Vintage Ichiban Blues

It's impossible to keep up with the entire range of Ichiban's releases. Among those of recent note is Sonny Rhodes' latest, Livin' Too Close to the Edge; part of the label's Wild Dog series. This is a tasty morsel finding Rhodes playing both standard and lap steel guitar, and singing in a soulful fashion, while backed by a solid band. Rhodes is particularly impressive on the lap steel, and his old
friend L.C. 'Good Rockin' Robinson would be proud. Rhodes took up the steel guitar as a tribute to Robinson. Material is pretty standard fare with a nice reworking of Jimmy Rogers' You're the One (although wrongly credited to Clarence E. Smith), and Santo and Johnny's pop hit, Sleep Walk (again not properly credited). This is one of the better recent releases to come from Florida's King Snake Studio.

Cleveland mailman Travis Haddix is a double threat as a songwriter as well as a soul-blues vocalist, with Artie 'Blues Boy' White being among those who have recorded his songs. His latest Ichiban release, What I Know Right Now is a solid strongly sung set of soul and blues.With Haddix, the songs are as interesting as his performances. There is the nice moody blues, Strange, with its effective (yes, effective) use of synthesizers, his soulful ballad Getting By With a Lie, and the salacious Jawbreaker. He displays as much wit and soul in his singing as his lyrics. Very solid production from Bryon Cole and the the Kala studio band who, with productions like this, give Malaco Records a good run for the money.

Another recent Ichiban release is Chick Willis' Holdin' Hands With the Blues. While a guitarist, Willis doesn't play here. Like the Haddix album this is a solid contemporary soul-blues date with memorable tracks including the title track (a potential blues anthem written by Denise LaSalle), a deep in the gut rendition of Ernie Johnson's You're Gonna Miss Me, the rocking and funky Heaven to
Betsy, his One Slick Woman, a someone's been in my bed song with nice slide guitar, and the closing ballad, I'm Only Guilty of Loving You. This is a real fine album that shows Willis is capable of doing far more than recycling Stoop Down Baby.

This review originally appeared in Issue 172 of Jazz & Blues Report in 1992. I likely received review copies from Ichiban or a publicist. I believe the three releases may still be available, used if not as new,

The Blues Boy's Welcome Home

During a discussion in on post-war blues list at yahoo.com, one of the editor's of the Penguin Guide to the Blues conceded that it should have included Artie 'Blues Boy' White. White was one of the 'soul-blues' acts omitted from this deeply flawed publication. Within the world of soul-blues, the Blues Boy was aptly termed with more of a straight blues feel. I remember seeing him at the Pocono Blues Festival, and that was a real pleasure. He was a terrific singer, person and pool player. The following review appeared in the Jazz & Blues Report in 1997.

Artie 'Blues Boy' White Artie White serves up another serving of first rate soul-blues on the his new Waldoxy release, Home Tonight. Material or production wise, this is a typical Malaco/Waldoxy set, with a tight band of guitarists, Big Mike Griffin and Andrew Thomas, bassist David Hood, keyboard whiz Clayton Ivey and drummer and co-producer Paul H. Lee. Add the Muscle Shoals Horns on the uptempo soulful opening number, when Artie tells his woman not to worry because Your Man Is Home Tonight. It’s followed by two straight-forward slow blues, Somebody’s Fool, and a terrific new Travis Haddix authored song, Man of the House, where Artie tells his woman he’s in a bad mood this morning and he just doesn’t give a damn, with Big Mike taking a nice stinging solo. The mood is reversed in Percy Strother’s soulful If You Don’t Love Me, sung from the point of view of the woman whose man is too often out of the house, warning that there is someone to take her man’s place. The blues dominates this album with Johnson and Mosley contributing Black Cat Scratchin’ as well as The More You Lie to Me, a tasty number set to a Jimmy Reed groove on which Bobby Rush adds nice harp (he also adds harp to the closing country-flavored soul ballad, One Step From the Blues). Waldoxy has hit the mark on this set. White is in terrific form and he’s given strong lyrics to work with on this release.