Fabrizio Poggi’s Got Blues in his Basement

Fabrizio Poggi is one of Europe’s premier blues musicians. An accomplished harmonica player, Fabrizio is a Grammy Awards nominee, has been twice nominated for Blues Music Awards, and has received the Hohner Lifetime Award. During a long career he has recorded twenty-two albums and has performed in the US and Europe with a who’s who of blues royalty, including the likes of the Blind Boys of Alabama, Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, Ronnie Earl, John P. Hammond, Marcia Ball, Guy Davis, and Eric Bibb, 

He has a new album out called Basement Blues, which culls thirteen songs from his recent archives, including originals and covers of classic blues and gospel songs. It’s a real treat and I was glad to get chatting to Fabrizio recently from his home in Lombardy in the north of Italy.

Gary
Congratulations, Fabrizio, on the new album. It sounds great. Can you tell us a little bit about it because I think a lot of the songs have been recorded some time ago, but you’ve put them together in this great album?

Fabrizio
It all started with my wife Angelina. Last year on Valentine’s Day, she gave me a copy of the The Basement Tapes with Bob Dylan and the band. And she said to me, why don’t you do something like the Basement Tapes? Now of course I can’t do the Basement Tapes! But something started to work. inside my mind and I thought, maybe I have got something in the archives, in my own basement that can be useful <laughs>.

You know, Gary, I don’t like to listen to myself very much, but I listened to some of these older recordings and thought, oh, hey, that isn’t too bad! And I was asking myself why I didn’t put these songs onto a record.

So I discovered that I have a lot of songs that people might like to listen to. And these songs go back 15 years. I have a lot of studio recordings from America. Maybe we were just warming up – we weren’t focused – okay, this is just a warm up, but don’t throw it away. But it’s not for the official record, you know?

So little by little, I had collected a lot of songs and when I went into the studio to put everything together, they sounded OK! I discovered that I’ve got a pretty good record! And my friends, other musicians, people told me these songs aren’t just outtakes. These are songs that deserve to be heard by people that love your music.

Gary
Yeah, they’re all great. I mean, it hangs together as an album really well, actually. And, there are no songs that you wanna skip over and think, no, that’s a bit of a filler. They’re all strong performances.

And you have some excellent collaborators on the album. Obviously, Guy Davis is there, and he always sounds great. But you’ve got Garth Hudson, who played with The Band?

Fabrizio
He was one of the five guys from Canada. This album of mine came from thinking about Bob Dylan and The Band in the woods. And Garth recorded with me on two albums. So I listened to one of the outtakes and it’s interesting because here Garth seems to be playing very freely. So, maybe it’s time to let people listen to it. He is always a genius and all the stuff that he plays on John the Revelator – unbelievable and unexpected!

Gary
You’re right, it does sound fresh. And another musician whose work I enjoyed on the album is your guitarist Enrico Polverari.

Fabrizio
Enrico a very good guitarist, who has been playing with me for 12 years. And he is growing all the time as a musician. On this album he’s playing much more acoustic guitar than before. But speaking of guitarists, we also have Ronnie Earl on electric on two of the songs.

Gary
When you mention Ronnie Earl, Fabrizio, you have played with a great number of other top musicians throughout your career, haven’t you? I mean if you listed them all out, I think anybody’s jaws would drop. They would be going, wow! You’ve had that opportunity, haven’t you?

Fabrizio
Yes. I feel very blessed. You know, a lot of these great musicians I ended up playing with were real heroes for me. So it was really a double treat to me, because the beautiful thing is not only to play with this great musician, but when you play with someone like that, you improve. Sometimes a lot. Just to be in the same room and be jamming together. Something happens inside you and you improve a lot. You grow.

And the other beautiful thing about these experiences is that with most of them, we became friends, like, brothers. Maybe we don’t see each other very often. But in some way, when we reach out to each other it’s like if we’ve just seen each other yesterday.

Gary
Of course, a lot of that is down to your musical expertise. But there’s a lot of that I guess, Fabrizio, is down to your warmth as a person.

Fabrizio
Well, I don’t know. But thank you for the compliment. I always think that the best way to approach other people is always to be honest and transparent. And very respectful.

Especially in the beginning. So, if you act like that, if you don’t pretend to be something else, they can feel it. We maybe were born in different countries, have different languages, different culture, but we have the same emotion. And sometimes these things are easy to share because music really is an international language. So, I don’t know if I have a special talent but everything has come in a very natural way. And don’t forget that, I have to be honest. I have my secret weapon, Angelina!

[Angelina, Fabrizio’s wife, is a very talented photographer and author. Her recently published book, Volevo Fare La Deejay, traces her life from a childhood in rural Italy with very restricted expectations of her, to her life in music along with Fabrizio and her art.]

Gary
Let me ask you this. Of all these musical heroes that you’ve had an opportunity to play with, are there any that stand out for perhaps their warmth in the interaction that you’ve had with them. Are there one or two that are particularly memorable for you?

Fabrizio
It’s easy for me to say people like Guy Davis. I had a good feeling also with Eric Bibb. And, I remember when I met Mavis Staples some twenty years ago, it was so easy and she was so approachable. I remember the two or three times that I met her we chatted about everything for maybe 30 minutes just waiting for the sound check. One time in Lucerne, me and Guy were opening for her. And Guy would always tease me – he said that his soundcheck had to wait because Fabrizio is busy chatting with his Aunt Mavis! <laughs>.

Gary
That’s wonderful. Obviously the album is essentially a blues album, but you started off with a gospel song, Tommy Dorsey’s Precious Lord, Take My Hand. Is that a special song for you, Fabrizio?

Fabrizio
Yes. Very special. And, you know, it’s a very moving story. I read many years ago, how Tommy Dossey came to write Precious Lord. [In 1938, while Dorsey was out of town, his wife died in childbirth and then tragically, their son died hours later. Wracked with grief, Dorsey sat at a piano and wrote the song.]

So, the other night, I dedicated Precious Lord, Take My Hand to my sister. [Fabrizio’s sister passed away very recently at a relatively young age.] We weren’t really thinking of opening the CD with this song, but everyone in the studio, said no, this song has to open the album. And Enrico said our version sounds as if Thomas Dorsey wrote the song in Mississippi!

Gary
Yes, it’s a very bluesy version that you’ve done. And I love the vocals that you have on it. It actually works very well. It’s a really nice arrangement.

Fabrizio
Thank you. In fact, I asked Enrico – don’t play minor chords. Just a few notes to support my harmonica and my talking vocals. Just play as if Son House one day woke up and said, I want to play and sing Precious Lord, Take My Hand. And it seems that people that don’t listen much to gospel or spiritual music like it very much. So I’m very happy.

Gary
I thought it was really interesting that the next song you have is Little Red Rooster, which is with Guy Davis singing and it’s great. But I thought it was really interesting because, in the southern states, they talk about, you know, Saturday night and Sunday morning – singing the Blues on Saturday night, and then singing a hymn on Sunday morning. Well, you’ve kind of reversed it on, on your album. You’ve got Sunday Morning first!

Fabrizio
Oh, yeah! <laughs> That’s perfect, man.

Gary
Now let me ask you about this. There’s one song which is Blues for Charlie. And that’s an instrumental, isn’t it? So, what is that about?

Fabrizio
Charlie is Charlie Musselwhite whom I imitate a little bit. I had two songs that I had given to the Blues Foundation where royalties or sales could be given to poor musicians that live in bad situations. But I had a couple of versions very similar to the ones that were on that CD, where I mixed them a little differently and changed the title and they were perfect. That’s Blues for Charlie and Boogie for John Lee Hooker.

Gary
Fabrizio, obviously these are blues songs. It’s the blues that you mostly play. But you play some gospel as well. But on the last song on the album, there’s a great line that says, if you don’t love the blues, you’ve got a hole in your soul. So why is that? What is it about the blues that is so important to you?

Fabrizio
Well, the blues, to quote Charlie Musselwhite, overtook me when I was a teenager. It’s hard to explain but it was love at the first time. The blues had arrived with Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. But what impacted me was when I went to this little movie theater here in the south of Lombardi, and I saw Muddy Waters and listened to Paul Butterfield on harmonica.

Wow! It was really something, and I said, this is what I want to play. I wanna be like them. “If you don’t like the blues, you have a hole in your soul” was something that I saw written in an old record store in Arkansas. I thought it was a beautiful phrase. Of course, it is a sort of joke, if you don’t like the blues your soul is okay!

So I saw Muddy Water all those years ago playing in the film, The Last Waltz. I had seen the poster which mentioned Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton. Van Morrison. But there were other people I didn’t know at all, like The Band. At a certain point in the concert, Robbie Robertson says, ladies and gentlemen…Muddy Waters. And I saw this old black guy coming on the stage. And all the musicians who are much younger are treating him like the emperor of the world.

And I was wondering, who’s that black man that everyone is treating like a king? And when he started to sing, I said, Oh, now I know, now I understand why they treated him like that!

Photo: John Bull

And then the next day, I went to a record store to buy a harmonica to play the blues. And the man at the store said, I don’t know anything about playing the blues with harmonica! So, I began a journey to find the right instrument. All my friends teased me: You wanna play harmonic, why don’t you play drums or guitar like everyone else? In and around my town, no one played the harmonica. It took me probably six months to figure out which was the right instrument.

And then there’s the question of technique. Of course, nowadays, on Google, you can find tutorials in one second, or less. At that time, I was working as a labourer in a factory. I worked a lot, I ate a lot. I had a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. And when I was listening to a Muddy Waters song, or a John Lee Hooker song, I didn’t understand a word, not even the title of the song. But there was something that in some way seemed connected to my own dissatisfaction.

I felt lonely. All my friends had gone to the university. And I was in a factory working shifts. I was very frustrated. But that’s the magic of the blues. That was 35 or 40 years ago, but it was really another world. So when I started to listen to the blues, I didn’t understand the words. But when I listened to B.B. King or John the Revelator, it didn’t matter. It was something that touched my aching soul. It was enough.

You can have your own lyrics in your mind. The music, the way that the singer sings the song, it’s enough. Of course, if you understand the lyrics it is much better. So at one point I said to myself, okay, Fabrizio, if you like American music, you have to improve your English, because I hadn’t studied English at school. And so I started to translate songs and I started to travel. And of course, the more you travel the more you need to speak English. But that’s how you improve.

Gary
You mentioned getting started with the harmonica, and as you say, you didn’t have YouTube tutorials. You didn’t have Adam Gussow. So how did you learn, how did you learn about sucking and blowing and cross harp and so on? How did you learn all that?

Fabrizio
Well, for six months, I tried to follow the records. Trying to sound bluesy, but it doesn’t work – because I was playing in first position. Then one time I went to a club to listen a local band, and at the end of the show, I got talking to the guitar player. And I told him I had this harmonica, and I said to this guy, I’m quitting. And he told me it doesn’t sound like the blues because you have to play in second position. So, he explained, if the key of the blues song is E you have to use a harmonica in A. So the next day I tried, and although it took me years and years, in some way, I had seen the light.

Gary
Well, are there a couple of harmonica players of the past, or indeed the present, that are your heroes, whose style of playing that you particularly enjoy?

Fabrizio
Well, Charlie Musselwhite has been a great influence. He taught me to experiment, to find my own voice. He was the man. And of course, one month I was listening to James Cotton, the next month Sonny Boy Williamson. And James Cotton has been a big influence on me, and I saw him play live may maybe twelve times.

Gary:
I saw that Basement Blues is in loving memory of Claudio Noseda, who died last year. Tell me about Claudio.

Fabrizio
He was in the band with us for three or four years during the time we recorded Spaghetti Juke Joint. He was a keyboard player, piano player. Very good. And last summer, he left this world. Sadly, he doesn’t appear in any song on the album, but I wanted to pay tribute to him.

Gary
So finally, as you look forward to 2023, Fabrizio, do you have any major tours or festivals or things lined up?

Fabrizio
I would like to go back to the US maybe next fall, and tour with an American musician or maybe just me and Enrico. In April, I have a short tour in Belgium and Holland. This past year was pretty tough because in February I lost my mother and then I lost my sister. But I’m very happy Basement Blues has reached a lot of people and I’ve had a lot of compliments – which I’ve really needed. I’m very happy because a lot of people have contacted me on WhatsApp or Facebook, saying I bought the record and I’m really enjoying it.

Gary
It’s a great achievement. You should be very proud. Thank you, Fabrizio.

Basement Blues is on the Appaloosa Records label and is available to stream on Amazon, Apple and the other streaming services. The CD version can be obtained from the shop at Appaloosa Records at https://www.appaloosarecords.it/shop/Fabrizio-Poggi-Basement-Blues-p510970164

Best Blues Albums 2022

So much good music during this past year, that it’s hard to choose. You’ll have your own favourites, but here are ours – which include one or two I suspect you’ll not be familiar with, but will repay investigation. Blues from women, from men, from the US, the UK, Europe, Asia – the blues really is a world-wide phenomenon. (We’ve not ranked them – they’re all great).

Elles Bailey, Shining in the Half Light

UK Blues Award winner’s Bailey’s third studio album of soulful and passionate blues. She’s a remarkable talent, and here delivers ten songs that highlight just how good her powerful, but beautifully controlled voice is. If you’re not familiar with Ms. Bailey, put that right, right now with this album.

Rory Block, Ain’t Nobody Worried

Seven times Blues Award winner and acoustic blues maestro Rory Block delivers the third in her series of albums, Power Women of the Blues, celebrating great women of the genre. [check out Prove it on Me and A Woman’s Soul]. It’s not really a blues album and is a departure from her usual offering of just Rory and acoustic guitar. The songs feature some vocal and instrumental accompaniment which gives her the opportunity to focus on the vocal performance on a set of songs from the 1960s to 80s by people like Bonnies Raitt, Carole King and Tracy Chapman.

Catfish Keith, Still I Long to Roam

Catfish Keith, guitarist and exponent of the blues extraordinaire, continues to delight and entertain us in his new album, his 21^st, Still I Long to Roam. It’s another fine collection of reinterpreted classic blues songs and originals, the latter sounding every bit as classic and authentic as the others. If you love blues music, if you love superb guitar playing, if you love hearing old songs brought to life through fresh interpretations, then this is an album you must hear. And all this infused with the usual infectious Catfish Keith sense of fun and joy. [Full review here]

Shemekia Copeland, Done Come Too Far

Daughter of Texas guitar-slinger, Johnny Copeland, continues where she left off with 2020’s Uncivil War with a top-notch, hard-hitting blues album that addresses contemporary issues like racism, child abuse, and guns and the historic legacy of slavery. A powerful set of songs and performances from Ms. Copeland and featuring guests Sonny Landreth and Cedric Burnside on guitar, and Charles Hodges on keyboards, amongst others.

Eric Gales, Crown

This is a remarkable piece of work from the talented Eric Gales, stretching the boundaries of blues rock and setting a new standard for the genre. The musicianship and arrangements serve the strength of the song-writing perfectly, Gales’s singing is versatile and powerful and, of course, as you’d expect, his guitar work is all you’d want from one of the world’s great electric guitar players. [Full review here]

Buddy Guy, The Blues Don’t Lie

At 86, Guy still has what it takes, his blistering guitar work, vocal power and…just his attitude, all undimmed. Just check out the opening track, I Let My Guitar Do the Talking, traditional, modern, gut-wrenching blues. You’re sucked in from the get go. With guest appearances by Mavis Staples, James Taylor, Bobby Rush, Jason Isbell, Wendy Moten and Elvis Costello, this is a stormer of a blues album. And with 16 tracks and over an hour’s worth of music, it’s value for money!

Katie Henry, On My Way

Stylish album of bluesy Americana from the very talented New Jersey native Katie Henry. There’s nice variety in the songs, from the blues of the opening song to more jazzy or country-tinged numbers. Ms. Henry is a terrific and versatile vocalist and a talented pianist and guitarist to boot.

Son House, Forever On My Mind

Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label is restoring and releasing Dick Waterman’s archived tape collection of Delta blues artists, and this collection of Son House songs, Forever on My Mind is the first instalment. The sound quality on the album is great and it contains eight classic House songs, including Preachin’ Blues, Death Letter, Pony Blues and Levee Camp Moan. [Full review here]

The Jujubes

Raging Moon has all the ingredients of a top-notch blues record – killer slide guitar, echoes of Robert Johnson, tasty acoustic blue guitar licks and the rasping, world-weary vocals of Nikki Brooks. If cool, traditional sounding blues, with a modern edge is your thing – which I’m guessing if you’re reading this, it is, then you gotta check out the Jujubes. [Full review here]

Larkin Poe, Blood Harmony

The  Georgia-born multi-instrumentalist sisters, Rebecca and Megan Lovell, deliver another sterling blues rock/roots album, featuring what is becoming a very recognizable sound, and yet one that is fresh and vibrant. Their soulful vocals are exceptional, their guitar chops formidable, and the song-writing strong. One not to miss.

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, Get On Board

Mahal and Cooder’s set of Terry and McGhee songs tries to recreate something of the rawness of the blues recordings of yesteryear, and it has the feeling of two old friends thoroughly enjoying themselves. Taj Mahal said, “There are basic things in our culture that connect us, that allow us to be able to reach back and connect to a history of people, the things that nourish us as a people, and music, this music is one of those things.” In Get on Board, Mahal and Cooder reach back and connect to a part of blues history, helping to make sure it is not forgotten. [Full review here]

Dom Martin, A Savage Life

Dom Martin’s new album, A Savage Life, sees him fulfil the potential that his acclaimed 2019 album, Spain to Italy, pointed to. Martin is a multiple UK and European Blues Award winner who seems equally at home playing the acoustic blues of Blind Blake and the blues-rock of Rory Gallagher. Add to that his expressive vocals, and you have in Dom Martin the real deal. His guitar work and vocals throughout are stellar and the arrangements and musicianship from the rest of the band, are excellent. [Full review here]

Keb’ Mo’, Good to be Home

Another fine and hugely enjoyable album from Keb’ Mo’. It’s not exactly the blues, but – hey, it’s Keb’ Mo’! It’s feel-good stuff all the way, Sunny and Warm, the third song, describing things perfectly. Mr Mo’ is joined for good measure by Darius Rucker, the Old Crow Medicine Show and Kristin Chenoweth. Good Strong Woman continues Keb’ Mo’s recent affirmation of women, as opposed to the sexist lyrics often heard in the blues.

Miko Marks and the Resurrectors, Feel Like Going Home

A glorious mix of gospel and blues. They are all strong songs, both lyrically and musically, with arrangements that make you want to listen to them again and again. Ms. Marks’ vocal performance excels – controlled power, bluesy, with hint of a rasp here and there. [Full review here]

John Mayall, The Sun is Shining Down

You expect a John Mayall album to be good and this one doesn’t disappoint. 89-year-old Mayall is joined by a number of guests, including Marcus King, Buddy Miller, Scarlett Rivera in eight covers and two originals. It’s top-notch, modern blues rock, and you’ve got to hand it to John Mayall – for 60 years he’s been leading the charge with the blues and The Sun is Shining Down shows no sign of waning performance

Charlie Musselwhite, Mississippi Son

Fourteen mostly original songs from the 78-year-old veteran bluesman, Musselwhite, who plays guitar and harmonica and handles the vocals throughout. Songs like In Your Darkest Hour and Rank Strangers are perfect front-porch blues, with Musselwhite’s searching harp and raw vocals. Mississippi Son puts you right back in the heat and sweat of Musselwhite’s home state and bears testimony to the man’s lifetime in the blues. [Full review here]

Fabrizio Poggi, Basement Blues

Italian blues harp master, Fabrizio Poggi, delivers an outstanding set of covers of classic blues songs and some originals. There’s a dash of gospel too, with Precious Lord, John the Revelator and Up Above My Head. It’s all delivered with great sensitivity to the tradition and superb musicianship by Fabrizio and his collaborators which include Guy Davis, Ronnie Earl, Garth Hudson (who played with The Band) and guitarist Enrico Polverari.

Prakash Slim, Country Blues

Acoustic country blues – from Nepal? Really, you say? Yes, really. And fine stuff it is too. Prakash Slim is a fine guitarist, adept at finger-picking and slide techniques and an accomplished singer. The blues are alive and well in the shadow of the Himalayas. [Full review here]

Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That…

Her first album in six years, it’s all you’d want from a Bonnie Raitt album. Cool songs, Raitt’s characteristic slide guitar and her ever soulful vocals. The ten songs are strong, narrative-based, and well-arranged, and Raitt, now in her eighth decade delivers a classy performance throughout. The title track is a wonderful treat, pretty much just Raitt picking her acoustic guitar and singing plaintively.

Mavis Staples & Levon Helm, Carry Me Home

Carry Me Home is something of a masterpiece, it would not be too bold to suggest, a celebration of friendship, mutual admiration and faith. You can’t help but be moved by both the poignancy of the selection of songs and the pair’s performances, now knowing that Helm was to pass shortly after and that Staples is now in her 83^rd year. It’s simply a great set of songs, a wonderful collection of blues, gospel and Americana. [Full review here]

The 219, Revelator

Revelator is just a rare treat of a blues album. New Irish band The 219 delves deep into the blues tradition, with thirteen original songs, and echoes of biblical apocalypse in songs like Abandon Hope, All Kinds of Evil and the title track. Revelator. The musicianship is top-notch, the songs are all strong, and the arrangements just work. [Full review here]

Walter Trout, Ride

Blues rock at its finest. That’s what you always get with Walter Trout. Add to that his exquisite and emotive guitar soloing and any new album from this guitar maestro is to be savoured. The music is joyous – take the solos from the title track, for example – fast and furious as you might expect, but gloriously upbeat. And the lyrics are thoughtful, addressing issues in the wider world as well as facing Trout’s own past and present. This really is one of the best blues albums of the year. [Full review here]

Cristina Vane, Make Myself Again

Cristine Vane is a quite wonderful talent – a skilful guitar picker and slide player, a fine songwriter and a beautiful singer. It’s the sign of a talented songwriter and musician to give a traditional feel to a song, and yet have it feel bang up to date. Vane says she’s “essentially a rock kid who is obsessed with old music.” And that’s a winning combination. This is a top class album of 13 well-crafted songs, blessed by Vane’s silky vocals and guitar chops.

Edgar Winter, Brother Johnny

Several years in the making, Brother Johnny is a labour of love, a warm tribute by Edgar Winter to his brother, who passed away aged 70 in 2014. Brother Johnny features a star-studded cast of musicians, including Keb’ Mo’, Ringo Starr, Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, Warren Hayes, Billy Gibson, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. With 17 tracks and clocking in at 76 minutes, it’s a huge treat of an album and a fine tribute to one of the giants of blues rock. [Full review here]

Someone tell Bob Dylan, the times, they are a-changin’.

The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan, Simon & Schuster

I’ve been a Dylan fan for over fifty years, have seen him in concert on numerous occasions, including that memorable night in London’s Earl Court in 1981. I enjoyed his Chronicles Volume 1 and hoped against hope we’d see volume 2 sometime.

So I was delighted when my daughter bought me The Philosophy of Modern Song for my birthday. The book is sumptuously presented, in large size hardback format, with a glossy dust cover and beautifully weighted pages. It’s jam-packed with lovely illustrations and photographs, all in a matt finish. So, as a physical book, it definitely makes for a nice present.

It’s not, as you might imagine, any sort of dissertation on the art of modern song-writing. Rather, it consists of Dylan’s musings on sixty-six songs, mostly from the nineteen fifties and sixties, and I consumed the book day-by-day beside my Amazon Echo, asking Alexa to play each song as I went along. I confess to not being familiar with most of the songs, so it was a delight to dip in to this cornucopia of Dylan’s musical whimsy and be transported to another musical era.

Dylan can write well – he’s won the Nobel prize for literature, so I guess that oughtn’t to be a surprise – and gives us two or three pages on each song. If you’ve ever listened to Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Show, you can practically hear Dylan read the words to you.

Often we get some background on the artist – so I now know a little bit about a Bobby Darin or a Marty Robbins – as well as Dylan’s thoughts about the song. These can be just sheer whimsy, or amusing, or almost philosophical. Sometimes it’s quite unintelligible (try his comments on religion on the song If You Don’t Know Me By Now); but there are occasional moments of deep insight – I liked this from the commentary on Harry McClintock’s Jesse James: “Criminals can wear badges, army uniforms, or even sit in the House of Representatives. They can be billionaires, corporate raiders or stockbroker analysts. Even medical doctors.”

And his take on Edwin Starr’s War, one of the longest essays in the book, is thoughtful and measured, with some forthright comment on American two Gulf wars and the responsibilities of democracy.

There’s genuine warmth here too, for artists like Johnny Cash, Dean Martin and Roy Orbison, and the sheer depth of Dylan’s knowledge of modern American music is nothing short of remarkable.

But there are also moments that are jarring. Take a comment on Elvis’s Money, Honey for example. Dylan says, “ultimately money doesn’t matter.” Well, OK for you to say, who’s just sold your back catalogue for about $200m. So rich that Dylan can be out of touch with the majority of people in the world who hardly have enough money to get by and to whom money matters a heck of a lot.

Dylan also seems, at times, to have a rather dark imagination. At times I was brought up short by his interpretation of a song, which appeared to me to be much more innocent than Dylan’s thought world.

And then there is the sexism. Now to be fair, when you’re commenting on songs from the 50s or 60s that now feel rather sexist, your comments might simply be reflective of the lyrics. Nevertheless the comments about hard women, teasing women, women with a short fuse, women waiting for her man to come home from work, “foxy” women, two-faced beauties…and so it goes on…become more than a little wearing. I really can’t imagine any woman enjoying this.

Particularly jarring is the chapter on Johnnie Taylor’s 1973 Cheaper to Keep Her. This is an obnoxious little song and even the choice of it is questionable, because Dylan certainly doesn’t use it to be critical of it in any way. Actually he doubles down on the sexism and androcentrism of the song, going off on an extended riff about marriage and divorce, which ends up giving a shout out to polygamy. This is pretty distasteful, as is his appallingly insensitive comment about childless marriages: “A couple who has no children, that’s not a marriage. They are just two friends.”

Out of sixty-six songs in the book, remarkably only four are by women. The Nina Simone song Dylan chose was Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, which actually was written by a man, Horace Ott, on the occasion of feeling misunderstood by his wife after they’d had an argument (poor man). Simone changed the lyric from “Baby, don’t you know I’m human, And I’ve got thoughts like any other man” to “anyone“. Still, a pretty poor choice from all the great songs Nina Simone sang,

Still, Dylan does note insightfully, “But the song has taken on more meanings as Nina’s measured, defiant delivery has been adopted by some as an understated social equality anthem. Songs can do that…”

So, it’s a pretty mixed bag from Dylan. A great idea presenting a rather random catalogue of old songs for today’s readers to check out and enjoy. Some hugely enjoyable and at times insightful and amusing comments from Dylan. But hand-in-hand we get some truly jarring and distasteful moments. Oh, and did I mention the f-bombs here and there? Not really needed, Bob.

There’s a lot to enjoy here, but sadly much to skip over. Someone tell him, the times, they are a-changin’.

Happy Birthday W.C. Handy (and me)

Acclaimed “father of the blues,” song-writer and band-leader W.C. Handy was born this day 149 years ago. He’s an important figure in the history of the blues – the first real superstar, through his sheet music compositions, his 1914 St. Louis Blues, and his claim to recognizing the “world famous blues note.”

And, whatdayaknow, I share a birthday with W.C. Handy! Handy, of course, is credited with recognizing the blues for the first time in the plaintive slide playing by a man on his guitar at a station in Tutweiler, has a statue in a park named after him in Memphis, and his compositions are played to this day.

Me, I was a member of the winning sprint relay team in the Belfast primary schools’ interschool competition at Dunmore dog-racing stadium in the late ‘60s and am the proud author of this blog.

But, of course, I’ve one thing going for me over Mr. Handy. I’m still here! Though with each passing birthday, you’re painfully aware of the passing of time. You’ll never be in the sprint relay team again, your hair gets thinner and just about every muscle group in your body heads south. As Jackson Browne says,

Time may heal all wounds
But time will steal you blind
Time the wheel, time the conqueror.

But, there’s no point is dwelling on that too much, I reckon. I like the attitude of acoustic blues master, Rory Block, who’s now over 70 and who told me when I spoke to her a while back:

“Getting older or passing years is only what you make it. You know, you may make a disadvantage of it, but honestly, I don’t go there. I see it as an advantage. Now maybe I’m crazy, but I see it as a real opportunity to know more, to do more with what you know, to feel more…your fruit ripens! And to me it’s like I don’t feel old. What are you talking about? I’m more clear that this is what I was put here to do. You know, really, I see it that way. And man, I’m just getting started! I don’t feel a limitation at all and I don’t feel old – my goodness, not at all!”

So, as I celebrate my something-somethingth birthday, I’m with Rory. There are books to be written (a couple of new one in production; oh you might like to check out my recent one); albums to be reviewed (though I’ll never keep up with the prolific and quite wonderful Rocking Magpie); guitars to be played; family and friends to cherish; grandchildren to play with and a big old hurting world in which to try and make a small difference (with God’s help).

Bob Dylan’s Forever Young from his Planet Waves album in 1974 – which, incidentally, someone gave me as a birthday present – hits the right note, I think:

May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

And now, to help W.C. and me celebrate, here are a few songs.

Louis Jordan and his Tympany 5’s big band Happy Birthday Boogie gets the party started. “Happy birthday to you, and I hope you have many more”

Sammy Mayfield gives us a more bluesy version of the song.

And B.B. King has his Happy Birthday Blues, with a bit more blues feeling

And check out this bit of fun from Chris Kramer and the Beatbox, who hopes all our dreams come true.

Taking it down a notch, here’s Don McLean with his Birthday Song. “You see I love the way you love me, Love the way you smile at me.” And that’s a dedication to my wonderful wife of over 40 years.

And finally, it’s a celebration, and it’s Bruce. Written for his wife Patti, but now dedicated to everybody who’s having a birthday today:

So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. (Psalm 90:12)

We all need somebody to lean on: ten songs

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
Albert Schweitzer

I recently read David Brooks’s excellent The Second Mountain and it prompted me to think about songs that celebrate loyalty, friendship and supporting one another.

Brooks’s analysis of what ails our modern life is masterful – he highlights the ills of lack of purpose, loneliness, distrust and tribalism. And goes on to lay the blame of much of this on the hyper-individualism that plagues society in America, Europe and other parts of the world.

This, he says, “is a system of morals, feelings, ideas and practices based on the idea that the journey through life is an individual journey, that the goals of life are individual happiness, authenticity, self-actualization, and self-sufficiency.” Hyper-individualism, then, undermines our connections to family, neighbourhood and the common good. Ultimately, it is unsatisfying and dehumanizing.

We are more than simply individuals, however, and we need each other. So Brooks points to the need for commitment, affection and interdependence. He says we need to prioritize those actions like “giving, storytelling, dance, singing…dining, ritual, deep conversation, common prayer, forgiveness, creating beauty, comfort in times of sadness and threat, mutual labor for the common good.”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds awfully attractive.

A friend loves at all times
(Proverbs 17:17)

Here are ten great songs celebrating friendship and mutual support.

Keb’ Mo’ – Lean On Me

Keb’ Mo’ includes Bill Withers Lean on Me on his album, Good to Be.

We all have pain
We all have sorrow…
When you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on.

Martin Harley – Brother

English roots artist and slide guitar maestro Martin Harley says of this song on his Roll with the Punches album, “Brother delivers a simple message offering friendship, consolation and an open door. An option to talk in person and to be heard. To be there for someone.”

If the load gets heavy and hard to stand
Brother, call on me
I’ll be there to lend a hand
Brother, call on me.

Luke Winslow King – Everlasting Arms

King’s 2014 title track from his Everlasting Arms album is a joyous celebration of friendship and just lending a hand. It’s a simple, catchy tune with straightforward words, but with a powerful message.

You can lean on me brother
I believe you carry too long
It’s such a long way back long.

With My Own Two Hands – Ben Harper

From his 2003 album, Diamonds on the Inside, Harper’s song encourages us to contribute to things like make the world safer, brighter, and more peaceful, using “our own two hand.” But there’s a nice undercurrent of working together in the song. The Playing for Change version is a good ‘un.

Now I can hold you, in my own two hands
And I can comfort you, with my own two hands
But you got to use, use your own two hands
Use your own, use your own two hands

Brother’s Keeper – Walter Trout

From Trout’s 2012 album, Blues for the Modern Daze. The song recalls the biblical story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, when Abel, after murdering his brother asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Walter Trout answers a resounding “Yes!” in this terrific song. The live version here features some guitar pyrotechnics from Trout. [Check out our more detailed look at this song here]

We’re supposed to be a brother’s keeper
I believe we’re supposed to hear him when he calls
I believe we’re supposed to help him
I believe we’re supposed to catch him when he falls

Glen Campbell – Try a Little Kindness

Back in time and going a little bit country with this one. This live version of Campbell’s 1970 hit version of Bobby Austin’s song shows off not only Campbell’s great singing voice but his excellent guitar chops. Kindness is sadly lacking in our get-more, achieve-more, be-more world. But it’s a powerful thing.

Don’t walk around the down and out
Lend a helping hand instead of doubt
And the kindness that you show every day
Will help someone along their way
You got to try a little kindness
Yes, show a little kindness
Just shine your light for everyone to see

Let Us Walk Together – Rev Gary Davis

Hailed as “one of the greatest figures in twentieth century American music,” Davis is all but unknown these days save to blues fans. His guitar wizardry came to the fore in the folk revival of the early 1960s and he influenced a generation of singer-songwriters and rock musicians. He sang mostly gospel songs and Let Us Walk Together is a typical Gary Davis song, with a simple melody and lyrics, brought to life by his mesmerizing guitar picking. [You can check out our piece on Gary Davis here]

Let us walk together
Right down here

Do Something – Matthew West

Matthew West is an American singer-songwriter and actor. This song is from his 2012 album Into the Light. This song was inspired by West meeting a young woman who had gone to Uganda and found an orphanage in dire straits and had worked to create a safe space for the children to flourish. She told West about her fight for these children, “I just kept thinking, ‘if I don’t do something, who will?”

People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, yeah, I created you

James Taylor – You Got a Friend

No collection of songs of this nature would be complete without the Carole King song that James Taylor has made his one from 1971 onwards. No need to say anything more.

You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I’ll come runnin’
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
You’ve got a friend

I Think It’s Going to Rain Today – Nina Simone

Our final song is Nina Simone singing this Randy Newman song. This beautiful jazz version is on Simone’s 1969 album Nina Simone and Piano, and the simplicity of the arrangement and Simone’s voice make for an emotional appeal for the milk of human kindness to overcome frozen smiles, indifference and need.

Right before me, the signs implore me
Help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it`s going to rain today.

And if you want to find out more about what caring for our fellow humans means, find a Bible and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Here’s a snippet:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant. It is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury.

Best Blues Albums 2022 – So Far

No shortage of terrific blues albums this year thus far. We’ve chosen 15 of the best, including albums of traditional blues, blues rock, and bluesy Americana. We’ve maybe been a bit light on acoustic blues albums so far, but let’s see what the rest of the year brings. In the meantime, go check out each of these outstanding albums

Elles Bailey, Shining in the Half Light

UK Blues Award winner’s Bailey’s third studio album of soulful and passionate blues. She’s a remarkable talent, and here delivers ten songs that highlight just how good her powerful, but beautifully controlled voice is. If you’re not familiar with Ms. Bailey, put that right, right now with this terrific album.

Dana Fuchs, Borrowed Time

Dana Fuchs has a wonderful, nuanced, blues-tinged voice with just the right amount of huskiness. This album of rock songs has heaps of blues feeling and soul, along with some delicious guitar work. [Check out our interview with Ms. Fuchs here]

Eric Gales, Crown

This is a remarkable piece of work from the talented Eric Gales, stretching the boundaries of blues rock and setting a new standard for the genre. The musicianship and arrangements serve the strength of the song-writing perfectly, Gales’s singing is versatile and powerful and, of course, as you’d expect, his guitar work is all you’d want from one of the world’s great electric guitar players. [Full review here]

Katie Henry, On My Way

Stylish album of bluesy Americana from the very talented New Jersey native Katie Henry. There’s nice variety in the songs, from the blues of the opening song to more jazzy or country-tinged numbers. Ms. Henry is a terrific and versatile vocalist and a talented pianist and guitarist to boot.

Son House, Forever On My Mind

Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label is restoring and releasing Dick Waterman’s archived tape collection of Delta blues artists, and this collection of Son House songs, Forever on My Mind is the first instalment. The sound quality on the album is great and it contains eight classic House songs, including Preachin’ Blues, Death Letter, Pony Blues and Levee Camp Moan. [Full review here]

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, Get On Board

Mahal and Cooder’s set of Terry and McGhee songs tries to recreate something of the rawness of the blues recordings of yesteryear, and it has the feeling of two old friends thoroughly enjoying themselves. Taj Mahal said, “There are basic things in our culture that connect us, that allow us to be able to reach back and connect to a history of people, the things that nourish us as a people, and music, this music is one of those things.” In Get on Board, Mahal and Cooder reach back and connect to a part of blues history, helping to make sure it is not forgotten. [Full review here]

Dom Martin, A Savage Life

Dom Martin’s new album, A Savage Life, sees him fulfil the potential that his acclaimed 2019 album, Spain to Italy, pointed to. Martin is a multiple UK and European Blues Award winner who seems equally at home playing the acoustic blues of Blind Blake and the blues-rock of Rory Gallagher. Add to that his expressive vocals, and you have in Dom Martin the real deal. His guitar work and vocals throughout are stellar and the arrangements and musicianship from the rest of the band, are excellent. [Full review here]

Keb’ Mo’, Good to be Home

Another fine and hugely enjoyable album from Keb’ Mo’. It’s not exactly the blues, but – hey, it’s Keb’ Mo’! It’s feel-good stuff all the way, Sunny and Warm, the third song, describing things perfectly. Mr Mo’ is joined for good measure by Darius Rucker, the Old Crow Medicine Show and Kristin Chenoweth. Good Strong Woman continues Keb’ Mo’s recent affirmation of women, as opposed to the sexist lyrics often heard in the blues.

John Mayall, The Sun is Shining Down

You expect a John Mayall album to be good and this one doesn’t disappoint. 89-year-old Mayall is joined by a number of guests, including Marcus King, Buddy Miller, Scarlett Rivera in eight covers and two originals. It’s top-notch, modern blues rock, and you’ve got to hand it to John Mayall – for 60 years he’s been leading the charge with the blues and The Sun is Shining Down shows no sign of waning performance.

North Mississippi Allstars, Set Sail

An album from these Mississippi hill country guys is always welcome and Set Sail doesn’t disappoint. It’s a bit different from previous albums, not so much blues rock as funky R&B with a hint of gospel. Luther Dickinson’s unmistakable, laid back vocals are augmented in a few songs by Stax legend William Bell and the Allman Brothers’ Lamar Williams. It’s fine, upbeat stuff pointing us to brighter days.

Charlie Musselwhite, Mississippi Son

Fourteen mostly original songs from the 78-year-old veteran bluesman, Musselwhite, who plays guitar and harmonica and handles the vocals throughout. Songs like In Your Darkest Hour and Rank Strangers are perfect front-porch blues, with Musselwhite’s searching harp and raw vocals. Mississippi Son puts you right back in the heat and sweat of Musselwhite’s home state and bears testimony to the man’s lifetime in the blues. (And what about that album cover? Very cool).

Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That

Her first album in six years, it’s all you’d want from a Bonnie Raitt album. Cool songs, Raitt’s characteristic slide guitar and her ever soulful vocals. The ten songs are strong, narrative-based, and well-arranged, and Raitt, now in her eighth decade delivers a classy performance throughout. The title track is a wonderful treat, pretty much just Raitt picking her acoustic guitar and singing plaintively.

Mavis Staples & Levon Helm, Carry Me Home

Carry Me Home is something of a masterpiece, it would not be too bold to suggest, a celebration of friendship, mutual admiration and faith. You can’t help but be moved by both the poignancy of the selection of songs and the pair’s performances, now knowing that Helm was to pass shortly after and that Staples is now in her 83^rd year. It’s simply a great set of songs, a wonderful collection of blues, gospel and Americana. [Full review here]

Cristina Vane, Make Myself Again

Cristine Vane is a quite wonderful talent – a skilful guitar picker and slide player, a fine songwriter and a beautiful singer. It’s the sign of a talented songwriter and musician to give a traditional feel to a song, and yet have it feel bang up to date. Vane says she’s “essentially a rock kid who is obsessed with old music.” And that’s a winning combination. This is a top class album of 13 well-crafted songs, blessed by Vane’s silky vocals and guitar chops.

Edgar Winter, Brother Johnny

Several years in the making, Brother Johnny is a labour of love, a warm tribute by Edgar Winter to his brother, who passed away aged 70 in 2014. Brother Johnny features a star-studded cast of musicians, including Keb’ Mo’, Ringo Starr, Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, Warren Hayes, Billy Gibson, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. With 17 tracks and clocking in at 76 minutes, it’s a huge treat of an album and a fine tribute to one of the giants of blues rock. [Full review here]

Celebrating Juneteenth

With songs by Gladys Bently, Eric Bibb, Shemekia Copeland and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Blind Boys of Alabama and Kirk Franklin

A couple of years ago President #45 claimed he had “made Juneteenth very famous…nobody had ever heard of it.” Utter nonsense, of course. Happily his successor signed legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, enshrining June 19 as the national day to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. Nevertheless, more than 30 states have not as yet authorized the funding to allow state employees to take the day off and it’s been said that not enough people know about the holiday to make the effort worthwhile. This, in spite of the fact that In June 2022, the percentage of Americans who said they knew about the holiday, was around 60%, rather than the 37% of the previous year. Still…60% isn’t terribly good, is it? – I mean, this Irishman knows about it!

Anyway, the day is also sometimes called “Juneteenth Independence Day,” “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day.”

Juneteenth celebrates the 19^th June, 1865, when Union soldiers read the announcement in Galveston, Texas, that all enslaved African-Americans were free, two months after the South has surrendered in the Civil War, and more than two years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It is African-Americans’ Independence Day and has traditionally been celebrated with barbeques, parades and parties.

It’s an important day, it seems to me, not only for African Americans but for the whole country. Historian Kate Masur says that “Juneteenth…should serve not only to remind us of the joy and relief that accompanied the end of slavery, but also of the unfinished work of confronting slavery’s legacy.”

Down at the Crossroads celebrates Juneteenth with four songs. The first is Juneteenth Jamboree, recorded by Gladys Bentley, a Harlem singer, well known in the 1920s and 30s, who hits a note of celebration and joy.

There’s no shirking, no-one’s working
Everybody’s stopped
Gums are chompin’, corks are poppin’
Doing the Texas hop

Eric Bibb’s album Dear America,  he says, is “a love letter, because America, for all of its associations with pain and its bloody history, has always been a place of incredible hope and optimism.” [check out our terrific interview with Eric here] In the title track, he addresses the open wound of America’s racial divisions in a way that is both personal and hard hitting. His simple appeal is, that although the “temperature’s rising”

“Don’t let hatred’s fire burn you and me”

Shemekia Copeland and Kenny Wayne Shepherd recently joined forces with Robert Randolph on steel guitar and veteran blues drummer Tony Coleman to record Hit ‘Em Back, a song which addresses divisiveness and anger within the greater blues community. Copeland said, “I don’t want my music to come from a place of anger because when it does, no one hears you. Let’s educate; let’s open people’s eyes; why can’t we be united?”

The song appeals to our common humanity and the power of love as an answer to division:

Don’t care where you’re born
Don’t care where you been
The shade of your eyes
The color of your skin
We all join together

Hit ‘em back
Hit ‘em back with love

Our next Juneteenth celebration song, is the Blind Boys of Alabama singing Luther Dickinson’s Prayer for Peace. The song celebrates progress made, but bemoans continued racial division. The song wishes we all could be “color blind.” In the voices and harmonies of the Blind Boys of Alabama, it’s another appeal to our common humanity. [check out our interview with Jimmy Carter here]

The innocence and love seen in our children’s face
Makes me pray ignorance and hate disintegrate into space
Shall we pray
Pray for peace.

And finally here’s the “Black national anthem” in the United States, a hymn written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson. This is a truly inspirational song, and Kirk Franklin and this fabulous choir, really hit the heights.

God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee

Happy Juneteenth!

Just Like a Woman: The Women Sing Dylan

There are no shortage of cover albums – call them tribute albums – of Bob Dylan songs. Over the last 20 years or so, in particular, there have been a slew of them. These have included both well-known artists paying homage with a complete album of Dylan songs, and a number of compilation albums of various artists performing Dylan songs. Three of these I particularly like are the 1993 The 30^th Anniversary  Concert Celebration, 2001’s A Nod to Bob and 2003’s Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan.

But it’s the single artist albums we want to highlight here, and in particular those done by women artists, which, in my view, are particularly good. Interesting that that should be the case, given the accusations from time to time that some of Dylan’s lyrics are sexist (Just Like A Woman comes to mind). The man is, of course, now over 80 and his early songs stretch back to another age, about 60 years ago, and might be expected to share the broad values of society. Anyway, that hasn’t stopped women enjoying, performing and recording Dylan songs, and we’re thankful for that, listening to the following albums. Here is Down at the Crossroads list of the 12 best.

Odetta, Odetta Sings Dylan (1965)

It was Odetta who set Bob Dylan on his path as a folk singer. After hearing one of her records, Dylan said, “Right there and then I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for a flat-top Gibson.” In 1961, he performed for Odetta, who told him she thought he had a chance to make it in folk music. As big a star as Odetta was at the time, she was eventually eclipsed by Dylan and in 1965 she recorded what was the first major album of Dylan covers. It included some of Dylan’s famed protest songs like Masters of War and Blowin’ In the Wind, as well as some tracks that are now quite obscure, like Long Ago, Far Away and Paths of Victory.

Judy Collins, Judy Collins Sings Dylan (1993)

Collin’s soaring vocals work surprisingly well in this set of mostly early Dylan songs. Collins sang with Dylan on a number of occasions in the ‘60s, and Dylan wrote a song for her, I’ll Keep it with Mine. Here she includes I Believe in You, which seems to lose the force of Dylan’s passionate confession of faith and Like a Rolling Stone, which takes the sting out of the resentment in the song, but nevertheless sounds pretty well. And yes, she does Just Like a Woman, which is quite beautiful.

Barb Jungr, Every Grain of Sand (2002)

In this and her 2011 Man in the Long Black Coat, Barb Jungr gives Dylan a throughgoing jazz treatment. This may be the most unusual of the covers’ albums, with Jungr’s well-phrased vocals, the cabaret piano accompaniments and the jazzy arrangements. She includes some classic songs like Blowin’ in the Wind and Masters of War as well as some lesser known songs from the canon. Perhaps the most unusual one served up is You Gotta Serve Somebody.

Mary Lee’s Corvette, Blood on the Tracks, 2002

This album by Mary-Lee Kortes’ band focuses on just one album of Dylan songs. At first glance, Blood on the Tracks, arguably Dylan’s greatest album would appear to be a brave one to cover. Mary Lee is a cross between a country and rock singer and has more than enough vocal chops to pull off these songs. It’s enjoyable stuff, although I found Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts jarring – seemingly not knowing what to do with the song, the band chose to send it up with mocking imitations of Dylan’s singing inflections.

Maria Muldaur, Heart of Mine: The Love Songs of Bob Dylan, 2006

Fine collection of Dylan love songs like You Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight and Make You Feel My Love are given some delicious blues-soaked vocal treatment from the ever-entertaining Ms. Muldaur. Muldaur, who played with Dylan in the ’60s, said, ““It occurred to me that while Dylan is mostly known for his scathing, perceptive, brutally honest and insightful songs of social consciousness, he has in fact, over the years, written many deeply passionate, poignant and moving love songs.” She brings her usual passion and heartfelt approach in an album well worth checking out.

Janet Planet, Sings The Bob Dylan Songbook Vol. 1, 2010

Janet Planet is a successful Australian jazz singer and her 13 Dylan songs are given the full late-night jazz treatment. She restricts herself to the classics from Dylan’s early years, all songs that can stand the sort of drastic rearrangements she gives them. Planet is a first-class singer and her performance on Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat is top notch.

Thea Gilmore, John Wesley Harding, 2011

English artist Gilmore has taken a rather different approach to covering Dylan songs, here focusing on a single album, Dylan’s 1967 John Wesley Harding. Although Dylan’s album was well received at the time, it flew in the face of what other major rock artist were doing. Said Jon Landau, “Dylan seems to feel no need to respond to the predominate [sic] trends in pop music at all. And he is the only major pop artist about whom this can be said.” The songs lend themselves to the more acoustic approach of the original album and to the Gilmore singer-songwriter take on them. The songs are timeless and Thea Gilmore’s reflective take on them works extremely well. Her I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine is simply brilliant and the stripped back I Am A Lonesome Hobo gives you an opportunity to appreciate the quality of her voice.

Joan Osborne, Songs of Bob Dylan, 2017

Joan Osborne famously and quite beautifully covered Dylan’s Man in the Long Black Coat in her acclaimed and Grammy-nominated album Relish in 1995. Ten of the thirteen songs from Dylan’s early period sit alongside Ring Them Bells, High Water, Dark Eyes and Tryin’ to Get to Heaven. Osborne’s distinctive, world-weary voice gives a wholly enjoyable and fresh interpretation to some classic songs.

Betty LaVette, Things Have Changed, 2018

Betty LaVette brings her lifetime of experience as a soul and blues singer to bear on a judiciously chosen set of Dylan songs. As soon as you hear her launch into Things Have Changed, singing “tha-ings” with two syllables, you know this is going to be a big treat. She includes a couple of songs from 1989’s Oh Mercy – Political World is performed as a slow, funky blues and features the guitar of Keith Richards, and What Was It You Wanted becomes a laid-back jazzy number with the help from Trombone Shorty. This is a stellar album, with LaVette pulling more emotion out of Emotionally Yours than ever Dylan did.

Emma Swift, Blonde on the Tracks, 2020

Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift pulls off her covers album with considerable aplomb. Most of the songs are from Dylan’s early period, but interestingly, she includes I Contain Multitudes, from Dylan’s 2020 Rough and Rowdy Ways. Nice to her do Queen Jane Approximately and Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. At 57 minutes, the deluxe version of the album, which includes some live versions of the songs gives good value.

Chrissie Hynde, Standing in the Doorway, 2021

Lead vocalist of The Pretenders gives us a terrific selection of songs from throughout Dylan’s career from 1965’s Love Minus Zero/No Limit to 1997’s Standing in the Doorway. It kicks off with Shot of Love’s In the Summertime, just Hynde and a 12-string guitar and you know this is gonna work. Her strung-out vocals on Blind Willie McTell are masterful.

Lucinda Williams, Lu’s Jukebox: Bob’s Back Pages, 2021

Lucinda Williams’ world-weary, at times croaky voice, with the slurred lyrics is perfect for Dylan songs. Her Everything is Broken, with just a hint of menace, is just about perfect. She includes a few dark Dylan songs – Not Dark Yet, Political World, Man of Peace and Trying to Get to Heaven – all performed with a full band and yet sounding suitably sparce. Williams can do tender as well though – Make You Feel My Love is all that, in a decidedly Lucinda Williams kind of way. Her Blind Willie McTell is maybe the stand-out track.

Mavis Staples’ and Levon Helm’s celebration of life and friendship

Mavis Staples & Levon Helm, Carry Me Home, ANTI-Records

Mavis Staples and the late Levon Helm recorded the songs on Carry Me Home at Helm Studios in Woodstock in the summer of 2011. It was to be one of the final recording sessions for Helm before he died the next year.

The pair are icons of Americana and roots music, Levon Helm, the drummer and one of the lead vocalists of the Band, and Mavis Staples, celebrated gospel and blues singer and civil rights activist. Both performed their music for more than 50 years, from the early sixties on through the heydays of rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues.

Carry Me Home is something of a masterpiece, it would not be too bold to suggest, a celebration of friendship, mutual admiration and faith. You can’t help but be moved by both the poignancy of the selection of songs and the pair’s performances, now knowing that Helm was to pass shortly after and that Staples is now in her 83^rd year.

“It never crossed my mind that it might be the last time we’d see each other,” says Staples. “He was so full of life and so happy that week. He was the same old Levon I’d always known, just a beautiful spirit inside and out…

“…we hugged and hugged and hugged. I just held on to him. I didn’t know it’d be the last time, but in my heart and in my mind, Levon will always be with me because I take him everywhere I go.”

But even aside from that, this is simply a great set of songs, a wonderful collection of blues, gospel and Americana. The music, powered by Helm’s and Staples’s combined bands, is compelling, with everyone sounding like they are having a fine old time of it.

The album kicks of with a Curtis Mayfield’s This is My Country, a protest song from 1968, deeply embedded in the Civil Rights movement:

I’ve paid three hundred years or more
Of slave driving, sweat, and welts on my back
This is my country

Staples sings it with considerable gusto and passion, several years in to the Obama presidency with the right beginning to flex its muscles. More than ten years on, the song still sounds relevant for America – more’s the pity. Musically, as the album’s opener, you know you’re in for a treat, with horns, organ and ooh-ooh-oohs from the backing singers ushering you into things.

Photo: Greg McKean

Trouble in (My) Mind is a rockin’ version of the old blues standard, Staples’s raw vocals and the bluesy piano driving things along. After This is My Country, this feels like another defiant assertion that no matter how bad things are and might be in America, there are surely better times ahead – “sun’s gonna shine in my back door some day.”

Staples performs Farther Along, an old gospel song, unaccompanied, apart from some gorgeous harmonizing by Amy Helm and Teresa Williams and others. It’s another poignant one, with the lyric “When death has come and taken our loved ones” coming with slow-tempoed clarity.

It’s a song of faith, however, and despite the song musing on loved ones passing while  “others prosper, living so wicked year after year,” it asserts “we’ll understand it all by and by.” Staple’s faith led her to comment about Helm, “Some sweet day, we’ll be together again.”

Faith shines out of this album. Nothing frothy or glib; but faith that has been tested and tried and remains defiant. That’s been Mavis Staples’s experience – remember, she was once arrested at gunpoint by the police after a racially charged incident at a gas-station in Memphis and has lived the recent history of black America from the Civil Rights movement on.

The songs, even when packing a punch like Nina Simone’s I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free, have a positive, upbeat feel, as if the very force of Staples’s faith and positivity would make all the changes she longs for. The horns, harmonies and Mavis’s vocals, combined with the gospel chords, make for a thoroughly uplifting listening experience.

There are a couple of songs regularly performed by Levon Helm, When I Go Away and Buddy and Julie Miller’s Wide River to Cross have a thoroughly traditional feel about them and fit right in to the set. In the latter, the lyrics seem to have a dual meaning, referring to both the individual journey of life and the struggle for equality that Staples has been engaged in for so long –

I’m only halfway home, I’ve gotta journey on…
I’ve come a long, long road but still I’ve got some miles to go
I’ve got a wide, a wide river to cross.

There’s a great version of You’ve Got to Move. The harmonizing vocals and Larry Campbell’s guitar work is superb and once again the two-sided nature of the lyrics becomes apparent. As a traditional gospel blues song, it’s about the Christian hope of resurrection – “when the Lord get ready, you gotta move,” in, as another song has it, “that great gettin’ up morning.” But whether you’re “high or low”, there’s a hope for the present as well that the Lord might move things in the right direction.

The penultimate song is Bob Dylan’s gospel classic, Gotta Serve Somebody. It’s fitting of course, to include a Dylan song, given Staples’s history with him (she has said Dylan was “the love that I lost”). Staples adds her own faith assertion to the song – he’s (God is) my doctor, he’s my lawyer, he’s my friend.” “Whether you got faith or you got unbelief,” as Dylan might have put it, the song has always been a powerful one, and Staples does it more than justice, making it her own, as she sings convincingly, “I got a royal telephone and the line is never busy.”

Mavis Staples pretty much handles the vocals throughout, with Levon Helm adding colour here and there with harmonies. His drumming, however, is stamped all over things. Helm does weigh in on the final song – fittingly The Weight. Mavis Staples, of course, had shared the vocals with Levon Helm when the Staples Singers accompanied the Band for the song in the Last Waltz in 1968. Staples’s voice is a little deeper and raspier, but it’s still powerful and more than capable of sending shivers down your spine. There’s a quirky, but rather wonderful what sounds to me like a tuba solo in the middle of the song.

This is simply a glorious album of songs to challenge, encourage and inspire. It’s a fine tribute to Levon Helm, and another reminder of the immense talent and force that is Mavis Staples. I saw her perform in London just before the pandemic and it was an evening that left me with a smile on my face for a week afterwards. At 83 she’s on tour again, along with Amy Helm, Levon’s daughter, and if they are anywhere near you, don’t hesitate. And get yourself a copy of Carry Me Home – you won’t regret it.

DMZ’s Anthony “Amp” Daniels – hope in troubled times

Dedicated Men of Zion – or let’s use the more cool abbreviation, DMZ – is band with a powerful combination of soul and gospel that will make your day brighter, your smile broader and get your feet dancing. It’s infectious, inspirational stuff, packed full of tight harmonies and funky rhythms. The music is traditional in many ways, with a clear heritage in 1960s and 70s soul and gospel, but it’s got a very contemporary feel. It’s music for today. It’s what Music Maker Relief Foundation co-founder Tim Duffy calls “sacred soul.”

And that’s what Bruce Watson of Fat Possum Records recognized three years or so ago, when he signed DMZ to his new Bible and Tire label. [check out our interview with Bruce Watson here.] The band recorded its first album Can’t Turn Me Around, in Watson’s Delta-Sonic Sound studio backed by his all-star band, in Memphis in 2019 and have followed that up now by The Devil Don’t Like It. Like the first album, it’s bursting with positivity, gospel truth, beautiful harmonies and sweet lead vocals.

DMZ emerged in 2014 in eastern North Carolina, a region renowned for its musicality and gospel harmonies. The music made in rural Black churches for many decades has, in fact, been the foundation for so much of the commercial music we’re familiar with. DMZ taps into the deep roots of gospel which its members have experienced in the church, as well as classic sounds of soul and R&B.

Anthony “Amp” Daniels is the eldest of the group, and he’s had a successful a career in R&B down in Atlanta, backing up the likes of Bebe Winans and Toni Braxton, and producing records.

The other vocalists in the band, all fine singers, Antwan Daniels, Dexter Weaver, and Marcus Sugg, are all related by blood or marriage.

I got talking to Anthony about DMZ, the new album and making music. Our conversation sparkled with joy. I asked him first of all, about his musical background. He told me,

“My family was very musical and from a small child, that’s what we did. As a small boy, it’s just music and singing. My mother, she taught me to sing. It’s always been a very serious thing in my home, singing. My mother was more serious about singing than my education! Later she started being more serious about my education, but singing was just so important to her. It came from her father and then from her to my brother and sister and me. So it’s just something we always did.”

I assumed that the singing was really fostered in church but Anthony said that, although he sang in church, it was really his home environment that was his training ground and where his love of singing was nurtured.

“It was a home thing and it was something that we had to do every day. My mother would come in and we would have to sing. In fact, we had to talk in harmony as children!  That’s how it was.

“But we started out in the choir, church choirs, and just traveling to other churches and singing. And even when I visited with my grandmother, she would have my brother and my sister and me sing for her all the time. It’s just singing, singing, singing. I love to sing though. So, it wasn’t a problem. I loved it. And I love to sing now.”

Anthony is a talented guy, not only a terrific singer, but an experienced keyboards player, having played in church and then for years with his mother’s group, the Glorifying Vines Sisters, a longstanding Farmville gospel institution. He’s also had a career as a record producer, producing recordings for the Glorifying Vines and also for R&B and pop music artists. His nickname is “Amp,” which I assumed had some association with amplifiers, but Anthony told me he wasn’t entirely sure how he got it.

“As a child I grew up with that. I guess it’s an abbreviated kind of thing. Sometimes it might be hard for children to say “Anthony” and they’ll say “Amp” instead of a “Ant.” It’s a Southern thing. People give you a nickname!”

How, I wondered, did DMZ get started?

“Well, back in 2014, I was working with a relative of mine on his project and it fell through. His guys started leaving his band so I began to recruit some guys that I knew, but the band fell apart. But the guys didn’t wanna quit, so the group became the Dedicated Men of Zion.”

DMZ consists of four singers – Anthony’s son Antoine, his sons-in-law Marcus and Antwan, and Dexter Weaver, his nephew in-law – and four musicians. They perform far and wide in the United States, but Anthony wants to get the band to Europe.

“I performed in Switzerland with my parents and I’m just ready to get back. I’m ready to get back in the UK. I love that. I just want these guys I’m with now to get an opportunity to just experience that. They’ll love it.”

I asked him how the relationship with Bible and Tire, Bruce Watson’s label, came about.

“We actually met Bruce through Tim Duffy of the Music Makers Foundation [check out our interview with Tim Duffy here]. Tim put us together and it was like a great marriage, man. It was fantastic. I love working with Bruce. We just have a great relationship. I mean we’re talking about a third album already.”

Both albums are brimming with musicality, groove and inspiration. They are obviously gospel, but the description “sacred soul” seems to nail it.

“I think so, because sacred soul music is music for the soul, you know. It’s gospel music and sacred soul is like a division of that. It’s very similar to gospel, but I guess it’s just focusing a little bit differently musically. But I love the name sacred soul. I think it describes it really well.”

When people think of gospel music, they often think about a certain musical sound, certain piano chords and a certain feeling from the music. But I wondered, does it need to be more than that? How important for Anthony is the lyrical content?

“It’s very important. Music is good but the message is important. A good song to me has a message. You can have instrumentals, like, for example, a jazz instrumental and all this kind of stuff, and people still call it a song. But to me, a song should have a good lyrical content, a good story, a good message. And it helps if it’s therapeutic. Sometimes you hear music and it’ll take you somewhere, take you back to another time and place in life. You could be in 2022 and you could hear a song and it’ll take you back to 1985 or something, you know? And it’s just a really good feeling.”

Anthony went on to sum up the message in DMZ’s music: “I guess I would say that the message is positive. We want to give a good positive message, we just want to sing something that will lift your spirit and be encouraging.

“We want it to be encouraging, uplifting, inspirational. Just therapeutic. You know, just help to bring people through – sometimes we need that. You can have a bad back and you have to go to the chiropractor, but where do you go when you’re feeling down? When you need to be uplifted, when you just want to get away and free your mind from some other things. We have a lot of things that we go through – people have bills and they’re dealing with sickness and death, but sometimes a good old song will lift you up, make you feel better. Inspire you. So those are the kind of things we want to get across with this music. And make people smile just for a minute anyway.”

I wanted to know about the faith component of the music. You can have a nice song that has a nice feel about it that might make you feel good. But DMZ songs are more than that, there’s a faith component to the songs.

“Well, yeah, there’s definitely a faith component, we’re dealing with faith and belief. But it gives hope and it’s still encouraging and it still can be uplifting [to anyone]. It’s a feel good. When we were in Switzerland playing, some people didn’t speak English, but they were still saying it felt good. One woman told us, my daughter doesn’t speak English, but she wanted to tell you that she really enjoyed it. So sometimes you don’t have to understand it and it still feels good.”

I asked Anthony about the new album, The Devil Don’t Like, which is very, very good, the levels of production, song arrangements and musicality all very high. It was the band’s second experience of working with Bruce Watson of whom Anthony has said has “a way of pushing an artist to get the best out of them without the artist ever knowing that they are being pushed…the guy is just extraordinary as a person as well as a producer. Trust me when I tell you an outstanding band and a great producer can really bring the best out of an artist and a song. Bruce’s vision of preserving the originality of sacred soul music is educational, unique and inspiring.”

On song selection, Anthony said, “Bruce sent us songs and asked us to select ten. So we listened to them and selected songs that really felt good to us, ones we could really hear ourselves doing.”

Most of the songs, I didn’t recognize, but there’s a great version of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s Up Above My Head. I can imagine a congregation or an audience singing along with it and also God’s Got His Eyes On You. I was intrigued by the title track, The Devil Don’t Like It, which funny enough, isn’t very much about the devil. Most of it is about God “putting his hand on me.” You just get that little phrase at the end.

“Yeah. And that’s the ironic part about that song. It’s a very small portion of that song. But I guess it’s a catchy phrase. But when I first heard that song, I said, I’m doing it!”

The harmonies on the album are stunningly good, but so too are the lead vocals – beautiful, modern-sounding singing. I’m Going Home is a great example, where the lead vocalist is to the fore and the harmonizing kicks in here and there to support. Who, I asked, takes the lead vocals?

“Well, mostly we share the lead parts. Everybody in the group can sing lead and everybody has their own style of singing. We’re all different and everybody sings it their way. I love it that variety, you know – it’s one group with multiple talents, so you don’t get so tired of just hearing that same thing over and over. You need to have a variety, you know?”

I was intrigued by A Change Is Gonna Come. We’re all familiar with the famous version by Sam Cooke from 1964, which came right in the middle of the civil rights movement and was clearly about events of the time. So I wondered what DMZ’s song is all about.

“When we heard that song – my son sings that song – and what we got from it, and what we feel with the conditions in the world…to me, it’s about hope, you know? No matter what we’re going through, especially with all the bad stuff – change is coming. And I know Sam Cooke’s version was totally different but it’s still the same message. When we look at the conditions, the bad in the world, the message is don’t worry, don’t give up. Change is coming. It’ll get better.”

As a non-American, someone who doesn’t live in America, I wondered if there was any particular reference to today’s America. Is there any particular change that needs to come?

“I would love to see change in America. Of course there are some things I would like to see changed. No matter how many times people tell you things are equal, things are not equal. If we had more equality, treating everybody the same, instead of, you know, separation, I think that would really solve a lot of the issues that we have.

“Everybody being treated equal, regardless of race, colour or whatever. We should just treat people like people, everybody just as humans. We know that there’s some bad everywhere. It doesn’t matter about ethnicity, black, white color, whatever. You have bad everywhere. But everybody’s not that way. So I would just love to see every person being treated the same. Regardless. You know what I’m saying? That’s one thing I would love to see change.”

Does America need to make a more progress with that?

“Yes, I think so. I really believe in that. I just wish that it would happen. I wish that there was some way that it could. Even with a job application, just as simple as that – why do we have to put our race on a job application? It doesn’t matter – if a person can do a job, then a person can do a job. But there’s just so much division, you know?”

Again, as a non-American, I was intrigued to ask Anthony about the divisions in church life in the United States, where there are black churches and white churches. Would it be better if it wasn’t that way?

“I think it’s historical. It’s just the freedom of religion. But if we’re both in the same belief, in the same faith, why can’t we worship together? Instead of you gotta be over there in that black church and I’m here in a white church. We’re worshiping in the same faith, but we can’t do it together. So much division, so much separation and it would be so much better together.”

Anthony told me that he saw a little bit of movement towards people worshipping together, towards integration, but he sensed that people can be afraid and so division continues.

Bruce Watson

We finished off our conversation talking about the music. Anthony was enthusiastic about the band that Bruce Watson had put together for the album – really, the backing band sounds superb.  

“We had studio musicians working with us and they were fantastic and their attitudes were awesome. Just awesome musicians. And just the greatest guys to be around, that whole band and I love them. Bruce Watson put those guys together. That’s his studio band. We went into the studio and no one wanted to leave.

“You know, studio work is hard work. They want more than you can give sometimes, but you gotta give some more. But those guys made it so relaxed for us. And Bruce had a way of just pushing you without you even realizing you’re being pushed. It’s cool. He’ll nudge you, all smiles, and he’s just trying to get the best out of you. I love it.”

Like most musicians, the pandemic put paid to DMZ performances, but things are picking up for the guys now, with up to twelve dates a month. And Anthony’s raring to go.

Like the music DMZ makes, Anthony Daniels exudes sunny positivity. If you get the chance to go see these guys, don’t hesitate, and in the meantime, go pick up a copy of their two albums. The devil may not like them – but you will, for sure.