Bob Corritore & Friends – Down Home Blues Revue
11 tracks
Bob Corritore reaches back into his treasure trove of music and pulls From the Vault two albums being released simultaneously. This release features Corritore joined by ten blues legends. Honeyboy Edwards, T-Model Ford, Big Jack Johnson, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Smokey Wilson, Henry Townsend, Dave Riley, Tomcat Courtney, All Garrett and Pecan Porter are featured here, each appearing a track. Walker gets to appear on three tracks and Ford appears on a pair of songs.
“Bilbo” Walker’s tracks are “Rooster Blues,” “Still A Fool” and “Baby Baby Baby.” He plays and sings and some guitar is added by Johnny Rapp on all three tracks. The first track bounces and swings as Walker sings of the animals who help him rock out. Corritore solos sweetly and Rapp gives us a sweet groove. The second tracks from Muddy Waters is some delicious, slow blues, served up hot and greasy. Guitar and harp give us some licks to enjoy together on this one. Sam Cooke’s track gets a nice groove going as Walker sings passion as the song moves along smartly.
“Mean Old Frisco” (Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup) and “I Asked For Water’ (Howling Wolf) are the two T-Model Ford cuts offered up. Chris James is on guitar in support as is his partner Patrick Rynn who handles the bass; Martin Reinsel is on drums. The former cut is a deep and down home blues while the latter is obviously more in the vein of Chicago blues. Both are cool and well done. Ford howls for us on the second track in Wolf’s style.
The single cuts begin with Tomcat Courtney; he does his song “Clara May,” with Corritore. James also adds some guitar. The three of them deliver a fine performance. Henry Townsend does his song “Nothing But Blues” where it’s just he and Bob. Townsend sings and tinkles the keys on the piano as only he can as Corritore fills in on harp. Smokey Wilson does his original entitled “Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do.” He sings with the grit and emotion that is his style. He handles the guitar and Bob blows some cool harp here. Bass and drums lay down a nice groove to play behind. Honeyboy does a Robert Lockwood song, “Take A Little Walk With Me.” Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums rounds out the trio here in this fine rendition of a blues classic.
Pecan Porter adds “Let’s Work Together,” the song made famous by Canned Heat. He sings in similar style as Johnny Rapps adds his guitar to the mix; it’s a lot of fun! Porter is no slouch himself on the guitar as he does the second solo. Al Garrett does his song “My Money Done Run Out,” a slow and excellent blues. Rapp is also featured here and the bass and drum support are well done. Dave Riley and Bob are great friends and we get to hear them together on “Home In Chicago;” he handles all the guitar as Yahni Riley plays bass and Brian Fahey handles the drums. Corritore plays some nice fills and solos and Riley picks out a good solo, too. Dave and Bob do a nice instrumental section together, too. The final cut is Big Jack Johnson on “Bluebird Blues,” a Sonny Boy Williamson tune. Johnson sings and does an amazing job. He and Rapp handle the guitars and Corritore does some pretty harp. The bass and drums are also well done.
The yet uncredited bass and drums from the above cuts were handled by Paul Thomas and Chico Chism. They each appear on seven tracks and do a super job. Bob brings us ten legends to appreciate here– it’s a great sampler of work he’s done with some amazing talent from the blues world. If you need an intro to these artists, here’s a great way to learn a little about them. Long time blues fans will enjoy hearing this stuff that Corritore has brought out of his vault for us to enjoy. Thanks to him and also to Vizztone for supporting Bob and releasing this outstanding new album!
