Parchman Prison Prayer: faith and hope in the darkness

An Interview with album producer, Ian Brennan

Mississippi State Penitentiary is a men’s maximum-security prison in the Mississippi Delta region. It’s the state’s oldest prison and its history is notorious for violence and a range of appalling abuses. In 1996, historian David Oshinsky said that the prison was “synonymous with punishment and brutality…the closest thing to slavery that survived the Civil War.”

In the past, the prison was often associated with blues music, with artist like Bukka White, Son House and R.L. Burnside all serving time there. John and Alan Lomax visited Parchman in 1933 during their cross-country field-recording trip and Alan said he found the music in the prison to be “the finest thing I’d ever hear coming out of my country…these people were poetic and musical and they had something terribly important to say.”

Move on ninety years and another recording finds Parchman inmates still making music that has the power to move us deeply and attests to the humanity of people often written off and considered hopeless.

Ian Brennan is a Grammy-winning record producer, film maker and author, who has worked with top artists like Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell, Richard Thompson and many others. He has, however, also worked with artists in developing world countries like Rwanda, South Sudan and Botswana, and made a modern-day Blues field recording on the streets of West Oakland which resulted in the 2019 album by the Oakland Homeless Heart, Not a Homeless Person, Just a Person Without a Home. He also produced an album with prisoners of Malawi’s maximum-security facility, which was nominated for a Grammy award in World Music in 2016. 

Photo: Marilena Umuhoza Delli

When I spoke to Ian recently, he spoke of his interest in recording little-known music and “supporting it in a way that it has a chance of being heard by more than one person or nobody.” So, he said, he goes “to remote places like Rwanda or Azerbaijan and finds people that are underrepresented.” Tellingly, he also commented that “you can go right into the heart of the world’s largest economy, America, and find the same thing when it’s among the unhoused or among the disabled community, or among those that are incarcerated.”

So it should be no surprise to find that Ian Brennan has produced a new album of songs by inmates at Parchman prison. Parchman Prison Prayer is a quite remarkable recording of prisoners singing gospel songs at their Sunday worship. From the first few bars of the unaccompanied Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord, I found myself completely emotionally engaged. The songs are raw and clearly deeply heart-felt, but there are some quite wonderful vocal performances here as well.

Ian told me, “I’m focused on voices and intimacy, and this is, I think, one of the more intimate records that I’ve ever participated in. And I think that that’s a large part of what strikes people about it. I mean, the backstory and the history are there, and they’re relevant, but I think people gravitate towards the record, even without that knowledge in many cases, because of the directness of the voices, which is something we rarely hear anymore… It’s a testament to their talents and their voices, and their courage to be so vulnerable.”

Getting in to a maximum-security penitentiary to do a recording is not straightforward, as you can imagine, so I was interested to find out how that worked for Parchman Prison Prayer. Ian had started the process, asking for permissions and so on, in late 2019. But that proved to be a rather difficult time, both from the pandemic point of view and the lawsuits lodged in 2020 against the prison by Jay-Z and Yo Gotti. Living conditions were squalid, with vermin common, prisoners suffering brutal temperatures and poor food, and inmate violence and suicide rates unacceptably high.

Thankfully there were enough changes made in conditions that the lawsuits could be dropped in January of this year. Brennan commented on how shocking he found reports of the conditions in Parchman prior to this – “conditions worse in some ways than Zomba prison in Malawi, which was the maximum prison for the world’s poorest nation at the time. To see that happening in America, where there’s such an abundance of resources, potentially makes it all the more shocking.”

With conditions improved and a new administration installed, Brennan was able to make arrangements for his recording this year.

Said Ian, “They were willing to try this, obviously with some reservations, because they have every legitimate reason to fear that maybe somebody has an agenda or is not sincere about wanting to record music, but maybe is looking just to get inside the prison for some other reason. But I was allowed in with very little notice.”

After two flights and a long drive, and a small window in which to do the recording, Brennan arrived at the prison. “I didn’t know what would be there or what I would find, but I had faith that it would be a worthwhile endeavour. There was no plan for a record; there was no record label; there was just the hopes to make some music with the men who were there and who were interested in doing so. And so I arrived, and within five or ten minutes we were recording and we recorded longer than I thought they would probably allow – about three hours or so.”

The album is fifteen songs long and makes for utterly compelling listening. You can hear the yearning, the heart-ache, the sorrow behind these performances – but you can also hear the joy and, remarkably, the sense of freedom.

Said Ian, “As we recorded, it was clear from the first song that something special was going on. One after another a singer would come up and take a turn, and by the sixth or seventh singer, it was clear that not only were there some really strong singers, but there was some downright virtuosity.

“And then it became clear that, yeah, there’s got to be a record of some form. I didn’t know what that would be. I kind of figured it would probably just be me putting it up online and doing what I could to try to support it. But fortunately, Glitterbeat took an interest in it without me even trying to get them interested. And really, it couldn’t have been better because the amount of attention it’s received is very remarkable for any kind of independent release nowadays, where the media is usually so controlled by celebrity culture.”

The songs are all gospel songs, some older sacred songs, some modern worship songs and one original to an inmate. Said Ian,

“The anticipation was that it would be a gospel record. It was a Sunday morning church service, especially convened, meaning that it was people from four different areas of the prison. They have different services on a Sunday for different denominations and also the different sections. But I didn’t know what they were going to sing.

“There’s an idea of a big connection there to the blues, but in fact, largely that connection is historical. It’s an association that people have who are aware of that history. But for the men there, and for a lot of the people in the area, it’s not an everyday reality. It’s not what they listen to. They could probably talk to you about other forms of music, like, say, hip hop. But gospel is a through line for most of them – some of them have found faith through the process of being incarcerated, but for many of them, it’s just the through line culturally in their lives, and they’re singing songs that they heard as children, they’re singing songs that in many cases were sung a hundred years ago or more in the same communities.

“But what they’ve done with these songs is they have reworked them in such a way that they sound almost unrecognizable from their source. It’s hard to really compare the versions of the originals and also the versions that they’ve done.

“And another positive aspect of it was the element of people, everyone there from four different areas of the prison, different ages and different races, and some from the cities and the majority from the rural areas, all participating in the process together.”

I asked Ian what surprised him about the experience?

“It was a leap of faith being rewarded, in that I had almost no expectations or low expectations – if there hadn’t been a single song recorded that seemed strong for future releasing, that would’ve been fine with me, honestly. But to find so many compelling singers and so much emotion, it was moving. It was an extremely moving experience, it was unforgettable really, even though it was brief. It was extremely intense, every aspect of it.”

I’m aware that some people might be cynical about people finding or expressing faith while they’re in prison. I wondered what Ian might say about that, based on his experience?

“Well, I would say that a prison forces people to confront their failures daily, if not hourly. And it is hard to not be changed by the experience. Whether somebody has changed, for better or for worse, is really the question.

“And I think as a society, what we have to ask ourselves is what is our objective? Is it constructive or destructive? Because the majority of the individuals that are in prison will return to the community. They remain part of the community. They are loved in most cases by many people, by children, mothers and fathers, and wives and husbands and so on. So for most people, they certainly are not really allowed to be in denial. Prison doesn’t really afford that.

“And there’s a very real aspect here that is just on a human level. The spiritual or biblical aspects aside, when someone is in prison and they go to a prison service on Sunday, they’re treated like an individual, and often times it is the only time all week that they feel that, maybe for an hour or two. And so that alone is extremely powerful in an environment where you’re often just called by your inmate number, and not your name.”

I asked Ian what he hoped would be the effect of on people who hear the album.

“Well, I think the hope is that hearing the music will humanize the listener but also humanize the person that’s singing – so that they can be understood in all their complexity and not in a binary way, not as a good or a bad person, but as a complex individual who has the potential for redemption. And I think if you listen to these voices without knowing the histories of the individuals that participated, it’s clear that they’re not the same people they were before. And that’s clear in the voices themselves.”

Redemption. That’s a powerful word. Maximum security prisons are for those convicted of the most serious crimes, but songs like Break Every Chain – “There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain” – and Locked Down, Mama Pray for Me – “help me not to do the same thing over again…I once was lost, now with God I’ve reached my destination” speak volumes about the possibility of redemption and change. Don’t miss the opportunity to listen to this compelling album. And thanks to Ian Brennan for giving us the opportunity to encounter in a small way a world most of us know little about.

Blues, Spirituals and Gospel

The spirituals, the blues and gospel music underpin most of American roots and popular music. There follows a brief introduction to each with some listening suggestions. The QR codes at the very bottom give you an extended 20-song playlist containing songs from each genre. Enjoy!

The Blues

Blues music began to emerge in the early years of the twentieth century. These were the years of the Jim Crow laws, where black communities were disenfranchised and discriminated against; where there were so-called sundown towns where a black person was not permitted to be on the street after dark; where men and women were regularly tortured, lynched, burnt alive for alleged crimes or no crimes; where systems of forced labour confined black men to years labouring in mines, labour camps and plantations. Where poverty was endemic, children and mothers died in child-birth, sickness was rampant and life expectancy low.

The period of slavery in the United States had ended after the Civil War, but after a brief period of reconstruction, Southern States reverted to form, enacting discriminatory laws and treating black communities with contempt, creating poverty and suffering.

Although the blues are mostly about romantic love, they do reflect the despair and hard times that black communities endured. And many of the songs were explicit about what life was like: Big Bill Broonzy in I Can’t Be Satisfied sings, “Starvation in my kitchen, Rent sign’s on my do’.” Having enough food to eat for many families could not be taken for granted. Poverty is a common topic – e.g., Mississippi John Hurts sings, “I‘m a poor old boy and a long ways from home / Feel like I ain’t got no friend” in Poor Boy.

Other songs like Jimmy Rodgers’ TB Blues, Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Pneumonia Blues or Tommy Dorsey’s Terrible Operation Blues all testify to the ill health and poor health care that black communities had to deal with.

The remarkable thing, though, is that the blues have always managed to strike a note of hope in the midst of suffering. According to Willie King, Mississippi bluesman, the good Lord himself had sent the music down to help ease worried minds. The music, he said, would “give you a vision of a brighter day way up ahead, to help you get your mind offa what you are in right now”

John Lee Hooker, another very famous bluesman says in a song he did with Carlos Santana, “the blues is a healer”. The blues are partly about suffering and partly about hope.

The blues express a belief that one day things will not be like what they are today. This becomes much more pronounced in a strand of the blues which has run like a golden thread over the decades and right up to the present. There is a long history of what we might call “gospel blues,” songs performed in the blues idiom by blues artists with Christian faith. For some artists, their Christian faith gave a sense of a God who walked with them in their troubles and to whom they looked for deliverance. There is a rich seam of this sort of music, running from the early Delta blues right through to the present.

Artists like Blind Willie Johnson, Rev. Robert Wilkins, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rev. Gary Davis all gave expression to the hope of their faith through their blues-inflected music. Right up to the present you’ll find artists like Lurrie Bell, Keb’ Mo’ and Kelly Joe Phelps carrying on this tradition.

The Spirituals

The hope that we find in blues music despite the bad circumstances and suffering they reflect is partly because the blues have their roots in the black spirituals. These were songs that had their beginnings in the humiliation, the exploitation, the suffering that was black slavery in the United States. There are about 6,000 of these spirituals or “sorrow songs.”

Slavery, as most of us know, in America began in the seventeenth century, and slavery was a dreadful situation for any human being to endure. You were a piece of property to be used and abused as your master required.

Slavery was an accursed system of dehumanization. After being taken from your home and then to an unknown land in a fetid ship, you were worked 15-20 hours a day under a blazing sun, and beaten for showing fatigue; you were driven into the fields three days after giving birth; and you were sexually and physically abused as a matter of course.

Although the odds were stacked against them, black slaves were often not quiescent – they resisted in a whole range of ways. One of these was the sort of religion they developed. And the Christian faith embraced by many of those in slavery was not just that of their masters. They eagerly asserted an idea of Christianity where freedom and liberation were to the fore and where black humanity was affirmed, despite everything that slavery and white people said.

As we listen to the spirituals, we find the aspirations for crossing over Jordan, reaching the promised land and meeting those who have gone before. At first sight, these would appear to be simply a simple longing for a home in heaven after death, faith that there could be freedom and rest beyond the suffering of the here and now.

Talk of “glory” and “heaven,” for many slaves was not simply a spiritual freedom – it was a hope for God to be at work for them in the world. And people like Harriet Tubman, a former slave risked life and limb to free other slaves, often using the spirituals for communication in here daring raids.

The faith of Harriet Tubman and that which the Spirituals attest to shows the hope offered by Christian faith is not just for the future – it is also a hope for the present.

Gospel

Much of what we know as gospel music is black gospel music, and there is one man who stands towering over that, and that is one Thomas Andrew Dorsey. In Chicago in the 1930s, Dorsey set in train an approach to gospel music that has endured to this day and has been a major influence on all of modern music. He made a name for himself as a composer, arranger and performer in Chicago as a young man; he also performed as bluesman Georgia Tom, singing his own bawdy, double-entendre songs.

When his wife died in the early 1930s, Dorsey turned from writing and performing regular blues music to gospel music. He took the improvisation and the blues notes and the syncopation he was so familiar with in the blues and applied it to music in the church. Dorsey referred to the blues he had known as “low down” music – not that it was bad or unworthy, but that it touched people right down in their soul. He knew the power of music to touch people and that’s what music in church ought to do.

The gospel blues were born.

The lyrics of much of this early gospel music were about feeling God’s presence or about making it home to heaven. But that changed as the decades passed and people like Mahalia Jackson and the Staples Family became involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

Just before Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic I have a dream speech, he asked Mahalia Jackson to sing I Been ‘Buked and I’ve Been Scorned, which gave voice to the discrimination and injustice she and her people had been subjected to.

Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, the Commissioners, the Clark Sisters, Andrae Crouch, the Winans and other gospel singers realized that faith was about more than the personal. Yes, that was an important part of it – a sense of God’s love and presence and hope beyond the grave. But faith also looks for God’s love and presence in the world now, bringing his hope and justice to all.

Blues, Spirituals and Gospel Spotify playlist of 20 songs on Spotify with QR Code following

Amazon Music playlist

https://music.amazon.co.uk/user-playlists/7587d9af0c1b4f3a9504ca939fc03778engb?ref=dm_sh_f746-8c7a-6989-4878-90d9a

Ronnie Greer – Ireland’s blues legend on playing with the blues greats.

Ronnie Greer has been a much loved and appreciated figure at the heart of the music scene in Northern Ireland for more than fifty years. Something of a legend, really. He’s a top-notch blues and jazz guitarist, who plays with real feeling and soul and has graced stages along the way with Dr. John, Van Morrison, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Lowell Fulson and a range of top Chicago blues artists.

For many years he held down a full-time job as a director in a steel company as well as performing with the renowned Jim Daly Blues Band and others. Over recent years he’s been delighting audiences and adding to his stellar reputation by his collaborations with top Irish musicians like Grainne Duffy, John McCullough, Ken Haddock and Anthony Toner. Ronnie is not only a gifted musician, but a wonderful raconteur and all-round nice guy. Get yourself to a Ronnie Greer show and you come away smiling – guaranteed!

He’s released three albums since 2015, A Lifetime With the Blues which features contributions from Grainne Duffy, Ken Haddock, Anthony Toner, Kyron Bourke and others; The Jazz Project;  and Blues Constellation, a live album – all of them outstanding and drawing hugely positive reviews in the music press.

I caught up with Ronnie recently to chat about his career, the musicians he’s played with some he didn’t…

Gary
Ronnie, you’ve been playing professionally for let’s just say, several decades! But it wasn’t your full-time profession?

Ronnie
I first started playing with a little beat group, when I was about 15, which didn’t really get anywhere. But I then got a job in a showband that was the resident band every Saturday night in the Castle Ballroom in Newcastle. And we’d also do Friday nights, as a warm-up for big bands like the Royal Showband and The Freshman. I was very fortunate with the guys that I played with in that band, most of them were quite a bit older than me – well, I was only 16! And their influence got me listening to a lot of jazz.

Then in my late teens I encountered Jim Daly, the “father of the blues” here in Northern Ireland. He was a great piano player, a Chicago style piano player. I went to one his gigs one night and he invited me to get up and do a couple numbers. And the rest, as they say is history. I spent 25 years or so playing in Jim’s band, which meant that I got a chance to play with American-based genuine blues players. When they came to Northern Ireland, Jim’s band was the band of choice to back these guys. I worked out recently that I’ve worked with maybe 85 or so black American blues artists – guys from the source.

First of all, I was in Jim’s band, and then when I played with Jackie Flavell in the band we formed, Blues Experience, we backed a lot of these guys. But I had the day job and although I had many, many offers to go fully professional into the music business, I chose to stay, doing both. And by staying at home and getting a chance to back these guys, I played with more genuine black American musicians than if I had decided to take my chance and go out to Chicago and try and get a gig there. I’d just have been one of 300 other guitar players trying to get a gig!

Gary
So when you were only 16, Ronnie, how did you get going professionally?

Ronnie
Well, this would’ve been the mid-sixties, which was the British blues boom. You had The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Pretty Things, obviously John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and many others. So obviously I was right in there at the right time. And I listened to those guys and was heavily influenced by them.

But then when I joined Jim, I started to learn about the people that they were listening to. And Jim was a great mentor to me and got me started listening to Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Otis Spann, Otis Rush, Freddy King, Albert King, all the greats.

And, I seemed to be lucky in that I seem to have a natural kind of feel for the blues, which isn’t always the case. It’s something you can’t teach, if it’s not there. But I seemed to have a feel for it. I have shortcomings in other areas of my guitar playing – I’m not a great technician. I can’t play fast – but I can play with quite a lot of feeling, quite a lot of soul. Which is more important when you’re playing the blues than being able to play hundred notes a second, you know?

Gary
Absolutely. So tell me, you must have been pretty good, to be starting to with Jim’s band when you were only 16. When did you first pick up a guitar and start playing? And how did you get to be as good as you were in your mid-teens?

Ronnie
My parents were at a loss one Christmas for something to buy me when I was 12 years old. My dad noticed that I had developed a tendency to stand on a chair, looking in the mirror pretending to play the guitar with the tennis racquet! So it seemed that it might be a good idea to buy me a proper guitar. And I seemed to have a natural flare for it. Up until then, I’d been quite obsessed with sport and had wanted to be a professional footballer. But once my parents bought the guitar, sport took a second place.  The guitar was something that I really took to and it’s become a very life affirming thing for me.

Gary
How did you get started playing, then? Did you listen to records and try and copy them?

Ronnie
Very much so. And I started to collect, I’ve got a massive collection of vinyl albums, mostly jazz of the fifties and sixties, and quite a lot of blues.  I’ve now got over 5,000 vinyl albums, collected over 50 years. And in fact, the BBC has twice featured my record collection on radio shows. And Duke Special [Irish songwriter and performer] did a video show where he featured my record collection as well.

Anyway, that’s really where I got my knowledge from., I have no formal music training – I can’t read music. Anything that I know about playing music has come from listening and watching other players. Which maybe was a bit regressive – because it would be nice to have the technical information to hand as well. But I can’t complain because I had a kind of gift that many others didn’t. I know lots of musicians who are great technicians and can read music but they don’t really have a lot of feel, a lot of soul in their playing, you know?

Gary
Now I know you’ve played with a lot of well-known blues and roots performers, the likes of Memphis Slim, Dr. John, Sonny Terry, and many others. Would like to pick out one or two of those that perhaps you most enjoyed playing with Ronnie?

Ronnie
Well, Dr. Dr. John would be one of the highlights. Everybody knows of Dr. John. And Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee – I played several times with them. Memphis Slim, as you say, and  then Carey Bell, one of Muddy Waters’ harmonic players, and Mojo Buford, who also played harmonica in Muddy’s band. And perhaps a lesser-known player, a guy I had great rapport with was a guy called Phillip Walker, a Texas guitar player, who played in Big Joe Turner’s band amongst others.

And, the ones that I enjoyed playing with most were the ones who were very, very good and recognized that they were playing with people who were actually quite good themselves. And brought them into the game rather than isolate them. Problem was, a lot of the lesser American players that I’ve worked with over the years, if you played a solo and got any reaction at all from the crowd, that was the end of it for you! They’re never gonna give you another solo!

Gary
Give us an example, Ronnie.

Ronnie
Probably the biggest example would’ve been Lowell Fulson who wrote Reconsider Baby. A lovely man, great guitar player. We did several gigs with him over the years at different places, including the Cork Jazz Festival. But we did a gig with him in the Guinness Spot one night at the Belfast Festival at Queens. Three numbers into the concert, he threw me a solo. Which got a resounding round of applause at the end. And that was that for the rest of the night. I might as well have hung the guitar up and gone home!

But yet the likes of Phillip Walker, who was a brilliant guitar player, he and I bonded greatly. And we actually got into feeding off each other. Guys like that were very encouraging. But, you know, they all loved Jim Daly. Jim Daly was a wonderful Chicago Blues piano player.

He played with Muddy Waters in the Mandala Hall in the mid-sixties, just before I joined his band. Much to my disappointment, I missed that one.

But at the end of the gig, Jim sat in with Muddy, after opening the show. Jim’s biggest Influence was Otis Spann, the doyen of Chicago piano blues. But, at the end of the gig, Muddy said to Jim. He says, “Man, you sound more Otis than Otis!”

Gary
And there’s a postscript to this story, isn’t there?

Ronnie
Yeah. Muddy invited Jim to play the next night at his concert in Dublin. But Jim turned it down because he couldn’t get the day off work from his employer, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive! 

Whenever Jim died, the BBC asked me to do a little tribute to him on the morning radio breakfast show, presented at the time by Wendy Austin. And I related that story about Jim not going down to Dublin the next day because he couldn’t get the day off work. And Wendy’s comment was, “That was Ronnie Greer paying tribute to his friend John Daly. And I sincerely hope that the Housing Executive appreciated the sacrifice that Jim Daly made for that day!”

Gary
You didn’t get to play with Muddy Waters. Are there any others you didn’t get the opportunity to play with but would have liked to?

Ronnie
We did a gig in the Errigle Inn in Belfast after one of one of Van Morrsion’s Kings Hall gigs. Van and Jim Daly were very good friends, and he had booked Jim to play. So, the whole band got up and played – Georgie Fame did some stuff as well as Van. Andy Fairweather Lowe was in the band but he didn’t play at our gig. He came and complimented us on how much he enjoyed our music but apologized because he had to leave for an early morning flight. So, sadly, we didn’t get the chance to play with him.

Gary
He’s a great guitarist and seems like a very nice guy.

Ronnie
Wonderful, absolutely brilliant guy. That’s the thing, all the great guys that I met or was associated with, virtually without exception, are all very gracious and were very complimentary about what you were try to do. It’s the ones that aren’t so good that seem to have a chip on their shoulder.

And one other guy I didn’t play with but nevertheless got the opportunity to spend time with was the legendary jazz trumpeter and band leader, Dizzy Gillespie. Quite some time ago Dizzy came to Belfast to play at the Queen’s Festival. I’d been asked to keep him company throughout the day before the concert, and there was a reception for him with the great and the good at Belfast City Hall. So we were standing there together while people milled around and had nibbles. And this lady came up to Dizzie, and said to him, “and what instrument do you play?”

Anyway, I found myself alone in a room with Dizzie right before the concert. I asked him if he would play Lullaby of the Leaves, which I explained was a song I loved. “Oh,” said Dizzy, “the young guys in my band wouldn’t know that. But, tell you what, I’ll play it for you now.” And with a big smile, he got out his trumpet and played the song for me. What a moment!

And then there was one thing that happened fairly recently. I play regularly in Bert’s Jazz bar. Actually, I’m about to do another run of Wednesday nights there starting next month with the trio. But anyway, one night I was on holiday and somebody else was doing the gig for me. And that night, a guy came up at the end of the gig and complimented the guys on the music.

So, he says, I’d love to sing with you guys, maybe I could sing Nature Boy with you? Well, it was 12 o’clock and they made an excuse and told him, sorry, we have to finish because if we play any later, the management will complain. So the guy was fine, and he said “no problem,” very polite and understanding, and off he went.

A few minutes later, the guys found out it was Robert Plant! He was in Belfast doing a gig at the SSE Arena with his band. They tried to find him, but he’d gone!

Gary
But still, there are those 80 or so American blues artists you’ve played with…

Lurrie Bell

Ronnie
Yes over the years, I’ve had some great nights with many American blues musicians, maybe some of them not too well known. For instance, we did several trips with Carey Bell, the great Chicago style harmonica player. And on one of them, he brought his son, Laurie, with him. [Laurie is a Blues Music Award winner and a Grammy nominee].

Laurie Bell is the best blues guitar player I’ve ever played with. He’s a fantastic player. And a lovely guy. We played off each other, and after we did three or four gigs I said to him, you’re the best blues guitar player I have ever played with. And he said, man, you were smoking too!

Another great player I enjoyed working with was Guitar Shorty [David Kearney, known for his explosive performances, of whom Billboard magazine said, “Righteous shuffles…blistering, sinuous guitar solos”], who was very, very supportive. We did a gig with him at the Monaghan Blues Festival. Peter Green had just re-emerged onto the scene with his Splinter Group. Peter was top of the bill and we were on before him. Peter was a big fan of Guitar Shorty, so he just pulled up a chair and sat at the side of the stage watching.

Now Shorty was a very, very exciting, visceral player and his big trick was to do a somersault whilst playing a solo. He never missed a note! Don’t ask me how he did it! I mean, it was jaw-dropping. And Peter was sitting at the side of the stage watching this, and when he did it, Peter got up open-mouthed and called the rest of his band over to see it!

Gary
Obviously, the music you love is the blues and jazz. What is it that draws you to this music, Ronnie?

Ronnie
Well, the soulfulness of it and just the visceral quality. Something Mojo Buford, Muddy’s harmonica player said quite frequently – if you don’t like the blues, you got a hole in your soul.

So, I mean, that’s what it’s all about. Now jazz is a more sort of specialized thing. But the blues is such an infectious kind of music. How could you not like it?  

It’s a simple form of music. It’s a simple thing that anybody can basically have a go at. But as Chris Barber [legendary English jazz band leader] put it, the big problem with the blues is that anybody can have a go at playing it, but playing it right is another story.

Gary
Ronnie, I’ve talked to quite a number of artists who would now be in their seventies. People like Rory Block, Eric Bibb, Maria Muldaur, and I usually ask them about the process of getting older and their enthusiasm or otherwise for the music and for playing live. And it’s always very interesting to hear their undiminished enthusiasm. What is it that keeps Ronnie Greer going?

Ronnie
Well, it’s in your soul, your DNA. But. As you get older, it’s not the performance, it’s the other stuff that goes around it – you know, getting the gear in and out and so on. But once you start to play, everything else feels insignificant. Humphrey Litttleton [legendary English jazz musician] once said, “I’m getting old now. All my guys in the band are a lot older, and we’ve all got health issues – but once we start to play, Dr. Gig takes care of it.”

For readers in Ireland, you can catch Ronnie playing over the next couple of months:

• Regular slots: American Bar, second Saturday afternoon of every month, with John McCullough and Ken Haddock
• international Blues in the Bay, Warrenpoint, Thursday 20^th May
• Courtyard Theatre, Ballyearl, 3^rd June
• Guinness Blues Café, Deer’s Head, Belfast City Blues Festival, 24^th June
• Open House Festival, Walled Garden, Bangor, 20^th August.

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!