Blues Artist Interviews: Five things We Learned

“Where there is light there is hope; and where there is hope, there’s a chance”
Jimmy Carter, Blind Boys of Alabama

During 2021, we had the opportunity to speak to 15 great blues and roots artists, as well Mark Carpentieri of M.C. Records and Tim Duffy of the Music Maker Foundation. All of them, plying their trade, entertaining us, at times challenging us, against the significant odds posed by the pandemic. Each of them doing what they do with determination, grace and even joy. Pick any one of the interviews if you feel in need of a little inspiration – go ahead, you’ll come away feeling just a bit better about life.

So, looking back, what did we learn from talking to each of these exceptional people?

1. Age is no barrier to following your dream.
Several of the people I talked to are in their eighth or ninth decade of life. A time when many people just want to sit back on the sofa and start watching daytime TV, thinking their best days are behind them. Not so with people like Jack Ward or Elizabeth King, who at 83 and 77 respectively had just released their first solo albums and were looking forward to going on the road to promote them. Or Maria Muldaur, in her late seventies, who teamed up with a bunch of young people to record Let’s Get Happy Together, the most upbeat, cheerful album I heard all year. She told me simply, “you have a choice every day – you can be bummed out of you can be happy.” Atagirl, Maria! And I love the positivity in Bryn Haworth’s Boom Baby Boom, which he wrote about getting older: “you’ve got one life and so much left to give…there’s still time for one more dance.”

Jorma Kaukonen

Jorma Kaukonen, now turned 80, told me he was just about to embark on a new tour with Hot Tuna. He has just released a new album and has been performing regularly online from his Fur Peace Ranch during the pandemic. He told me performing was “just as energizing as it ever was.”

And then there’s Jimmy Carter of the Blind Boys of Alabama, who’s 88 and has just released Blind Faith, a terrific album of Americana/gospel songs – his first solo album – and who told me that he hopes the album “will energize people and change lives.” Now that was impressive – Jimmy’s still wanting to be a blessing to others.

2. Music can be a great vehicle for not only entertaining us, but challenging us.
Guy Davis, Eric Bibb, and Leyla McCalla didn’t make protest albums, but they included songs that highlighted injustice and made us think about our response to that. Davis’s God’s Gonna Make Things Over about the Tulsa Massacre and Eric Bibb’s Emmett’s Ghost dealing with the murder of Emmett Till both used historical tragedies to shine a light on the present. And Leyla McCalla’s stark Song for a Dark Girl, about a lynching “way down in Dixie” is as arresting as Strange Fruit. She told me that music isn’t some sterile environment where an artist can simply be apolitical. Musicians want to entertain us; we want to be entertained – but music, the blues in particular, has always been an important way for artists to comment on what is going on around them, and to help us all to see the injustice that many of us, in our comfortable lives, might miss or ignore.

3.Faith is a vital life-force for quite a number of these artists.
Jimmy Carter told me “my faith is strong” and “when it gets rough, I pray.” He and Elizabeth King and Elder Jack Ward have had considerable challenges in their lives, but each told me how important their faith in God was for them. Jack Ward came from a life of poverty as a sharecropper and told me “when you weak, God will make you strong; when you lonely, he would never leave you alone.”

Elizabeth King

Ms. King, who also grew up picking and chopping cotton, told me the incredible story of how God had healed her after a horrific injury from a drunk driver; now she says, her job “is just to encourage people…when you’re going through something, just turn to God.” Maria Muldaur told me she’s being going to her neighbourhood African American church for the last 40 years and is inspired by joyful worship.

Bryn Haworth, slide guitarist par excellence, who’s featured on the albums of a who’s who of top rock artists, as well as having an excellent back catalogue of his own, spends a lot of his time visiting prisons and talked about the “amazing stuff” he’d seen happen through prayer. His vibrant faith shone through our conversation – a faith, which, incidentally, has him on a mission to save the trees in England, about which he has a song on his new album.

4. Blues music is alive and kicking.
It may have been around for more than a hundred years now, but artists old and young are breathing new life into the genre all the time. Mark Carpentieri of M.C. Records spoke of his optimism as he looked around at the blues and roots scene and saw people “taking the blues and gospel and making it their own.”

Grainne Duffy, a young Irish guitarist and singer, who’s performed on stages with Keb’ Mo’ and Van Morrison, has recorded an outstanding album, Voodoo Blues, with a set of original songs that both tap deeply into the legacy of the blues and breathe positivity. Joanna Connor, whose terrific 4801 South Indiana Avenue was produced by Joe Bonamassa and is packed with raw, high energy musicianship, is one of today’s great electric guitarists. She told me she was “fleshing out” stories as she played the songs, and making them sound epic in the process. She talked about the joy in the blues, despite the hardship out of which they emerged and the way they speak to the human emotion, And Carolyn Wonderland, the blistering Texas guitar-slinger, just finishing a stint in John Mayall’s band, whose vocals and guitar work on Tempting Fate are positively spine-tingling, talked about the fun and joy in making her music.

5. And the blues is a worldwide phenomenon.
Yes, the blues are founded on the experience of African Americans, and are deeply rooted in the souls of people like Guy Davis and Eric Bibb. And Tim Duffy, through his Music Maker Foundation, is working hard to preserve the tradition of unsung Southern musicians and present them to the world – he talked about the “very special people” in the communities he works with and the need to “amplify their voices” and promote “cultural equity.”

Ireland’s Grainne Duffy

But I talked to Paul Cowley, an Englishman living in rural France, playing traditional acoustic blues – which he discovered relatively late in life and was smitten with; and to Mark Harrison, another Englishman, whose story-telling blues reflect deeply on the human condition; to Leyla McCalla, whose family roots are in Haiti; to Grainne Duffy from Ireland; to Bert Deivert, an American who’s lived most of his life in Sweden, and who says “it’s the soul of it, the emotion, which drives me.” Eric Bibb, of course, has also made his home in Sweden for many years.

All these people are doing more than just keeping the blues alive – they are, of course, deeply drawing from the well of music and blues feeling from the past, but as well, lyrically, they are applying the blues to new and current situations, and musically, they are either forging new directions or keeping it fresh by their talent, dedication and musicianship.

There are links to all the interviews below for you to read and enjoy:

Jorma Kaukonen: “The good life is more than material stuff…”
Bryn Haworth: Still time for one more dance
Jimmy Carter: And his Blind Faith is a ray of hope
Carolyn Wonderland: Is Tempting Fate
Bert Deivert: His story-telling blues
Eric Bibb: “Everything can change if we believe”
Elder Jack Ward: From sharecropping to soulful singing
Elizabeth King: Living in the Last Days is a gift for us all
Mark Harrison: His Unique Talent
Maria Muldaur: Wants us to get happy with her
Guy Davis: Hits a rich vein of creativity
Paul Cowley: Long Time Comin’ – but more than worth it
Tim Duffy: “A glorious awakening of musical tradition”
Joanna Connor: “The blues is honest music”
Mark Carpentieri: Optimistic about the future of the blues
Leyla McCalla: Making Music that Matters
Grainne Duffy: Drenched with the blues and Southern soul.

Best Blues Albums 2021

What a great year it’s been for blues albums. Whether it’s acoustic blues, blues rock, traditional, modern, gospel or funk, there’s been something for everyone. Some artists – like Eric Bibb, Guy Davis and Corey Harris – have included important social commentary in their music; we’ve had great music from a bunch of…well, let’s say mature musicians, like Dion, Alabama Slim, Elizabeth King and Hans Theessink; and some terrific output from young musicians, like Christone Ingram and Selwyn Birchwood, who are making it clear that the blues are alive and well.

We’ve chosen our top 25 albums – arranged in alphabetical order, rather than ranking them. Enjoy!

Here’s our top 12.

Dear America, Eric Bibb
Dear America is a collection of thirteen Eric Bibb originals, all testament to his outstanding song-writing skill, ear for a good tune and top-notch guitar chops, but what makes Dear America such a great album – and an important album – is not just the music but the nuanced social commentary and challenge he presents. But like every Eric Bibb album you listen to, there’s a thread of hope and joy that comes through strongly. Here’s our interview with Eric.

Joanna Connor, 4801 South Indiana Avenue
An absolutely top-notch set of blues rock that clearly has a Chicago blues heritage, yet sounds completely fresh and modern. Connor’s killer slide guitar and vocals are augmented by some characteristically fine guitar work by Joe Bonamassa and a tight-knit top-class band. Superbly produced, and packed with raw, high-energy musicianship. Check out our interview with Joanna.

Paul Cowley, Long Time Comin’
Paul Cowley is an outstanding musician, a fine guitarist, with a deep appreciation for the acoustic blues tradition. Long Time Comin‘, has 12 acoustic blues songs, 5 traditional songs from the likes of Charlie Patton, Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Willie McTell and 7 originals. It’s outstanding, and hugely enjoyable. We talked to Paul about the album here.

Dion and Friends, Stomping Ground
Another great blues album from the erstwhile wanderer, Dion. As with his last album, he’s collaborated with a bunch of his friends – probably a list of your favourite artists. They’re mine, anyway – Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Keb’ Mo’, Mark Knopfler, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton…It’s the blues, but it’s positive and upbeat, and it’s an album you’ll return to again and again.

Corey Harris, Insurrection Blues
Corey Harris’s 20^th album is what acoustic blues is all about. Fourteen traditional blues songs performed with passion, rawness and fine guitar picking. The spirit of the blues breathes in every song. This is a rich feast of acoustic blues, all the more satisfying for presenting the tradition with freshness and originality, and for showing its relevance to current times. Check out our full review here.

Christone Ingram, 662
There’s never a dull moment in the album, with a nice blend of styles and approaches to the songs – to his guitar and singing skill, add song-writing too. Ingram’s singing throughout is outstanding and his guitar solos glorious. At the end you’re left wanting more. If he can keep up the quality shown in this release, Christone Ingram has a stellar career ahead. Highly recommended. Here’s our full review

Catfish Keith, Land of the Sky
Catfish Keith’s full range of acoustic guitar pyrotechnics are on display in his 20th album, Land of the Sky – picking, plucking, pinching, bending, sliding, harmonics-ing, on his wide collection of guitars, which include parlours, full-size 6 strings,12-strings, Nationals and a ukulele. It’s a feast of hugely enjoyable guitar fare for any guitar, blues, roots or just music fan. Our full review is here.

Gary Moore, How Blue Can You Get
If you buy one blues album this year, this is it. A set of eight songs, some previously unheard and unreleased, from the Moore family archives, will move you, excite you, get you on your feet, and make you regret all the more that Gary Moore is no longer with us. Released on the tenth anniversary of Moore’s passing How Blue Can You Get proves, if there was ever any doubt, that Gary Moore was a master of the blues. Check out our full review here.

Alabama Slim, The Parlor
Approaching his 82^nd birthday, close to seven feet tall, and typically dressed in an impeccable tailored suit, Alabama Slim has given us a perfect, classic blues album which recalls the boogie of John Lee Hooker. It’s delicious, pared-back, but tasty fare from a man whose soulful and oh-so-cool vocals are served up in a wrap of sweet guitar groove from Little Freddie King, Slim’s cousin. Here’s the link to our full review.

Joanne Shaw Taylor, The Blues Album
Taylor’s incredible guitar chops are well in evidence, but it is perhaps her singing that stands out on this album. At turns intensive, gritty, raw and husky, she makes these songs her own, grabbing your attention, and wresting every ounce of emotion out of the music. Joanne Shaw Taylor has made a huge statement with The Blues Album, and take it from me, it’s an album you will want to play repeatedly. Here’s our full review.

Hans Theessink and Big Daddy Wilson, Payday
It feels like payday for all of us who get the opportunity to hear this fine album from two blues artists at the top of their game. Hans Theessink and Big Daddy Wilson join voices and blues spirit for sixteen songs of exceptional acoustic blues. It’s joyous stuff, the songs driven by Hans’s sure and characteristic rhythmic finger-picking and the lovely harmonies and melding of baritone and tenor voices. Check out the full review here.

Christina Vane, Nowhere Sounds Lovely
Sit up and take notice of Cristina Vane, whose Nowhere Sounds Lovely is a terrific amalgam of blues, bluegrass and country – a thoroughgoing bluesy Americana, you might say. Whatever way you want to describe it, she’s a wonderful talent – a skilful guitar picker and slide player, a fine songwriter and a beautiful singer. And here’s the full review.

And the next baker’s dozen

Joe Bonamassa, Time Clocks
It’s heady stuff, with complex arrangements, full orchestrations, bending of genres and a breathless energy from the first song to the last. All the ingredients of his previous work are here – the blues basis, the guitar solos, his soulful vocals, the attention to detail in the production – but this is a bold step forward, a cinematic palette of modern rock guaranteed to both surprise and delight. Our full review is here.

Selwyn Birchwood, Living in a Burning House
Fresh modern blues, featuring Birchwood’s bluesy voice, and top-notch guitar and lap steel playing. Thirteen original energetic songs with a blues rock sound, with a jazzy feel at times. Birchwood is quite a talent and this is his best album yet.

Tommy Castro, A Bluesman Came to Town
A blues “concept” album from the veteran bluesman, who’s “never made the same album twice.” Tracking the progress of a blues artist with all the ups and downs of the itinerant musician’s life, it is classic stuff, solid, no-nonsense blues from a man whose gritty vocals and searing guitar solos reach right down inside you.

Guy Davis, Be Ready When I Call You
Great songs, featuring Guy’s distinctive, growly vocals and rhythmic guitar work, good humour and engaging stories. More than just blues musically and most of the songs have a hard-hitting strong social commentary going on. An outstanding release from Davis and M.C. Records. Read our great interview with Guy here.

Chris Gill, Between Midnight and Louise
A stripped-down recording, just two microphones, a small amp, no overdubs and a lot of love for the blues. Relax on the back porch as Gill takes his acoustic, resonator and cigar box and performs nine originals and Virgil Brawley songs. It’s finger picking good, good old-fashioned acoustic blues played with considerable depth and passion. Here’s the full review.

Government Mule, Heavy Load Blues
Warren Hayes’ vocals and guitar work, some nicely placed organ and horns, and thirteen fine solid blues songs combine in what is a hugely satisfying album. There are covers of songs by Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Junior Wells, Tom Waits and the Animals, as well as originals from Hayes. 78 minutes of great blues, and you get an extra 50 minutes worth if you go for the 2 CD deluxe offering.

Mark Harrison’s sixth album, The Road to Liberty, showcases his adept story-telling and clever lyrics, his knack for composing a catchy tune, and his never-less-than-engaging performance as a singer and guitarist. He’s hard to pigeon-hole, not quite blues, but the blues are never far away. This is a collection of songs that transport you to another place, make you contemplate the world around and, as well as that – most importantly – entertain you. Read our great interview with Mark here.

Colin James, Open Road
Over the years, Colin James has racked up 20 studio albums and a sack-full of awards, and yet is relatively unknown. Put that right straight away by listening to this terrific album of blues covers and originals from a very fine singer and guitarist. Consistently good and hugely enjoyable.

Kelly’s Lot, Where and When
Kelly Zirbes’s band, which hails from the Los Angeles area has been plying its trade for the last 25 years, mostly as a blues rock outfit. Where and When sees them stripping things back, performing 11 acoustic blues songs with resonator-slide guitar and Zirbes’s gritty voice to the fore. It’s fabulous stuff, six originals written by Kelly and rhythm guitarist Perry Robertson that evoke the blues of a bygone age and five reworked traditional blues songs, including a terrific version of Robert Johnson’s Stones in My Passageway.

Elizabeth King, Living in the Last Days
Wonderful set of bluesy gospel songs from gospel singer King 50 years after she stopped performing and recording professionally. It’s a funky, bluesy, soul-filled pot of rich gospel fare, an album full of great songs, music that touches you, and Ms. King’s powerful vocal performance. It’s a gift for us all. Check out our interview with this amazing woman.

New Moon Jell Roll Freedom Rockers, Vol 2
Classic old-school recording from a kind of blues super-group, the musicians sitting together in a circle in the studio and playing amongst the microphones. It’s a joyous exploration of the blues, with great heart and soul. A fine tribute to Jim Dickinson and a huge treat of an album for all of us. Full review here.

Elder Jack Ward, Already Made
Jack Ward was a successful Stax recording artist, but, remarkably, has never made an album – until now. At a lively 83 years old, he has released a fabulous album of bluesy, soulful gospel songs. The ten song program features the warmly-recorded winning ingredients that are becoming a trademark of Bible and Tire’s patented Sacred Soul sound, from Ward’s spirited vocals to the crack studio band laying down the grooves behind him. We talked to Jack about the album here.

Carolyn Wonderland, Tempting Fate
Glorious ten song tribute to her scorching guitar skills and rockin’ vocals. As well as blues, there’s some country, some Tex-Mex, and a whole lot of heart. The guitar work on the album is outstanding – all you’d expect from a Carolyn Wonderland record, but hot though it is, the her vocal performance in this album – the range, the dynamics, the emotion on this album – seems better than ever. And here’s our interview with Carolyn.

Carolyn Wonderland is Tempting Fate – but she’s got her Texas boots on!

“Mighty and joyous rock-injected blues…luxurious vocals and fine guitar work. Her voice is as muscular as her name is evocative.” – Austin Chronicle

Photo: Marilyn Stringer

“Nothing can be this raw. Nothing can be this real.” Mike Nesmith

Carolyn Wonderland is a blistering Texas guitar-slinger, multi-instrumentalist and song-writer, with a singing voice replete with full-throated raw emotion that will reach right inside you and give you a darn good shaking. Which you probably need.

She’s been making music since she was a small child, damaging her mother’s prized Martin guitar along the way, and developing a distinctive picking finger style approach to her guitar playing. She’s been compared to other Texas musical titans like Janis Joplin and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but really, Carolyn Wonderland is one of a kind, something special in the broad area of blues rock.

Influenced at an early stage by Albert Collins, Jimmy Hendrix and Joe “Guitar” Hughes, she formed her first band when she was 17 and has never stopped singing and making music. She’s won multiple Austin Music Awards and been inducted into the Austin Music Hall Of Fame and has played with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, James Cotton, Robert Earl Keen, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Levon Helm.

Over the past three years, she’s been the lead guitarist in The Blues Breakers, the band of legendary musician and bandleader John Mayall, the first woman guitarist after a who’s who of electric guitar royalty that includes Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, Coco Montoya and Walter Trout.

She has ten previous albums to her credit, and has now released, with Alligator Records, Tempting Fate, a glorious ten song tribute to her scorching guitar skills and rockin’ vocals. As well as blues, there’s some country, some Tex-Mex, and a whole lot of heart. The album features a number of guests as well as Wonderland’s longtime road band of bassist Bobby Perkins and drummer Kevin Lance, including Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Cindy Cashdollar, Marcia Ball, Shelley King, Jan Flemming, and Red Young. The album was produced by Dave Alvin who also plays guitar on three songs.

Alvin said, “I wanted to work with Carolyn because her guitar playing isn’t imitating anyone. She is especially not imitating the imitators, like so many modern blues or blues/rock guitarists do. She developed her own effective way of playing the blues, plus she always surprises me with her guitar lines and melodic twists and turns. As for Carolyn’s vocals, they are soulful and powerful to the point of being often spine-tingling…I also love that Carolyn has a wonderful, mischievous sense of humor that makes her performances honest and charming and keeps them far away from getting too bogged down in too much serious ‘artiste’ posturing.”

We were delighted to get chatting to Carolyn about the new album. I asked her about moving to Alligator and the making of the record.

“I got really lucky. It all really came about because I’ve been working with John Mayall the last three years. He’s so generous. Not only on stage with everyone, but he’s just a generous individual. Anyway, I saved up enough money and decided I should make a record. And while I was on tour with my band, I ran into my friend, Cindy Cashdollar, in Woodstock and she asked me if you could have anyone do the record, who would it be? And I was like, oh, I’d love to have Dave Alvin do it. So she called him and he said, yes!

“I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. So we all got together last January in Austin and I had my band, Kevin and Bobby, and our friends Shelly King, Marcia Ball and Cindy happened to be in town. And Jimmy Dale Gilmore came by and sang some, and it was great. It was just a hoot. I think you can tell how much fun it was. Like you can hear the joy.

“And then the pandemic hit, of course. But I got a call from Bruce Iglauer at Alligator who asked to hear the record and again I couldn’t believe my luck – really?! And so he put it out and I was so amazed.”

The guitar work on the album is outstanding – all you’d expect from a Carolyn Wonderland record, but Carolyn’s comment was a modest, “I know that I wouldn’t be here, you know, if not for the many trailblazers ahead of me.”

What you notice on Tempting Fate, hot through the guitar work is, is the vocal performance – she’s absolutely at the top of her game on this album – the range, the dynamics, the emotion on this album seems better than ever.

“I think some of that was me just being so comfortable and happy to be home, and so I really got into the record. But also I think some of the credits should be split between Dave Alvin and Stuart Sullivan [Sullivan is a recording engineer, and the founder, owner and engineer of Wire Recording in south central Austin].  Stuart and I have worked together for years and years. He makes me sounds like me instead of me going, oh, what’s that? So I was very happy that he had the time to do it and I really think he’s real good at capturing that kind of stuff. Making the voice sound like the voice.”

Photo: Laura Carbone

The album gets off to a cracking start with the first song, Fragile Peace and Certain War. There seem to be a lot of things in Wonderland’s sights there – desperate people getting evicted from their homes, water that ain’t fit to drink, and inequality between the rich and the poor. “We’re standing on the precipice” she sings. I asked her if that is that how she sees things in the United States currently.

“Yeah, I would think so. But it’s also the way I see things throughout history and in our human existence. Sometimes we tended to not do great things, and it’s hard to understand why. So I think sometimes it’s good to look at ourselves.”

John Mayall’s The Laws Must Change, from 1970 is an interesting inclusion on the album. One of the lines in the song is, ‘Some people are saying you’re wrong, and they’re right. But we’ve got to see both sides.’ And that seems to me to be very apposite in the world at the moment. As an outsider, looking on in America, there’s clearly a lot of division.

So I asked Carolyn if she had hope that things can change. She replied, talking about the need to reject the us and them attitudes that dog us, and if we can do that, then there can be hope for us. “You and I are the same. It has always bothered me when we don’t see each other that way.”

Carolyn told me about performing the song in The John Mayall Band. “When I joined John’s band, it was like, here’s 80 songs, go and learn them and who knows which ones will be pulled out on any night. It’s so fun. It’s perfect. But even with that many songs, he never pulled out The Laws Must Change. And I always loved that song. Well, during the show, John would always let me sing a song or two, so I thought, well, maybe if it’s not too cheeky. I’d like to do one of his songs. So I started doing The Laws Must Change!”

I wanted to know about her experience with the John Mayall Band, three years as his lead guitarist, following in the footsteps of some legendary guitarists. I wondered what was it like to have a sense that she was going where Eric Clapton and Peter Green and Walter Trout and so on, had been before.

“It’s often times best not to think about it because it’s a little scary! John sent me so many CDs to listen to so I could learn the songs. And I gathered that these would be his favorite versions. And there was so much Peter Green. I was in heaven. And I’ve always loved Walter and I’ve always loved Coco, but I had never really gotten to dig into Buddy Witherington’s stuff. His chord choices were sublime. And I actually wrote him a little fan letter, and he was very cool about it.”

During this three-year stint, The John Mayall Band at one stage did fifty shows in sixty days in nineteen countries, which sounds like a hugely demanding schedule, particularly for Mayall who turns 88 this year. I asked Carolyn about this.

“Oh, it’s crazy. But John loved it that way. I remember asking him at one point, like, don’t you want to take a day off and maybe go sightseeing? And I could see his eyes roll at me. Like, no, I’ve seen it, I want to want to play music. And it’s so joyful when he’s playing. Everybody wants to be on stage with John. It’s such a great time. And there’s a reason everybody in that band loves him – because he’s a really, really good guy.”

I wondered, as she looks back on this experience with John and his band, what does she thinks she learned from it?

“Oh, man, I learned so much. I mean, aside from playing more guitar than I’ve ever got to play in my life, I got to watch one of the best band leaders ever. And I’m hoping that I learned how to bring some of that to my own band too. I mean, his generosity, the way that he lets everyone express themselves on stage. And his kindness. I mean, it’s a band, but it’s very much a family, you know? When we’re out on the road it’s a family.”

Turning back to the album, while there are songs with some strong social comment, on a less serious note, there is the delightfully quirky Texas Girl and Her Boots, a great fun-filled, rockin’ blues: “This Texas girl fears no snake in the grass, I got some big bad boots baby.”

“Yeah, I’ve a good collection of all kinds of boots, mostly thrift store finds, but yeah! You get the little insert and it doesn’t matter who else walked in it!”

Texas boots. I have to say, I’m quite proud of my engraved leather, slanted heel cowboy boots which I acquired a few years ago in San Antonio. I don’t think they’re snake-proof, though. Getting back to the song, there is some rollicking piano on this track, courtesy of Marcia Ball.

“I was so happy to have Marcia on that one. And also, that one’s a great example of how having a great producer makes a great song. I had that song written and when I played it, Dave Alvin stopped me. He said ‘It sounds like you really are proud of those boots. Maybe you should kick in the door with them, instead of asking permission!’. I was like, oh! So he got me to take this guitar part we had at the back end of the song and put it at the beginning. And sure enough, I mean, instantly, the song was better.”

I always like to hear a Bob Dylan number on an album, and Tempting Fate gives us It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, a song from Dylan’s 1965 Highway 61 Revisited. With Jimmy Dale Gilmore in tow, it becomes a real country number, quite different from the original, but brilliantly done. What, I wondered, made her choose this Dylan song and decide to do it in this way?

“Well, it’s a song that I had done in the past with my guitar player, Scotty Daniels, who passed away a few years ago. So whenever I would do it, I would think of him, and with it and Honey Bee, both of those songs, I do them in remembrance of Scotty. But it turns out while we were going through possible songs, Dave said Jimmy Dale used to do it when he was younger. I was like, oh, really? Jimmy Dale said yeah and he came over and we sang it together and it was so amazing. Because that voice is just one of a kind. I’ve had dreams that I could sing with him. Really awesome.”

It’s perhaps fitting that there’s a Dylan song included, because Bob, it seems is a bit of a Carolyn Wonderland fan. Apparently, a few years back whilst having lunch with legendary musician Ray Benson, Bob remarked “Hey, have you heard Carolyn Wonderland? She’s something else.” Dylan went on to meet her and they’ve jammed together on a few occasions. I mentioned this famous fan to her and she replied modestly:

“Oh, I don’t know. He’s called a couple of times. I’ve been super lucky, to get to hang out and play some guitar. But, yeah, it’s always surprising. I never know if, or when, he’ll call. I don’t know if he’ll ever call again. Just in case, I’m keeping my phone number the same!”

We finished up with me asking about her planned live performances.

“We’ve been very careful, but we’ve done a couple of things mostly outdoors and then one indoor festival where everybody was vaccinated and masked indoors. That’s the tricky thing on the road in America – every place, every state, has its own rules, so we want to be safe and healthy. So, we test every week and we’re just pretty much going to live in our little bubble.”

If you’re not able to go see her and her band live, do the next best thing – get your hands on Tempting Fate and enjoy a completely original, talented artist at the top of her game.

The Blues and the Myth of Redemptive Violence

In the places where the blues were regularly performed in the early days, the juke joints, there was a considerable amount of violence. “Wherever the blues is played,” said Charles Love, ragtime jazzman, “there’s a fight right after.” A great deal of “cutting and shooting” went on in the juke. These could be very dangerous places; violence was widespread in country “frolics,” where blues were played. Memphis Minnie said that at juke joints she and her husband would “have to run at night when they start cutting and shooting.” Minnie herself was not averse to resorting to violence – Johnny Shines recalled, “they tell me she shot one old man’s arm off, or cut it with a hatchet…Minnie was a hellraiser, I know that!”

The mixture of letting your hair down on a Saturday night after a long week of hard labour, freedom from white supervision, alcohol and the music was an explosive one. The violence of the juke is evident from many of the blues songs – Mississippi John Hurt’s Make Me a Pallet, which talks about his “good gal” who might turn up and catch his new lover to “cut and shoot” her; Little Walter’s Boom Boom, Out Goes the Light, where the singer says “I’ve been looking for my baby all night, If I get her in my sight…Boom Boom! Out goes the light”; a popular early blues number, See See Rider 44, which says, “I’m gonna buy me a pistol, just as long as I am tall, Gonna kill my man and catch the Cannonball” – are just some examples.

Even as late as the sixties, there was violence associated with the blues. Paul Oscher was a white harmonica player for Muddy Waters for a while and recalls that everybody carried guns. He claimed that Muddy Waters always carried a .25 automatic and a .22 in his shirt pocket, not to mention the .38 in his car. Even with the band, it was said that the only reason everybody didn’t get killed was that everybody knew everybody else had a gun. Paul Butterfield, a white blues guitarist in the 60s said that many times in the Chicago blues clubs he was scared – “I saw knifings and shootings…It was a very violent scene, man.”

Violence, of course, is pretty much part of the fabric of life, and has been since Cain killed Abel. The bad guys use violence to get what they want and the good guys then need to defend themselves using violence. And so the spiral continues. There seems to be an inexorable logic about it – it’s a pity, but there it is, violence is needed to quench violence. It’s an idea that is played out night after night on our TV screens and in cinemas around the country. One of my favourite TV dramas at the moment is Justified – cool customer and lawman Raylan Givans can be relied on to sort out whatever ruthless, psychopathic criminals he comes across and it’s entirely right and proper that he pulls the trigger in order to do so, without a moment’s thought. I watched Man of Fire (2004) recently, starring Densel Washington as a retired CIA operative who, at great personal cost goes after the kidnappers of child. He gets the job done – of course – but leaves a bloody trail of mayhem, explosions and shot-up bad guys behind him. Well, that’s what’s needed, right?

The continual diet of violence that we are exposed to, moulds our thinking, even if we don’t realize it. Quoting recent studies in the Lancet and other journals, and organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, an article in the New York Times recently concluded that, “The weight of studies supports the position that exposure to media violence leads to aggression, desensitization toward violence and lack of sympathy for victims of violence.” At the very least we are convinced that violence is a legitimate means of bringing resolution and peace.

The myth of redemptive violence. That’s how theologian Walter Wink describes the paradigm which is reinforced in popular entertainment but which also underpins the very fabric of the modern nation-state. Wink says this is “the real myth of the modern world…the dominant religion in our society today.” Wink explores the primordial myth of ancient Babylon where creation is essentially an act of violence played out amongst the gods, where order is brought out of chaos by violent disorder. He suggests that this same myth prevails across a wide range of cultures, resulting in a view that violence in itself is not wrong, it is simply a fact – the social order depends critically on violence to suppress the powers of disorder.

He then goes on to discuss the way the Bible tells its creation story. Here we have a good God who creates a good creation, where good is prior to evil. Neither evil nor violence is part of the creation, but enter later, as a result of the first couple’s sin and the connivance of the serpent. He says “A basically good reality is thus corrupted by free decisions reached by creatures. In this far more complex and subtle explanation of the origins of things, violence emerges for the first time as a problem requiring solution.”

While we must reckon with the troublesome way violence is portrayed in the Old Testament as God-sanctioned – and easy, spiritualizing ways won’t cut it – the way of Jesus seems quite clear: love your enemies, pray for them, go the extra mile, turn the other check. All of which is followed up by the earliest Jesus-followers – St Paul, for example, with “bless people who harass you…don’t pay back evil for evil…live at peace with everyone…don’t try to get revenge for yourselves.”

Why have Jesus followers so easily made peace with war, when the New Testament and the early history of the church shows a strong commitment to peace and non-violence? Well I guess it’s not easy to disengage with the prevalent, assumed value of the need and the right of violence that is all around. Wink says that “the Myth of Redemptive Violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has even known.” He goes on to suggest that violence has become “pleasurable, fascinating, and entertaining,” in such a way that we are deluded into” compliance with a system that is cheating [us of our] very lives.”

The old blues songs merely reflect the violence that was and is part of society, whether as part of the oppression by whites on blacks during the Jim Crow era or within the juke. More recent songs kick back at the need for violence. Check out blues woman Caroline Wonderland’s powerful song about peace, Only God Knows When. The first verse has the great line “violence is no solution when life ain’t like you planned”, which Carolyn tells us applies to individuals and nations alike. Despite the appetite for war we’ve seen over the past ten years in the US and Britain, “There’s a hollow victory in winning, when everybody pays the cost, With retaliations by the hour, lives and generations lost”.

Or Walter Trout’s Brothers Keeper, which asks, “Are we supposed to be our brother’s keeper, Are we supposed to catch him, Catch him when he falls?” It recalls the murder of Abel by Cain, where Cain cynically asks God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Trout answers the question by taking us to the words of Jesus – “Jesus said to feed the hungry, Jesus said to help the poor.” Violence is not the answer to the anyone’s problems – there is another way; there is a better way. Time to see the myth of redemptive violence for what it is – destructive, life-sapping, false.

You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you. Jesus (Mat 5:43)

Shemekia Copeland’s Ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo: Rising up against violence to women

Shemekia Copeland’s 7^th album, 33 1/3, released last year, features that fantastically powerful voice, but now well under control and nuanced for the variety of songs on the album.  Devon “Doc” Wendell in The International Review of Music, said that it was …”one of the most powerful and poignant blues albums I’ve ever heard.”

One of the songs on the album entitled Ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo and featuring Buddy Guy on lead guitar, courageously highlights the subject of domestic violence. The woman in the song is determined not to be a victim of her abusive man any longer – she is going to stand up for herself and not let herself. “The bruise on my face was as blue as my dress” she sings, but – no more:

“Ain’t gonna be your tattoo

End up faded and blue

Ain’t gonna be your tattoo”

Domestic violence is something suffered by women all over the planet. In the United States, the US Bureau of Justice found that family violence accounted for up to 33% of all violent crime; 2 out of every 5 incidents go unreported. According to Amnesty International, domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women aged 16 to 44 and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. And in Russia in 1999 and again in 2002, authorities estimate more than 14,000 women were murdered at the hands of a spouse or family member. A survey by the General Union of Women and UNIFEM found that one in four married women in Syria are abused, in 70% of the cases by her husband or father. The story is the same, from all parts of the world – a shockingly high number of women are the victims of the domestic violence that Shemekia has highlighted.

But consider this for a moment: one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten during her lifetime. All over our world, women are suffering rape, violence, trafficking, slavery, exploitation, genital mutilation. The statistics are shocking.

Malala Yousafzai

We have all watched with horror the news of the gang-rape in Delhi recently and seen how one society is beginning to face up to the deeply embedded cultural and physical abuse of girls and women. And at the case of Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head for insisting that girls have the right to be educated. Here in the UK, we’ve been learning how broadcaster Jimmy Saville was able to abuse hundreds of girls over six decades, while the the BBC turned a blind eye.  And in the US the trial will soon begin of two high school star football players for the alleged gang rape of a 16 year old girl, while there is another investigation going on into charges of sexual assault against Notre Dame football players – perhaps unsurprising when we note that in the United States, there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes. From South Africa to Korea to Colorado, we seem to be witnessing a tsunami of violence against women.

Eve Ensler,  American playwright and feminist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues recently said,

“There is a rape culture – a mindset that seems to have infected every aspect of our lives: the raping of the Earth through ecological destruction by the corporate powerful, pillaging resources for their own coffers with no concern for the Earth, or the indigenous peoples, or the notion of reciprocity; the rape of the poor through exploitation, land grabs, neglect; the rape of women’s bodies through physical violence and commodification, where a girl can be purchased for less than the cost of a mobile phone. The modelling and licensing of this rape culture is done by those protected by power and privilege – presidents, celebrities, sports stars, police officers, television executives, priests – with impunity”.

To highlight what is going on in our world, women and men all over the world will be participating in the largest ever day of action on this issues – it’s called ONE BILLION RISING and is aimed at ending violence against women and girls. (So called because with the world population at 7 billion, the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS). So on February 14, 2013, activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and women and men across the world will express their outrage, demand change, strike, dance in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.  There are over 80 events taking place in the UK and hundreds across the US, as well as in 182 countries in every continent on the planet.

Check out this terrific video promoting the day of action:

Blues music doesn’t have a glowing record in terms of the ways in which women have often been portrayed and the violence against women that has been celebrated. But there have always been strong women in the blues, right from the early days. These days we have a strong, stellar cast of women, including Bonnie Raitt, Samantha Fish, Ana Popovic, Carolyn Wonderland, Grace Potter, Beth Hart, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Rory Block, Sandi Thom, Dani Wilde, Susan Tedeschi, Debbie Davies…the list goes on (apologies if I’ve left out your favourite!). If you don’t know these artists – check them out.

The violence perpetrated against women, across the globe is appalling and unacceptable. Until women are equal, safe and free, no society can prosper and life is diminished. Ending violence against women and girls is one of the central concern of our times.

Let’s leave the final word with Shemekia:

“Slipped out of the room trying not to be seen

I was feeling so scared, no where to go

How did my life end up so low

Said I looked to pretty on his arm

Same one he used to do me harm”

BUT,

“Ain’t gonna be your tattoo

End up faded and blue

Ain’t gonna be your tattoo”

Carolyn Wonderland: the soul of the blues

“Carolyn Wonderland is the real deal! She’s an amazing guitar player. And damn, can she sing” – Los Angeles Times

Texas singer-songwriter and ace guitarist Carolyn Wonderland, of whom Bob Dylan said, “Hey, have you heard Carolyn Wonderland? She’s something else”, has had a busy 2012. Her new album, Peace Meal, was described by one reviewer as “gritty,  beautiful, smart and seriously cool” and she has toured incessantly, in Europe as well as all over the US. She is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, proficient on guitar, mandolin, trumpet and piano. But it is her guitar chops that get her noticed – she is quite simply an outstanding blues guitarist. Add to that her fabulous bluesy vocals, which are in turn gritty and then silky smooth – but always with a raw edge – and you really do have the real deal. And then we could start talking about her peace activism and her fund-raising for local Austin charities, food banks, soup kitchens, homeless shelters…

But maybe better to get right to our recent conversation with Carolyn, who was catching her breath before her touring kicks in again later this month:

DATC: Carolyn – thanks for talking to downatthecrossroads. First of all, congratulations on the new album, Peace Meal – it’s terrific and it’s had great reviews. Fantastic guitar work by you and the singing is outstanding. Have you been pleased at the way it’s been received?

Carolyn: Thanks so much! It does a heart good to know after working on a collection of songs and pouring everything you’ve got into it that some folks were turned on to it and hopefully maybe even turned on by it! We had a great time piece-mealing the album (thus, partially, the name of the CD), working with Ray Benson and Mike Nesmith at Bismeaux Studios in Austin, TX and with Larry Campbell at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. (plus we got to stay a little longer and play another Ramble with Levon & his amazing band!)

I feel like we got to pay homage to the shoulders upon which we are standing, covering some songs that either friends wrote like Vince Welnick/Robert Hunter’s Golden Stairs (Vince and I were in Jerry Lightfoot’s Band of Wonder a decade ago, before he and Jerry were bugled upstairs to make music with the angels) and songs that friends helped me to when I was starting off, like Little Screaming Kenny’s arrangement of Two Trains & I Can Tell (LSK is one of my favorite people in this world). We get to play for folks and I’m happy to say we just keep chugging along, picking up new songs along the way for the next one.

DATC: You cover songs by some of the greats on the album – Robert Johnson’s Dust my Broom, Janis Joplin’s What Good Can Drinking Do and Bob Dylan’s Meet Me in the Morning. All excellent treatments, by the way – are these some of your blues heroes? Who (else) has been a major influence on you along the way?

Carolyn: Growing up in Texas, young girls learn to only sing Janis’ songs in private. In public would be silly, as no one can do it better and few can do it justice. When I was asked in 2009 to play at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s American Music Masters Tribute to Janis, I was floored, humbled and thrilled to be there. So many great artists doing cool and original twists with her songs. That night I decided that, even though I couldn’t do it better, I’d like to try to do justice to one of the songs she wrote.

So, the next night…in public…with no rehearsal…I pulled it out at our first Ramble at Levon Helm‘s with Guy Forsyth! I suppose I was listening to a lot of finger pickers the night before, as the arrangement has that kind of walking-thumb-bass-line feel. It really brought it around full circle when we got to record it that way at Levon’s for this recording.

Dust My Broom was recorded for Mike Nesmith’s book, The American Gene. We had so much fun recording it, he let us use it on Peace Meal, too!

We could have picked any number of Dylan’s songs we have covered over the years, I just felt this version of Meet Me in the Morning filled a space that was stylistically unoccupied on the CD. Ray just let us go wild in the studio after we had finished tracking for the day, proving to me one should ALWAYS have the record button engaged when in the studio!

Everyone I have mentioned thus far is a huge influence on my life and music. I’d add to that list my band  – Cole El-Saleh (keys and key bass) and Robert Hooper (drums) – and everyone who has come through those doors. My heroes are often musicians and the people who take a chance on new music! (Seriously, without the love and support of an audience, we would still play music… but our cats would not be impressed unless the guitar solo opened a can of food!)

DATC: By the way, I’m a big Dylan fan myself and I loved the bluesy treatment you gave Meet me in the Morning.

Carolyn: I am blushing! I hope the songwriter likes it too, or at least isn’t offended by it!

DATC: What first drew you to the blues? And what do you think it is about the blues that is so engaging for you and your audiences?

Carolyn: When I was thrown out of school, it was the blues clubs that were most open arms – and less emphatic about ID checking! I loved the fact that anyone could get up on that stage and jam with anyone else with a basic understanding of blues forms. I love that it requires more soul and personality than intellect to inject yourself into the music. I love the people who let me stink up the place a few dozen times and am happy to back other folks while they go through that phase as well!

I think it is honest music that can survive many treatments and still feel familiar to folks listening and playing. The discovery is often mutual. I was lucky to be in Houston, too. I got to sit at the feet of (and occasionally jam with) Jerry Lightfoot, Joe “Guitar” Hughes, Little Screaming Kenny, Grady Gaines, Trudy Lynn, Lavelle White, Allison Fisher, Teri Greene, Big Al Betis, Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, Little Joe Washington, the Sheetrockers… lots of great touring bands, too. I’d have to say it’s the soul of the songs and the people who get it that drew me to, and keep me flirting with, the blues.

DATC: You give us some pretty cool guitar playing on the album – who would you say are the major influences on you as a guitar player?

Clarence Gatemouth Brown

Carolyn: All the folks I have mentioned before plus folks who blew my tiny mind at live shows like: Danny Gatton, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, Debbie Davies, Les Paul, the Paladins, Los Lobos, Larry Campbell, Charlie Sexton, Derek Trucks, Redd Volkaert, John X. Reed, Tracey Conover, Charlie Prichard, Sue Foley, Cindy Cashdollar, Alan Haynes, Susan Tedeschi, Bill Kirchen, Rosie Flores, Denny Freeman, Ruthie Foster, Jimmy Vaughan, Eve Monsees, Gary Clark, Jr. (who just seems to get more badass as time marches on). And then there are Chris Whitley, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Van Wilkes, David Grissom, Townes Van Zant and one Billy F. Gibbons.  I know that’s just a crazy list, but there’s even more that I have omitted!

Plus there are the folks I never got to witness live, but wore out the recordings of like: Freddie King, Rory Gallagher, Frank Zappa, Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Oh, and my Mom, for both teaching me my first three chords and for grounding me from using picks after I “Pete Townshended” her Martin! I may not have the style (or lack thereof) if I didn’t play bare-knuckled!

DATC: Tell us a bit about the guitars you play on the album and on tour.

Carolyn: My main girl is my Tele. She’s a 50th Anniversary re-issue of the ’69 Tele. I put Joe Bardens in place of the standard lipsticks, and bam! there’s a guitar that can keep up with a Les Paul and still be clean enough for fingerpicking (ed’s note: a lipstick guitar pickup is a form of single-coil magnetic guitar pickup having its electronics totally encased in a chrome-plated metal tube).  I recorded almost exclusively with it, as well. Sometimes, I’ll bring Patty, my BluesHawk, or Leslie Pauline, the Goddess guitar (it says so on the headstock in flaming red letters).

For the lapsteel, I have a couple of nice vintage logs that I am too scared to tour with anymore, so I use a Morrell that you can paddle home with if you’re stuck upstream, and it fits with my Tele in one case for ease of flight travel! I borrowed Levon’s mandolin for the recording and Ray’s acoustic. I just got an Art & Lutherie for Christmas. So, I’ll be bumping into things on that this year, too!

DATC: One reviewer said that Peace Meal was a “sacramental feast for the soul”. That’s certainly true of the song Only God Knows When – there’s no more obvious sign of grace than peace. What prompted you to write such a song?

Carolyn: I had it rolling around in my head for over a year. I knew what I wanted to say, but it wasn’t as hopeful as I wanted and it was falling into my box of unthinking hand gestures on the guitar. When I finally got the lyrics to behave, it was Ray Benson who suggested I move it to another instrument to open it up. He was right, and now I have another song for the lapsteel!

DATC: You’ve done a number of songs with spiritual overtones or gospel content – like Judgement Day Blues, Bloodless Revolution, Jesus It’s Gonna Be You, Gospel Song, e.g. And I know you’ve sung a lot of gospel songs with the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers. So let me ask you two things – first, how important is that spiritual side of life to you and secondly, how important is it to you as an artist to make a critique of the way the world is – like you do on Only God Knows When and Bloodless Revolution?

Carolyn: I grew up in a church that I left at age 9 when my Sunday school teacher told me my Jewish friends were not going to heaven with me. I called b.s. and left. It took me many years to reach the conclusion that the fault lies with people’s ideas of God’s rules, not their actual God that surely loves them (and if so, why not everyone else?)

I think we all are trying to make sense of the world we share. Spirituality is a common thread of hope. I am saddened by the insistence of war between brothers based on a limited understanding of what is meant to sustain us through times of trouble and doubt. My favorite parable of this is the three blind men with the elephant parts. It’s a sail! It’s a rope! It’s a tree! We may none of us be able to recognise the elephant, but it is here to be interpreted and shared. I hold out hope for a day when we actually look into each other’s eyes and see our brethren and honor all ideas regarding our tiny scope of God and the universe. Making life “as it is in heaven” is the one constant I carry from my youth. I still pray. I am agnostic, searching for unifying theories of love eternal (which is why I so love the writings of Joseph Campbell). It is everyone’s place to point out wrongdoings and celebrate life’s beauty with their art. When you feel it, let it bloom!

DATC: You always seem to be working pretty hard. Any chance we’ll see you on this side of the Atlantic before too long?

Carolyn: Oh, YES! We’ll surely hit Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and any other place that’ll have us again this year. I try to get us over the water at least 2 or 3 times a year. Updates to our touring can be found at www.carolynwonderland.com or www.facebook.com/wonderchicken If we’re anywhere near you, please do come say hello.

Best Blues Albums 2012

Best Blues Albums 2012

2012 was an outstanding year for the blues. Whatever way you like it, electric or acoustic, there were a spate of superb offerings. Here is our choice of the top 20 blues albums of 2012. See if you agree…

Brother Sinner and the Whale:   Kelly Joe Phelps

Passionate, gospel blues, with superb finger-picking and slide guitar. In probably his best work yet, we get wonderfully constructed songs, full of melody and grace, with outstanding singing. For courage, musicianship, performance and lyrical brilliance, it’s top of the pile for Down at the Crossroads.

 

 

Blues for the Modern Daze: Walter Trout

Walter Trout’s take on the ills of the modern world – bankers, politicians, useless gadgetry are all in his sights – 15 fantastic songs, sung with passion and laced with Walter’s stunning Fender Strat guitar licks. Stand-out track – Brother’s Keeper.

 

 

Peace Meal:  Carolyn Wonderland 
Outstanding album from Texas blues woman Carolyn Wonderland. Great take on blues classics like Dust My Broom along with a terrific set of self-penned songs, including the wonderful God Only Knows.

 

 

 

Driving for Daylight:  Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa goes from strength to strength. His singing and playing just get better and better on songs that include Robert Johnson’s Stones in My Passageway and Howling Wolf’s Who’s been Talking?

 

 

 

Nothing but Love: Robert Cray Band
Return to his best form with a wonderfully, crafted and funky approach to the blues. Cray also takes a tilt at the dishonesty of the age with that ever so sweet voice.

 

 

 

 

Shelter :  Brian Houston

The artist that most people reading this will be most unfamiliar with. Houston is an Irish artist who has recently changed musical direction with this outstanding blues album, full of raw passion, great songs and clever lyrics. Oh, and a dose of the McClary Sisters as well for good measure.

 

 

 

I Belong to the Band: Rory Block
Rory Block’s tribute to Rev Gary Davis. 11 of his best religious blues & ragtime songs, including I Belong to the Band and I Am the Light of the World, arranged and sung by Block in the Rev’s own style. Wonderful, inspirational stuff.

 

 

 

La Futura: ZZ Top

With the Texan’s bluesmen’s first album in nine years, we get no surprises – it’s all characteristically ZZ Top, in-your-face, knock-out grooves. On-form, blistering, just great.

 

 

 

Candy Store  Kid:  Ian Siegal & the Mississippi Mudbloods

Ian Siegal, who gets better and better by the album, is joined by Cody & Luther Dickinson, Garry Burnside, Lightni’ Malcolm and Alvin Youngblood Hart. With that line-up this could hardly fail to be an outstanding album – top class blues with Siegal’s signature growling vocals stealing the show.

 

 

 

33 1/3: Shemekia Copeland

Featuring a cover of Dylan’s I’ll be your Baby Tonight and Buddy Guy on I ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo, Shemekia fearlessly covers domestic violence, injustice and religious hypocrisy in a very fine set of blues songs. Standout feature of the album – Shemekia’s powerful, arresting, but superbly harnessed voice.

 

 

Delta Time:  Hans Theessink & Terry Evans

Hugely enjoyable acoustic blues from two of the finest blues singers around. Great chemistry from the combination of these two contrasting voices with a wonderful gospel sound and lovely harmonies throughout. Guest appearance from Ry Cooder.

 

 

Royal Southern Brotherhood:Royal Southern Brotherhood

The future of blues rock? Top class combination which includes Mike Zito, Devon Allman and Yonrico Scott delivers an outstanding set of bluesy, inspirational, soulful and funky songs. Top drawer stuff from a group of top class musicians.

 

 

 

Everybody’s Talkin’  : Tedeschi Trucks Band

Fantastic live music from the Tedeschi-Trucks Band, featuring Derek Trucks’ sizzling electric slide and Susan Tedeschi’s sultry, emotive vocals.

 

 

 

Slipstream: Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie’s first album in seven years doesn’t disappoint. Classic Raitt seductive singing and understated but effective slide guitar. Wonderful stuff, including two recent Dylan covers.

 

 

 

Hellfire: Joe Louis Walker

Energetic, exciting blues from Joe Louis Walker. There’s some terrific guitar work here and the struggle between the devil and the Lord is graphically depicted in both Hellfire and I’m a Soldier for Jesus.

 

 

 

Live from the Hills Vol 2: North Mississippi Allstars

Live set of the unique music of the Allstars, featuring Luther Dickinson’s uneven, but engaging vocals. Rough edged, country-tinged, down and dirty blues that makes you feel you’re right in the Delta.

 

 

 

Contraband: Otis Taylor

Outstanding album of “trance-blues” from Taylor, “a modern blues record that even non-blues fans can love and that blues fans can outright cherish”, as another reviewer put it.

 

 

 

 

The Devil Ain’t Got No Music: Lurrie Bell

After turning his life around a few years ago, Chicago bluesman Lurrie Bell has come up with a wonderful gospel blues album that gives full rein to his rasping vocals and cool, bluesy guitar work. Includes Tom Wait’s Down in the Hole

 

 

 

Deeper in the Well: Eric Bibb

The superb Eric Bibb, one of the foremost exponents of acoustic blues, gives us an album that adds Creole and country influences from Louisiana. Eric is joined by a terrific set of banjo, mandolin, fiddle and accordion players to give us a classy and charming set of songs that includes gospel, blues and folk.

 

 

 

Sings Big Bill Broonzy: Billy Boy Arnold

Album of Bill Broonzy songs by aging bluesman Arnold, who remembers seeing Big Bill play. Excellent celebration of Broonzy with tasteful harmonica playing throughout

Only God Knows When

I listened to Carolyn Wonderland’s excellent album, Peace Meal, recently and while I thought the whole album was fantastic – strong songs throughout, powerful, passionate and bluesy vocals, some pretty nifty guitar work and a great band – one song stood out for me. Only God Knows When is a powerful song about peace. The first verse has the great line “violence is no solution when life ain’t like you planned”, which Carolyn tells us applies to individuals and nations alike. Despite the appetite for war we’ve seen over the past ten years in the US and Britain, “There’s a hollow victory in winning, when everybody pays the cost, With retaliations by the hour, lives and generations lost”.

Child soldier, DRC

One thinks of the indiscriminate violence against civilians and children in Fallujah in 2004, which resulted in thousands of deaths and untold suffering to many more; or the planet’s deadliest conflict since World War II in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has claimed the lives of an estimated 5.4m people, 50% of which have been children and has seen hundreds of thousands of women and girls raped; or the conflict that has raged in Dafur in the Sudan where two million people have died as a result of war, famine and disease and four million people have been displaced at least once (and often repeatedly) during the war.

Problem is, of course, everybody thinks they’re in the right and, often, that they’ve got God on their side. “Everybody thinks that they’re righteous, or they never even would have fought” – or as Eric Bibb put it in his song Got to do better, “Hatred’s a luxury, the price is too high”. Too often war is not the last resort and the cost is not properly counted – which is usually in the lives of innocent women and children.

Funny, isn’t it how quickly Christians have been, all too often, willing, or even keen, to support military actions. Particularly when you think that Jesus’ birth was announced by the shepherds as heralding “peace on earth”; when he said things like “love your enemies” and “blessed are those who make peace”; and when he offered no resistance to his torturers prior to his execution. Jesus’s good news proclamation was that the kingdom of God was arriving through his own life. This was the same good news that the biblical prophet Isaiah talked about, which was that the result of God coming to reign would be peace. (Isaiah 52.7).

The word “peace” occurs over 100 times in our New Testaments and at our peril we relegate this to some notion of “inner peace”. More often than not it’s about God wanting peace among God’s creatures. In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says (chapter 12) that Christians are never to take vengence, should live in harmony with one another, should bless those who persecute them, should serve and help their enemies, repay no one evil for evil and live peaceably with all. Not much wriggle room there then, is there? Peace was central to Jesus’s mission and that of the first Christians – it ought to be just as crucial for modern Jesus-followers.

As Willard Swartley says in his book “Covenant of Peace”, the “New Testament consistently not only supports nonviolence but also advocates proactive peacemaking, consisting of positive initiatives to overcome evil, employing peaceable means to make peace”.

Duke scholar Richard Hays challenges Christians about their commitment to peace, “one reason that the world finds the New Testament’s message of peacemaking and love of enemies incredible is that the church is so massively faithless…only when the church renounces the way of violence, will people see what the Gospel means…The meaning of the New Testament’s teaching on violence will become evident only in communities of Jesus’ followers who embody the costly way of peace”.

But perhaps the last word to Carolyn Wonderland. The final line of her song reminds us that we are all God’s children, there’s no difference,  “that we are all brothers, there never really was no “them””. Well said.

Lyrics of Only God Knows When

What I know of peace, it ain’t hard to understand

Whether it’s shared by nations or individuals that stand

Toe to toe with each other, an olive branch in hand

Because violence is no solution when life ain’t like you planned

Only God knows when, only God knows when

We’re gonna get ourselves together, come up with the perfect plan

Only God knows when

There’s a hollow victory in winning, when everybody pays the cost

With retaliations by the hour, lives and generations lost

Everybody thinks that they’re righteous, or they never even would have fought

Why don’t you ask yourself when you’re starving, my brother,

“Just how easily can I be bought?”

One morning you might wake up, find yourself in your enemy’s bed

I pray that you don’t slay them, have that weight upon your head

How will you explain to your father all your brother’s blood that’s been shed

When we realize that we are all brothers, there never really was no “them”