It may have been the Beatles whose experimentation from album to album raised the expectation that recording musicians always had to do something different or unexpected with each new project. This idea has led to many more bad records than good. Kermit Ruffins doesn’t buy this. When a Ruffins record get cued up, listeners know [...]
Buy on AmazonBuy on iTunes When the CD cues up and the first cut “Don’t You Want Me” starts, it’s obvious that Big Al and the Heavyweights are serious about their brand of blues. These seasoned road veterans hit it tight and hard from the get-go, and the intensity never lets up. Their sound is [...]
Good rock ‘n’ roll. You don’t realize how you miss it until it hits you full in the face like it does when you put Cane Sugar on whatever form of music player you utilize. Gifted with the propulsive, hard-hitting rhythm section of drummer Garland Paul and man-about-town bassist Sam Price, songwriters, singers, and string [...]
Buy on Amazon It’s good to hear a band whose sound hearkens to back in the day but also has a modern touch. Soul Project’s new record sounds like a cross between vintage New Orleans funk and James Brown rhythm and blues. Given leader Christian Duhe’s long-term musical relationship with Walter “Wolfman” Washington including many [...]
Buy on AmazonBuy on iTunes Terence Higgins’ collective Swampgrease II is aptly named. This is some slippery music, flowing but not overflowing in tight vamps that move in, out, and around many related musics. Right from the opening two cuts, Swampgrease takes it back to the 1970s with treated, voice-box-esque vocals repeating the opening track’s [...]
Most blues fans have not heard of the guitarist Sterling Magee a/k/a “Five-Fingers Magee” who, after being discharged from the army in New York, wrote songs for Jesse Stone, recorded several singles for Ray Charles’ Tangerine label, and backed up James Brown, King Curtis, and Big Maybelle. But anyone who frequented 125th Street in Harlem [...]
The clouds are gathering and darkening over the corner of 2nd and Dryades on Mardi Gras 2013. Rain has been forecast. The streets are crowded, and the once organized but now chaotic spread of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indian Gang is trying to assemble to make their move back to home base on Valence [...]
Celebrate is an apt name for this self-released record from the New Orleans five piece Social Set. The five songs here include 3 upbeat tracks and 2 slower numbers. All are marked by simple, straight ahead backbeats great for dancing on the faster tunes and contemplation on the mellower numbers. Buy on AmazonBuy on iTunesKathryn [...]
Although saxophonist Kidd Jordan has entered an age when most musicians start to slow down or coast on former laurels, Jordan is still making exquisitely passionate, creative, and beautiful music. This record, a follow up to 2012’s first On Fire record, maintains Jordan’s high standards. Again he is featured with drummer Warren Smith and bassist [...]
Although Corey Harris made his name as a Delta blues player that is not nearly the end of his talents. He has a well-deserved reputation for performing many different genres from the West African tones of From Mississippi To Mali to the reggae of Zion Crossroads. Buy on AmazonBuy on iTunesHere he spices his intricate [...]
