Tim Kasser – Southern Tier Blues

self release

https://www.timkasser.org/

10 songs time – 34:10

Picture one Tim Kasser, he has knowingly entered the musical twilight zone. Most of you know most of these blues, r&b and rock standards, but not in this deconstructed form. The lyrics remain intact, but the melodies and delivery are completely different. At first listen you might not be able to recognize the song until the lyrics kick in. Mr. Kasser knows his way around a piano and he ably talk-sings his way through this adventure. He has employed musicians that provide various guitars, mandolin, keyboards, fiddle, clarinet, drums, percussion and backup vocals. The backing throughout is sparse and un-intrusive. After the initial musical shockwaves have left your body, you are left with one man’s artistic vision.

A rhythmic piano coda, gentle cymbals and dissonant electric guitar lead into a band version of “I Heard it through the Grapevine”. The nuanced guitar and organ fit the mood perfectly. His reading of the blues classic “Trouble in Mind” is given a minimalist treatment with only piano, Lucian T. Sacheli on harmonica and acoustic guitars. This one delivered close to the original arrangement.

“Frankie & Johnny” is taken at a sprightly snare drum driven pace that is enhanced by Cindy Tag on clarinet. Big Bill Broonzy’s “Key To The Highway” finds Tim on piano with the only accompaniment being Lauren Faggiano on duet vocals. Leadbelly will be turning over in his grave when he hears his “Bourgeois Blues” done as a face paced rocker with a rough hewn vocal. “Hoochie Coochie Man” is slowed down with Tim’s tasteful piano, drums and bass with no guitar in sight.

John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” finds just Tim singing over his jazzy piano riffing. The piano is relinquished for acoustic guitar, fiddle and mandolin on “Cocaine Blues”. A stark atmosphere is created appropriately for “The Lost Soul”. Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” attains an other-worldly gospel vibe via haunting backing vocals, organ and what sounds like a synthesizer.

What is done here may be an acquired taste, but it tends to grow on one. The musicianship here is first rate. Take a chance on an adventurous endeavor. You are traveling through another dimension-a dimension not only of sound, but of mind.

Reviewer Greg “Bluesdog” Szalony hails from the New Jersey Delta.

Christopher Wyze & The Tellers – Stuck in the Mud

Big Radio Records

www.christopherwyzeandthetellers.com

13 tracks – 54 minutes

Christopher Wyze’s bio says that he “hails from the southern hills of Indiana” but “draws his music from the story-rich musicsphere of the Mississippi Delta”. He cites that he has spent two decades as a blues standards frontman. In December 2023, the Nashville Songwriters Association proclaimed him to be “One to Watch” with their songwriter award.

The thirteen original songs on the album were all written during a stay in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He says, “In the Delta, the songs seem to write themselves.” Three of the songs were even recorded in Clarksdale at The Shack Up Inn. The other ten were also recorded in a historical setting in the Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama.

Even the record label on which this album is being released has some historical significance. Wyze’s debut album is the second release from Big Radio Records and is distributed by Select-O-Hits Records which was founded by Sam Phillips in 1960 and is still run by the Phillips family.

Christopher is the lead vocalist and plays harmonica. He is joined by Cary Hudson on acoustic and slide guitar, Gerry Murphy on bass, Dougals Banks on drums, Eli Hannon on Hammond organ and percussion, and Dana King providing backing vocals on the Clarksdale session songs 2,4, and 8. On the Muscle Shoals sessions, Eric Deaton plays electric, acoustic and slide guitar and adds backing vocals, Gerry Murphy plays bass and also adds backup vocals, Justin Holder plays drums, Brad Kuhn plays piano, organ, and Wurlitzer, and producer Ralph Carter adds percussion and backing vocals.

As cited, Christopher’s storytelling is an important element of the songs he presents. Certainly, none more so than with the opening track “Three Hours from Memphis” as he tells his own story. “Headed south on my way, started out years ago there today. Said you wanna make it, you got to play down in Memphis where you make your hay. I had big dreams to be a big thing, whiskey and women my full-time fling. They asked about me, said this kid can sing, but he ain’t Elvis, he won’t be the next king. Fifteen years of paying my dues, I did it on my own. I’m three hours from Memphis and I’m not turning back.” He concludes that “I am going to be making hit songs, going to be a star”.

He continues his story on the title song as he brings out his harmonica in a Hill Country Blues tale citing his “heart attack, was broke and busted, don’t have a dime.” After the flood, I’m stuck in the mud”. His harmonica provides the lead into “Cotton Ain’t King” as he asks “Can you hear it growing. Echoes through a cotton boll? Songs of blues, restoring life, crying from the soul.” as he recites the birth of the blues and concludes “Cotton ain’t king, Blues is the king”.

“Soul on the Road” is a story about the life of a truck driver. Deaton switches to a National resonator guitar as Christopher cites “When Your life is the road, and the road is your life, you live a windshield movie … and brother, What the hell’s an ex-wife”. He rocks out slightly as he explains why he loves Clarksdale on “Back to Clarksdale”. On “Money Spent Blues”, he cites his lack of cash, but being a sucker for buying the latest hot item showing up in advertising and notes the preacher told his wife at the beginning that it was “for richer or poorer. So, you kinda  knew what you were getting into.”

He advises to throw “Caution to the Wind” and declares “till the bitter end, the past is not your friend. He determined that “Hard Work Don’t Pay” and states “Well I done cashed my last paycheck. Sat down and wrote this song.” Some excellent slide work accompanies the song and the organ kicks in as well. “Life Behind Bars” is the story of the musicians that had dream of stars but now play the low-end bars. “But the bottle replaced ’em, chased him, didn’t get far. Now he’s playin’ for bar tabs and tips and plays busted guitars.”, a somewhat mournful tale complete with a crying harmonica and a tinge of country sounding like something Merle Haggard or Waylon Jennings might have sung.

Brad Guin guests on baritone sax on “Looking for My Baby”, a funky tune with a piano interlude as he searches for his girl that is no longer around. He exclaims that “People! You got to “Wake Up!” to the issues of the day without settling on the position he is taking.  On “Good Friend Gone”, he tells another tale of his early life and states “wasn’t such a good kid, me and my friend were bad boys”. His buddy fell into bad company, and he offers the moral to the story “you get a choice ‘tween death and prison, you damn sure better choose that jail.” Dylan Johnson adds some washboard percussion to the song. He closes with “Someday”, one more story of the choices he made and the dreams he has as he states, “Someday I’ll look back on all I’ve completed, Won’t fit on my tombstone, Adventures and riches ten times repeated, Best get started before I’m full grown.”

The album debuts a master storyteller whose messages are worthy of repeated listens. Christopher’s deep voice brings similarity to some country style crooners. But the lessons and pains he releases are those of the blues.

Reviewer John Sacksteder is a retired civil engineer in Louisville, Kentucky who has a lifelong love of music, particularly the blues. He is currently the Editor of the Kentuckiana Blues Society’s monthly newsletter.

Jeff Pitchell – Brown Eyed Blues

Deguello Records

https://jeffpitchellofficial.com

16 songs – 70 minutes

Brown Eyed Blues is the latest release by Connecticut-based Jeff Pitchell, and is a very enjoyable collection of  over a dozen original songs, remixes of tracks from previous albums and one live recording. Whether intentional or not, the album also feels like something of a love letter by Pitchell to some of his primary musical influences.

Things kick off brightly with the ZZ Top-esque “Now You Know” before moving into the toe-tapping Texas blues of “Brown Eyed Blues” with some great piano from Dan Fontanella.  Pitchell channels his inner SRV on the swinging “Wait” while “Caught Up In The Wind” has echoes of mid-period Clapton.  Pitchell tips his hat towards R&B and soul on “Every Day” while the harmony guitars of “When We Kiss” recall the Allman Brothers. “Beg, Steal And Rob” could be an outtake from a Cream recording session, while “Any Way You Can” summons up aural impressions of Little Feat (with superb slide guitar from Johnny Stachela). There’s even the sense of Santana on both “Stay While The Night Is Young” and “Welcome To The Beat”.

The remixed Willie Nelson classic “Whiskey River” benefits some lovely harmonica from the late, great James Cotton.  The live recording is a cover of Warren Haynes’ “Soulshine” and features Michael Allman on vocals and Charles Neville on saxophone.

Indeed, Pitchell has a number of great guest musicians appearing on Brown Eyed Blues, including Allman, Neville, Cotton, Stachela, Duane Betts, Rick Derringer, Dave Mason, Reese Wynans and Tom Hambridge. Other musicians featured include drummers Ephraim Lowell, Nick Longo, Steve Peck and Mike Levesque; percussionist Ivan Santiago; bassists John O’Boyle, Mike Nunno and Tommy McDonald; saxophonist Colin Tilton, keyboardists Jay Vernali and Bruce Feiner;  and multi-instrumentalist Bill Holoman who contributes drums, keys sax, trumpet and backing vocals to the closing “Welcome To The Beat”.

As one might expect with musicians such as these, the performances are uniformly excellent, as is the recording quality. Eleven of the tracks were recorded at Jays Place in Nashville TN, with Jay Vernali engineering and Tom Hambridge producing. The remaining songs were recorded at Horizon Music in West Haven CT by engineer Vic Steffens with production by Colin Tilton.

Pitchell is a good singer and an exceptional guitar player – his solo on “Whiskey River” in particular is simply joyful. He also has a knack of writing memorable songs. Lyrically, Pitchell takes inspiration from the traditional sources of love, lust and longing.

If you like guitar-driven modern blues and blues-rock, you will find much to enjoy on Brown Eyed Blues.

Reviewer Rhys “Lightnin'” Williams plays guitar in a blues band based in Cambridge, England. He also has a day gig as a lawyer.

Sean Webster – Summer Is Gone

M2-Music

www.seanwebsterband.com

9 Tracks – 39 minutes

British born Sean Webster cites the usual influences of the three kings, B.B. Albert, and Freddie, as well as Robert Cray and Buddy Guy, and Gary Moore as musicians he was exposed to while he was young and set him on his path to perform blues. But further says that the primary reason he focused on the guitar was Eric Clapton’s guitar work. He took that direction and developed a passion for the guitar and a dedication to blues rock. This is his sixth album release. His music has led him on many tours of the US and Europe.

Sean is listed as playing guitar, strings and vocals. Sean has a warm, slightly raspy but passionate voice well suited for the soul blues songs he presents here. The rest of his band includes Floris Poesse on bass and upright bass, Phil Wilson on drums, Axel Zwinselman – keyboards and piano, and Jim Zwinselman on pedal steel and slide guitar.

The album opens with “Forever Gone Away”, a declaration of his love for his wife and a consideration of trading his past life for a life for them together. He sings, ” Living the dream we live takes all that I have to give, I know it’s the same for you”. “Won’t Lay Down” follows some of that same theme as he states, “Well I won’t lay down til my head is buried in the ground” as he cannot give up his “restless heart”.  And in a continuing story, the third song, ” Can’t be Alone”, finds the couple separating as he notes that “I’m still in love with you” but cries “You’d always try but, in your heart, you knew, it’s over now”.

The theme of lost love continues with “Lost and Alone” as he notes “You don’t want me, but you don’t want let me go”. Hilde Vos provides a duet as she expresses the same hurt back to him and they come together in a beautiful duet declaring to each other “I can’t help you now, I won’t stand around being taken for a fool”. on “Make It Through” he is struggling to deal with the breakup noting that “you always said if we fail, we just move on, but moving on is the hardest thing I’ve done”.  The breakup continues with “Never Let Go” as he proclaims “This is my heart, this is my soul, was I such a fool, to think you’d never let me go. Watching us fade, wiping your tears, waiting for time, to mend these broken years of mine”.

With “Not You and Me” he says, “I’ve been sitting up all night thinking, could I have made you stay. I wrote the book and I know how the story ends, with you walking away.” “Baby you’re still gone, but I’m moving on, I gotta move on.” The title song, “Summer Has Gone”, expresses remorse and perhaps holding out some hope for the future as he states, “You came into my life, pulled me from the shadows of the night.” and begs her to “stay with me forever, as summer fades away”.  Jim’s pedal steel rings out giving a slight country feel to a rousing finish as Sean concludes the album with “What You Get” and offers “If you stay with me, you gotta see, this love is real”.

The album runs the gamut from the beginning of a promise of a love forever, moving through the realities of his life choices on their relationship, the pain of a breakup with some recognition that both still love each other but are trying to adjust to the separation, and to the conclusion of some hope of reconciliation. Sean’s vocals clearly emote the love or pain that he feels through each song. The instrumental choices also reflect the emotion of the performances. Each song can probably stand on its own, some more than others, but it is the overall story that is told that makes the album work.

Reviewer John Sacksteder is a retired civil engineer in Louisville, Kentucky who has a lifelong love of music, particularly the blues. He is currently the Editor of the Kentuckiana Blues Society’s monthly newsletter.

Chris Cain fell in love with the blues as a child, spurred on by his father, an amateur musician born in Louisiana and who grew up on Beale Street in Memphis. Cain, an accomplished blues guitarist, is set to release his 16th album, Good Intentions Gone Bad on Alligator, July 19.

Cain said he is intimately influenced by blues legends like BB King, Albert Collins, Albert King, and Freddie King that he saw often in concert with his father when growing up.

“We never missed Ray Charles or BB King, because it was just obvious that those guys were doing something beyond just singing a song. And I saw BB King one time and he’s playing a solo and tears are rolling down his cheeks. You could have knocked me over a feather right there, because I’ve never seen anybody feel it like that. Like tears are rolling down his cheeks.”

Without shame, Cain said that at 65 he often has tears in his eyes when he plays. Midway through tunes, Cain, engrossed in the music, will not notice as he begins to weep.

“My father always tells me, baby, if you don’t feel it, don’t do it. But if you feel it, do it,” Cain said. “So that’s the way I’ve always approached playing my guitar, and I’ve always been open to letting whatever it is come in there. I realized that my emotions were a big part of what the heck I was trying to do.”

Several classic blues guitarists inspire Cain’s approach to playing, but he tries to foment his own sound.

Cain said BB King plays with a unique tone and reverb, prominently displayed on Live at the Regal (1965). “I was blown away by the unique sound of Albert Collins. I never heard a guitar sound like that.”

With time, Cain developed a singing style crafted after the blues shouters Jimmy Witherspoon and Big Joe Turner. As he was first emerging as a musician, Cain simply sang in his speaking voice. All this changed spontaneously at a jam.

“When I got up to sing, this thing came out of my throat. It never happened before. It was like this big low thing, and I go, holy shit. Everybody looked at me. The sound came out right so I went to Jimmy Witherspoon and Big Joe Turner because I knew I could never do that falsetto thing.”

Originally, Cain had to borrow money to record his first album, Late Night City Blues (1987), in hopes that a recording would lead to more gigs. The LP found success and Cain continued to record every couple of years.

Cain incorporates elements of jazz into his music. He recalled diving into the genre after his brother came home from Vietnam with six albums, including Wes Montgomery, George Shearing, Lee Morgan, and the Montgomery Brothers.

Jazz helped Cain become more adaptable. Cain said he was inspired by guitarists like Robben Ford who could create an arrangement out of 10 seconds of chatting.

“I was like, I gotta learn this music, because he seemed that he could communicate with this music, create an instant arrangement.”

Cain attributes part of who he is as a guitarist and musician to the instructors at San Jose City College that saw talent in him and gave him extra time and attention. Cain went on to teach jazz improvisation at San Jose City College and San Jose State.

Cain said he is proud of all his records and shocked at the number he has put out. Raisin Cain (2020), his first on the Alligator label, represented turning a corner, Cain said. Good Intentions Bad (2024) builds off that momentum.

“I felt when I made Raisin’ Cain, that I had… got the emotion I want onto the record, so that when somebody else listens to it, they can kind of feel it. I think that this record is the obvious next step.”

The new album has more variety in tunes, but still has a cohesive sound, according to Cain.

On earlier records, Cain said he was both overly ambitious and overly hard on himself. Early in his career, Cain worked hard to make sure he was qualified to be on the stage and that he would not embarrass or humiliate himself.

“I saw too many of my pals get up just to try to jam and get, like, humiliated by not knowing what the hell they were really doing.”

“I took it way too seriously really. But that’s just the way I approached it. And I made a lot of progress by kind of looking at it like that, because I would just be in my room, and, you know, as soon as I would hear something that I never heard before. I had to know what that was. I had to know how it worked.”

Cain said he spent most of his days and nights practicing, listening and playing to records. Despite beating himself up, playing music remained a process filled with joy for Cain.

Early on as a songwriter, Cain created musical tracks first, and later fit words to them. Girlfriends were a common inspiration. Later, he would try to write the lyrics of a tune without thinking about the music. Rhymes were featured often.

The blues offers an emotional outlet and space for vulnerability for Cain.

“It’s like an outlet for all the stuff that I had inside. The guitar was like the outlet so I could get all that kind of stuff out of my soul.”

Cain became a contemporary and friend of many of the blues legends he listened to in concert and on record growing up. On one occasion, in a room filled with pipe smoke, Albert King played slow blues, with Cain onstage.

The two guitarists raged back and forth, with King trying to “crush (Cain) like a bug.” After they both exchanged some gnarly solos, King told the crowd that Cain reminds him of another young blues guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Afterwards, Albert King came to all of Cain’s gigs in Memphis.

“When he (Albert King) passed away, it was devastating,” Cain said. “I went to the funeral man, and I couldn’t listen to his records for like, two years or something, because it was, my friend.”

Albert Collins was another close friend of Cain. Collins showed Cain’s father a video of the two playing together.

“Dad was floating on that for like three weeks after that.”

On one occasion, Cain and his father went backstage to meet Freddie and Albert King. Cain met Collins, who “looks like he’s eight feet tall when you’re a kid”, who folded a match to put under his E string because the string was fretting out on the fretboard. Cain, who idolized Collins, was amazed the old bluesman didn’t have a team of people polishing his guitar for him.

“He’s like, just the sweetest. I mean, he looks like a panther stalking his prey when he would play, but he was so sweet.”

While Cain has toured across the globe, he said Argentina is one of his favorite places to play.

“I was in tears. People were in tears (in Argentina). I was so blown out at the fact that they knew about this music, and they would be moved like that. I never played in rooms that big, that were full of people with tears in their eyes.”

At the encouragement of Argentine guitarist Rafael Nasta, Cain leads guitar clinics in the country as well. Cain also teaches clinics in New Zealand.

While he has performed all over the world, Cain had to learn how to fully tap into the energy and connect with a crowd. For his first 15 years of performing, Cain closed his eyes, before realizing that he was missing out on a stronger connection with audiences.

Cain said that after he opened his eyes on stage, he immediately saw positive effects and felt a tangible connection with crowds.

“Being able to tap into my emotions has really had a great effect on just what happens at the gig. For me, the feeling washes over me, like, like ocean waves. It’s like, I surrender to it.”

Cain said that performing and sharing the music is what he loves to do and is most proud of. Several people have come up to him and told him that his records helped them through a difficult time in their lives.

Over time, Cain has shifted his guitar playing style. As a young man, he tried to squeeze notes into about as many blank bars as he could. Big bands and Sinatra helped him find merit in ballads. With time he started playing what he was feeling, in what he described as an unconscious decision.

Through the years, Cain has amassed an impressive collection of guitars. Many of them he received as gifts, like his first ever, a $75 ax from the pawn shop, from his mother. After staring through the window at an SG Standard 1969 for 30 minutes, Cain’s middle brother bought the guitar for him. As he became interested in jazz, Cain bought a 1960 Byrdland, after saving up money. Cain said the Byrdland is easy to play and looks fantastic. Cain also owns a Stratocaster with the versatility to sound like pretty much like any guitar in the studio.

Cain hopes to become more fluent as both a singer and guitar player. He said the search for musical knowledge and improvement as a guitarist is endless. At the core, playing the blues is what gives him the most joy.

“It’s like medicine. I love playing it, you know? I mean, I really do,” Cain said. “It’s like I go somewhere else for a minute.”

Writer Jack Austin, also known by his radio DJ name, Electric Chicken (y Pollo Electrico en Espanol), is a vinyl collector, music journalist, and musician originally from Pittsburgh.

Big Joe Kennedy – Amalgamation

Self Released

www.bigjoekennedy.com

11 tracks

The lights dim slightly. The small stage in the Beale Street lounge sits brightly lit with a spotlight tight on the piano player and one more loosely illuminating the other musicians. The band starts and the singer lays into a few well-known blues and New Orleans standards and a pop blues cut before switching gears into a great New Orleans jazz instrumental followed by another slick jazz instrumental. The crowd is now completely warmed up and the singer and band then take a voyage through jazz standards that the crowd all know and love. The piano player finishes the set solo, letting the crowd wind down and gets personal with the adoring crowd of listeners.

That’s pretty much how this album goes. Big Joe Kennedy is a great entertainer from the Midwest who spent many years in New Orleans absorbing the vibes of great jazz and blues and honing his skills as a musician. Weaned in the music scenes of Milwaukee and Chicago, Big Joe spent time getting a graduate degree in musical performance and headed for NOLA where he perfected his craft there since 2009.

He’s surrounded himself with a skilled set of players who also seem to enjoy being part of the entertainment. Joe handles vocals and piano, Mark Brooks is on bass and Doug Belote is on drums. The horns are Zach Lange on trumpet, Stephen Walker on trombone, Marty Peters on sax, and, on one cut, Joe Dexter Woodis on the licorice stick.

Big Joe and company open with blues and NOLA standards “Messin’ With The Kid,” “Working In The Coal Mine” and “Call My Job.” He then ventures over to “Brickyard Blues,” a more mainstream hit. He and the band give these cuts their all as they work to make them their own.

Then Kennedy switches over to a pair of jumping instrumentals, “Fidgety Feet” and “Mahogany Hall Stomp.” The prior cut drips New Orleans charm and the latter is a more straight jazzy number that Big Joe and the band romp through nicely.

Louis Armstrong introduced the entire world to “What A Wonderful World” and Big Joe puts his stamp on the song. Then he croons through “Exactly Like You” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” I grew up listening to my Mom’s radio station that played songs like these all day and still today am enamored with the standards sung by many of the great musical figures from the 1930s and beyond.

Then Big Joe goes solo on the old hit “The Very Thought Of You” and finishes with the instrumental “Dorothy,” a nice conclusion to this set of tunes.

The intent here was not to reinvent the wheel. Amalgamation is a live set of soulful and popular tunes that Big Joe Kennedy and his band deliver with gusto. There is not a lot of new ground covered here, but one can feel the joy and pride these guys are performing with. Kennedy sings with smoothness and plays with great feeling. The band is great, and the horns are up to the task of representing NOLA.

If you need a CD with happy and joyful standards that you throw in your CD player and just relax and listen to then look no further.

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.

Katie Knipp – Me

Katie Knipp Publishing

www.katieknipp.com

13 tracks – 56 minutes

Katie Knipp grew up in Concord, California. As a young girl she played in the school band playing clarinet, but as a teen she determined she loved to sing and joined the choir. She started private vocal lessons at age 13, taught herself to play piano starting at age 16, and then the guitar in her early 20’s. When Barry Manilow was performing some shows in the Bay area, he contacted her high school to pick some singers to back him at those shows. She was one he selected.

Everyone around her said that making a living in music was an impossible task and suggested she pursue a medical degree. She enrolled in college to earn a degree in anesthesiology, but also chose a choir elective. She quickly found the music was more important to her.

She continued to work with a private vocal coach, Joe Barnett, for eight years and entered into the music program at UC Santa Cruz and finally completed her music degree at Cal State Hayward. She listened a lot to Bonnie Raitt and found that her bluesy, Americana sound was the music she most enjoyed. She formed her own band, playing in local clubs and made several attempts at advancing her music career with recording contracts. She married and moved to Sacramento, where she had to start over. When she had an opportunity to open for Tim Reynolds, it led to a relationship with SBL Entertainment which offered many opportunities for her to open for other musicians including Robert Cray, Joan Osborne and Ruthie Foster among others.

In 2014, she gave birth to the first of two children, the second born a year later. This dropped her career back but also gave her an opportunity to dwell on her music and to consider her future direction. She studied marketing and pre-sales all of which led to the release of the present album, which as titled proclaims “Me”. The album consists of ten original songs, all written by Katie and three shortened radio versions of the earlier full versions.

Katy plays piano, Wurlitzer, electric and acoustic guitars, and dobro as well as singing all lead vocals and providing her own backing vocals on several cuts. Her band consists of Neil Campisano on drums, Chris Martino and Quinn Bridges on lead guitar, Pancho Tomaselli and Jen Rund on bass, Steve Utstein on Hammond organ, electric piano, mellotron and cello, Justin Au on trumpet, Brandon Au on trombone and tuba and several other guest performers.

Katie’s piano opens the album with “Mud”, a slightly theatrically tilted song that announces at the beginning “Surrounded by garbage, perched on a stone, I am trying to write songs that aren’t about you”. She follows that up with “Outlaw Doc”, a rollicking rocker with Mick Martin guesting on harmonica. “Vampire” starts with a haunting rhythm and bounces along as she declares “kill me as you love me, as I am yours until the end.” She declares that I will love you forever through “Time and Space” on a quieter ballad.

It is noted that she wrote “Go” as a seven-part harmony and she dubbed her voice for most of those tracks. Pancho adds vocals on the lower register tracks. She then says, “I Want to Tell You” “that I love you before I die”.  “The Devil’s Armchair” is a song dealing with addiction in any of its many forms including obsessive love, substance abuse, or electronics and notes that “when you sink into the devil’s armchair, you experience a moment of bliss”. Pancho and Sam Miranda add a verse in Spanish.

Her bio cites a friendship she formed with Josh Dadami, a young man in her high school years, with whom she formed a friendship and wrote some of her earliest songs. He had cystic fibrosis and died at age 26 from the disease, which she learned about when she received a call from his mother while she was performing and listened to a voice mail. “Dirty Cables” recounts her recollection of him. “Lava Pot” finds her “in over my head”. “Stillness” is a somber song opening with the sounds of gun shots and dealing with murders that have occurred in the name of racism or prejudice. The album concludes with the radio edits of “Mud”, “Go” and “Lava Pot”

Katie’s voice has a unique, sometimes warbly, quality that some might find difficult to appreciate. As I noted at the beginning of the song reviews, all of her songs have a theatrical flair that might bring to mind some of the songs from 70’s female icons such as Ani DiFranco. While certainly instrumentally interesting, the style is all over the place but in my mind, seldom centered in the blues. The eccentric sound is one of her own.

Reviewer John Sacksteder is a retired civil engineer in Louisville, Kentucky who has a lifelong love of music, particularly the blues. He is currently the Editor of the Kentuckiana Blues Society’s monthly newsletter.

Karen Lawrence – The Blues Is Back

Self Released

www.facebook.com/KarenLawrenceBlueByNature

10 tracks/46 minutes

Karen Lawrence returns to the blues with this album of all original tunes. Her career goes back to the 1980s where she dabbled in New Wave rock and pop. She switched to blues in the 1990s which, along with writing songs and singing in support of stars, has been her mainstay. She sang lead for Jeff Beck, she penned songs for big Hollywood films and for Barbra Streisand (“Prisoner” which has been covered by a plethora of big names). Lawrence also did a stint as backup singer for Aerosmith.

She is joined on this album by a number of artists and was recorded in two sessions. On drums are Thomas Southworth, Bobby Donoho, Ted Chast and Dan Potrach. Dale Parker, Sam Stephens and Ron Battle handle the bass duties. Tony Saracene is on guitars, organ, upright bass and more and Celso Salim is also on guitar. Max Butler is on organ and Saracene is on rhythm guitar. Lawrence is on all the vocals and adds some guitars, organ and piano on the title cut.

The album starts off with “Made To Move” which is a big. bluesin’ and rockin’ piece with a vibrant groove and passionate vocal work by Lawrence. Lots of guitar and some nice backing organ sell this one. “Easy” is next, a big blues ballad that showcases Lawrence and her softer side. Stinging guitar is featured on this sweet blues rock ballad. Next is “True Love” with some more heavy guitar licks and a md tempo beat that grabs at the listener. Lots of rocking blues once again. The it’s “I’m Comin’ Home,” a driving shuffle with Lawrence and Saracene leading the charge on vocals, guitar and slide. “Die Blues” rounds out the first half of the album. This is pretty much a straight, slow rock song with Lawrence laying her soul out for us.

The title track picks up the pace and is a lot more jumping as Lawrence and company bounce around and deliver an upbeat and cool cut.  Guitar is predominant and the organ support is again slick and adds balance. Up next is another ballad entitled “Heaven’s Masterpiece.” Lawrence again gives an impassioned performance as she winds her way through this touching song. “Takeaway” follows, a somber piece that Lawrence delivers with feeling. Then it’s “Way Way Down,” a slow but intense cut where Lawrence gives a gutsy performance. The organ helps set the mood and there are some nice guitar licks, too.  The finale is “Hold On To Me.” It gets a good groove going as the piano supports the effort well. Lawrence nails the vocals as she does throughout the album. Another well done guitar solo is featured to help close things out.

I am sure Karen Lawrence’s fans will enjoy this well-crafted set of tunes that she wrote and released on her own. Mixing blues and rock, she delivers ten great vocal performances, and the backing crew does a super job in support of the effort. I enjoyed the album and it is well worth giving it a listen!

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.