Southern Avenue – Family

Alligator Records

www.southernavenuemusic.com

14 tracks

Southern Avenue’s fourth recording and first for Alligator Records is an amazing piece of musical work. This Memphis band has put together a collection of songs that they liken to a family photo album, expressing their connections to their past , the world and each other in the music they produce.

The family is lead singer Tierinii Jackson, her guitar playing husband Ori Naftaly, and her sisters Tikyra “T.K” Jackson and Ava Jackson  who back their sister vocally while respectively playing drums  and violin/percussion. They weave a vocal web of beauty and intensity, with varied and spectacular harmonies. They are amazing and get better and better over time. This album outshines anything they have done in the past, and they’ve done some damned fine albums!

Rounding out the band are keyboardist Jeremy Powell and bassist Blake Rhea. Luther Dickinson adds his bass to four tracks. Jeremy Powell is a seasoned and great keyboard player. I have loved his music for years in this band and with Ghost Town Blues Band. He is a really talented guy; they call him Mr. 88 for good reason– he is a master of the ivories.

Long Is The Road” gets the ball rolling. The sisters trademark harmonies shine right from the stop. It’s a rousing and rocking song. Naftaly blazes on guitar as they set a high standard for the remaining songs to follow and they achieve it. Ori opens the next cut on guitar and Jeremy Powell is ever solid on keys. “Upside” is a soulful tune with Tierinii doing the vocal calls and her sisters reply. Tierinii sings with deep passion, all the vocals shine and Naftaly again plays some wicked licks as the band sets a great groove and deliver another outstanding cut.

“Found A Friend In You” follows. Ori gets his dobro going as his wife sings about good friends having each other’s back. This one is high energy and has a rousing tempo. Then it’s “So Much Love” which is a slow ballad with af funky groove going. Tierinii sings with feelings that emanate from deep within her; beautiful stuff! Naftally continues to excel on guitar and Powell’s organ is sublime and helps carry the track.

Slide and impassioned vocals kick off the short cut “Family” before they get into it and go down to the Delta with a slick, deep blues with “Late Night Get Down.” It’s deep blues with lots of vocal layers that are just exceptional.  More nice guitar and organ make this extra fun. Then we have “Rum Boogie,” a cut about the famous club on the corner of Beale Street and  B.B. King Boulevard. Another winner!

“Gotta Kep The Love” features some ethereal singing and harmonies, restrained guitar and very cool organ work. Funky and cool, they show their soul in this slick number. Naftaly offers another cool solo, too. Slide guitar opens “Sisters,” a song celebrating the trio of siblings who help when each if their bad just ain’t bad enough. The short cut Keep On Moving On” leads into “Back To What Feels Right.” A somewhat somber opening that turns into a rousing tune with an excellent guitar groove.   Hot guitar and even hotter vocals make this special.

“Believe” is another short, slow and even somewhat haunting  cut that leads into another tune. Here it’s “We Are” which is a great song with lyrics expressing we have to be strong. Triumphant and a host of other qualities that we have to live up to to make the future. Powerful stuff and a fantastic cloee to an utterly amazing album!

This is an exceptional album. Tight vocal harmonies, music that ranges from ethereal to in your face power, super guitar work and great backline and keyboards make this outstanding from top to bottom.  This album is sure to garner awards!

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.

 Blues Blast Music Awards Submissions 

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Fees increase on May 1st so please get your music submitted NOW!

Albums and videos released between June 1. 2024 and May 31, 2025 are eligible this year.

Submit your music now. Click this link: www.bluesblastmagazine.com/blues-blast-awards-submission-information

Will Wilde – Blues Is Still Alive

VizzTone Label Group

www.willharmonicawilde.com

10 songs – time – 40:59

Will Wilde has created a new sub-genre called blues-rock harmonica. His main M.O. is playing fast and loud. That is fine as his intention is to be modern. He composed all the songs as well as one co-write. He gets close to traditional blues sounds on occasion. He has enlisted a very capable stable of players to back his endeavors.

The title track dives right in headfirst. Fierce overblown harp as he exhorts “Tell ’em what I’m talkin’ bout Walter” as guest star Walter Trout rips off some of his signature blues-rock guitar gymnastics. Will’s charged vocals fit his music well. “Wild Man” essentially amounts to self promotion. Russell Carr’s bass is prominent under the harmonica pyrotechnics. The energy flow continues with “Don’t Play With Fire”. The melody of “Gypsy Woman” is taken directly from “St. James Infirmary”. An upright bass and electric piano lend a lighter blues vibe.

Will reverts back to his high-powered stance on “Trouble Of That Girl”. Although he plays fast here and elsewhere, his approach is stylized. Although the tempo slows down once again for “Stole My Love”, his harp is intense. He really lets loose on “Girl’s Got Soul”. His playing on “Learn How To Love” is a bit more stylized. The song has female backing vocals with a single voice answering his vocal at times. “Broken Dream Blues” leans more towards a traditional blues sound. The harp intensifies as his solo progresses. It also contains one of his more impassioned vocals. Greg Coulson’s organ vamps underneath the harp and Bobby Harrison’s guitar on “Don’t Trust Me”.

Nothing unusual in his harmonica playing, but it is unrelenting in its pure energy. His gritty vocals don’t hurt and either does his choice of first-rate musicians. Will brings harmonica blues into the future.

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

Richard Ashby – Charlton Road

Self-Release – 2024

https://richardashbymusic.com/

7 tracks: 28 minutes

Charlton Road is the latest album from New Zealand native and versatile guitarist, Richard Ashby. Now based in Sydney, Australia, Ashby (according to his website) “has been working as a musician and teacher for over twenty years. After relocating to Sydney in 2008, he has established himself as a performer, composer and educator. Performing regularly in several established groups and as a freelance guitarist, Ashby specializes in jazz, blues, world, and popular music. He has performed throughout Australia and New Zealand both as a sideman and as a featured artist. Ashby also regularly works as an accompanist and recording musician in Sydney.”

In addition, Ashby “has spent the past decade working as an educator, and he’s particularly passionate about guitar teaching and guitar ensembles.”

Ashby’s one-pager states that he hopes to captivate blues audiences with Charlton Road following the success of his 2022 release, Arkadia Blues. That album enjoyed a three-month run on the Australian Blues & Roots airplay charts. In addition, Arkadia Blues made the UK Blues Broadcasters Top 25. Blues Blast readers can reference the March 29, 2023 album review for more details.

Ashby wrote and recorded all the tracks for Charlton Road with mixing by Scottie Christie. For this latest project—found on the album’s one-pager—Ashby “showcases a captivating blend of instrumental guitar-driven music, steeped in the blues yet infused with elements of Nashville-country picking, soul-jazz, funk, and rock.”

The album kicks off with “Might As Well,” an up-tempo jazzy number that highlights that Nashville-country picking by Ashby. “Better Get Your Ducks in a Row” continues that expert electric finger-picking with a driving bass beat. Funk, in the form of terrific keyboard play, is evident on “Boiled Eggs,” which has a great refrain and backbeat.

The album’s title track, “Charlton Road,” is a nod to those electrified honky tonk tunes that one might hear on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas or along Broadway in Nashville. Next up is “The Super Song” that’s a blues rockin’ number with enough soul to get listeners out onto the dance floor. Funk, soul, and a driving bass keeps the party going with “Squish Squash.” Featuring Ashby’s guitar solos, this is one of the album’s strongest numbers.

Charlton Road ends with “Anaconda Squeeze,” another hard-driving rock blues number that pulls out all of the stops.

Richard Ashby fans won’t be disappointed in his latest album and new converts should make Charlton Road part of their blues music playlists.

Writer Ken Billett is a freelance writer based in Memphis. He is a Blues Foundation member and former docent/tour guide at the Blues Hall of Fame. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Ken writes about travel, music, and the Mississippi Delta.

John Lee Hooker – The Standard School Broadcast Recordings

BMG Records

https://www.bmg.com

8 songs – 59 minutes

When John Lee Hooker left us on 21 June 2001, he left behind a legacy of recorded music matched by few others. His influence on the likes of the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Animals and Canned Heat was a foundation stone in the late-60s resurgence of the blues. So what a thrill it is to hear this previously unreleased 1973 recording that captures him in prime form.

The Standard School Broadcast was founded in 1928 as a groundbreaking educational program sponsored by Standard Oil (later Exxon), dedicated to music appreciation and American history, reaching schools across the Western USA via the NBC network. Hooker’s studio session, recorded at San Francisco’s Coast Recorders, is an object lesson in how the blues should be played.

On the session, Hooker’s band comprised his long-term rhythm section of bassist Gino Skaggs and drummer, Ken Swank, together with Hooker’s then-20-year-old son, Robert Hooker on piano. Together, they recorded eight tracks, but only three were ever broadcast. That makes this release pretty much un-missable by any true fan of the blues.

Of course, Hooker had a reputation for somewhat variable quality in his performances at times over the years. In this case, however, the production is sparkling and clear (with a glorious, reverb-laden sound not dissimilar to Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer album), and the performances are simply stunning. Recorded live, with no overdubs, edits, or even significant mixing, this is one of the best blues albums released in years.

There is a rare intimacy here, with Hooker on top form vocally, whilst playing some superb yet restrained guitar. Skaggs and Swank follow their leader subtly but most effectively, while Robert Hooker’s piano is a revelation, adding depth and color to his father’s songs. He never over-plays or over-shadows his parent but instead lifts John Lee’s performance in the same way that Otis Spann used to do for Muddy.

The album opens with the one chord drone of “Bad Boy”, before switching seamlessly into “Hard Times”, a moving re-imagining of Hooker’s own “No Shoes”.  The classic Hooker boogie comes out in both “Rock With Me”, and “Should Have Been Gone”, the latter a reworking of “I’m Leaving”.  There is also a solo rendition of his 1948 classic “Sally Mae”. But it is in the slower, meditative, emotionally brutal and scorchingly raw tracks such as “I Hate The Day I Was Born” and the medley of “When My First Wife Left Me” and “Hobo Blues” that Hooker’s true genius is found. He isn’t playing this music for an audience. He is playing for himself, exorcising inner demons, confessing untold sins and releasing deep, existential despair. It is painful and joyful, mournful and uplifting. It is life.

If you’re already a John Lee Hooker fan (and who isn’t?), this is an essential purchase. If you’re not yet a John Lee Hooker fan, you will be after hearing this album. It is a hauntingly beautiful release.

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

Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of Carlos Santana will quickly recognize his searing yet lyrical guitar playing, honed over seven decades of making music, primarily leading the band that bears his name.

He was featured in the movie about the original Woodstock festival, the band laying down scintillating Afro-Latin rhythms, providing a preview of their first three classic albums. Santana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the band in 1998. His 1999 album, Supernatural, was a world-wide hit, garnering millions in albums sales along with nine Grammy Awards. In 2013 he became the first Mexican immigrant to receive the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors award. In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine placed him in the 11^th slot on their list of the greatest guitar players.

It has been quite a ride from the early days growing up in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Learning to play the guitar at the age of eight, Santana was inspired by the music of his father’s mariachi band. As a teenager, he was mentored by Javier Bátiz, an influential guitarist in the local Tijuana clubs who steered his protégé towards the blues of B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, and other classic artists. A move to San Francisco in the mid 1960s placed Santana in the epicenter of a dynamic music scene that would soon reverberate around the world.

“If people take the time to look from the beginning, what I listened to was John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Then, later on, Peter Green\ and Michael Bloomfield. They were disciples of B.B. King, and me too, except that I got away from B.B King when I discovered Gábor Szabó A lot of people came from B.B King. They also listened to Freddie King and to Albert King, but for some reason B.B. King was the centerpiece for a lot of musicians that wanted to play the blues. I think it was due to his honesty, the rawness of his playing, and his heart.

“To me, Gábor was a very, very elegant gypsy guitarist. He was Hungarian, from Budapest. I learned a lot from him, especially because of the way he played with Willie Bobo, Victor Pantoja and Chico Hamilton. His playing was very, very different. In San Francisco at that time, everybody was listening to the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Janis Joplin. But I was listening to Gábor Szabó a lot, and Wes Montgomery.

“Peter Green was a very good friend. I miss him terribly. I’m grateful that we toured together a lot of times. You know, he would catch a plane and he would just appear and play with Santana. He would leave Fleetwood, Mac for a little bit, and then he will come sit in with us. I identify with the way he played the guitar because he was very lyrical. The only other person that is like that was Gary Moore. A lot of musicians play guitar, but very few people get deep, deep, deep, into the guitar, like Gary Moore, Peter Green, and myself. But again, we all came from B.B. King. BB King is the guy.”

Santana also shared the stage a number of times with Michael Bloomfield, the mercurial guitarist with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Contrary to some reports, Santana never took lessons with Bloomfield.

“Well, I could first hear B.B. King in Michael’s playing, and then I could hear that he was branching out. He sounded like he took some LSD or something because his music all of a sudden sounded like a hamster that just came out of the cage! The cage can be very limiting sometimes. But Michael opened the door, got out of the cage, and he started playing Ravi Shankar and Cannonball Adderley.

“That album, East West, with the Butterfield Blues band was extremely important because while people were listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, there were two bands who were like really, really incredible. One was John Mayall with Eric Clapton, and the other one was Butterfield with Michael Bloomfield. I listened it to over and over and over. Michael was my favorite guitar player of all the ones that played with Bob Dylan.”

In September of 1968, a bad bout of insomnia sidelined Bloomfield for the third night of shows at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, leaving promoter Bill Graham scrambling to find a replacement. He quickly enlisted guitarist Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop, at the time another member of the Butterfield Blues Band, and an up-and-coming guitarist, Carlos Santana, who was making a name for himself leading the Santana Blues Band. He ended up on stage with Bishop and Al Kooper on keyboards for a jam session that was recorded and released as The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield And Al Kooper, a follow-up project to the successful Super Sessions album released earlier in the year.

“That was the first time I was on a recording that was released to the public. I played the solo on the song “Sonny Boy Williamson.” It was a great honor because I love Al Kooper. I love what he played with the Blues Project band and what he played with Bob Dylan. He played the organ on “Like A Rolling Stone” and other songs on Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited album. Later on he was with Blood, Sweat & Tears. He’s a very, very important musician.”

In 1989. Santana was able to lend a helping hand to one of his main blues influences. The project brought other artists together, including Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Musselwhite, George Thorogood, Robert Cray, and Los Lobos, to honor a true blues legend, John Lee Hooker. Entitled The Healer, it became Hooker’s best selling album, reviving his career and getting him the level of recognition that he deserved, including his first Grammy award.

“It was a thrill. You know, I came to his house on his birthday and told him, I wrote this song for you. But it’s a song that sounds like it comes from the Doors, the group with Jim Morrison. The Doors had Hooker’s sound, and they didn’t hide it. In fact, the Doors were a combination of John Lee Hooker and John Coltrane You know, those are the two people, the two Johns that I love – John Coltrane and John Lee Hooker. So I played the song for him and he immediately wrote the lyrics, blues is a healer, and we did it. One take. Can you believe it? One take in the studio.

“I’ve received a lot of phone calls, but one of the greatest ones was Johnny Hooker when he called me you know he stuttered. And he said, Carlos, and I said, hi, John. He said, “when I hear your voice, it’s like eating a great big piece of chocolate cake.” Thank you, John. You know?

The guitarist has a new album coming out, a retrospective of tracks that have made an impression and stuck with him over time. The project is called Sentient, a veritable feast for the senses. For Santana, it focuses on striving for a higher consciousness, allowing you to think with a different mind, and reason with a different heart.

One track, “Blues For Salvador”, was written for Santana’s son. It was the title track on a 1987 solo release that earned him his first Grammy Award, for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

“That song came from my brother Chester Thompson, who played keyboards in my band. Him and I, we started playing it in the studio. We said, record, to Jim Gaines, the fine engineer who just passed away. He recorded Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Riviera Paradise.” We recorded at that time with tape, not digital, and the tape was running out. So we were very, very lucky and fortunate that it was good to the last note before the tape ended.

“A lot of people probably don’t know that I played some blues. But the way I played” Blues for Salvador,” it’s still the blues. It’s just that it is not the Chicago style of blues or Texas kind of blues, or Mississippi kind of blues, but it’s still the blues. I’ve been to Japan. They played the blues over there, and I’ve been to Italy. They played the blues over there, too. It’s just that they do it in a different way.”

Another highlight has Santana’s guitar answering a mesmerizing vocal from Smokey Robinson on “Please Don’t Take Your Love, “ a smoldering performance that answers any doubts about Santana’s blues chops.

“I did two solos in one day. One I did before Smokey got to the studio. He was on his way from the airport. I didn’t want to wait, so I just told the engineer to record, and I played. When Smokey got to the studio, then I did another solo the way he wanted me to do. He took the solo that I did when he was there and he put it on his album. Now I have the one that I did by myself on my album.”

Two other tracks have a Michael Jackson connection. “Whatever Happens” was featured on the singer’s 2001 release, Invincible. The other is a song Jackson composed, with more of Santana’s stinging blues licks.

“That was not too normal for me. I was doing a show with drummer Narada Michael Walden’s band. I showed up and they were playing the song, so I just went on stage and played it. No rehearsal, no soundcheck. I was familiar with it, of course, as I love Michael’s music and I loved the song, “Stranger In Moscow”, because I have been to Moscow and I know what it’s like to be in Moscow at night. You have to be very, very careful where you go and what you do, because if you get in trouble, Perry Mason cannot bail you out!”

One third of the tracks on Sentient stem from two 1990s collaboration with Italian composer and keyboardist Paolo Rustichelli.

“I met Paolo through Anna Maria, Wayne Shorter’s wife, Anna Maria said that there’s a gentleman that is like the Quincy Jones of Rome, Italy. She told me that Paolo had written a couple of songs for Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and me. She said, he wants to know if you would play on it. I said, of course.

“So I played on this song called “ Full Moon,” which I used on my album, Spirits Dancing in the Flesh. Now I also put it on Sentient, but again, a different version. There are two other songs Paolo composed and played on that feature me along with Miles Davis on trumpet, “Get On,” and “Rastafario.” Anything to do with Miles Davis is fun and it’s a real honor to be invited to play on a song with him.

“I hope enough people get to listen to the album and enjoy it. My favorite song in the album is “Vers Le Soleil.” It is a very elegant piece by Paolo. Every time I hear the song, I can see a ballerina dancing with elegance and grace at the Olympics. I love Europe. Because to me, Europe has turned me onto a flair, a different kind of elegance than United States, with all the museums and their own symmetry of geniuses. We have our own symmetry of geniuses, too. But I love coming to Europe because I learned so much from Picasso, da Vinci, and Stravinsky and that kind of symmetry of geniuses.”

The guitarist will also be releasing a deluxe, career spanning book written by Jeff Tamarkin, Carlos Santana: Love, Devotion, Surrender: The Illustrated Story Of his Music Journey, published by Insight Editions. It features a wealth of rare photos, a complete listing of his live performances across seven decades, along with photos of some of his favorite guitars.

“I’m very, very grateful to the gentleman who did it, probably two or three people that put it together. I have seen books like that on Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix. However, this book that they did on me is on a whole other level of beauty, elegance, and grace. I think our fans would really enjoy looking at it.”

It is no secret that Carlos Santana is a spiritual human being. When asked how he is coping these days when chaos seems to be the only constant in our lives, he had a quick response.

“A long time ago, I discovered that I needed spiritual discipline. So I decided to embrace a path with Sri Chinmoy. It was very, very challenging, kind of like West Point and the Marines. I think John McLaughlin turned me onto it. This discipline that I entered in 1972 has helped me today because I feel really healthy, very clear. The things that a lot of people suffered with, which is indulgence, almost like suicide by drugs and liquor, that stuff didn’t phase me. I looked at it and I said, no, this is not for me. I might kiss it, but I’m not going to totally go to bed with it! So I was able to put that aside and embrace more of my love for the music of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Miles Davis.

“Music became my drug, and learning life is the only drug that is really, really happening. Carlos Santana likes life, this planet, and I love people. I hope that together we can bring down more walls of ignorance and darkness, and we can embrace oneness, unity, and harmony together.”

In the end, Santana keeps coming back to the blues. He realizes that his artistic vision has carried him a long way from the days when he was trying to scratch out a living playing blues. Those sounds continue to resonate in his soul, and will always be there in his music if we just take the time to listen closely.

“I had some funny interactions with Freddie King back in the day. He would say, “you know, Santana, I really liked your first album, but this new shit that you’re playing is too complicated for me, man.” Freddie wasn’t necessarily attuned to the Caravanserai or Welcome albums because he was a traditionalist. He just wanted to play the blues.

“I love the blues too, but if I stay there for too long, I get bored. I need the stimulant of African music and the gypsy element of Gábor Szabó, the jazz playing of Wes Montgomery. You know, I can’t just hang around in one particular room in the house. I have to visit the whole city!”

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Mark Thompson lives in Florida, where he is enjoying the sun and retirement. He is the past President of the Board of Directors for the Suncoast Blues Society and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Blues Foundation. Music has been a huge part of his life for the past fifty years – just ask his wife!

John McDonald and Mark Maxwell – Feeling BLUES

Self-Released – 2024

www.johnmcdonaldbluesamericana.com

https://firsttune.com

11 tracks: 52 minutes

Feeling BLUES is the latest musical collaboration between John McDonald and Mark Maxwell, both of whom are based in Athens, Georgia. McDonald has been making music for close to 50 years—first from his native Massachusetts, to Bloomington, Indiana, to California, and, finally, to the college town of Athens, where he was head of the Genetics Department at the University of Georgia. Maxwell is the founder and owner of the Maxwell Sound Recording Studio, also based in Athens. Maxwell was born in Georgia and is an accomplished musician in his own right.

The duo worked together on the self-released album Touched by The Blues in 2022, which was reviewed by Blues Blast Magazine on October 30^th of that year. For Feeling BLUES, McDonald handles all lead vocals and acoustic guitar, while Maxwell plays both electric and classical guitars, bass guitar, and “everything else” according to the liner notes. The new album was recorded at Maxwell Sound Recording Studio.

Joining McDonald and Maxwell are a small contingent of gifted artists, including: Glyn Denham on harmonica, Jason Fuller on piano, Mindy Towe playing sax and clarinet, and Mason Towe on the drums, along with backing vocals from Gabrielle Campbell, Janis Maxwell, and Jada Moss.

Feeling BLUES shines brightest when those gifted artists do their thing and the album features covers of classic tunes of blues, soul, and R&B. The album also contains one original tune, “I’m Sitting Here Thinking of You,” written by McDonald.

The album gets off to a strong start with Buddy Guy’s “I Go by Feel,” with excellent guitar work by Maxwell and a tight musical arrangement. The classic “Poison Ivy” by Mel London gets the rousing brassy treatment with a great nod to Willie Mabon, who first recorded the song in 1954. The classics keep rolling with “I’m Ready” by Willie Dixon. Fuller’s keys sparkle and the backing vocals are wonderful on the Muddy Waters classic.

While “Evil Twin” slows the tempo down a bit, the blues continue to receive the full treatment. Written by Tom Hambridge and Richard Fleming, and recorded by Buddy Guy, “Evil Twin” has everything a Chicago-style blues tune should have: an opening guitar solo, a slow methodical backbeat driven by Mason Towe’s drums, and Fuller’s juke-style piano. “Jelly Roll Baker” features Glyn Denham’s harmonica and another toe-tapping blues beat. “Three O’Clock Blues” finishes up this blues set with a standard slow twelve-bar style well-known to all blues fans.

The album’s lone original track, “I’m Sitting Here Thinking of You” features Mindy Towe’s up tempo sax play, Maxwell’s lead guitar, and great vocals.

Feeling BLUES finishes with George Gershwin’s iconic “Summertime,” which is an interesting choice, but works well with the album due to incredible guitar work (both acoustic and classical style), mesmerizing harmonica by Denham, along with those terrific backing vocals, once again.

Feeling BLUES is another solid project from John McDonald and Mark Maxwell along with that tremendous group of talented musicians and singers.

Writer Ken Billett is a freelance writer based in Memphis. He is a Blues Foundation member and former docent/tour guide at the Blues Hall of Fame. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Ken writes about travel, music, and the Mississippi Delta.

Robbert Duijf – Silver Spoon

Donor Productions / Naked Records

www.robbertduijf.com

12 Tracks – 40 minutes

Netherland’s Robbert Duijf won the Dutch Blues Challenge – Solo/duo in 2019 which permitted him to compete in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in the solo/duo competition where he became a semi-finalist. In 2023, his band won the Dutch Blues Challenge and his album, Change Myself, won the award for best Dutch Blues Album. The band then competed and won the 2024 European Blues Challenge in Braga, Portugal.

His web site describes his music as “a mix of Gospel and Delta Blues with a pinch of British American folk inspired by Charley Patton, Skip James, Willie Dixon, Blind Willie Johnson, Dave Van Ronk, John lee Hooker and Michael de Jong”. “The term gospel music probably originated in the 1920s. In the cotton fields, slaves were not allowed to talk to each other, but they were allowed to sing. This is how songs of hope and encouragement were created; they were enriched with rhythmic influences from the blues. Gospel music is characterized by improvised, narrative passages and extravagant expressiveness. The transfer of feelings, the singer’s individuality, his courage to expose himself thanks to the recognition and support of the audience, that is what gospel blues entails in its purest form. That is also what distinguishes gospel blues from other music genres, it evokes a sense of community and provides connection.”

Robbert’s intent is to embody those feelings into the twelve original songs on this album. His oldest son, Rubin Duijf, plays double bass with Robin Zalm on drums. Guests include Thimo Gijezen on piano, Sjaak Korsten on backing vocals, Massimo Bombrini on percussion and Angelo Bombrini on banjo and also the producer for the album.

“Ticket for the Love Train” gets the album rolling down the tracks as she said, “Marry Me and I’ll open up the Pearly Gates”. He notes she “was born with a “Silver Spoon” and says “I never fought a real war, but loving you came close”.  He then warns he is “Tired of Being Good” and tosses in some slide guitar along the way.

“All Night Long” includes some harmonica, which I presume is played by Robbert, as it is not otherwise credited, and he sings “Papa told Mama don’t let your little girl go out, all she wants is to shake that tree and makes her scream and shout. Mama told Papa don’t let my boy go out, all he wants to do is boogie and makes him scream and shout”.  “Angel” is a quiet interlude as he indicates that “Tomorrow I will be by your side”. “She Don’t Know” gets things jumping with some honky-tonk piano as he says, “she don’t know how I feel about her…and makes me drink alone.”

“First Train Out” offers a story about a failing town after the mines closed in 1974 and everybody had to leave as there was no future there.  On “Losers”, he said he was playing seven card stud, “I was playing for money, and they were playing for blood. And on the way home, the big winner got mugged and he is just a loser like me”.  He tells her you have been “Talking in Your Sleep” “Calling every man’s name but me…sometimes talking dirty”.

“The General ” offers a glimpse of a war as they are instructed “to take no prisoners” and says “he don’t need no boys, just send them out to war”. “There is an old man standing on the middle of the road and he shouts my name out loud, he says the end of the world is dead and it’s my fault”. “Those Days” won’t come back no more”.  The album ends with him telling her “Hear me howling “Nothing But Crying” “since you’ve been gone”

Robbert has a nice touch on the acoustic guitar and a pleasant, slightly gravelly voice. His approach to the songs definitely moves to an old style of blues from the 1920’s and 1930’s, perhaps with a touch of folk music also that was prevalent in that era.

Writer 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.