Other than reissues, true gutbucket blues CDs have been a rarity for more than a decade. Enter Exhibit A—Evening. One of the better harp players on the scene today, Sugar Ray Norcia gets a smoky, vintage sound by playing period instruments through tube amps. The sound is enhanced dramatically by Norcia not singing through the [...]
Tag Archives: Blues
Keb’ Mo’ + Anders Osborne at House of Blues, January 29: Photos
January 31, 2012 – 7:00 pm
After a short tour supporting blues singer/guitarist Keb’ Mo’, Anders Osborne returned with him to New Orleans for a show at House of Blues Sunday, January 29. Osborne opened the concert with a solo acoustic performance, playing seven new songs and even blowing some tunes on the harmonica (see him play the harp on “Back [...]
YouTube du Jour: B.B. King
January 17, 2012 – 11:06 am
Tonight, blues legend B.B. King performs at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. In 2003, he was the subject of a PBS documentary, The Road to Memphis. The extras added to the DVD release of the documentary include this guitar solo by King, played with the tone that so many of us hear in our heads when [...]
Ryan Foret and Foret Tradition, Let the Groove Move Ya (CSP Records)
January 1, 2012 – 12:51 am
When I was coming of age along the Northeast shoreline during the 1970s, my favorite local band was Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, a horn-laden R&B outfit spawned by the fertile music scene in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Jukes’ first album, I Don’t Want to Go Home remains a blue-eyed-soul masterpiece to this [...]
Ruthie Foster, Live at Antone’s (Blue Corn Records)
January 1, 2012 – 12:50 am
Ruthie Foster has a cult/fanatic following. People either have never heard of her or they think she has one of the best voices of our time. Her new CD Live at Antone’s shows why her voice has received such notice. It is husky and soulful but never overdone. She wails at the top of her [...]
Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Business Award: Scott Billington
January 1, 2012 – 12:14 am
It’s hard to explain what Scott Billington has meant to New Orleans and Louisiana music in the past two plus decades. These following words must suffice: Classified. Give Him Cornbread. Funk is in the House. Irma Thomas. Tangle Eye. Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas. The Houseman Cometh. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band [...]
The Blues Music Awards: Who’s the Bluest?
January 1, 2012 – 12:07 am
[Updated] Tab Benoit and Johnny Sansone received four nominations each by the Blues Foundation for their annual Blues Music Awards. The winners will be announced on May 10 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee, where Benoit and his Medicine album face off against Sansone and The Lord is Waiting and the Devil is [...]
Anders Osborne with Luther Dickinson at Tipitina’s: Photos
December 12, 2011 – 2:11 pm
Saturday night at Tipitina’s, Luther Dickinson (of the North Mississippi Allstars) joined Anders Osborne for a concert of blistering blues-rock guitar duels. Osborne’s regular rhythm section of Carl Dufrene on bass and Eric Bolivar on drums filled out the band. Billy Iuso & the Restless Natives opened the show. All photos were taken by Kate [...]
Camile Baudoin and the Living Rumors, Old Bayou Blues (Threadhead Records)
December 1, 2011 – 12:56 am
The band name for the long-time Radiators’ guitarist tells the story. Old Bayou Blues is the sound of friends sitting around on a porch in a living room singing songs they remember—a little Fats Domino, a little Hank Williams, a drinking song, a blues, and so on. Baudoin’s the top name on the marquee, but [...]
