Showing posts with label Blues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blues. Show all posts

Saturday, March 30, 2024

#670 : Bex Marshall - Fortuna (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 


2024 – Dixiefrog Records

By Phillip Smith; Mar. 30, 2024

Release Date : Mar. 1, 2024

 

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com


Twelve years have passed since UK British Blues Award winner Bex Marshall released her previous record The House of Mercy. Her latest album Fortuna features nine all-original songs and one cover. Marshall’s guitar mastery combined with her wonderful raspy vocals and brilliant song-writing make for a captivating listen. The record is an absolute delight. With Marshall on lead vocals and lead guitar, her band on this album is comprised of drummer Richie Stevens (Tina Turner, Simply Red, George Clinton), keyboardist Toby Baker (B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Alexander O’Neal, Sinead O Connor), B.J Cole on dobro (Elton John, Coldplay, Sting, Shania Twain, Robbie Williams), Robert Eugene Daniels and Aurora Mannola on bass, with Queen Shola Adegoroye and Danny Bryan (Taj Mahal) on percussion.    

Riding atop a spirited funky groove, Marshall pulls me tightly in to the record with her cool-as-hell Tina Turner/Pink Floyd-ish cocktail “Preaching to the Choir”. A driving rhythm slathered with a delectable serving of swampy slide guitar and fearless vocals create a moment of pure listening perfection in “I Can’t Look You in the Eye”. Dining alone often draws a lot of wrong assumptions and unnecessary pity as Bex explains in her infectious tribute to the subject in “Table For One”. I love the jam-band appeal of the instrumental title-track “Fortuna”. Stevens keeps the song cooking on high-heat, as Marshall tears it up on guitar. In many ways, this track brings to mind a favorite band of mine Phish. Blues gushes out of every pore as she belts out “Lay Down and Die”. I love the closing track “When It’s Gone”. It brings the album to a freewheeling finish invoking the sounds of The Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac, creating a floaty atmosphere in a beautiful, lofty space.

Bex Marshall’s Fortuna is a top favorite of blues releases I have heard so far this year.  I highly recommend this record.

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For more information about the artist, visit this website : https://www.bexmarshall.com/

Friday, March 22, 2024

#669 : Altered Five Blues Band - Testifyin' (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 


2024 – Blind Pig Records

By Phillip Smith; Mar. 23, 2024

Release Date : Mar. 22, 2024

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com


I was very excited to hear there was a new release on the way from Milwaukee’s hardest working bluesmen Altered Five Blues Band. This seventh and latest release Testifyin' absolutely cooks. With five all-original tracks of smokin’ blues, this EP is hitting the scene with quite an impact. With Jeff Taylor on lead vocals, Jeff Schroedl on guitar, Mark Solveson on bass, Steve Huebler on keys, and Alan Arber on drums, A5BB plays the blues with feeling and conviction. The EP was produced, mixed and mastered by Grammy award-winner Tom Hambridge. To sweeten the pot, the super-talented, multi-award-winning Jason Ricci also appears with harp in hand on three of the five tracks.

 Testifyin’ kicks off with “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t” delivered with a funky rhythm topped with a smokin’ guitar performance from Schroedl and a sweet horn accompaniment from Max Abrams on saxophone and Julio Diaz on trumpet. They roll into “Whiskey Got Me Married” a smoldering blues track that sounds great sung by Taylor’s husky voice. Ricci totally wails on the harmonica and sounds amazing. “Brand New Bone” is an outstanding track which seems to begin in the Delta and wrap up in Chicago. With Ricci in the mix, this track is a genuine winner. They slow it down to a gentle sway to sing about hard times in “I’ve Got Scars to Prove It”. Schroedl plays every note with an emotional approach. Testifyin’ wraps up in a lively positive light with “You Can’t Win (If it Ain’t Within)”. It is upbeat, uplifting, and a sheer delight to hear.

 Every song is a keeper on Altered Five Blues Band’s Testifyin’. It’s a record that I keep on heavy-rotation for a long while. 

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For more information about the artist, visit this website : https://www.alteredfive.com/

 

For other PhillyCheeze reviews regarding Altered Five Blues Band, follow this link:

https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/2021/10/521-altered-five-blues-band-holler-if.html



Sunday, March 3, 2024

#665 : Cedar County Cobras - Live at CSPS 3-2-24 (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)


Cedar County Cobras

Live at CSPS

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

March 2, 2024

 

By Phillip Smith; Mar. 3, 2024

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

I’ve been wanting to see Cedar County Cobras since reviewing their Homesick Blues album in December. The opportunity finally made its way last night at CSPS in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in front of full house. That’s one of the most perfect venues in town to experience live music. The Cedar County Cobras are comprised of Tom Spielbauer (guitar/vocals) and April Dirks (upright bass/mandolin/vocals).   

The Cobras played two amazing sets of music, leaning heavily into delta blues. They kicked the show off with an infectious cover of RL Burnside’s “Poor Black Mattie” followed immediately after with Son House’s “Walkin’ Blues”. The first set also included Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South” which Spielbauer remarked he picked up while playing at Red’s in Clarksdale, Mississippi. With Dirks on mandolin, they gave a wonderful performance of Bill Monroe’s “Under the Bridge” and Mississippi John Hurt’s “Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home”. 

They started their second set with “Utah” from their Homesick Blues album. Spielbauer brought out his 1929 National Steel guitar to play for several songs of which included a fantastic of Muddy Waters’ “Trouble No More”. He then switched to his gold-top Les Paul guitar to finish the show, hitting on originals which included a couple of my favorites “Gimme Lightnin’” and “Homesick Blues”. The show concluded with the mesmerizing spiritual “Get Right Church”.

It was definitely a night of music for the soul, and I enjoyed every note played. I already look forward to seeing them again.

 

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All Photos by Phillip Smith


















 

·       * All photos by Phillip Smith      


T Read the PhillyCheeze review of Cedar County Cobras' Homesick Blues album : https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/2023/12/651-cedar-county-cobras-homesick-blues.html


Friday, December 22, 2023

#651 : Cedar County Cobras - Homesick Blues (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 


2023 – Cedar County Cobras

By Phillip Smith; Dec. 22, 2023

 

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

Cedar County Cobras, a blues and roots duo from Iowa has grabbed my full attention with their new album Homesick Blues.  Comprised by Tom Spielbauer and April Dirks, the Cedar County Cobras were formed in 2014 and have logged hundreds of shows across the state and Midwest.  In 2022, Spielbauer won the Iowa Blues Challenge for solo artists, securing a spot at the 2023 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee where he placed as a semi-finalist.  The duo’s songs are soaked with a pre-war blues essence and are wonderfully performed with Spielbauer on guitar and foot-drum and Dirks on mandolin and upright bass.

Dirks’ mandolin beautifully pairs with the Nashville-twang of Spielbauer’s guitar on the infectious “Country Records”.  I love the slide guitar on the rambling drinking song “Gimmie Lightnin’”.   There is a line in the song about seeing Cedell Davis at Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City, and it hits me with a wave of jealousy with every listen.  I would have loved to be there.  When they take on Muddy Waters’ “Trouble No More”, they positively make it their own.  It is a wonderful re-engineering of the song and has a strong Delta Blues presence.  They also put a lot of love and attention into their cover of Son House’s “Walkin Blues”.  Spielbauer sets a quite ominous mood on his original “Voodoo Doll”.  This song about a witchy retribution is a magically unsettling and I love it.  My favorite track is their cover of Jessie Mae Hemphill’s “Shake it Right”.  This is North Mississippi Hill-Country Blues at its best.  Dirks on stand-up bass gives the song an extra punch to its hypnotic rhythm behind Spielbauer’s resonator guitar.

Cedar County Cobras’ Homesick Blues is a tasty dose of real-deal blues.  It is a fantastic recording through and through.                                   

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For more information about the artist, or to purchase their music, visit their website : https://cedarcountycobras.com/

 



Monday, November 20, 2023

#646 : Rocky Athas at CSPS - Nov 17, 2023 (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 


Rocky Athas Band

Live at CSPS – Nov. 17, 2023

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 

By Phillip Smith; November 20, 2023

 

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

Rocky Athas has been on my radar for over ten years now.  His mastery of guitar is quite impressive.   I first was introduced to his talent while he was playing with Black Oak Arkansas.  Then soon after I began reviewing CDs, I found his six-string skills across several John Mayall albums.  Athas’ solo albums then came my way for review, and each one kept revealing different layers of his guitar prowess.  When I saw that Rocky was playing at CSPS in Cedar Rapids, I knew it would be a show I wanted to see.  I had never seen him play live before, but I knew this would be a cool musical experience.  It most definitely was.  

Rocky Athas’ band consists of Rocky Athas on guitar, his son Rocky Athas II on bass guitar, Walter Watson on vocals and his son Jared Watson on rhythm guitar, with Gonzalo Trevino on drums.

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                         Photos by Phillip Smith

























* all photos by Phillip Smith

Sunday, November 5, 2023

#643 : Avey Grouws Band w/ The Wilted at Wildwood Saloon - Nov 3, 2023 (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

Avey Grouws Band w/ The Wilted

Live at Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon – Nov.3, 2023

Iowa City, Iowa

 

By Phillip Smith; November 5, 2023

 

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

After nearly a year and a half, I was finally able to catch Avey Grouws Band again this weekend.  When I saw they were going to be playing at the Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon in Iowa City, I knew I had to go.  They are absolutely one of my favorite live acts to see.  The show was the perfect mix of favorites, rarities, new songs, and covers.   

Opening for Avey Grouws Band was Iowa City-based band The Wilted.  They played a most impressive set.  When this band releases their first album, I’ll certainly be buying a copy.  

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* photos by Phillip Smith

 The Wilted

 












 

 Avey Grouws Band


























                          * Photos by Phillip Smith