7/24/2006
Music reviews
Here are the latest music reviews from our very own Love Whip:
William Lee Ellis
God's Tattoos
Yellow Dog Records YDR1343
www.yellowdogrecords.com/wle
His guitar speaks back to him ... like a burning bush. God turns up pervasively, but as an inspiration rather than a subject. Is that difference clear? They're not songs about faith, but songs written to express the beauty of visions Mr. Ellis has had, and he happens to express himself with acoustic guitar in a powerful acoustic blues style style rooted both in East Texas and the Piedmont, with strong seasoning hints of Scotch Irish hill music. It's a very thoughtful record, a theme record, with the soft, introverted voice of a sensitive man sharing important secrets about Life and Beauty with his lucky listeners.
The titles say a lot: "Snakes In My Garden," "God's Tattoos," "When Leadbelly Walked the River Like Christ," "Search My Heart," "Four Horses," "Perfect Ones Who Break," "The Call," "Cold and Weary," "Here I Am, Lord Send Me," Jesus Stole My Heart," "The Missing Moon and Stars" and "Dust Will Write My Name."
Eddie Turner
The Turner Diaries
Northern Blues Music NBM0036
www.northernblues.com
Hendrix-like in vocal approach, but more into blues and swing. Still fully psychedelic. Power trio. Certainly rooted in blues. Blues fans and rockers alike will turn it up, replay individual cuts and otherwise make every effort to immerse themselves into this record. Jazz fans will find it palatable or better.
Drink Small
Blues Doctor: Live & Outrageous!
Erwin Music
www.drinksmallblues.com
If you know Drink Small, ten you know him as the best live blues guitarist vocalist out there and, man, I mean he is out there. "Live & Outrageous" indeed; the man solemnly told me once that he'd invented rap, then proved it off the cuff for the next twenty minutes. He pushes blues, he sells it as a frame that will hold any canvas from any other genre of music and do it convincingly, as in the Roy Acuff number on this CD re-issue of a mid-'80s cassette release which he prefaces by assuring the audience, "If you turn out the light, you'd swear I was white. If you hear me in the dark, you'd think I was Roy Clark." Okay, you're never really going to mistake Drink Small for Roy Clark, but if you haven't heard him, then you're mistaking someone else for the best solo or small combo blues performer on the road today.
He knocks them out wherever he goes. Where he goes is usually a Southeastern coastal circuit, centered around Columbia, South Carolina, but he makes it to Memphis and New Orleans once in awhile. He is pure T hell at festivals, because everyone's afraid to follow him. It's impossible for anyone to show the audience a better, bluesier, more authentic time.
Delaney & Bonnie
Home
Stax Records STXCD-8626-2
www.concordmusicgroup.com
"Bramlett was at a hotel bar with Stephen Stills, with whom she a was singing backing vocals. The pair got into an argument with a very drunk Costello who called Stills an "old tin nose" and, later, Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger" (for which the clearly not-racist Elvis later profusely apologized). Unable to take further abuse, Bramlett punched the Englishman and knocked him out cold ..." That incident may qualify as Bonnie Bramlett's greatest remaining claim to fame in 2006. Jeez, backing vocals for Stephen Stills back in '79? That was a long way down from being one of the most emulated female vocalists in rock, a woman behind whom Eric Clapton and Dave Mason were happy to play.
Home was the first album (1969) by more-or-less hippies Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and a fluid backing band. Recorded on Stax, "The Voice of Black America," it is, in retrospect, evocative less of Memphis or Muscle Shoals than of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Capitol of Southern Soul and Shag Dancing Nostalgia. While achieving this ambience seems like small reward for a record that included the talents of Booker T & the MGs, Leon Russell, Isaac Hayes and William Bell, it is actually a rare treasure of a package.
Quite simply, one does not find releases like this often, and it captures the best of 1969 very, very well. One tires of the Creedence, Beatles and Stones singles from that period that still crop up on specialty FM stations, as they are too familiar. This is a random, yet extremely lucky find from the patchouli, sweat and pot-scented record bins of that day. Thanks to Concord Music Group's CD re-release and re-mastering of this record, with added cuts, one doesn't need random luck. You can and should go right to it.
Janiva Magness
Do I Move You?
Northern Blues Music NBM0033
www.northernblues.com
Everyone's going nuts over this one. Play any song from this album for guests, and they'll perk up and want to examine the CD case in detail. Who is this woman? She is a young blues singer with remarkable control. She gives the impression that there's always more waiting, that the next phrase may be even better than the last. She is a true interpreter, and her takes on these perfectly chosen and various eleven songs are all unique. Attitude-wise, she describes herself as a "Hussy," which we can interpret as "one who flaunts her sexuality regardless of how disturbing that may be to all those she comes into contact with."
Her full band instrumentation stays behind her. It is her record and she is the star and focus of each cut. This factor actually requires some getting used to, and some significant pondering. So many blues songstresses, early on, sound dominated by the male musicians around them. She does not. She absolutely does not. And that's as it should be. A honey of a hussy of a release.
The Miles Davis Quintet
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions
Prestige Records PRCD4-4444-2
www.concordmusicgroup.com
Those were the days, back when there were so many peaks to scale, and many scales to peak in small combo jazz. Those were the days when a quintet could astound listeners by finding strong, brash harmony between two instruments instead of sixteen, when the front and back lines of the band blurred, and could blur in more, better equipped studios, when it took a couple of days to make a record that would last forever, and Miles Davis was, to those in the know, king of this strange new world. There were thoughts that could be thought best or more easily with his music playing in the background. It was cool. It still is.
This is a great collection of first or second take masterpieces, and it's mandatory for a jazz CD collection not only for the recordings, but for the liner notes. When you obtain a set like this, you experience a level of music criticism higher than that found in most full length artist biographies. The booklet accompanying this four-CD set is a gorgeous, highly insightful and instructive work. Again, a must for the serious jazz collector. And cool.
Walter Trout and Friends
Full Circle
Ruf Records RUF1117
www.rufrecords.de
After thirty five years in the music business, five years since his last studio record, blues-rock guitar legend Walter Trout here reflects on the sounds that influenced him and the sounds through which he influenced others. Lending hands here are John Mayall, Coco Montoya, Jeff Healey, Guitar Shorty, James Harman, Richie Hayward, Junior Watson and several other luminaries from American and British blues royalty. The tunes are, well, typical of British blues, as is true of any Mayall alumnus going back to those true blue roots.
The guitar work is stellar and precise, though the vocals are, after all these years, still failing to evoke the natural, easy passion of real blues. Oh well, that's a hallmark of British blues, and, though it sounds artificial, it's dead center of a real tradition, Other, better vocalists, including John Mayall himself, add more distinctive, real flavor to the record.
All in all, this is as good a British blues CD as you're likely to find this year. It is a fine, current anthology.
William Lee Ellis
God's Tattoos
Yellow Dog Records YDR1343
www.yellowdogrecords.com/wle
His guitar speaks back to him ... like a burning bush. God turns up pervasively, but as an inspiration rather than a subject. Is that difference clear? They're not songs about faith, but songs written to express the beauty of visions Mr. Ellis has had, and he happens to express himself with acoustic guitar in a powerful acoustic blues style style rooted both in East Texas and the Piedmont, with strong seasoning hints of Scotch Irish hill music. It's a very thoughtful record, a theme record, with the soft, introverted voice of a sensitive man sharing important secrets about Life and Beauty with his lucky listeners.
The titles say a lot: "Snakes In My Garden," "God's Tattoos," "When Leadbelly Walked the River Like Christ," "Search My Heart," "Four Horses," "Perfect Ones Who Break," "The Call," "Cold and Weary," "Here I Am, Lord Send Me," Jesus Stole My Heart," "The Missing Moon and Stars" and "Dust Will Write My Name."
Eddie Turner
The Turner Diaries
Northern Blues Music NBM0036
www.northernblues.com
Hendrix-like in vocal approach, but more into blues and swing. Still fully psychedelic. Power trio. Certainly rooted in blues. Blues fans and rockers alike will turn it up, replay individual cuts and otherwise make every effort to immerse themselves into this record. Jazz fans will find it palatable or better.
Drink Small
Blues Doctor: Live & Outrageous!
Erwin Music
www.drinksmallblues.com
If you know Drink Small, ten you know him as the best live blues guitarist vocalist out there and, man, I mean he is out there. "Live & Outrageous" indeed; the man solemnly told me once that he'd invented rap, then proved it off the cuff for the next twenty minutes. He pushes blues, he sells it as a frame that will hold any canvas from any other genre of music and do it convincingly, as in the Roy Acuff number on this CD re-issue of a mid-'80s cassette release which he prefaces by assuring the audience, "If you turn out the light, you'd swear I was white. If you hear me in the dark, you'd think I was Roy Clark." Okay, you're never really going to mistake Drink Small for Roy Clark, but if you haven't heard him, then you're mistaking someone else for the best solo or small combo blues performer on the road today.
He knocks them out wherever he goes. Where he goes is usually a Southeastern coastal circuit, centered around Columbia, South Carolina, but he makes it to Memphis and New Orleans once in awhile. He is pure T hell at festivals, because everyone's afraid to follow him. It's impossible for anyone to show the audience a better, bluesier, more authentic time.
Delaney & Bonnie
Home
Stax Records STXCD-8626-2
www.concordmusicgroup.com
"Bramlett was at a hotel bar with Stephen Stills, with whom she a was singing backing vocals. The pair got into an argument with a very drunk Costello who called Stills an "old tin nose" and, later, Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger" (for which the clearly not-racist Elvis later profusely apologized). Unable to take further abuse, Bramlett punched the Englishman and knocked him out cold ..." That incident may qualify as Bonnie Bramlett's greatest remaining claim to fame in 2006. Jeez, backing vocals for Stephen Stills back in '79? That was a long way down from being one of the most emulated female vocalists in rock, a woman behind whom Eric Clapton and Dave Mason were happy to play.
Home was the first album (1969) by more-or-less hippies Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and a fluid backing band. Recorded on Stax, "The Voice of Black America," it is, in retrospect, evocative less of Memphis or Muscle Shoals than of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Capitol of Southern Soul and Shag Dancing Nostalgia. While achieving this ambience seems like small reward for a record that included the talents of Booker T & the MGs, Leon Russell, Isaac Hayes and William Bell, it is actually a rare treasure of a package.
Quite simply, one does not find releases like this often, and it captures the best of 1969 very, very well. One tires of the Creedence, Beatles and Stones singles from that period that still crop up on specialty FM stations, as they are too familiar. This is a random, yet extremely lucky find from the patchouli, sweat and pot-scented record bins of that day. Thanks to Concord Music Group's CD re-release and re-mastering of this record, with added cuts, one doesn't need random luck. You can and should go right to it.
Janiva Magness
Do I Move You?
Northern Blues Music NBM0033
www.northernblues.com
Everyone's going nuts over this one. Play any song from this album for guests, and they'll perk up and want to examine the CD case in detail. Who is this woman? She is a young blues singer with remarkable control. She gives the impression that there's always more waiting, that the next phrase may be even better than the last. She is a true interpreter, and her takes on these perfectly chosen and various eleven songs are all unique. Attitude-wise, she describes herself as a "Hussy," which we can interpret as "one who flaunts her sexuality regardless of how disturbing that may be to all those she comes into contact with."
Her full band instrumentation stays behind her. It is her record and she is the star and focus of each cut. This factor actually requires some getting used to, and some significant pondering. So many blues songstresses, early on, sound dominated by the male musicians around them. She does not. She absolutely does not. And that's as it should be. A honey of a hussy of a release.
The Miles Davis Quintet
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions
Prestige Records PRCD4-4444-2
www.concordmusicgroup.com
Those were the days, back when there were so many peaks to scale, and many scales to peak in small combo jazz. Those were the days when a quintet could astound listeners by finding strong, brash harmony between two instruments instead of sixteen, when the front and back lines of the band blurred, and could blur in more, better equipped studios, when it took a couple of days to make a record that would last forever, and Miles Davis was, to those in the know, king of this strange new world. There were thoughts that could be thought best or more easily with his music playing in the background. It was cool. It still is.
This is a great collection of first or second take masterpieces, and it's mandatory for a jazz CD collection not only for the recordings, but for the liner notes. When you obtain a set like this, you experience a level of music criticism higher than that found in most full length artist biographies. The booklet accompanying this four-CD set is a gorgeous, highly insightful and instructive work. Again, a must for the serious jazz collector. And cool.
Walter Trout and Friends
Full Circle
Ruf Records RUF1117
www.rufrecords.de
After thirty five years in the music business, five years since his last studio record, blues-rock guitar legend Walter Trout here reflects on the sounds that influenced him and the sounds through which he influenced others. Lending hands here are John Mayall, Coco Montoya, Jeff Healey, Guitar Shorty, James Harman, Richie Hayward, Junior Watson and several other luminaries from American and British blues royalty. The tunes are, well, typical of British blues, as is true of any Mayall alumnus going back to those true blue roots.
The guitar work is stellar and precise, though the vocals are, after all these years, still failing to evoke the natural, easy passion of real blues. Oh well, that's a hallmark of British blues, and, though it sounds artificial, it's dead center of a real tradition, Other, better vocalists, including John Mayall himself, add more distinctive, real flavor to the record.
All in all, this is as good a British blues CD as you're likely to find this year. It is a fine, current anthology.
