Album Review: Chris James & Patrick Rynn, 'Gonna Boogie Anyway'

Artist: Chris James, Patrick Rynn
Title: Gonna Boogie Anyway

When guitarist Chris James and bass player Patrick Rynn collaborated as the ‘C – Notes’ behind vocalist and harmonica player Rob Stone, it was my “pure blues” album of the year. With the release of their new album, ‘Gonna Boogie Anyway’ James and Rynn are back with a gritty honest electric Chicago blues sound. Out on the Chicago based Earwig Records this album includes a stellar line-up of accomplices including; David Maxwell (piano), Sam Lay (drums), and Henry Gray (piano). Blues harmonica player and noted radio host Bob Corritore guests on the tracks, ‘H.M. Stomp’ (instrumental) and the Bo Diddley cover, ‘Little Girl.’

An interesting aspect to this album is a study in how drums and drumming styles affect the sound of a band. As a guitar and bass (vocal) duo, James and Rynn often have to rely on guest drummers. In addition to Sam Lay, other drummers on the disc include; Willie Hayes and Eddie Kobeck. There are three ‘drumless’ tracks on the album; which adds to a listeners learning experience; ‘You Can’t Trust Nobody,’ ‘Headed Out West,’ and ‘Black Spider Blues.’ Admittedly, either the music “moves You” or it doesn’t; however, as we listen, we also learn.

This is a straight forward electric pure blues record; no flashy bells and whistles.

Purists will love this album for its honesty, historical root and direct approach. “Modern blues” listeners may initially find this album too traditional although repeated listening will push open the door to a greater appreciation that often, ‘simpler is better.’ As a radio host, I found, ‘Dearest Darling,’ a second Bo Diddley cover to be my focus track. All listeners should focus in on the pure sounding instruments as they juxtapose to James’ vocals. In addition to the great albums from days gone by, this is a very good foundation album of modern purist blues that fans can build a library upon.

Album Review: Piano Red, 'The Lost Atlanta Tapes'

Artist: Piano Red
Title: The Lost Atlanta Tapes

Long before Wilko Johnson (John Wilkinson) commandeered the name for his noted English pub rock band, Piano Red was playing barrel house blues and using the moniker ‘Dr. Feelgood.’ Piano Red successfully cut sides for RCA Victor including hits such as ‘Red’s Boogie,’ ‘Just Right Bounce’ and ‘Laying the Boogie.’ His songs have been covered by some of rock n’ rolls greats including; Little Richard, re-titled as ‘She Knows How to Rock’; Carl Perkins, ‘The Wrong Yo-Yo’; and the Beatles, ‘Mister Moonlight.’ While Piano Red (a/k/a Willie Perryman) has earned his place in music history – he is not a household name for most listeners. Perryman died of cancer in 1985.

This album, ‘The Lost Atlanta Tapes’ were recorded in 1984, shortly before Red’s death. With 18 songs in all, this album is a gentile rollick through a collection of standards and originals including; ‘That’s My Desire,’ ‘C.C. Rider,’ ‘Baby Please Don’t Go,’ and ‘Corinna, Corinna.’ This is not a raucous affair as the 73 year old meanders and talks through a set of music to an appreciative audience. The ‘Lost Atlanta Tapes’ is a highly niched release which will evade most blues listeners. Yes, Piano Red deserves our respect for his contribution to the lexicon of modern blues and rock music; however, other than for its historical perspective, this is an album best left to true aficionados and serious collectors. It is not a bad record per se’ – it is simply a peripheral recording few modern blues listeners will fully enjoy.

Album Review: Jim Byrnes Everywhere West

Artist: Jim Byrnes
Title: Everywhere West

The music industry has had its share of actors poising as musicians including; Eddie Murphy, Don Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Bruce ‘Bruno’ Willis and Jeff Daniels. Now we can add St. Louis born Jim Byrnes to that distinguished list. Of course this list goes both ways; musicians that have tried acting include; Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, “Ice Cube” and “Queen Latifah.”
Brynes’ latest album, ‘Everywhere West’ is a credible outing of blues based roots music that wanders among numerous influences and sound including a bluegrass textured, ‘Bootleggers Blues’ and the horn driven blues, ‘Black Nights.’ Like many progenitors, Byrnes travels the lore of being among the few white guy in the bar watching some of the blues genres greatest including Howlin’ Wolf performing ‘Red Rooster.’ Of the twelve tracks on the album Byrnes wrote three but included covers of Lowell Folsom, ‘Black Night,’ Robert Johnson ‘From Four Until Late’ (Also covered by Cream), Louis Jordan ‘You Can’t Get That Stuff No More’ and Jimmy Reed, ‘Take Out Some Insurance on Me.’

This album has a nice suburban blues sound and textures. It is well performed and arranged. While Byrnes’ is not a “star” per se in the acting field, his accomplishments as an actor and now a musician are inarguable. This is not an album that is going to rewrite the course of the blues genre; however, it is well above the hobbyist level and has entertainment value. While all the songs are ready for radio, programmers might focus on Byrnes’ cover of ‘He Was a Friend of Mine,’ a traditional song, which was also recorded by Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and The Byrds.

Album Review: Leon Russell, Elton John / The Union

Artist: Elton John and Leon Russell
Title: The Union

While it would be a stretch to say this is a rock n’ roll album, it would be an even greater stretch to say this is a blues album. However, undoubtedly Oklahoma’s Leon Russell’s career is based upon many a blues flavor and if, as he purports it, Russell is John’s biggest icon, perhaps there is sufficient room for Elton John to rest awhile under the big tent of blues music. That being said, this is an album which could fit nicely in some roots music radio playlists… so perhaps Blueswax readers will already familiar with this album.

In the late ‘80’s and into the 1990’s rock hierarchies of performers were coupling up to energize flagging careers. As radio melted down into the gloppy, highly niched audio conundrum that we hear today, artists that had sold millions of albums were being dropped by labels no longer interested in artist development. These labels needed sales and anything on the cusp soon found itself sans label in an industry that was being nullified by advancing technology. So artists like Santana recorded with Rob Thomas and gandered the massive album, ‘Supernatural.’ Usually these all star outings were big on glimmer and low on critical content. They were crap. Around the change of the millennium Elton John teamed up with a very soused Billy Joel and together they toured the world keeping alive a flame that seemed to be rapidly diminishing. Times seemed dire. Today “Ellie” has used his slightly tarnished career to team up with an idol from his youth, Leon Russell, whose career had seen better days. Together they have compiled an album that is fated to earn hills of accolades while invigorating each individual career.

If the quality of art is compounded by its complication, as noted thinker and PBS commentator Mortimer Adler suggests it is, then this really could have been a beautiful outing. While the roles between saved and savior blur, together Leon Russell and Elton John’s album, produced by today’s soup d’jour uber-producer T-Bone Burnett is okay. The album’s 14 songs are four songs too many and would have made two very nice ‘solo w/guest records.’ However, for reasons that defy overt simplicity, this is near arduous length of oblique yet interesting collection of over-produced songs. Said simply, it’s good but it is not great. Will these songs ripen? Only time will tell.

The opening track, “If It Wasn’t for Bad” is a classic piece of Elton John arranging that harkens to his noted ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ period. This song feature Stax star Booker T. Jones and was written by Russell. ‘Eight Hundred Dollar Shoes’ features Taupin’s somewhat vapid temporal lyrics disguised as meaningful. I mean, really, a song using $800 shoes as a metaphor; yawn. On ‘Hey Ahab’ John gives his go at being guttural, giving the listener his best blues growl. It is not until the album’s fourth track, the Civil War expedition, ‘Gone to Shiloh’ that the music nears honesty in its roots and feel. Neil Young lends his vocals and sings the second verse of this ballad. The vocals of Russell and Young mix well. When John’s vocals sing the 3rd verse the listener is set in a wonderful audio landscape. Each man’s vocal adding a depth and contrast that works quite well. ‘Monkey Suit’ is an up tempo ‘Rod Stewart’ boogie that provides a level of energy to the album while giving it an obligatory sing-along.

This is a nice Sunday morning album by mature songwriters that are beyond looking for success while relying a bit too hard on sentimental clichés. For some listeners this is going to be a touchstone of pure brilliance; an audio landscape that ties together nostalgia with the contemporary. Like many musical outings the listener has to agree to believe. Roots radio might consider ‘A Dream Come True’ for airplay. Once again though, what starts out as promising eventually gives way to over-layered production that all but smites the song amid background vocals, cowbells and tap-dancing percussion and a regretful tempo shift. Ugh. It is an album you want to enjoy, badly, but Sir Elton is like an enabling spouse that sickens the music by forcing his presence into each and every crevice. Perhaps Sir George Martin could de-Spector this album someday.

You can take the boy out of Vegas but…

Album Review: Mitch Woods, Gumbo Blues

Artist: Mitch Woods
Title: Gumbo Blues

On his tribute album to “Smiley Lewis and the pioneers of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues” piano player Mitch Woods employs the formidable talents of a terrific band to highlight a wonderful niche of American music. When we look at the many greats that emerged from the New Orleans market, the line of R n’ B piano players is long including; Professor Longhair, James Booker, Art Neville, Dr. John, Fats Domino and Allen Toussaint. It is an area of music that seems to define pure delight by immediately getting fingers and toes tapping. Much like Chuck Berry’s form of blues, the New Orleans R&B piano sound is easily digested and continues to lend its vibrancy to many contemporary players including; Bob Malone, Jon Cleary and Mitch Woods. When it comes down to technical definitions, this sound is firmly rooted in the blues BUT defies the form by being inherently danceable and overwhelmingly joyous.

The latest outing by Mitch Woods is clearly focused on this genre. Titled ‘Gumbo Blues’ Woods and band wheel through some of the genres finest covers including; ‘Lil’ Liza Jane’, ‘Blue Monday,’ ‘I Hear You Knockin’ and ‘Shame, Shame, Shame: ’ a veritable songbook of the legendary Dave Bartholomew. This is a terrific album albeit it all covers.

Throughout his career Woods has looked backwards for inspiration. His interpretations and arrangements are delightful but solidly retrospective. Like all of us, Woods and his band needs to eat – so his efforts to pull the artform forward may have earned less overt reward than this caliber of talent deserves. With a deep catalogue of albums out, Woods, like Taj Mahal, has defined himself as a credible progenitor and musicological preservationist of the first caliber. Unfortunately it is a choice that presents a set of challenges including lower levels of recognition and commercial reward. Radio programmers can virtually “drop the needle” on any track and elevate energy levels with sounds and textures that harkens to the very dawn of rock n’ roll while remaining true to the blues. If there is a god of music, than surely Mitch Woods will receive radio support if for no other reason than the music does the talking and it speaks well.

Album Review: Kirsten Thien, Delicious

Artist: Kirsten Thien
Title: Delicious

By mandate it seems that every white woman in the blues genre is compared to Bonnie Raitt. While the yardstick is immense, the expectation has become a cliché. On her third album, Delicious, Kirsten Thien, another redheaded blues woman, proffers an exceptional album that has immense commercial potential. The production, playing and vocal lines are more suburban than urban but the textures and performances make for a world class blues album. Of the albums eleven tracks, eight are co-written by singer and guitarist Thien. Covers include; Willie Dixon’s ‘I Ain’t Superstitious,’ Ida Cox’s, ‘Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues,’ and ‘Taxi Love’ by Charlie Feldman and Jon Tiven. While ‘Taxi Love’ is the weak link in an otherwise excellent record, the songs ‘Ain’t That the Truth’ and ‘A Woman Knows’ are brilliant ballads that programmers may want to investigate for broadcast. For a more up tempo romp ‘Treat ‘Im Like a Man’ is a powerful ‘morning after’ response to the genres abundance of cheating songs. ‘Get Outta the Funk, Get into the Groove’ is a song that broadens the records reach. The record’s opening track, a horn driven, groove laden ‘’Love That’s Made to Shame’ is tasty and intelligent as the production and arrangements give the singer room to move amid: legendary Chess Records player Hubert Sumlin provides a guitar solo along with Andy Snitzer on Tenor Sax and the albums producer Erik Boyd on backing vocals.

This is a very solid, immediately enjoyable album that a wide base of blues fans should readily embrace. Those looking backwards may not connect as readily with this contemporary offering which showcases Thien building a sound upon the genres offerings from the era of Little Feat up until the present. This album is at least six songs deep for radio airplay. If one is able to judge a book by its cover, or in this case a Compact Disc, this is a well thought out, emotionally pure effort that shows the blues in, potentially, its most viable resurgence. Thien is an artist worth watching, closely.

Album Review: Robert Cray, Cookin' in Mobile

Artist: Robert Cray
Title: Cookin’ in Mobile

In many ways Robert Cray walks the thin dividing line between blues in the credible sense and blues in the popular sense. While he has found commercial success over the years, I have often struggled to appreciate his artistic methodology many times. The allure of his near Sam Cooke voice pulled me in but the redundant lyrical themes wore me out. So it is with mix emotions that I open each release.

In a blues world where the guitar seems to rule, Robert Cray is a tasty but adequate player. His distinction lies not in the fretwork wizardry that so many rely on but, rather, in the way he melds his voice and guitar playing. The rough edges are smoothed out and the precision is precise. His is a mixture of classic soul vocal lines and pop-blues instrumentation. We all recognize the sound but often, for me, the songwriting is the weak link.

On his latest release, a live album entitled, ‘Cookin’ in Mobile’ Robert Cray has, finally, released the complete album. The band is in the “pocket” and perfectly grooves to Cray’s crooning. The song selection is near perfect: as a record store clerk in the very early 1980’s I bought a 12” vinyl release of ‘’Phone Booth’ which, in many ways, sealed by adoration for the electric blues. Whether it is his cover of ‘Sitting on Top of the World’ or the up tempo, ‘That’s What Keeps Me Rockin’ Cray and band are in fine form on this Vanguard release.

Radio hosts might look at either of the songs mentioned as well as the opening track, “Our Last Time” or “Right Next Door” (a/k/a Strong Persuader). On some level an affection for Robert Cray’s music is perhaps a mandate as a contemporary blues fan… but on the other hand I wish he would, ‘buy a new book’ and sing about something other than, “the back door slam.” But then he didn’t ask… and his success is surely his own hard earn achievement.