Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt – Slide To Freedom (NorthernBlues Music).

From the moment that I received this CD for review I wondered how well the fusion of Eastern and Blues music would go. I need not have worried Cox, Bhatt and Ramkumar Mishra serve up a feast. They begin with the Mississippi John Hurt song Pay Day, which starts off as a standard slide blues until Bhatt adds his instrument, a satvik veena. Surprisingly enough, he really manages to make it sound like a second guitar. The addition of tabla from Mishra is also interesting on this folk blues. Bhoopali Dance is overtly Asian in its make up. All three wrote this and Cox answers Bhatt as they dance together on it. Their instruments work so well together and it’s like Appalachia meets Himalaya! At times Bhatt sounds like he is an angry bee. Arabian Night is very easy to listen to and Blind Willie Johnson’s Soul Of A Man allows Cox to get his slide guitar to the forefront as well as his vocal. An interesting addition on this is Bhatt’s father, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who plays the instrument that he invented, the mohan veena. Vishwa has already collaborated with such heavyweights as Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal.

The angry bee is back on Fish Pond as Bhatt gives his instrument a pounding. It is obviously the style of playing but it does sound so aggressive. Father Kirwani, written by Vishwa and again featuring him on mohan veena is a true fusion of East and West as all show their virtuosity. Beware Of The Man (Who Calls You Bro), written by Cox, is another of the more bluesy songs and both artists, I feel, have had a fair chance to show their individuality as well as how well they fuse together. The strangely titled final track, Meeting By The Liver, is a fitting finale for these four masters of their instruments.

If this finds its way into your collection, you will not be disappointed.

http://www.northernblues.com/
http://www.dougcox.org/
http://www.sallibhatt.com/

David Blue.

Watermelon Slim & The Workers – The Wheel Man (Northernblues Music).

Multi award winning Watermelon Slim a.k.a. Bill Homans’ latest album for Northernblues confirms his status as the hottest name in the current Blues world. He has managed to get Magic Slim to guest on a track although I am surprised he managed to get the album recorded at all, given his exhausting touring regime. He opens with the eponymous title track and this duet with Magic Slim has the main man on slide guitar and is on the edge of roots/blues. The other Slim, Magic that is, takes on the guitar solo with aplomb. It’s easy to see why he has risen through the ranks of bluesmen so quickly – the guy is pure quality! However, I hope that he doesn’t get rid of all of his rough edges. I’ve Got News is a driving blues akin to the Kansas City style. Top class rhythm section, Michael Newberry on drums and Cliff Belcher on bass. Slim adds his not inconsiderable harp as well. Black Water is a blues/rock chugger and Slim lets his voice go on this one. There is a slight reggae beat and this is a highlight. Jimmy Bell is a harmonica tune, as you would expect. This is just voice and harp and is just about as authentic a blues as you could get. Slim provides some powerful Chicago blues on Newspaper Reporter. His stock is still rising and who’s to say that he won’t become the overall number one blues artist in the near future? This track shows how good a harmonica player he is. Drinking & Driving is up-tempo class. Just get it on your car CD. Fast Eddie is another for the car and he’s just getting better and better.

Sawmill Holler takes us back to the early days of the blues shouter and Truck Driving Mama has echoes of classic R&B. Full of innuendo and blues references, this is good fun. I Know One is an up-tempo blues and this is the type of song that would go down so well over here. The Workers are a top class band and back Watermelon Slim to perfection with Ronnie ‘Mack’ McMullen and Ike Lamb solid on guitar and the aforementioned Newberry and Belcher providing a fantastic base to work from. Slim Harpo’s Got Love If You Want It is a slow, deliberate blues played in a John Lee Hooker style. He picks up the pace again on Rattlesnake before going off to blues on the low side with Peaches. This shows that he is a powerful artist indeed. He finishes off with the rootsy, bluesy Furry Lewis song, Judge Harsh Blues and I just love it.

I can’t wait for the next one!

http://www.northernblues.com/
http://www.watermelonslim.com/

David Blue.

Coco Rosie – The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn (Touch And Go).

Coco Rosie, sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady, release their third album on Touch & Go and build on the critical acclaim of their previous two. Opening with Rainbowarriors, an ethereal folktronica with spirits in the background, they take the listener on a journey that is sometimes unsettling but never mediocre. The vocal is childlike and there is lots going on. Promise is unique and the childlike vocal continues but the content is certainly not juvenile. Bloody Twins opens with bells and chimes. Images of witches abound on this very short offering. The strange but charming Japan follows and leads us into the most mainstream song so far, Sunshine. This is gentle, sleepy and hypnotic and is already a mainstay of their live set. Black Poppies contains more of their gentle, sparse tones and confirms their status as officially strange. The childs voice on this is spooky.

Werewolf will take you to very dark places and Animals makes it difficult to categorise them and identify who their fan base will be. There is a slow barrelhouse piano background to the funereal Houses and they continue their fascination with one word titles on Raphael. A word of warning; don’t be taken in by their innocent vocals, these songs are razor sharp. I don’t see the point of the extremely short Girl And The Geese but they make up for it with the 11 minute epic that is the closing track, Miracle. This is hard going, as are some of the others, but they don’t profess to be for the mass market. There is a long, unnecessary patch of silence before the track ends with train and animal noises heralding in acoustic guitar and voice.

Coco Rosie can take you from folk to hip-hop and beyond – you never know what is around the corner. Strange, an acquired taste, yet most compelling.

http://www.cocorosie.com/
http://www.tgrec.com/

David Blue.

Time Bomb – Time Bomb (Ruf Records).

German blues label Ruf have a reputation of showcasing rising North American blues artists in Europe. The latest of these are three female singer/guitarists Sue Foley (Canada), Deborah Coleman (USA) and Roxanne Potvin (Canada), collectively known as Time Bomb. The Telecaster (I love Sue Foley’s Paisley pattern one) wielding trio strut their stuff on the eponymous title track, which is a festival of guitar playing as all three showcase their skills. Hitting On Nothing has Potvin on lead vocal and is classic R&B. This is a stylish song and shows that these girls can certainly play. Sue Foley takes on lead vocal for the Country flecked stormer, So Far, and shows herself to be a very good singer indeed; probably the best of the three. Talking Loud has the third of the trio, Deborah Coleman, on vocal. This is funky and has plenty of attitude. Strong Enough To Hold You has Roxanne on lead vocal but it is a nondescript ballad.

Sue Foley returns on Show Me, a great bar room blues with a sleazy vocal. Motor City is a driving blues with Coleman on vocal but is not too inspiring. Get Up has a Pretty Woman style drum beat from Billy Thommes and Potvin takes the vocal. The only thing that this funky R&B is missing is a more powerful bass line. Two Moons Gone is Foley’s final song and she signs off in fine form on this speedy blues. Don’t Start The Car has a good blues riff and has Coleman on vox -- great rock stuff. In The Basement closes the set and has all three on vocal. They all bring different facets to the table on this R&B mix and provide a good finish. Sue Foley is the most experienced of this trio, having already released ten albums but I am sure that she, and the other two, will go on from strength to strength on the back of this album.

http://www.rufrecords.de/
http://www.suefoley.com/
http://www.deborahcoleman.com/
http://www.roxannepotvin.com/

David Blue.

Hans Theessink – Slow Train (Blue Groove).

Hans Theessink has 20 albums to his name with Slow Train being the latest. He has been called an international blues treasure by the US press and Bo Diddley once described him as “One helluva guitar player”. The eponymous title track is slow, as the title suggests. It is moving and Gospel influenced with lovely relaxed slide guitar. Katrina is Americana of the highest order, delivered to perfection and hypnotic. He has based it on the New Orleans chant, Li’l Liza Jane and tells the story of Hurricane Katrina. God Created The World continues the theme of minimal instrumentation and is very easy going despite it being about the tragic events of 9/11. The gentle theme continues with Thula Mama/Oh God Don’t You Weep, which has African influences (in this instance, Zimbabwe) as do some of the others and was inspired by stories from the African singers in his band. Cry Cry Cry is more up tempo but there is still this underlying gentleness from this master of the understated guitar. Let’s Go is a Country influenced foot-tapper. Mark Knopfler is the milestone for this kind of song and Theessink measures up very well.

Love You Baby is a hotch potch of styles; there’s blues, R&B and Country in there somewhere but it all comes together very well. Old Man Trouble could easily be a track from Graceland. Theessink’s dulcet tones waft over African influenced Country to great effect. Leaving At Daybreak highlights his deep, velvet voice again and he drifts into Mark Knopfler territory again with this gentle roots offering. May The Road has some more Gospel and African influences and is just a lovely little song. The traditional Run On For A Long Time has top class harmony, as ever, and is roots of the highest class. He finishes with When Luther Played The Blues. This is a tribute to his old friend, Luther Allison and is a blues, but not in the conventional sense. Theessink says that he had a dream where he saw Allison in front of him and tried to touch his hand. When he woke up in the morning the song was in his head.

This is a measured album from a European master.

http://www.theessink.com/

David Blue.

Gary Moore – Close As You Get (Eagle Records).

Gary Moore is in the upper echelons of British Blues/Rock and has consistently produced top class albums for a number of years now. His latest, Close As You Get, shows no sign of him falling away. The opener, If The Devil Made Whisky, is a grungy blues (with the correct spelling of whisky, I’m glad to say) with exaggerated slide guitar and an aggressive vocal. Gary is back in form, writing and playing the type of song that his guitar power requires. The album sleeve has short quotes from each song and for this it is “If the devil made money, he must have made my girl as well, Cause they get a man in trouble, then they send you straight to hell”. You know what he’s talking about, don’t you boys. Trouble At Home is a slow, stylish blues that shows he has lost none of his passion and his guitar sings. Thirty Days is a bit of a surprise as Gary takes us into the realms of Country Rock. I’m not convinced about this one although his Chuck Berry, Maybelline style opening riff is sheer class. No surprise as it is a Chuck Berry song. Hard Times is a shuffling blues with added harmonica (another thing that I’m not used to hearing on a Gary Moore recording) from Mark Feltham and Moore rocks on this. The slower songs are where artists get to show their different levels of emotion and Gary certainly puts himself through the wringer on John Mayall’s Have You Heard. Guitar and organ (Vic Martin) are to the fore here with his guitar in particularly searing form.

The classic Sonny Boy Williamson song Eyesight To The Blind has a storming opening and he gives it his all on the unhurried Evenin’. Things stay in the slow lane for the appropriately named Nowhere Fast. This has sympathetic guitar although possibly not the best lyrically. Gary flicks the grunge button again for Checkin’ Up On My Baby. This has fuzzed harp from Feltham and growling guitar and is what he does best. His gritty vocal and ringing guitar compliment each other to perfection on this second Sonny Boy Williamson cover. Everything is held together, as it is on the rest of the album, by Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey. The penultimate track, I Had A Dream, is slow rock and is an example of a master passing on his skills to the next generation. Great vocal, top guitar, what else can I say? In an album with a couple of surprises Gary finishes off with another. This time it is Son House’s Sundown with acoustic slide guitar and he sounds as if he has recorded it live in the studio. Sundown is not his usual bag but very acceptable indeed!

People think that they know what they are going to get on a Gary Moore album but this one may hold a surprise or two.

http://www.eagle-rock.com/
http://www.gary-moore.com/

David Blue.

Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges – Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges (Armadillo Music).

Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges has been playing the guitar for 40 years, since the age of 4, and is now basically on a perpetual touring regime. This new, eponymous album is a bit of a departure for Eugene insomuch that he has recorded it with musicians that he has met on the road rather than his normal full band. The 12 new songs begin with Piece Of The Mountain, which is Gospel with a silky vocal that will take you to heaven itself. This will cleanse your soul so you should listen to it at least once a day. Very clean sound (production). The gentle Life Has No Meaning is acoustic led and Country tinged with Lucky Oceans, co-founder of Asleep At The Wheel, on pedal steel. Special Friend is soulful and has good harmonies whereas Never Alone has a powerful vocal and could be described as modern Doo-Wop. Oceans returns on pedal steel for Baby Your Love, a Soul/Country crossover with Sam Cooke coming to mind. Bridges shows again that he has such a sweet voice on In Your Arms Tonight. This is another in the Sam Cooke, or even possibly Jackson Browne, arena. All this and he hasn’t really unleashed his guitar yet.

Look At Me Now is Soul but only average and a little disappointing. Even Eugene picking up the bass on this one doesn’t save it. Ain’t Got Time has Bridges on Resonator guitar and playing the blues at last. It’s simple in its application and invariably that’s the best way. He could also go electric on this one to great effect, I am sure. Love Got The Best Of Me is a slow, classy blues with a B.B. King style vocal and has the best guitar work so far. I thought that I was getting We Will Rock You at the beginning of Big Legged Woman but Bridges soon dispels that. This turns out to be an acoustic blues, just guitar and percussion. He’s coming on to a game now but the Country/Blues of I Can’t Wait is a bit too sweet and nothing spectacular. Man And His Guitar finishes things off. This is a jazzy blues with Clayton Doley on Hammond and finishes up as a great end to the album. When Bridges lets loose on guitar he really makes it sing. Add that to his heavenly voice and you have an artist in his prime.

http://www.bluearmadillo.com/

David Blue.