Blues ♫ Music only | ...That you listen now, or recently, or you love...

[MoreWatts]

Trying to bring some life to the music threads around here. I'll mainly post newish blues-rock, but that seemed pretty popular here upon perusal.

C'mon, do more than just a YouTube embed. Tell us why ya like it. If you add artist and title, the post becomes searchable. Good job @Barrelhouse Solly.

And maybe suggest an album. What are we, school children kneeling around our Crosleys, spinning Bobby Sherman and Partridge Family 45s?

Just joshin'. It's all good. Enjoy some blues.

 

[Sal1950]

My personal favorite will always be Bobby (Blue) Bland.
I may have posted this one before, anyway his 2003 Blues At Midnight album is listed
as his last studio album recording. I really love listening to this clean, quiet CD, it has about the
best sound quality of anything he's ever done. Sadly I never had a chance to hear him live before he left us in 2013
Of course his performance is pure Bobby, IMHO the true King Of The Blues. YMMV

 

[MoreWatts]

That Bobby 'Blue' Bland was , thanks @Sal1950.

John Mayall releases his ~60th album, at age 88, The Sun Is Shining Down. A solid R&B effort, here's "Got To Find A Better Way," with violinist Scarlet Rivera. Just your average 88 year old, hanging around in the living room with Mike Campbell, Marcus King and other friends. This got nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Enjoy!

John Mayall, The Sun Is Shining Down, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link.

 

[MoreWatts]

Been havin’ “hey, Robbie Robertson died” reminisces recently. His 2nd solo album was his homage to New Orleans R&B, Storyville, from 1991. It never goes very R&B, but Allmusic wrote: “if the New Orleans presence in these songs is more often felt than heard, it still snakes powerfully through the music and honors the spirits that helped influence this music.” If he had only used a The Band-mate for vocals...

Robertson’s The Band-mates drummer/singer Levon Helm and organist Garth Hudson produced and played on a Muddy Waters release, The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, from 1975. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording, although it's an electric blues album. Allmusic: “His final album for Chess (recorded at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio, not in Chicago), with Helm and fellow Band-member Garth Hudson teaming up with Waters' touring band, it was a rocking (in the bluesy sense) soulful swansong to the label where he got his start.” Paul Butterfield plays some harmonica also.

Robbie Robertson, Storyville, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

Muddy Waters, The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

S’more R&B associated with The Band. See the post above also.

Allmusic: “On June 3, 2011, Mavis Staples played a concert at Levon Helm's studio and performance space in Woodstock, New York, with Helm and his band joining Staples and her musicians for the show. It would be the last time they performed together, with cancer finally claiming Helm after a long battle in April 2012, and thankfully the recording equipment at his studio was running as they joined together in song.

Carry Me Home is a live album drawn from that June 2011 performance, and it's an excellent document of the simple, powerfully eloquent magic that happens when Mavis Staples steps before a vocal mike and lets her spirit elevate all around her. Helm's vocals are only very occasionally audible on these tapes, with cancer reducing his proud Arkansas tenor to a rasp, but the joyous, lively shuffle of his drumming gives the performances an audible boost throughout, and the addition of his guitars and horn section turns this into a Sunday service that threatens to become a party at any moment.” Released in 2022.

Here’s 2 recent posts about the Band, here and here. And a post about some Levon albums, in the Americana thread, where he sings some of these tunes in fine voice.

Mavis Staples & Levon Helm, Carry Me Home, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[Timcognito]

Of course his performance is pure Bobby, IMHO the true King Of The Blues. YMMV

Your are right about Bobby. Here is my favorite from the the early 60s very clean sound and extra songs on the 2001 re-release. Before "Blue"

 

[MoreWatts]

Posted about John Mayall's 60th release upthread, so here is Buddy Guy's ~25th album, The Blues Don't Lie. In the video Buddy's guitar tech describes his guitar rig, including a custom 1958 replica tube amp Fender made just for, well, Buddy Guy. The wireless devices Buddy uses are also described. Mavis Staples, Elvis Costello, James Taylor, Jason Isbell, Bobby Rush, and Wendy Moten all contribute stellar guest vocal performances. Just your average, 86 year old, blues legend, with another nice album. This earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Buddy Guy, The Blues Don’t Lie, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[Timcognito]

Don't miss these

 

[MoreWatts]

Louisiana guitarist Sonny Landreth, known as ‘The King of Slydeco,’ did 2 nice blues albums, with a bit of a swampy feel. Allmusic: “Aside from a couple of cuts on which he plays standard guitar, Landreth fills this album with wizardly slide work… On most of these tracks Landreth performs in a raw trio setting, almost all the time recording live… Landreth affirms his mastery on The Road We're On and, more importantly, reminds listeners that bottomless power still lives in the body of the blues.” From 2003.

Sonny Landreth, The Road We’re On, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

Allmusic: “Bound by the Blues features his long standing group (bassist David Ranson and drummer Brian Brignac) on originals and standards, vocal tunes and instrumental workouts… Landreth reaffirms his commitment to the blues as a free-spirited and still vibrant creative form.” From 2015. The video is a live album tune.

I've seen Sonny's trio twice, and both were fun shows. I wish he jammed more than sang, but oh well...

Sonny Landreth, Bound By The Blues, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

I posted 3 of this year's Grammy Award nominees for Best Traditional Blues Album, unplanned, so might as well mention the rest. Here’s the 4th loser.

Allmusic: “Charlie Musselwhite plays harmonica and sings, but for the first time since 2006 he plays guitar throughout… He leads a trio with drummer Ricky Martin and upright bassist Barry Bays on several tunes, while the rest is performed solo. It features 8 originals and 6 covers offering a portrait of life as a bluesman. Mississippi Son is humid and swampy, it rolls rather than rocks… It's a late-period masterpiece.”

This is Charlie’s ~37th album since 1967. He’s been nominated for Grammys 15 times with one win.

Charlie Musselwhite, Mississippi Son, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[Philbo King]

I posted 3 of this year's Grammy Award nominees for Best Traditional Blues Album, unplanned, so might as well mention the rest. Here’s the 4th loser.

Allmusic: “Charlie Musselwhite plays harmonica and sings, but for the first time since 2006 he plays guitar throughout… He leads a trio with drummer Ricky Martin and upright bassist Barry Bays on several tunes, while the rest is performed solo. It features 8 originals and 6 covers offering a portrait of life as a bluesman. Mississippi Son is humid and swampy, it rolls rather than rocks… It's a late-period masterpiece.”

This is Charlie’s ~37th album since 1967. He’s been nominated for Grammys 15 times with one win.

Charlie Musselwhite, Mississippi Son, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

View attachment 311370

Charlie is a real gentleman. I've met him a few times in Clarksdale.

 

[Timcognito]

Musselwhite adds much to these two albums as a sideman

 

[MoreWatts]

The winner here completes the impromptu review of the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Here’s quick links to the 4 other nominees upthread: #One; #Two; #Three; #Four.

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder’s Get On Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee won the Grammy for Best Traditional Blue Album this year. 11 tunes, acoustic blues. Ry’s son Joachim percusses. Here’s a YT playlist with 5 of the tunes performed live in a living room, with one video below.

This is Taj’s ~28th studio album since 1968, and 4th Grammy win with 15 more nominations. This is Ry’s ~35th studio album, with collaborations, since ~1967, and 7th Grammy plus 15 nominations.

(Really, a Grammy for this album instead of Govt. Mule? Is Warren Haynes too young, at only 63? Since 2020, only 3 of 20 nominees are younger than Warren! The category of 'not dead yets'... FYI, I'm also older than Warren, I'm just sayin'...)

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, Get On Board, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

This begins a review of the 2023 Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album, which are usually 2022 releases. I stumbled into the same for Best Traditional Blues Album above, so might as well explore the ‘other’ blues category.

Allmusic: “Guitarist Eric Gales' approach to blues is anything but straightforward; it is shot through with funk, R&B, gospel, hard rock, and Hendrix-ian psychedelia… Track for track, Crown is flawless, the most consistent, musically ambitious, and satisfying album Gales has delivered in a long time, if not ever.”

Jeffrey Simo and Joe Bonamassa play rhythm guitar, Michael Rhodes bass, Greg Morrow and Lemar Carter drums, among others. This is Eric’s ~19th album since 1991, and his 1st Grammy nomination. Below is the official album video, with Joe Bonamassa.

Eric Gales, Crown, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[Freeway]

Gare Du Nord - Pablo's Blues

 

[MoreWatts]

When the horn section for your R&B album is the Count Basie Orchestra….

BluesRockReview: “Mr. Basie said, ‘our blues will make your blues go away.’ It’s a blues that makes you want to dance, snap your fingers, tap your toes, and feel good… Throughout Basie Swings The Blues the Count Basie Orchestra flows the album together with both mood-altering rhythms and horn exclamation points… It is something extraordinary, classic, and yet unique.”

Vocalists Shemekia Copeland, Bobby Rush and Bettye LeVette, guitarists Keb Mo, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and George Benson, harmonicaist Charlie Musselwhite and more do vocals and play.

Trumpeter Scotty Barnhart has led the band since 2013, their 6th leader since Basie died in ‘84, and they’ve earned 2 Grammy nominations under his direction. This is their ~24th album since 1986. The Basie Orchestra has been in ~continuous business since 1935!

The band’s 1998 Grammy winning Count Plays Duke was recommended in the Jazz Music thread, as part of a retrospective on jazz albums from 1998, a quarter-century ago….

The video is the band swingin’ the blues from 1941. To record these guys with modern techniques….

Count Basie Orchestra, Basie Swings The Blues, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

Here’s another nominee for last January’s Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, by vocalist/songwriter Shemekia Copeland.

Allmusic: “Done Come Too Far… combines powerful contemporary blues, R&B, and Americana, with lyrics from the depths of individual and collective experience… and seethes with steely determination, courage, and commanding, almost limitless musicality.” Guests are slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, recommended upthread, and mandolinist/fiddler Cedric Burnside.

This is Shemekia’s 10th album since 1998, and her 5th Grammy nomination. The video is Shemekia with guitar accompaniment to the 1st album tune.

Shemekia Copeland, Done Come Too Far, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

Here’s the 3rd nominee for Best Contemporary Blues Album from last year's Grammy Awards. Scroll a bit up-page to see the 1st two.

Allmusic: “The soul at the heart of Bloodline Maintenance functions as the music that bonds generations, allowing the singer/songwriter to delve into blues, doo wop, and hip-hop, all in a manner that feels heartfelt, not flashy. The result is one of Ben Harper's richer records: it's impossible to separate the music from the message, which makes it all the more resonant.”

Has that ‘cool blues’ feel typical of Ben. This was Ben’s ~16th of ~17 studio albums since 1994, with 9 Grammy nominations and 3 wins. The video is the short official album tune.

Ben Harper, Bloodline Maintenance, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

Here’s the 4th nominee for last year's (2023) Grammy Award For Best Contemporary Blues Album. Scroll up the page for posts on the first 3.

Allmusic: “The North Mississippi All-Stars (NMAS) create a refreshing meld of organic Southern sounds drawn from deep soul and blues to lithe funk and psychedelia; combined, they present an easy vibe… Set Sail is easily the band's most mature, far-reaching, affirmative statement. Making it even more indispensable is that it is as infectiously danceable as it is life affirming.”

This is NMAS ~20th album since 1999, and their 5th Grammy nomination. NMAS is brothers Luther on guitars and Cody Dickinson on drums, with new bassist Jesse Williams. Several vocalists and John Medeski on keys help.

North Mississippi All-Stars, Set Sail, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link

 

[MoreWatts]

Edgar Winter’s Brother Johnny won the 2023 Grammy Award For Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Louder: “Johnny Winter was one of the first generation of white blues-rock guitar virtuosos, blazing his fiery, fluid style across all manner of blues in the late 60s/early 70s with a singular passion… His multi-instrumentalist brother Edgar has paid tribute to Johnny by enlisting a collection of modern-day guitar heroes to specifically honor Johnny’s playing style and legacy on covers of a selection of his best tracks… It’s a skill that involves more than just copying the notes, and the results, from the likes of Billy Gibbons, Joe Walsh, Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, are impressive.”

(A 76 year old artist covers >50 year old songs and they call it "comtemporary?" It's a good album, but sheesh, how is this not "traditional?" God forbid a young artist win a blues Grammy, evidently. But, I digress...)

This is Edgar’s ~20th album since 1971. This is his 1st Grammy, with 3 more nominations. Scroll up this page to see the 4 other nominees for this Grammy.

Edgar Winter, Brother Johnny, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link