ESSENTIAL BLUES
J
www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com
T H U R S D AY, A P R I L 3
Uncle Lucius with Nicotin e
F R I D AY, A P R I L 4
Fruition plus Safe Haven
plus Kory Quinn
S AT U R D AY, A P R I L 5
M
CD Release Party in the Sidebar
Jenny & Robin Bienemann
plus Small Forest, Jodi Walker, and Steve Dawson, Alton
Smith plus The Significant Others (In the Sidebar)
In the club, legendary Texas songwriter/guitarist
Alejandro Escovedo
& the Sensitive Boys plus Amy Cook
S U N D AY, A P R I L 6
The Co unt Basie Orchestra
F R I D AY, A P R I L 1 1
The B eatle Brothers
S AT , A P R . 1 2 - 5 P M D O O R S
Performing
Mark Twain & The Laughing River
Jim Post 6pm show
Heartsfield 9pm show
M O N D AY, A P R I L 1 4 - S O L D O U T !
Roots Off the Rails: A Special Acoustic Evening with Dave
Alvin, Phil Alvin, Jon Langford, Rick Shea and John Do e
F R I D AY, A P R I L 1 8
Deacon Blues
With special guest
Howard Levy
W E D N E S D AY, A P R I L 2 3
Prevail Benefit: Songs of Hope and Struggle
with
Don Stiernberg Trio & Ella Gill
F R I D AY, A P R I L 2 5
Special Concensus
F R I & S AT , M AY 9 & 1 0
Monte Montgomery
18 illinoisentertainer.com april 2014
oe Louis Walker established a reputation
for power-packed performances and
genre-twisting blues at the beginning of
his career, as a San Francisco teen picking up
on all of the musical influences swirling
around him and 40 years later, not much has
changed. After two dozen critically
acclaimed albums, most notably last year's
sublime Hellraiser, (Alligator) and an induction into the Blues Hall of Fame, JLW shows
no sign of coasting on his achievements.
Hornet's Nest continues the JLW pattern of
cramming all sorts of disparate genres and
songs into a lively package. There's blues,
blues/rock, rockabilly, soul, country and of
course, gospel. The highlight is the thundering title track, which blasts open the album
with bluesy fervor and scorching phrasing.
"All I Wanted To Do" is an unlikely soul/pop
confection showcasing the Muscle Shoal horn
section and sinewy vocals that win you over.
"As The Sun Goes Down" displays blues
melancholy with sharp axe work
Clever
lyrics elevate the rock bombast of "Stick A
Fork In Me;" "Stick a fork in me baby /I'm
done/pass the hot sauce/and the A1."
Quirky covers are a JLW hallmark but the
rockabilly peppiness of "Don't Let Go," made
famous by Carl Perkins is still a surprise
while the Stones cover, "Ride On Baby," is
filled with too much pop airiness to work
along so many heavy hitters. Despite his
inventiveness, the showstoppers on Hornet's
Nest stick close to JLW's musical foundation.
"I'm Gonna Walk Outside," serves up lowdown blues with a dose of ferocious slide
guitar and the closer, the gospel anthem,
"Keep The Faith," demonstrates where the
musician draws his formidable spirit from.
Delmark 60 Years of the Blues manages to
capture the breadth of blues history that the
label is famous for presenting to the world.
Bob Koester started out as a blues purist,
recording legendary Delta musicians decades
after their heyday and he gradually expanded into producing contemporary musicians
who blend elements of jazz and soul with a
solid blues foundation. That evolution is
apparent on this 16-track collection, which
offers previously unrecorded music from
blues legends.
It's not an enviable task to whittle down
60 years of pivotal music into 16 tunes that
represent the heart of an expansive catalog
but Delmark 60 Years delivers. The highlights
include treasures like Big Joe Williams, pouring out the Delta genesis of Chicago blues on
1960's "44 Blues," with palpable unvarnished
emotion, and Junior Wells, interpreting "Rock
Me Baby" with all the gritty glory of Westside
blues, circa 1969. Little Walter's unmistakable harp lines are still scintillating on 1950's
"Just Keep Lovin' Her," and Magic Sam aptly
demonstrates the jazzy inflections of the
beginnings of the Westside blues sound on
1968's "I Don't Want No Woman."
The contemporary tracks reveal mostly
strong performances as well, including
Linsey Alexander's wry "Raffle Ticket," "hey
baby/what's the name of the game/ you
playin' on me?" from 2013 and Toronzo
Cannon's evocative Jimi Hendrix blues
update on "John The Conquer Root." The
CDs only glaring weak spot is the conspicuous lack of women's voices. Over 60 years,
with standout blues women like Karen
Carroll, Zora Young, Bonnie Lee, Shirley
Johnson Bigtime Sarah and Grana Louise and
only one track, (not counting Inetta Visor performing with Mississippi Heat as a group,
not a soloist) Sharon Lewis' rollicking "Blues
Train," is selected to represent the female
voice? That's clearly a blues tendency that
By Rosalind Cummings-Yeates
needs to remain in the past.
The late, great, Sam Maghett, aka Magic
Sam, only lived to produce two seminal
recordings on Delmark, 1967's Westside Soul
and Black Magic in 1968, but they displayed
convincing evidence to reserve a space for the
charismatic guitarist in the ranks of Chicago
blues icons. Known for his dexterous fretwork as well as an enthralling stage presence,
Sam could also sing with the kind of silky
soul retained for R&B crooners.
Fortunately, another display of Magic
Sam's memorable talent survives in Magic
Magic Sam, 1969
Sam: Live at The Avant Garde (Delmark).
Recorded in a Milwaukee coffee house by
high school student Jim Charne in 1968, the
17-track album captures Magic Sam's upclose warmth and kinetic energy.
Opening with a searing cover of Freddie
King's "San Ho Zay," the instrumental sets the
stage for the perfection of Sam's blues chops.
"Don't Want No Woman" segues into an easygoing Chicago blues shuffle and "I Need You
So Bad" serves up the B.B. King classic with
swaggering style. Considering the limited
technical equipment that the teenaged
Charne used to produce this recording, the
sound quality is good, with just a hint of
fuzziness. Live At The Avant Garde actually
sounds stronger than many of the Magic Sam
live albums released over the years.
The innova [ۈو