Bob Corritore & Friends – Women In Blues Showcase
VizzTone Label Group
12 tracks/42 minutes
Bob Corritore’s newest “From The Vaults” series release is a collection of superb female vocalists backed by Bob and a host of music great too long to list everyone. Covering geography across the nation and a variety of stylistic approaches, we get a dozen tasty tracks of powerful female vocalists giving memorable performances to savor.
Barbara Lynn joins Bob for “You’re Gonna Be Sorry” on track 1 and “You Don’t Have to Go” in track 10. The former is a slick cut with a great groove and harp by Bob, while Lynn sings and plays guitar for this rocking number. The latter is slow blues from Jimmy Reed and features some sublime harp and solid guitar as Lynn sings with passion. Corritore offers up a nice solo of the latter, too.
Carol Fran gets to front the band three times with track 2 “I Just Need A Friend,” track 8 “I Need To Be Be’d With” and track 11 “Walkin’ Slippin’ and Slidin’”, two slow blues that she wrote and a boogie penned by Mike Gordon. Her first effort is slow and ballad like with powerful vocals. Johnny Rapp is on guitar here and one track one wit Fran. The second track she leads is a greasier styled tune with more powerful vocals and Corritore laying out super licks. The third cut is a nice cut with a big harp solo, great piano and a nice dancing beat. Fran’s vocals steal the show on all three tracks.
Valerie June offers up “Crawdad Hole” on the third track. She sings and plays acoustic guitar on this traditional piece. It’s a bare cut with her strumming and singing and Corritore adding some restrained harp.
Koko Taylor handles track 4 “What King Of Man Is This” with her typical powerful vocals. Bob Margolin and Frank Krakowski play guitar and Corritore blows his harp on this Chicago blues done as few can.
Track 5 is Willie Dixon’s “Wang Dang Doodle,” done here by Shy Perry with Bob Margolin on guitar. It’s a cool cut.
Diunna Greenleaf handles track 6, here song “Be for Me.”. She also does the ninth track “”Don’t Mess With The Messer,” another Willie Dixon classic. Margolin appears on the first of her tracks, more classic blues. The other tracks swings and features Fred Kaplan on piano. Greenleaf sings with power and emotion on both cuts, but I loved the second one the most– she really nails it as does Corritore on harp. There is also some sweet sax by Doug James.
“Te Ni Nee Ni Nu” is Alya Primer doing this Slim Harpo cut. John Primer’s daughter is featured in her first recording here and her dad play the guitar as she sings at age 17 like a pro. Corritore blows some wicked harp and the song is a fast driving success.
Francine Reed handles the final track on the album, “Why Am I Treated So Bad.” Pops Staples authored the cut; Reed sings with power as this Arizona diva makes this song hers. Kid Ramos and Johnny Main handle the guitars and Corritore again nails the harp parts.
The album grew and grew on me with each listen. It was at first a little all over the place stylistically with all these great singers, but as one settles in and listens it a;; gels and becomes a fine album showcasing Corritore with many of the Women in Blues who showcased their skills with the harp master. It’s another excellent effort by Bob Corritore who seems to have an endless supply of great music to issue from his vaults!
