spady's vocals and guitar on this recording. These include bassist Jon Ventre, keyboardist Scott Brown, saxophonist Tom Hamilton, Tom Martin harmonica, drummer Barry Harrison, drummer Pat Marcinko, guitarist Adam Schultz, organist Mark Hamza, and drummer Adam Wilson. There are six Spady originals, one from Schultz (who has been mentored by Spady), and covers of songs by James and Lucky Peterson and George Jackson. Six of the nine tracks are studio recordings, while three are from a 1999 live performance.

Listening to "If My Life Was a Book," one might suggest Spady's music as Robert Cray mixed with Marvin Gaye. Here he reflects on his musical career as Schultz takes the lead guitar at the end. Schultz wrote "Good Conversation" with Spade's relaxed, sensual vocal on a soulful performance that might evoke some Gaye for some. Schultz shines within a solo that might suggest George Benson. It is followed by a cover of the Petersons' slow blues "When My Blood Runs Cold," with his hard-edged guitar supporting his passionately singing. There is a relaxed shuffle "K-Man," a moving tribute to his son Khalique who passed away at the age of 25 and whom Clarence thinks about every day. Tom Martin adds down home harmonica here. The title track is a gospel blues inspired by the daily church group meetings he attends. The church helped him overcome his drug use, and talking about his travails, he sings about surrendering to the lord's will. The final studio track is a terrific acoustic small band recording of the Z.Z. Hill classic "Down Home Blues," again with Tom Martin adding harmonica. Pianist Brown is superb on this.

Among the 1999 live performances is "Addiction," a terrific slow blues whose lyrics come from his life with some razor-sharp guitar and keen vocals. "Jones Fall Expressway" is a blues-rock jam that also showcases saxophonist Hamilton and organist Hamza in addition to Spady's scorching guitar. "Pick Me Up" is a strong original dealing with relationship problems and needing a helping hand. He still loves his baby and hopes she understands. This song featured another top-flight vocal along with some biting guitar.

As noted previously, Clarence Spady has not recorded often, but when he has, it has been memorable. "Surrender" is another impressive blues and soul gem, and one hopes it is far sooner than 13 years before his next album.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is "Good Conversation."

Cash McCall -Blues Coming Down/ One Who's Got a Lot

Cash McCall -Blues Coming Down/ One Who's Got a Lot - Nola Blue Records

Morris Dollison, Jr., better known as Cash McCall, passed away in 2019, after the release of a Nola Blue Records album with Benny Turner, "Going Back Home." Nola Blue previously issued one half of this single, "One Who's Got a Lot," as a download in 2020. On January 29, 2021, they are issuing "Blues Coming Down." Both were recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Jim Koeppel, with a band that included Koeppel on guitar, pianist Tennyson Stephens, bassist Welton Gite, and drummer James Gadson. Added on "Blues Coming Down" are Rajiv Halim on tenor saxophone and John Christy on the Hammond B3.

"Blues Coming Down" is a solid, straight-forward slow blues with some raspy tenor sax, Koeppel's taut guitar solo, and McCall's gritty vocal. The melody of "One Who's Got a Lot" has a Malaco feel (think "Down Home Blues" and "Someone Is Steppin' In") and an emphatic groove with more direct singing and more searing guitar from Koeppel. Stephens piano is first-rate in support, and Gite and Gadson push the performance forward. Nothing earth-shattering, perhaps, but this is an entertaining, substantial addition to Cash McCall's musical legacy.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is "Blues Coming Down."

The Legends of Specialty Part 3

Among recent reissues in Fantasy's The Legends of Specialty series are the second volumes devoted to Roy Milton, Joe Liggins, Jimmy Liggins and Percy Mayfield along with a volume of Art Neville's Specialty recordings. Another reissue, Shouting the Blues, includes Joe Turner's recordings for the Texas Freedom label Big Maceo's Specialty sides, and recordings by Smilin' Smokey Lynn and H-Bomb Ferguson. Musically, most of these recordings date from the heyday of jump blues, the late forties through the mid-fifties. All six releases contain Billy Vera's perceptive annotations and discographical information. 

By virtue of his success with his brothers today, Art Neville is perhaps the best known of any of these artists. His Specialty Recordings: 1956-58 collect the recordings he made after recording Mardi Gras Mambo with the Hawketts for Chess. These early sides include some demos along with such sides as Oooh Wee-Baby, Cha Dooky Doo, with its famous distorted guitar and a duet with Larry Williams on Rocking Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu. These sides did not enjoy great commercial success when initially issued, and while there is unquestionable historical interest to some of these sides, and fans of New Orleans R&B will be interested, this is one of the weaker Specialty reissues. 

Shouting The Blues is dominated by some great jump blues by Joe Turner and Smilin' Joe Lynn. Turner's eight songs were initially issued on the Houston Freedom label and three (including the rocking Adam Bit the Apple) include Goree Carter's T-Bone Walker inspired guitar and a great jump band. Big Maceo had suffered a stroke and was unable to play at the time he recorded his enjoyable, but not essential 1949 Specialty recordings. On these, his protege Johnnie Jones took the piano chair. Smilin' Smokey Lynn was a Los Angeles based shouter heard with trumpeter Don Johnson's band. He is an enjoyable singer, if not in the same league as Turner. Many of his performances are rehashed versions of R&B hits. State Street Boogie reworks James 'Widemouth' Brown's Boogie Woogie Nighthawk, the torrid Run Mister Rabbit, Run, derives from Hot Lips Page, and Feel Like Ballin' Tonight, derives from Roy Brown's Good Rockin' Tonight. The imaginative Chesterfield Baby, celebrates Lynn's women who satisfies his soul. Closing with two previously unissued tracks by H-Bomb Ferguson, this is an interesting but not essential collection. 

This review appeared in Jazz & Blues Report in 1993. I am splitting it up and will include this top paragraph with all three parts. I received my review copies from Fantasy Records. I am not sure about the availability of these albums, although one might check ebay. Here is Art Neville's Specialty Recording of Cha Dooky Doo.

The Legends Of Specialty Series Part 2

Among recent reissues in Fantasy's The Legends of Specialty series are the second volumes devoted to Roy Milton, Joe Liggins, Jimmy Liggins and Percy Mayfield along with a volume of Art Neville's Specialty recordings. Another reissue, Shouting the Blues, includes Joe Turner's recordings for the Texas Freedom label Big Maceo's Specialty sides, and recordings by Smilin' Smokey Lynnand H-Bomb Ferguson. Musically, most of these recordings date from the heyday of jump blues, the late forties through the mid-fifties. All six releases contain Billy Vera's perceptive annotations and discographical information.

Not quite as consistent (as releases by Percy Mayfield and Roy Milton) is Rough Weather Blues, the second volume by Jimmy Liggins and His Drops of Joy. Vera suggests that Jimmy Liggins recordings are among the closest to rock'n'roll records of anyone of his generation. These sides feature some hard rocking rhythm sections along Saxophonist Harold Land and Charles 'Little Jazz' Ferguson on the earliest sides here which include an extended five minute plus jam on Charlie Parker's Now's The Time, while the latest sides include a undubbed version of Drunk, one of his biggest records. Maxwell Davis is present on many of the latter sides. Liggins, no mean guitarist, gets a fair amount of solo space particularly on the later recordings included here.

Brother Joe, was more commercially successful than Jimmy with a more mellow, melodic jump blues style. His first recordings were made for the Exclusive label and had such hits as I Got A Right to Cry, Tanya and standards like When It's Sleepy Time Down South, and When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano. While he remade some of his hits for Specialty, including The Honeydripper, he had hits with Pink Champagne and Frankie Lee. The second volume of his Specialty Recordings, Dripper's Boogie, collects 20 recordings that date from 1950 to 1954. His somewhat flat vocals have a certain charm. Several of the vocals are by Candy Rivers and Dell St. John. A solid pianist and arranger, he had smooth jump combos, often with saxophonists Willie Jackson and Maxwell Davis as he waxed hot on novelties like Boogie Woogie Lou or cool on ballads like Tenderly with Candy Rivers clean delivery. Dripper's Boogie is a remake of one of his Exclusive recordings that is marked by his deliberate, clipped phrasing. Those interested in Joe Liggins' output would be advised to check out his earlier Specialty volume first.

This review appeared in Jazz & Blues Report in 1993. I am splitting it up and will include this top paragraph with all three parts. I received my review copies from Fantasy Records. I am not sure about the availability of these albums, although one might check ebay. Here is a popular Jimmy Liggins track, although not on this recording.

The Legends Of Specialty Series Part 1

Among recent reissues in Fantasy's The Legends of Specialty series are the second volumes devoted to Roy Milton, Joe Liggins, Jimmy Liggins and Percy Mayfield along with a volume of Art Neville's Specialty recordings. Another reissue, Shouting the Blues, includes Joe Turner's recordings for the Texas Freedom label, Big Maceo's Specialty sides, and recordings by Smilin' Smokey Lynn
and H-Bomb Ferguson. Musically, most of these recordings date from the heyday of jump blues, the late forties through the mid-fifties. All six releases contain Billy Vera's perceptive annotations and discographical information.

The two prime reissues have to be Memory Pain (Specialty) by Percy Mayfield, and Groovy Blues (Specialty), by Roy Milton. Blues Poet is a label bestowed on many, but no more deservingly than on Percy Mayfield, who was also an urbane vocalist whose recorded such classics as Please Send Me Someone To Love, Strange Things Happening (both heard here in alternate takes), I Need
Love So Bad and The Voice Within. While Specialty's earlier volume of Mayfield's recordings, The Poet of the Blues is the essential Mayfield collection, this contains a number of excellent performances (although a few rough spots may be heard), and has a 1960 demo of his Hit the Road Jack, that became a monster hit for Ray Charles.

Drummer-vocalist Roy Milton was Specialty's first and biggest star until Little Richard. The Oklahoma born Milton was nearly forty when his easy going shuffle R.M. Blues was a hit in 1945, and proceded to make numerous 'jump blues' recordings over the next decade as his band the Solid Senders produced a scaled down version of the territory big bands of the thirties (such as that of Count Basie or Jay MacShann). As Billy Vera notes, economic factors led to the demise of the big bands, while recording techniques improved to make it possible for a five to eight piece combo to have almost as much a punch as a full big band leading many swing era musicians like Milton to adopt the approach of the Count Basie riff-oriented blues-based territory band in a smaller configuration with bluesy novelty vocals, honking sax solos, solid riffs, bass-heavy boogie rhythm and a heavy accent on the second and fourth beats. Few succeeded with this formula as did Milton whose warmly delivered vocals and solid rhythm anchored a strong combo which featured the wonderful boogie woogie piano of Camille Howard (who also takes several of the vocals, but her singing is not as earthy as her playing). Milton was equally at home with a rocking shuffle, or a remake of a standard like On the Sunny Side of The Street (with his vocal indebted to Louis Armstrong), or My Blue Heaven. Big Band roots are revealed by the versions of One O'Clock Jump and I Want a Little Girl from the Count Basie canon, and Thomas Dorsey's Marie. While Camille Howard's vocal on the title track, Groovy Blues, is bland, the music here is anything but bland.

This review appeared in Jazz & Blues Report in 1993. I am splitting it up and will include this top paragraph with all three parts. I received my review copies from Fantasy Records. I am not sure about the availability of these albums, although one might check ebay. Here is Percy Mayfield singing Memory Pain.

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."

Andy T Band Double Strike

Andy T Band
Double Strike
American Showplace Music

One of the real pleasures of the past few years were releases by the Andy T - Nick Nixon Band. Health issues has forced Nixon to have to retire from performing and his vocals on this album are his last. Guitarist Andy Talamantez has since recruited Michael A. Benjamin, aka Alabama Mike, to become the lead vocalist with his group. On this new release, Nixon and Alabama Mike each take 6 vocals and their is one instrumental.This is co-produced by Andy T and Anson Funderburgh, who adds his guitar to four tracks. Others on this session include Larry van Loon on keyboards (Mike Flanigan is one one track); Johnny Bradley on bass; Jim Klinger on drums and Greg Izor on harmonica for one track. Kaz Kazanoff leads the Texas Horns as part of the backing.

Fans of Gulf Coast to West Coast blues will find much to enjoy here starting with a shuffle "I Want You Bad," with Alabama Mike's gospel rooted vocals along with backing from Andy T's Johnny 'Guitar' Watson meets Ike Turner fretwork along with Funderburgh's own Texas meets B.B. King approach. Alabama Mike is very strong on the Nixon-penned, crying blues, "Sad Times," and the strong original he wrote with Andy T and Anson, "Doin ' Hard Time." With Izor on harmonica adding a country flavor, Nixon ably delivers the lyrics on a Jimmy Reed-influenced shuffle, "Deep Inside," a Nixon's original. Nixon also delivers solid vocals on a couple of Chuck Willis' numbers "I Feel So Bad" (patterned after Little Milton's recording) and "Juanita." Both also have strong guitar, but the latter number stands out perhaps because it is less familiar. Nixon's solid cover of Goree Carter's "Drunk or Sober," has a understated mambo groove blistering guitar and gutbucket tenor sax from Kazanoff, while on "I Was Gonna Leave You," Nixon evokes the deep soul Goldwax recordings of James Carr, with another solid sax solo and Funderburgh's biting lead guitar.

Funderburgh's "Mudslide," is a relaxed instrumental shuffle showcasing both guitarists and van Loon. "Where Did Our Love Go Wrong," is a swamp pop ballad written by Kazanoff, with a strong Alabama Mike vocal, another terrific slashing guitar solo in the vein of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, and a booting baritone sax solo from John Mills. It closes this excellent collection of blues performances and shows that with Alabama Mike, Andy T will be continuing the fine modern blues that he had been making with Nick Nixon.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is a short video of Andy T Band with Alabama Mike in performance.

Percy Mayfield Lost Love: The Singles As & Bs 1947-1962

Percy Mayfield
Lost Love: The Singles As & Bs 1947-1962
Jasmine (UK)

Another English public domain reissue of vintage rhythm and blues brings us Percy Mayfield's first 27 singles (whether 78s or 45s) and a previously unissued couple of tracks. While Mayfield's Specialty recordings were subject of classic reissues some time ago, they may hard to find. Furthermore, here are his recordings for Gru-Tone and Supreme that predate his joining Specialty, and also are recordings Checker, Cash, Imperial, 7 Arts, and Tangerine.

The album opens with the two part jump and jive "Jack You Ain't Nowhere," and then his first recording of "Two Years of Torture," both with an unidentified band although his vocal is under-recorded on the latter two. When he signed with Supreme he had a pair of singles including a remake of "Two Years of Torture," with a band that included Maxwell Davis, Marshall Royal, and Chuck Norris and much better recorded presaging the time with Specialty. His first record for Specialty, with a band that included Maxwell Davis as well as Jack McVea, Gene Phillips, Red Callender and Lee Young, had the classics "Please Send Me Someone To Love," and "Strange Things Happening." So many classics are here including "Lost Love (Baby Please Come Back to Me)," "The Hunt Is One," "The River's Invitation," "The Bachelor Blues," "My Heart Is Crying," with Maxwell Davis being a constant on these. Besides his tenor saxophonist, I suspect Davis was responsible for the arrangements and leading the studio band.

 While Davis is not present on the recordings for Cash and Checker, those sides produced gems like "No.43 (My Story About A Woman)," with a choice Fred Clark tenor saxophone solo, and the moody "The Bluest Blues." "Please Believe Me" is an unusual ballad recording with a sweeter sound than earlier selections, while he produced a urban blues gem "My Heart is a Prisoner," with the guitar more prominent in the backing along with some tough tenor sax. One of his last Specialty singles was the jazzy cocktail ballad, "When Did You Leave Heaven" while for 7 Arts he recorded "Ha Ha In The Daytime, Boo Hoo At Night," a tune he would remake a bit more emphatically later. A Tangerine coupling included Ray Charles, Hank Crawford, Teddy Edwards and Chuck Norris include the hard swinging big band groove of "Never No More," which would also be on his LPs that he recorded for Ray Charles' label. Mayfield would continue to make strong music beyond the singles documented here including albums for Brunswick and RCA Victor along with a single for Atlantic.

Besides one of the great songwriters of the blues leading him to be called "The Poet Laureate of the Blues," Percy Mayfield was a suave, sophisticated singer and a major touring attraction until his face was heavily disfigured in an automobile accident. While his career as a star was over, the music here shows that his music remained original and distinctive. Some of the material (the non-Specialty recordings) on this is rare and even those having the Specialty reissues might want this to fill-in gaps in their collection of his recordings. There is a discography of the songs here and astute notes from Dave Penny. For those not having much by him, this does present the core of his recorded legacy.

I purchased this. Here is a later recording than that on this collection of "The River's Invitation."

Donald Ray Johnson and GAS Blues Band Bluesin' Around

Donald Ray Johnson and GAS Blues Band
Bluesin' Around

Born in Texas and now living in Calgary, Alberta, singer and drummer Donald Ray Johnson has had a fascinating career ranging from playing drums with A Taste of Honey in the disc era but in recent years establishing himself as a blues and soul vocalist. In France he met and toured with guitarist Gaspard Ossikian who leads the GAS Blues Band with whom he recorded a bunch of favorite songs he performed with them over the years. Others in the band include Pierre "Little Peter" Cayla also on guitars, Phillippe "Pompon" Scemama on bass and Yannick "Papayan" Urbani on drums. Others on this recording include Daniel Antoine on organ, Samuel Dumont on saxophone and Nicolas Gardel on trumpet.

9 of the 12 numbers are covers and with one exception are not songs that have been overly recorded. The GAS Blues Band contributed one original and Johnson two. This is a well played, straight-forward release opening with a solid rendition of B.B. King's "Bad Luck" and then followed by a cover of Joe Louis Walker's Bluesifyin'," with a credible vocal if not as strong a singer as Walker was on the original. The cover of "Ain't Superstitious" perhaps owes more to Jeff Beck than Howlin' Wolf. One pleasant surprise are three covers of songs associated with the late Phillip Walker, the slow brooding "Ninety Proof," the loping shuffle "Big Rear Window," and Nat Dove's rocker "Dressing Trashy."

The GAS Blues Band's "She's French," sounds like a fragment of an break song while "Distant," is a funky, bluesy rendition of A Taste of Honey recording (I believe the flip side of ""Boogie Oogie Oogie"). Johnson's "Watching You," is another similar number followed by a fairly strong original "Should've Been Gone," with his regrets about overstaying. Lucky Peterson's shuffle "You're the One For Me" closes this album with a solid vocal as he sings about his darling's love and the feeling she gives him, which (like the entire recording) is supported by the GAS Blues Band's steady, and idiomatic backing. This all results is this solid, entertaining blues recording.

I received my review  copy from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the January-February 2017 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 370).  Here is Donald Ray Johnson and GAS Blues Band in performance.

Slam Allen - Feel these Blues

For years, Harrison 'Slam' Allen could be seen fronting the James Cotton Band with his guitar and vocals. For a few years he played on a cruise line (nice work if you can get it). He has returned to the blues scene and has a new recording "Feel These Blues" (American Showplace Music). In addition to his guitar and vocals, Slam is backed by a rock solid band of John Ginty on keyboards, Jeff Andersen on bass guitar and Dan Fadel on drums for a program of 11 originals and a rendition of Prince's "Purple Rain."

There is nothing fancy about Slam Allen with his rocking, B.B. King influenced guitar and his strong vocals. His  vocals strike me as his greatest strength although he is no slouch as a guitarist. The album opens with with the title track with its lament about being hard to find blues on the radio but he will keep laying down these blues playing  guitar while chanting you got to feel these blues. The B.B. King flavored shuffle "The Blues Is Back," another song dealing with the blues as a genre, and is a highlight of this recording with some searing guitar. "All Because Of You" is a solid original whose melody evokes the Gladys Knight hit "My Imagination," while "In September," is a nice slice of country soul with a terrific vocal. There is a funk groove for "35 Miles Outside of Memphis," as Slam sings about about stressful things on his mind but one of them sure ain't his woman, and followed by the intense slow, B.B. King styled blues "World Don't Stop Turning." Another strong straight blues in this vein is "You're Wrong." "Can't Break Away from That Girl" is another solid southern flavored soul performance, similar to some of Johnny Rawls recent recordings.

"Feel These Blues" closes with a lengthy interpretation of "Purple Rain," and one suspects this may have been popular on the cruises fortunate enough to have Slam Allen as an entertainer. Having seen Slam Allen several times, I can attest how entertaining he is performing and this is captured to some extent on this solid recording.

I bought this from Slam but also received a review copy from the record company. Here is Slam Allen in performance

Robert Cray Live Across The Pond

Prior to the release of Robert Cray’s breakout recording, Strong Persuader, I happened to listen and record off the radio a live broadcast of the 1982 Long Beach Blues Festival among whose highlights was a young Robert Cray. One could hear a definite Albert Collins influence even if Cray’s guitar playing didn’t quite have Collins’ fretful sound. Yet Cray’s serpentine guitar playing had its own charms.

Over two decades later, Cray remains one of the few blues acts to break through and reach a pop audience in that period. After many studio albums, Cray and his Band has just issued Live From Across the Pond (Nozzle) from shows at Royal Albert Hall where he was opening for Eric Clapton. He perhaps has left behind the Jesse Fortune number Too Many Cooks, but still performs Phone Booth, and several songs from Strong Persuader, including Right Next Door (Because of Me), I Guess I Showed Her and Bad Influence, along with other numbers that he has added over the intervening years such as Poor Johnny, and his anti-Iraq War number Twenty from his recent studio recordings.

Perhaps because of his success, Cray has been criticized by some for the clean sound. Some would accuse his music of being antiseptic, although the performances here belie that claim as Cray does invest quite some passion into his performances. Cray’s clean, urbane delivery of songs and his guitar playing should be viewed as more of style than relating to the substance of his performances. This music comes off much more successfully than the heavy metal sound of some blues rockers and comes off as a nice summing up of what he has meant musically for over two decades. A very nice release that will please his fans and even some who have shied away from his more recent work.

This review originally ran in the October 2006 DC Blues Calendar and the September/October 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 286).  Here is Robert performing Right Next Door, although from the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Neglected Blues Gems From Al King and Arthur Adams Are Together

The late Al King was one of those singular West Coast blues singers who never received the general acclaim his small body of recordings merited. In the later part of the last Century, Forevermore Records had the first reissue of King’s recordings for the Shirley and Sahara labels and followed by new recordings. Unfortunately, despite the excellence of his blues, both old and new, he passed away before he could capitalize on their release. King, real name was Al K. Smith, is best known for a couple of recordings with guitarist Johnny Heartsman. One was a terrific version of Lowell Fulson’s Reconsider Baby, while the other was the memorable Think Twice Before Your Speak, which Fulson is among those who subsequently recorded.

King was a veteran of the California music scene when he made these and other recordings, having recorded for such legendary record men as John Dolphin, Johnny Otis and Bob Geddins. He initially issued Think Twice on his own Flag label, and when a Buffalo Sahara Records wanted to order 2000 copies, he leased it to them and had a brief association with that label after the urban blues charted at a time when few blues entered the record charts. After his Sahara deal ended, he moved to Los Angeles where he signed with Kent-Modern records for sessions that were produced by the legendary Maxwell Davis. These recordings have been reissued by the English Ace label along with contemporaneous recordings by Arthur K Adams, Together: The Complete Kent and Modern Recordings.

The pairing of the two on a reissue makes sense, insofar as Adams was session guitarist for many of the blues productions Davis did in the late sixties for Kent-Modern records including sessions for B.B. King as well as Al King. Saxophonist Big Jay McNeely is mentioned in the liner notes as being on many sessions for Davis and the late Clifford Solomon remembered playing on sessions as well. The music tight with brassy horns and Adams throwing in sizzling guitar breaks. Al King himself was an outstanding singer as well as songwriter. A couple of lyrical fragments illustrate this. The opening My Name Is Misery, has this powerful verse,

“I don't have no money
And I can't even pay my rent
If you put a money dog on my trail
He wouldn't even scratch a scent.”

While his The Thrill Is Gone (set to the melody of “The Things I Used To Do”) has these lyrics,

“The thrill is gone
The thrill I used to have for you
The thrill is gone
The thrill I used to have for you
Now you're beggin' me to take you back
Lord, but ain't a darn thing I can do.”

He is stark about relationships on Aint Givin’ Up Nothin’, a hot shuffle where he sings about when one has friends one has plenty of friends but when one runs out of money, friendship ends, and things are a give or take situation, what do you have to offer to me with a booting tenor sax solo. Then with Adams playing hard chords against an insistent beat he sings that married life is all right, but sometimes it is Better To Be By Yourself, with Adams taking a relentless solo. It’s Getting Late, is a solid blues in a vein similar to contemporaneous Kent recordings by Lowell Fulson. Then there is “Get Lost” a diatribe against an ex-lover which incorporates the titles and lyrical fragments from his prior 45s as hAdams puts everything into his solo. The body of Al King’s Kent recordings is on the same level as his Shirley-Sahara recordings and thankfully these are now currently available from Ace as opposed to a hard-to-fine, expensive Japanese reissue.

While Al King was a veteran, guitarist Adams was a relative newcomer to the LA scene and his rhythm guitar helped beef up B.B. King’s recording of The Jungle. In fact, Arthur’s picture of him with a guitar was used for the cover of Kent’s album “The Jungle,” a fact I was unaware of until I read Tony Rounce’s notes in the accompanying booklet. He is represented by sessions from late 1966 or early 1967. She Drives Me Out Of My Mind, is a slow B.B. King style blues with a high tenor vocal that is not far removed from Ted Taylor with a touch of sixties Buddy Guy along with some real strong guitar playing. On the other hand, I’m Lonely For You, is more in the vein of the recordings of Impressions with a fine vocal and some nice guitar. A couple of duets with female singers are again more in a sixties soul than blues vein, but nicely done with Adams displaying a strong soulful singing style.

As Tony Rounce writes in the accompanying booklet, both King and Adams “deserved far better fame than these records bought them 40-odd years ago … .” While in some case, 45 rpm singles had to be used as opposed to the original tapes, sound is generally quite good and Ace’s packing and production is of its typical high level. The result is an important reissue of two powerful, if neglected blues artists (although thankfully Adams is still with us and continuing to make strong, original music).

This was a purchase. Here is Al King's recording of Ain't Givin' Up Nothin.

Here is a little bit of Arthur Adams in performance.

James Armstrong Finds Blues At The Border

A new album by singer-guitarist James Armstrong, Blues at the Border (Catfood Records) is a cause of celebration for blues lovers. This is only the fourth album by Armstrong who debuted over a decade ago on Hightone with Sleeping With a Stranger. After a home invasion attack stabbing left him with permanent nerve damage in his left hand, he rebuilt his guitar style and resumed touring and musical career as his brings a lean and deft, razor-like guitar style together with a soulful vocal attack. Comparisons will obviously be made to Robert Cray which may both reflect artists who bring a strong soul base to their blues and both generally employing an unstated approach to their songs.

Recorded in New York City and Texas, the set was produced by Michael Ross, Bob Trenchard and Armstrong himself. Armstrong’s bands bring lean, yet crisp backing to the mostly original material that displays Armstrong’s ability at crafting songs dealing with everyday life with judicious use of wit and irony. Armstrong’s wit is obvious on the opening Everything Good To Ya (Ain’t Always Good For Ya), with his choral refrain noting his father’s advice that candy tastes good but causes tooth decay and eating an apple a day may be good but too many apples gives one a tummy ache. Somebody’s Got To Pay is a soulful number by Trenchard and Sandy Carroll about one giving too much and the other taking too much in their relationship as he pleads with his women to stop believing outsiders.

The title song, co-written with Madonna Hamel, is a humorous complaint about being an international traveler having to deal with getting back to the United States in these post-911 days and how the world has changed with some slide guitar providing mood to his vocal before a concise slide guitar break. More of his controlled, clean slide playing is heard on Devil’s Candy, with an emphatic rhythm in the backing. The lyric is about a lady with an intoxicating effect that left obsessed with her. He gave her his heart, but she wanted his soul. It's an impressive performance that exhibits that even though he shows considerable restraint, Armstrong generates smoldering intensity in his performances.

Dave Steen penned “High Maintenance Woman” on which Madonna Hamel adds a guest rap-vocal playing the high maintenance woman in Armstrong’s life who keeps him on the run. Still, despite her high costs to maintain, she keeps him warm. Young Man With the Blues is a moving tribute to his father, a jazz musician who raised James as a single father. Its a song about James’ mother walking out, making Armstrong’s dad a young man with the blues. Brand New Man is a shuffle where he sings about how his love made him a brand new man and he doesn’t want to lose her. The album closes with Trenchard’s Long Black Car, in which one won’t get to heaven in unless one slows down and turns one’s life around.

Armstrong’s nuanced performances reward careful and repeated listening. Blues at the Border is a most notable new blues recording.

A publicist provided my review copy. Here is James at the 2011 North Atlantic Blues Festival.

Ray Bailey's "Satan's Horn"

Satan’s Horn was a surprise debut album by West Coast bluesman Ray Bailey that was picked up by the Zoo label after initially on the Bohemia Music Group. The following review originally appeared in Jazz & Blues Report Issue 199 (March 1995), which I have made a few minor stylistic changes to. Satan’s Horn is available from third party sellers on amazon. Ray Bailey has a more recent recording available, Resurrection, which I have not heard. 


Satan’s Horn is a remastered and repackaged issue of an album originally released on Bohemia Music Organization, a small Los Angeles label. It won the Living Blues Critics Poll for best debut release and this writer was quite enthusiastic about it. Bailey is a Watts native who has played blues and jazz with Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McGriff, among others. Satan’s Horn is certainly an auspicious debut album. For those unfamiliar, a good reference point is of a street-wise Robert Cray, given similar instrumentation and a jazzy attack, although Bailey plays with a harder approach and his songs are structured in a more traditional blues vein. For example, Bad Times, Sad Times, is suggestive of B.B. King’s recording of The Thrill is Gone.


Bailey’s lyrical themes are a bit more earthy and urban centered than Cray’s. Rather than rueful observations of breaking up his motel liaison’s marriage, Bailey’s Saturday Night Special is a boast of his loving prowess. Other songs deal with crack addicted moms (Satan’s Horn refers to a crack pipe), hopelessness (on Cold to the Bone, where he plays acoustic guitar and the band plays sparingly behind him), and other street-level realities. All are originals, with the exception of solid treatment of Tampa Red’s Love Her With a Feeling (here credited to Lowell Fulson).


Bailey is a strong singer who has an unforced delivery and a tasty guitarist, and with this stunning debut now under the BMG distributed Zoo label, it will be easy to find and Ray Bailey will no longer simply be a figure that only some critics and a few other lucky aficionados have heard of.  (With respect to this last sentence, remember this review was from 1995.)

Chris Cain Spins His Urban Blues Vignettes With Jazzy Tint

Chris Cain has been playing his blues with a jazzy twist on the West Coast for quite some time. Having recorded for the the Ford Brothers’ Blue Rock’It label as well as Blind Pig, since 1987 he has built up quite a body of excellent recordings that is matched by his lively performances. An reference point for Chris’ sound might be B.B. King (who his dad first took him to see with he was three), particularly the King matched by the souful jazzy grooves provided by the Crusaders (think of B.B.’s rendition of “Never Make a Move Too Soon”). His latest album is on Blue Rock’It, “So Many Miles” and it is another strong recording by him. He is provided excellent support here by Robben Ford Band with Robben playing rhythm guitar on many tracks, and on one instrumental, “East Foothill Fingerprints,” Larry Carlton joins him for a a soulful jazzy-blues guitar jam.Outside of the instrumental, the disc is a showcase for Cain’s songwriting and shows how the way he has with words while displaying his heartfelt vocals and hot guitar as he tells his stories quite strongly.

The title track is a tale of driving from Syracuse, stopping in Lincoln, staying at a funky hotel room, flying down the highway, and “so many miles, so many places, so many wide open spaces … .” Opening “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be A Better Day,” Chris evokes Albert King in his’ opening guitar lines as Ford drives the groove with his rhythm playing as Cain sings that “we have both wasted, all the petty games we have choose to play, I know we had some good times ... but tomorrow is going to be a better day,” with a strong solo from Cain before he vocally returns and asks to bury the past and clear the way for the better day.  He brings us some intriguing urban vignettes such as “Late Night Jungle Dreams,” a powerful topical lyric about a Vietnam Veteran who is a demolition expert but never adjusted to returning home, and then takes us down to this joint and the folks hanging there in “Down at Dino’s,” that opens with Ford’s backing wah-wah guitar setting the atmosphere. On “Interplanetary Jam,” he introduces us to a character who is preparing for alien invasion in his basement while “The Decline of the Golden Boy,” deals with a former superstar college athlete and big man on campus who never adjusted to life after college. Throughout, Cain interlaces these stories with strong vocals and guitar with excellent backing from the Ford Band, with horns added on a few tracks. Throughout, Cain’s ability as a guitarist is displayed as his driving solos are concisely delivered, interesting driving solos, swinging with unexpected twists. Chris Cain’s sound is soulfully delivered blues with an urbane jazzy spicing and “So Many Miles” showcases this exceptionally.


For FTC purposes, the review copy of this was provided by Blind Pig Records.

Essential Albert King

Albert King was one of the most important and influential blues artists from the sixties until his death, and had a number of great recordings including two highly influential albums. One was the Stax release, Born Under a Bad Sign that Fantasy reissued in 2002. This record is still currently available. Here is a review that appeared in the October-November 2002 issue of Jazz & Blues Report.

Fantasy Records which acquired Stax Records sometime ago has reissued the classic Albert King album, Born Under a Bad Sign. This 1967 album was the first album by King for the Memphis label and matched King with a studio band centered around Booker T & the MGs. This was a highly influential recording which, along with Kings mid-seventies album I’ll Play the Blues For You, included a number of songs that became part of the core blues repertoire and shaped how so many artists played the music. Songs include the title track with its great line, “If it wasn’t for bad luck I would not have any luck at all,” the remake of the delta blues Crosscut Saw, with a hot rhythm section and blasting horns, the jaunty The Hunter, with stinging guitar and the bravado line about pretty women being King’s game, the classic blue ballad As the Years Go Passing By, and Personal Manager, where he tells his lady how he would love to manage her affairs. King delivers the vocals and plays some classic guitar mixing long sustained notes with short staccato runs. His sense of phrasing and use of silence is something setting him apart from his many imitators and those influenced by him. The liner notes focus a bit too much on King’s influence on Stevie Ray Vaughan, but the fact is that even as spectacular a guitarist as Otis Rush, who had already made some classic recordings a decade earlier, incorporated elements of King’s style into his own approach. This is an essential disc although much of it might have been previously issued on CD on Atlantic as King of Blues Guitar.