Owner: M.D. Spenser URL:http://mdspenser.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 16:09:34 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Music site devoted to reviews of blues CDs and live shows; also features interviews with prominent artists. Site statistics:Click here
Lizz Wright -- Soho Revue Bar, London, 21/4/08 2008-05-10 03:05:00 By M.D. SpenserLizz Wright
walked on stage slowly, regally, eyes downcast, hugging herself, almost oblivious to the audience. Then, from deep within herself, she thrilled the Soho Revue Bar with some of the finest singing to be heard anywhere today.Her voice is a rich and vibrant instrument, capable of rattling the rafters one minute and conveying great subtlety the next.Wright was pegged early as
Mavis Staples -- The Barbican, London, 15/4/08 2008-04-26 03:19:00 By M.D. SpenserIll with a throat infection, Mavis Staples
, a consummate entertainer, pranced across The Barbican stage, lifted people up, inspired them and left them yelling until their own throats were sore.Staples found her greatest fame as lead singer of the Staples Singers in the ’60s and ’70s. But, even as she approaches her 69th birthday, she’s no oldies act.The bulk of her set was fro
Bettye LaVette -- Jazz Café, London, 13/04/08 2008-04-21 10:47:00 By M.D. SpenserNo one can put over a song like Bettye LaVette, the greatest unheralded soul singer in the world. And the incomparable Ms LaVette proved that again at the Jazz Café.Slinky in black silk pantsuit, she strutted and danced, her songs a defiant assertion of who she is. “So proud I was built this way,” she sang in ‘The Battle Of Bettye LaVette’, a song about how, uncompromising
The Fried Okra Band – From Denmark To Mississippi And Back 2008-04-20 14:41:00 By M.D. SpenserIt’s a mighty long way from Denmark
to the Mississippi
hill country. But if you think that’s far, consider the distance between Whitney Houston and Robert Belfour.But Morten Lunn, the lead singer of The Fried
Okra Band, has covered both.A native Dane, like the other three members of the band, he came of age listening to what everybody else was listening to: Whitney Houston, Mich
Big Brother Runs Amok in the U.K. 2008-03-16 19:21:00 By M.D. SpenserThe British government, believe it or not, wants to examine every single purchase I made in the course of a year. And I have no choice but to let them.It is yet more evidence that George Orwell, when he imagined the future in his novel “1984”, did not go far enough. Brother
.htm">Big Brother
is watching us – and entering much of what he sees in computer databases.The immediate cause of my d
Sleep Eaters, Unite! 2008-03-09 18:30:00 By M.D. SpenserSleep
eaters of the world, unite.Together we can share information on what works in fighting this disorder. And together we can show the scientific community that there are far more of us than is commonly known, giving greater impetus to research for a cure.Those who suffer from this problem need no description. For those who have never heard of it, it involves compulsive eating whi
CD Review - Jimmy Blythe 2008-02-24 04:56:00 Messin’ Around Blues: Enhanced Pianola RollsDelmarkBy M.D. SpenserJimmy Blythe was one of the originators of boogie-woogie piano. Hats off to Delmark for producing this amazing and valuable album of his work.Little is known of Blythe’s life other than that he was born in Kentucky around 1901, moved to Chicago in his teens, and died of meningitis in 1931.An esteemed sideman, he accompanied Loui
CD Review - Warner Williams and Jay Summerour 2008-02-11 02:16:00 Down ’N’ DirtyPatuxentBy M.D. SpenserThis is an enjoyable and good-humoured CD, featuring low-key acoustic Blues interspersed with low-key acoustic country.The album is based entirely on a singer with a guitar backed by a guy with a harmonica: think Cephas & Wiggins. This may be the Blues, but there’s no anguish, no intensity – just laid-back good times.Williams
, a retired government o Read more:Warner
CD Review - Blind Willie Johnson 2008-02-10 05:21:00 Nobody’s Fault But Mine: Original Recordings 1927-30 Rev-OlaBy M.D. SpenserBlindWillieJohnson
recorded just 30 songs over three years, yet his influence remains pervasive. Twenty-three are collected on this fine CD.They’ve been covered by people from Ry Cooder to The Grateful Dead, Taj Mahal and Chris Thomas King. Johnson’s gruff, agonized singing surely influenced Howlin’ Wolf, who in t
CD Review - Root Doctor 2008-02-05 01:39:00 Change Our WaysBig OBy M.D. SpenserRoot Doctor
’s web site declares that the band offers “Blues for what ails ya!” And it’s true. This enjoyable album offers ’70s-era Blues, soul, R&B and bit of funk – mostly designed not to make you feel blue but to make you feel better. Root Doctor is not a person, by the way; it’s the name of the band. The album features the vocals of Freddie C
CD Review - Swingadelic 2008-02-03 13:08:00 Another Monday NightMediamix By M.D. SpenserThis is not a proper album; it’s a sampler for a high-class wedding band, helpfully arranged for easy browsing – all seven instrumentals first, followed by the five vocal numbers. It’s mostly big-band jazz – think Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Tony Bennett. The web site says the band “adds just the right dose of some swingin’ Sixties groov
CD Review - Jon Bickley 2008-02-02 04:52:00 House CarpenterTigerBy M. D. Spenser Unfortunately for Blues lovers, this album owes as much to traditional English folk as it does to Blues. And that adds a touch of dreariness that makes this album a chore to listen to.Bickley styles himself a poet as well as a songwriter. But he should take to heart an observation by the poet Ezra Pound: “The poem fails when it strays too far from the song, a
CD Review - Tim Lothar Petersen 2008-01-30 02:21:00 Cut To The BoneBy M.D. SpenserEvocative guitar and haunting vocals grace this impressive collection of Delta Blues.Petersen, a Dane, recorded this debut in his living room, and it was well worth the effort. The album does more than echo the past: seven of the 10 cuts are originals, and a fine batch of songs they are. The opener, ‘Easy Baby’, is gentle yet insistent, propelled by Petersen’s a
CD Review - Jim Murray 2008-01-25 10:58:00 My Time To Be AloneJim Murray
This collection of pre-war Blues makes for a pleasant but undistinguished CD. It features fine acoustic guitar work – old-timey, relaxed, but remarkably proficient.It’s the solo debut for Murray, a long-time sideman in his mid-50s. “I now feel for the first time that I have something to say solo,” he writes in the liner notes. Well, not really, other than that
Pain, Me and the Voodoo Doctor 2008-01-20 09:58:00 By M.D. SpenserI lay face down on the treatment bed whilst a man I’d met only a few minutes before used his forefinger like a hammer to drive needles into my flesh.He chatted all the while, trying to divert my attention.“What do you do for a living?” (Thwack!) “Oh, that’s so interesting.” (Thwack!) “How long have you been doing that?” (Thwack!)I’m a sceptic by nature and a bit of Read more:Doctor
, Voodoo
CD Review - Bessie Smith 2008-01-09 15:00:00 Blues Queen: The Definitive CollectionDefinitiveTutored by Ma Rainey and an inspiration to Janis Joplin, Bessie Smith
was vital to the development of the Blues. This superb overview of her recording career, which began in the early 1920s and lasted a decade, gives voice to all the emotions that make up the Blues – sadness, defiance and joy.“I swear I won’t call no copper/When I’m beat up b
CD Review - Brad Wilson 2008-06-15 09:07:00 Blues AliveCali BeeBy M.D. SpenserThis album of live electric Blues would be great fun to blast into your backyard while you’re having a party, but if you haven’t heard these songs before, you haven’t been listening to the Blues.Brad Wilson
is a California act; he pretty much confines his touring to that state. He’s a good guitar player, in the show-off, amps-up style where you grimace co
CD Review - Magda Piskorczyk 2008-06-29 16:38:00 Blues TravellingMTJMagda LiveArtgraffBy M.D. SpenserNouveau Blueswoman Magda Piskorczyk is on the right track, as these two innovative CDs illustrate.She chooses from a wonderfully eclectic array of sources – from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Jacques Brel – and has the courage to use new instrumentation.The better of the two CDs is “Blues Travelling,” the studio set. It’s a spare affair. Som
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