The new “Bluesman” Stephen Dale Petit has been added to the Hope Concert in Berlin, Germany at the Velodrom on June 7, 2013.

Petit will join Global stars Alanis Morissette, Natasha Bedingfield, DJ Steve Angello, and lead singer John Martin of the Swedish House Mafia, two of the most successful Iranian musicians Andy Madadian and Ebi, the Greek musician Alkistis Protopsalti, the co-founder and original guitarist of the band The Police Henry Padovani, the American songwriter Shani, the international singer Liel Kolet,  multi-cultural musician Valy Hedjasi, and the Greek pianist, producer and composer Yanni, will all perform at the HOPE Concert in solidarity with the Iranian people.

The legendary artist Stevie Wonder is also lending his support to the people of Iran and contributing his song “My Love.” Renowned music producer Humberto Gatica will produce the finale of the concert, in which all the musicians will raise their voices to perform Stevie Wonder’s song of unity, harmony, and peace.

The lineup of  international musicians will lend their voices to let the people of Iran know they are not alone in their struggle for human rights and freedom. In Iran, musicians of all genres including the blues—as well as artists, filmmakers, writers, and journalists—are not only regularly banned from working due to their political activities, they are routinely imprisoned and tortured.

The international lineup will be presented by Iranian-American journalist and peace activist Roxana Saberi, who was arrested in Iran in 2009 and freed after international outcry, will present the HOPE Concert at the Velodrom in Berlin in worldwide support for the Iranian people. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran welcomes this opportunity to raise awareness of the state of human rights in Iran and to add to the voices in solidarity with the Iranian people.

The goal of the HOPE Concert is to show worldwide support for the Iranian people, and to strengthen their voices on the international stage. The artists and the concert represent no political direction or views of political groupings, but stand independently for universal human rights, democracy, and peaceful coexistence. All proceeds from the tickets will be donated to the NGO Children of Persia to finance medical treatment for children in Iran, and to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Tickets for the HOPE Concert on June 7 at 8pm are available by phone at +49(0)30-4430-4430 or online here.

Hope Concert on Facebook

Digging around the internet the other day we stumbled across this fascinating video, okay the video isn’t really that fascinating but the subject matter is. Of course they are talking about the blues and how some of the most popular bands of the late 60′s and early 70′s were taking this genre, putting their own spin on it. Bending, twisting and shaping it into a type of music that fit in perfect with the times.
During the video you’ll hear from Paul Stanley of KISS, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Ozzy Osborne of Black Sabbath and two members of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Dicky Betts, Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman talk about the Allman Brothers and their interpretation of the blues. Pete Townshend talks about how much he dislikes Led Zeppelin, not really sure if he was kidding or not…he had a bit of a smirk on his face. Eddie Van Halen also appears and adds his two cents about the blues.

Give it a look, it’s pretty good:

Led Zeppelin, Eddie Van Halen, Allman Brother… by BMZSOUL

This is the latest installment in our weekly series entitled, The Language of the Blues, where author and rocker Debra Devi focuses on the meaning and significance of a unique word used in blues song. Come back every week for the latest! Devi’s The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to ZuZu is now available at Bluescentric.com!

Robert Johnson Slide

Although early slide guitar players used knives and polished bones as slides, by the Depression blues guitarists were breaking the necks off of bottles and polishing the edges over campfires to create bottleneck slides.

The first blues ever documented in writing, though, was played by a guitarist using a knife, as described by William Christopher (W.C.) Handy. Handy had fallen asleep while waiting for a train in Tutwiler, Mississippi in 1895 when he was awakened by a haunting melody. “A lean, loose jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept,” Handy wrote. “His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularised [sic] by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. His song, too, struck me instantly. ‘Goin’ where the Southern cross the dog.’ The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard.”

A traveling minstrel musician at the time, Handy was so inspired by the sound that he dedicated the rest of his life to exposing the blues to the world. In addition to composing “St. Louis Blues” and other blues-related songs, Handy worked tirelessly transcribing authentic blues songs, which he published in Blues: An Anthology (1926).

Since African slaves brought slide technique with them to the American colonies, it likely originated in Africa. Then again, modern North Indian guitarists, such as Debashis Battacharya, use slides, too. So do the Hawaiian guitarists that W.C. Handy mentioned.

The sophistication of Battacharya’s slide playing was evident at his performance at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan in 1995. With his wide-bodied guitar flat on his lap, braced by the heel of his bare foot, Battacharya moved a solid metal slide in his left hand in quick flourishes, pulling out microtonal melodies anchored by the steady bass rhythms he drummed with the pick on his right thumb. Battacharya encored with a simple North Indian folk song so undeniably bluesy that it would have sounded like an American blues instrumental if the other performer on the bill, John Hammond, had played it on his Dobro.

The modern guitar is a direct descendant of the oud, an Arabic lute that was introduced to Europe during Spain’s Muslim reign. Both the quartertone singing of Indian and Arabic singers and the sophisticated slide guitar playing found in North India hint at a strong connection between the Muslim world and the blues.

The technique that Handy witnessed — pressing a knife on guitar strings — has been traced to Central and West Africa, where people play one-string zithers that way. Handy assumed the technique was borrowed from Hawaiian guitar playing, but it’s possible that the itinerant guitar player Handy heard was manifesting African roots.

In an interview for The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist Hubert Sumlin, who was born near Greenwood, Mississippi in 1931, agreed, saying, “The way the guitar was played with the slide was coming from African people.”

Depression-era guitarists wore bottlenecks on the ring or little fingers of their fretting hands. Slide players also used small medicine bottles or snuff bottles, which didn’t require cutting or firing. Country blues players used a variety of slides, from knives, pieces of copper pipe, and bottles to the polished cow bone favored by Joe Holmes, a.k.a. King Solomon Hill, on his recordings for Paramount in 1932.

Slide guitarists who played rock, such as Duane Allman and Ron Wood, cited blues players like Elmore James and Bukka White as their primary influences. The rock and blues slide players of the 1960s often employed glass medicine bottles.

Different slides produce different tones. Duane Allman used Coricidin cold medicine bottles Bonnie Raitt and Ry Cooder favor the smooth sustain provided by a bottleneck. Keith Richards likes the biting tone of a metal slide. Lipstick covers work, as do straight razors, pocketknives, toilet paper rollers, pens, cigarette lighters, small juice cans, beer bottles…anything with a smooth surface that can be held in the fretting hand. The most common way to play slide is to wear the slide around one’s ring or pinkie finger. A knife or pen, in contrast, is typically clasped between the ring and pinkie fingers.

No matter what the player decides to slide along the guitar strings, the idea behind all slide playing is very simple: instead of fretting a string to create a pitch, the guitarist touches it with a slide. One’s ear becomes much more important than one’s eyes when playing slide, as pitch intonation depends on touching the string in exactly the right place. The guitarist has to play more like a violinist, acutely conscious of pitch.

To make a bottleneck slide, start by measuring the length of the finger that will wear the slide. Most players use their pinkie so they can use the other three fingers to form chords behind the slide, but some prefer the greater control obtained by wearing the slide on the ring finger.

Next, choose a bottle that’s pretty straight at the top so as to avoid ending up with a curved slide that won’t lie flat on the strings. Take a glasscutter and scratch a line around the neck of the bottle so that the distance from the top of the bottle to the scratched line equals the length of your finger.

Set aside a bowl of ice water. Heat the bottle in boiling water and then plunge it into the ice water. Take it out after fifteen seconds or so and you should be able to crack the neck right off. Sand the cut edge smooth with some fine sandpaper. And please, before you go to all this trouble, make sure your slide finger fits into the bottle.

Song:
“Talking About Bottleneck”- Big Joe Williams (Joe Lee Williams)

Pick up a copy of The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu at Bluescentric

Roy Rogers – “Walkin’ Blues”

Some projects are unique from their very inception. By virtue of their subject matter, inspiration, and/or execution, these projects distinguish themselves from the everyday, mundane, and clichéd subject matter. Often, the success of such an effort is determined by whether it speaks to its intended audience in a manner that educates, maintains a tradition, provides perspective on a particular history, and maybe even inspires.

Root Walking: Americana Blues and Roots by Big Walker (Big Walker label) is just such a project. This effort uses slave poetry from as far back as the 1700s for lyrics. As stated by Walker in the liner notes: “Many of the lyrics are changed to fit the general public as not to offend or threaten anyone. Some of the poems were told to me as a child. [I] in turn, recited them to my children in the forum of bedtime stories. Others are true accounts of events that occurred in my life, or how I feel about life. Like ‘Can’t Take No Train’ and ‘Slave.’” These lyrics are the voice of a people, telling their stories of day to day life.

Beyond the lyrics, there is the music. This album is set to late ’40s – early ’50s style (sometimes referred to as “post war”) blues. The sound quality and production are good, and the level of musicianship is high. The lead-off track, “It’s Hard,” is driven by light guitar blues, and some great harp playing from Walker. “Raise A Ruckus” is uptempo, with some fine steel picking, and more great harp playing from Walker. “Wild Black Bill” is about a man living life on his terms. It is slow, steady, and thumping, with a bit of wonderful old school slide.

“Run Nigri Run” is an extremely powerful piece. This song conjures up vivid images of a gang of pursuers hunting down the pursued as though he is a hated animal, rather than a human being. The music this hunt is set to definitely has echoes of CCR, and really moves things along. “Papa Guede” has a Louisiana flavor about it with Bonnie Raitt style slide, and will remind some of Little Feat.

“Slave” is a very interesting piece of music. It is slow, bluesy, with an almost spiritual style backing vocal. The music stops at 5:04 and then picks up again at 5:22 with Walker chanting. An undocumented song? At 5:28 the music becomes an up-tempo Chicago style blues with some nice guitar work, killer electric piano, and a great sax run by Walker. This is a “HooDoo” song. Very tasty!

Root Walking: Americana Blues and Roots is a very different kind of blues album. It is a unique undertaking that works well. The finished work is spiritual; at once entertaining the listener, and forcing them to really hear what is being said. The images it entices the listener to conjure up are vivid and real. The excellent “post war” style blues these lyrics are set to, elevate and enhance the whole experience. Excellent work here Mr. Walker!

Root Walking: Americana Blues and Roots

Big Walker Blues Music Productions

Ray Manzarek, famous for co-founding The Doors with Jim Morrison, has passed away. He was 74.

According to the band’s official Facebook page, Manzarek died today at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany after a lengthy battle with bile duct cancer.

“I was deeply saddened,” said Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger, “to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek.”

Manzarek is best known for his work with The Doors, who formed in 1965 after Manzarek had a chance encounter on Venice Beach with poet Jim Morrison. The Doors went on to sell more than 100-million albums worldwide, receiving 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and five multi-Platinum albums in the U.S. alone. Manzarek played keyboard in The Doors, and created some of the most iconic rock music in history, including ”Light My Fire.”, “L.A. Woman,” “Break On Through to the Other Side,” “The End,” and “Hello, I Love You”.

After Morrison’s death in 1971, Manzarek went on to become a best-selling author, and a Grammy-nominated recording artist in his own right. In 2002, he revitalized his touring career with Doors’ guitarist and long-time collaborator, Robby Krieger.

Manzarek’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, fans should make an in memoriam donation in Ray’s name to Standup2cancer.org.

An opportunity to study blues guitar with guitar great Robben Ford is rare indeed! If you want it, grab one of the few remaining spots at Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop & Festival in Bigfork, Montana, Aug. 25 to Sept 1. (Hurry, registration ends May 31.)

Jazz genius Pat Methney, prog-rocker Darryl Stuermer (Genesis, Phil Collins), session legend Lee Ritenour, classical maestro Scott Tennant and singer/songwriters Livingston Taylor and Mac McAnally are also slated to teach and perform as Artists-In-Residence.

“This year is another big step forward,” declares Crown Guitar chairman and contagious optimist David Feffer of the nonprofit event he founded in 2010. With these legendary players jetting in–plus faculty and students from around the world–Feffer’s cockeyed dream of establishing Bigfork MT as an international guitar Mecca has rapidly become reality.

Nabbing Robben Ford is a real coup. Ford’s soul is steeped in the blues he learned from his mentor, jump blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon. Ford also played in Charlie Musselwhite’s band early in his career. Although Ford’s playing is hugely diverse—he has recorded and toured with Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Raitt, Bob Dylan, John Mayall, Greg Allman, George Harrison and John Scofield—Ford says that despite his dazzling jazz/fusion/rock chops he is a blues player to the core.

“The blues is a big house,” Ford says. “Everything I play fits in the blues. I think because it started with blues and grew from there. You hear a lot of variety in my music, yet there’s a continuity that runs through it–a thread–and that thread is the blues.”

Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival takes place at Flathead Lake Lodge, a homey-yet-exclusive dude ranch that’s hosted Bing Crosby, both Presidents Bush and gangster Bugsy Siegel. Family-style meals in the log cabin Main Lodge encourage friendly interaction between the Artists-In-Residence, faculty and students.

Each day starts with three-hour morning classes with a world-class faculty: Jody Fisher (jazz), Doug Smith (acoustic), Andrew Leonard (classical), Matt Smith (blues), James Hogan (intermediate blues), Tobias Hurwitz (rock), Susan Mazer (beginner) and Bret Boyer (singer/songwriter). Afternoons are devoted to intensive Artist-In-Residence clinics. Ford will work in small groups with blues and rock students. Metheny and Ritenour will work with the jazz students. Students can also squeeze in horseback rides and trips to nearby Glacier National Park.
After dinner on the banks of Flathead, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, everyone ambles over to a huge white tent near the horse paddock for the evening concert. As the sun slips behind the towering pines and rugged mountain ridges, each Artist-in-Residence will give a concert. Metheny says, “I will be bringing the 99>00 Trio with Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart for a special concert, and I really look forward to a great week in beautiful Montana.”

If previous years are any indication, the Artists-in-Residence will also jam with each other–giving attendees once-in-a-lifetime musical memories. Metheny, Ritenour and Ford onstage together? At Crown Guitar Fest, it could happen!

Ritenour adds: “If it’s up to me, I’ll be coming back for as many years as possible! This unique workshop not only features amazing teachers, guest artists and great performances, it combines learning with pure fun, surrounded by an extraordinary natural environment to explore.  It propagates a truly harmonious, almost-Zen experience, and is one of the most worthwhile weeks spent exploring the guitar you’ll ever have.”

The real star of the week is the breathtaking scenery of Northwestern Montana, which the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation is helping to protect with donations to The Glacier National Park Fund and Montana Land Reliance. The Foundation also provides music scholarships, and supports Montana Public Radio and Public Broadcasting, North Valley Music School and Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center.

www.cocguitarfoundation.org

Skip James

One of Mississippi’s greatest cultural contributions is it’s diverse musical legacy — a region that was largely responsible for creating the music that we know today. While the area is perhaps most well known for it’s searing delta blues, the southern state’s unique musical diversity has long been a part of it’s charm. Geographical regions and particularly influential blues musicians could spawn entire sub-genres and styles of blues. Perhaps one of the most striking, haunting of these sub-genres comes from the small town of Bentonia, Mississippi – the aptly named Bentonia Blues.

The “Bentonia school of blues” is synonymous with two things; haunting minor chords, often played on the guitar in open E or D minor, and blues legend Nehemiah “Skip” James, one of the town’s most celebrated residents. “The Bentonia style is one of the most haunting sounds in all of blues,” says Broke and Hungry Records head Jeff Konkel. “Its blend of minor-key tuning and bleak, forlorn lyrics create a music that manages to be both enthralling and heartbreaking at the same time.”

James was an enigmatic and powerful bluesman. First recording for Paramount Records in the early 1930s, he cut what are now regarded as some of the greatest classics in the blues repitoire; “22-20 Blues”,  ”Hard Time Killing Floor Blues”, “Devil Got My Woman”, among others. Having made the records during the crest of the Great Depression, James’ music lingered in obscurity, and he gave up playing for decades. When the folk scene exploded in the 1960s, long forgotten blues men like Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, and James experienced a resurgence in interest that far eclipsed any notoriety they’d ever enjoyed before. This giant new fan base gave James great success as a musician, playing at folk and blues festivals across the country and re-igniting a thirty year long recording hiatus. It also brought a renewed interest in the varying sub-genres of blues, giving an entirely new and widespread audience their first look at the music that called Bentonia home.

Bentonia, the small town of less than two thousand, peacefully nestled on Highway 49 below Yazoo City, has embraced it’s unique musical legacy, hosting the famous Bentonia Blues Festival at the Blue Front Cafe — a world-renown juke joint owned by contemporary Bentonia bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. The Bentonia Blues Festival is currently celebrating over forty consecutive years –  it’s longevity and strength fueled by the mighty talent in the area, as well as the loosely-described “school” of music that bears it’s namesake. This year’s festival is being held June 15th.

Both the Blue Front Cafe and Nehimiah “Skip” James have earned markers on the Mississippi Blues Trail. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is  a critically-acclaimed recording artists for the Broke and Hungry Records label, continuing the eerie open tuning legacy of the area and his predecessors while maintaining the Blue Front, which has been featured in several documentaries on Mississippi juke joints, the latest of which is the acclaimed We Juke up in Here. Skip James’ tracks continue to have far-reaching influence — his “22-20 Blues” was borrowed by Robert Johnson, who crafted “32-30 Blues”, and more recently, Chris Thomas King prominently played a faithful rendition of “Hard Time Killing Floor” in the movie (and soundtrack) O Brother Where Art Thou. For an incredible four decades, The Bentonia Blues Festival has and continues to bring thousands of fans to the tiny Mississippi town, helping to both celebrate & enrich it’s musical legacy. The far-reaching effects of the Bentonia blues is a fascinating display of the diversity and influence that varying styles of blues can have on the world and music, and it’s recognition is substantially deserved.

Discover more about the Bentonia Blues Festival at their official Facebook page

When guitarist/singer/composer Corey Harris calls the blues “the foundation of all contemporary music,” he’s not overstating the case. “funk music, rock and roll, jazz, hip-hop – all of that didn’t generate by itself,” says Harris, the recipient of the 2007 MacArthur Genius Grant who has committed much of his career to exploring the connections between gospel, early jazz, reggae and West African music. “It came from somewhere. The reason that the blues is important today is because it connects us to where these different musics came from – and who they came from.”

Harris is just one of a team of premier blues artists who appear on True Blues, a 13-song live CD set for release May 28, 2013 (international release dates may vary) on Telarc, a division of Concord Music Group. Recorded at various venues throughout the United States including Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, True Blues explores and celebrates the genre and follows its rich history from the Mississippi delta of the early 1900s to the present day. The album includes stellar and authentic performances by Harris, Taj Mahal, Shemekia Copeland, Guy Davis, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Phil Wiggins. A companion DVD, produced by Harris and Daniel Patinkin, will be released worldwide in summer 2013.

“I think the blues is about telling your story,” says Copeland, an acclaimed GRAMMY®-nominated vocalist in her own right and the daughter of legendary Texas blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, who carried the torch for five decades until his death in the late 1990s. “It’s been part of my life for my entire life. It’s what put food on our table. My father supported our family by making this music. That’s why it’s important for me to let people know that it’s constantly growing and evolving.”

The set opens with the classic “Hoochie Coochie Man,” one of the most recognized and oft-covered songs in the vast blues canon. Recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, this grinding version is a collaborative effort, with Guy Davis, Corey Harris and Alvin Youngblood Hart trading off verses, punctuated by Phil Wiggins’ clean and warbling harp riffs.

Harris proves that he’s a genius with a deep groove as he offers up a brilliant solo version of Sleepy John Estes’ “Everybody Got To Change Sometime.” Captured live at House of Blues, Los Angeles, CA, he sings the track in a way that connotes both passion for life and a higher purpose.

Willie Johnson’s “Motherless Children Have a Hard Time,” recorded at Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, features a hypnotic solo guitar and vocal performance superbly executed by Alvin Youngblood Hart, who evokes the old masters of the Mississippi delta in the days before electric guitar pickups and high-tech recording technology. Equally chilling is Hart’s galloping “Gallows Pole,” also recorded at Jazz at Lincoln Center, later in the set.

Taj Mahal serves up his churning “Done Changed My Way of Living” with the help of his Taj Mahal Trio. Recorded at Ram’’ Head On Stage in Annapolis, MD, this elder statesman of the blues takes the recording’s bravado quotient to an entirely new level with his trademark growl that’s reminiscent (either by design or by accident) of the great Howlin’ Wolf. Deeper into the set, the trio remerges for a rendition of “Mailbox Blues” that hints at the mid-20th century swing music that would eventually evolve from the blues tradition.

Shemekia Copeland – with help from Hart, Harris and Wiggins – softens things up and turns up the heat at the same time with the sultry “Bring Your Fine Self Home,” a slow and simmering track whose urgent lyrics leave little question about what the singer is after: “What I need I can’t get on no telephone.”

Copeland, Hart, Harris and Wiggins trade vocals again on the closer, “Ramblin’ On My Mind,” but it’s Wiggins and his harp who steal the show with a seemingly limitless array of textures and riffs inserted between each verse.

True Blues – like the music and the tradition that it celebrates – runs the gamut of human emotion and worldly experience. When the voices and the songs and the stories are true, the blues offers something for every listener at every possible step on his or her journey.

“You have some sadness, or you have some trouble in your life sometimes,” says Wiggins. “And then sometimes you have joy. The blues is really about all that. It’s not just about one emotion or one part of life. It’s about all of your life.”

But performing remains a blues artist’s first love. With a string of upcoming tour dates, look for Corey Harris, Taj Mahal, Shemekia Copeland, Guy Davis, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Phil Wiggins to share the magic of True Blues onstage.

Pick up YOUR copy of True Blues Today

Gregg Allman

Gregg Allman’s story is officially coming to the big screen. Based on his touching, raw, and wild 2012 autobiography, My Cross to Bear, the movie of the same name will focus on the early years of The Allman Brothers Band.

The group’s unique interpretation of the blues and their unbridled love of making music received widespread fame in the early 70s. At the peak of their popularity, his brother Duane, already regarded as one of the most powerful blues players and slide guitarists to have lived, died in a motorcycle accident in 1971. The band carried forth in his absence, and still continues to bring it’s legendary sound to adoring audiences across the world. Gregg continues his position on the B3 and lead vocals, and on lead guitars are Gov’t Mule front man Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, the nephew of long-time Allman drummer Butch Trucks, who is now himself regarded as one of the greatest slide players in the world — often being compared to Duane.

Allman and his manager, Michael Lehman, will both be executive producers on the film. Original Allman Brothers music will be used in the movie, and re-recordings of live Allman performances will be created for the film. In addition, “Cross to Bear” will begin shooting in Georgia, the famous long-time stomping grounds of the band, and home to the Allman Brothers Band Museum.

In his biography, Allman was candid about his long time drug and alcohol addictions, which he overcame in the mid-1990s. In 2010, he had to undergo a liver transplant, and in 2011, he released the solo blues album, Low Country Blues, produced by T-Bone Burnet, with an incredible lineup of musicians, including Dr John, Colin Linden, Doyle Bramhall II, and many more. Allman continues to tour and play throughout the world.

Casting is currently underway and there is no news on who will play Gregg or Duane. Production on the film is scheduled to begin in Georgia late in the summer.

Just gonna toss this out there and get it out of the way. Walter Trout is a force to be reckoned with on the guitar. Not like you didn’t already know that but he seems to have catapulted himself up to another  level. This level is being considered more than just a shredder.  Of course, he’s been considered one of the finest unsung commodities in the music industry for quite a while now by some of us on the inside of the blues. We are well aware of what he is capable of when a guitar is placed in his hands.  He just destroys.  We’ve had the opportunity to see him do this from a few feet away and would highly suggest you do that too! Guitar aside for just a second though, his vocals on this release are better than they have ever been.

On Luther’s Blues, to be released in June, Walter Trout & His Band pay homage to another fantastic musician that we have enjoyed for years, Mr. Luther Allison.  The album starts out fast and furious with the throttle mashed all the way to the floor with “I’m Back”, just the way Allison would have wanted it but they also mix in some great slow stuff.   “Cherry Red Wine”  comes next and delivers  an intoxicating dose of audio excellence.   Trout’s vocals are absolutely perfect for this song selection and as we mentioned earlier, so much is always said about his axe capabilities that his pipes are often over shadowed. He belts out the tunes such as “Freedom” & “Chicago” with great power and digs deep for the soul. On “Chicago”, the bass line  drives hard and the band builds the song into a frenzy at the end. Just the way we like it around here. Then, after that thrill ride, Walter and the band walk it way back down with the heart-wrenching soul blues gem “Just As I Am” and the vocals are once again fantastic. The musicianship front to back is top-shelf, the bass lines are thick and are at one with the drums. “Pain In The Streets” has got it all, the haunting Hammond accessorizing some seriously tasty licks and Walter is showing off more of his killer blues voice.

Trout and his production partner Eric Corne have put together what could well be the blues release of the year, in our opinion.  The bar has been set extremely high. It really has something for everyone, no matter what kind of blues you are into.   We’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite on here, Tracks 1 through 13  are as good as it gets and the whole album flows real nice.

Bottom line is this is a brilliant piece of work and I would stop what you’re doing now and pre-order this album. You can thank us later and we’ll make it easy for you:  Click here 

Track Listing

1. I’m Back
2. Cherry Red Wine
3. Move from the Hood
4. Bad Love
5. Big City
6. Chicago
7. Just As I Am
8. Low Down and Dirty
9. Pain in the Streets
10. All the King’s Horses
11. Freedom
12. Luther Speaks
13. When Luther Played the Blues

Pre-order your copy of Luther’s Blues here…..Luther’s Blues