BlueTones
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
51 Phantom
Tone-Cool
The North Mississippi Allstars are a trio of grungy 20-somethings from the Mississippi hill country who are bringing a raw-punk aesthetic to an age-old blues tradition. These Allstars have fashioned a sound that is heavier, nastier and more menacing than...
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
Do You Get the Blues?
Artemis
Another noted white boy with the blues is guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. While he's long been lauded for his simple, economical approach to the instrument, I've always felt that his playing, technically speaking, paled in comparison to his younger gun-slinging...
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
Greasy Kid Stuff
Evidence Music
Kid Ramos, another retro-leaning guitarist who followed in Vaughan's footsteps as resident ax-slinger in the Fabulous Thunderbirds, features the same grunge tones and reverb-laden stinging licks on Greasy Kid Stuff (Evidence 26117-2; 59:38) that he favored...
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
Back to Bogalusa
Blue Thumb
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown is joined by a host of fellow Louisiana musicians on Back to Bogalusa (Blue Thumb 314 549 785-2; 54:51). Slide-guitar master Sonny Landreth flashes some slashing licks on "Folks Back Home," "Going Back to Louisiana" and Lowell...
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
Blue Spoon/Spoon in London
Prestige
This twofer, combining recordings from 1964 and 1965, finds the profoundly blue Mr. Witherspoon in fine voice but in radically different settings. The 10 tracks from Blue Spoon are distinguished not only by the regal pipes and magnificent soul of Witherspoon...
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
Mr. Scrapper's Blues
Prestige
These solo recordings, made in July 1961 in Indianapolis, mark the return of the great country-blues guitarist who retired from the music scene in 1935 following the death of his close friend and partner, pianist Leroy Carr. Blackwell's distinctive, steely...
January/February 2002 By Bill Milkowski
Robert Pete Williams
An excellent document of one of the major (though underrecognized) players in the lineage of country-blues guitar, Robert Pete Williams plays stark, bone-chilling solo country blues on his self-titled album originally released in 1971 by Ahura Mazda Records...
December 2001 By Bill Milkowski
Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions
Label M
Guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer has flirted with his own unique brand of harmolodic blues-rock over the years in various configurations, which he documented on discs like Blues All Night (1989, In + Out) and Blues Preacher (1992, DIW/Columbia). But never before...
December 2001 By Bill Milkowski
A Good Day to Sing and Play the Blues
Stony Plain
Turban-topped Texas lap-steel player Sonny Rhodes deals in old-school shuffles, funk and slow blues on A Good Day to Sing and Play the Blues (Stony Plain 1273; 45:37). A stinging guitarist and gritty vocalist as well as an expressive lap-steel player, Rhodes...
December 2001 By Bill Milkowski
How'd a White Boy Get the Blues
Blind Pig Records
Blues-rocker Popa Chubby (aka Ted Horowitz) crafts his own accomplished six-string prowess to some personal insights and life tales, along with a knack for catchy pop devices, on How'd a White Boy Get the Blues? (Blind Pig 5071; 51:31). The most telling...
