All songs written by Wilson Blount, published by Little Big Beat Musikverlag/GEMA aka Bad Love Music/BMI, except as otherwise noted. Recorded at Bessie Blue Studios in Stantonville, TN in December 2018 Additional recordings at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL
2020 release. If you know anything about Joe Bonamassa -the post-millennium's breakout bluesman/pre-eminent Anglophile - you'll know that a lifelong ambition is to blow the roof off Abbey Road. Royal Tea brings Bonamassa full circle, the backdrop of Abbey Road demanded British Blues, reconnecting with the guitar-slinging kid who stumbled across Jeff Beck Group, John Mayall, Cream, etc. In his dad's vinyl collection. Co-written by notables like Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), Pete Brown (Cream) and Jools Holland.
Bessie Smith was not only the first significant female blues singer to emerge during the early electric recording era, but her influence and reputation is such that she is still rightly hailed as the most important and greatest female blues artist in the annals of the genre, rightly given the title "The Empress Of The Blues". Her recording career was compressed into the decade covered by this collection, her career being blighted by the Depression, although she was actively performing and expanding her audience when she was killed in a car crash in 1937. This excellent value 48-track 2-CD set is selected from the 160 recordings she made for Columbia, and does not duplicate any titles which appear on the Fabulous label's existing Bessie Smith 2-CD set "Bessie Smith Greatest Hits" (FADCD2004), and so the two together will give collectors around half of her entire recorded output, including some lesser known material alongside the famous classics. During her career, she recorded with eminent musicians of the day accompanying her and most of them are featured in this collection, including Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Clarence Williams, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden and Don Redman.
2024 release. Tinsley Ellis unplugs and channels his masterful guitar skills and soul-baring vocals into a bracing collection of solo acoustic tracks steeped in the traditions of Muddy Waters, Skip James, Son House, Robert Johnson and even Leo Kottke. Nine newly-written originals sit alongside reverent, yet spirited, versions of House's "Death Letter Blues," Willie Dixon's "Don't Go No Further" and Kottke's "Sailor's Grave On The Prairie."
SHEMEKIA COPELAND / BLAME IT ON EVE Grammy-nominated blues, soul and Americana singer is beloved and honored worldwide for her joyful, defiant music and thrillingly soulful performances. Blame It On Eve is another exhilarating Shemekia Copeland showcase, as her rousing vocals bring the heat to an infectious array of muscular rockers, stomping blues, swampy soul, and heartbreaking ballads. Intense, topical new originals make up most of the tracks and soul-soaked versions of songs by Stevie Wonder and her father, Johnny Copeland, fit right into the mix.
Little Brother Montgomery - Vicksburg Blues: The Singles & Albums Collection 1930-61 - It's a fascinating and substantial overview of two different phases of his career, and offers an entertaining showcase for his highly personal style. - Little Brother Montgomery was a blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist and singer, who was hugely versatile, working solo and with bands, and equally impressive across all the genres, with a highly distinctive style. Born in Louisiana near New Orleans, he was influenced by family friend Jelly Roll Morton, and over the years was associated with the Mississippi town of Vicksburg, which gave it's name to several of his song titles, and Chicago, where he later worked and made most of his records. This 72-track 3-CD collection comprises the A & B sides of just about all his releases on the Paramount, Melotone, Bluebird and Century labels from 1930-47, along with titles from the 1954 album "Windin' Ball Recordings" on Saydisk, the 1960 album "Tasty Blues on Bluesville and the 1961 album "Blues" on Folkways. It comprises many solo recordings, plus some with his jazz quintet, featuring trumpeter Lee Collins, and recordings with singers Irene Scruggs, Annie Turner and Creole George Guenson. It's a fascinating and substantial overview of two different phases of his career, and offers an entertaining showcase for his highly personal style.
Celebrated blues, R&B and Americana vocal powerhouse delivers the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2018's America's Child, winner of the Blues Music Award for Album Of The Year. The new album is again produced by Will Kimbrough and features guest performances and/or songwriting by Kimbrough, Jason Isbell, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Orphan Brigade, Steve Cropper, Duane Eddy and Shawn Mullins. Uncivil War finds Shemekia blazing an exhilarating roots music trail, with many of the songs reflecting the spirit of our turbulent times. Aggressive press, radio and social media support for an artist with past coverage on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, CNN, CBS-TV's Saturday Early Show, Tavis Smiley Show, NPR'S Weekend Edition, World Cafe, Mountain Stage and E-Town. In addition, her praises have been sung by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPRMusic. Com, AllMusic. Com, PopMatters. Com, NoDepression. Com, Paste. Com and many more. Radio promotion at Americana, AAA and blues specialty radio. The title track, released as a digital single earlier this year, has already received airplay at all three. America's Child charted Top Ten on Americana single and album charts, and also charted at AAA. Blues specialty radio kept the album on Living Blues' radio chart for six straight months. Shemekia has made hundreds of appearances worldwide at festivals, clubs and arts centers for the last 20 years. Tour dates throughout the U. S. in support will begin as soon as they are feasible. With Uncivil War, Shemekia's passion-packed singing breathes fire into solemn, gospel-drenched anthems, lowdown blues, crunching rockers and frisky New Orleans R&B. On captivating original songs and invigorating new takes on tracls by the Rolling Stones, Junior Parker and her father, famed bluesman Johnny Clyde Copeland, she commands listeners' attention while exploring life's daily struggles and triumphs, both political and personal.
2024 release. Celebrated by fans and fellow musicians as being among the blues' most talented and exciting guitarists, Chris Cain is, according to Living Blues magazine, "turning out the best work of his career." Good Intentions Gone Bad debuts 13 striking new songs, with Cain delivering top-shelf performances on blistering shuffles, slow-burning blues and joyful soul. Fellow Alligator artist Tommy Castro guests on one track.
Alligator debut from one of the blues' most talented unsung heroes, a deeply soulful vocalist, powerhouse harmonica player and gifted songwriter. The Hard Line shines with 12 striking original songs that draw from O'Leary's rich personal history. Engaging, sharp-edged observations on life and love are shot through with every-man wisdom and humor, and set to rollicking roadhouse R&B, hard Chicago blues and wrenching ballads. O'Leary's rough, riveting vocals and world-class harmonica playing set the pace throughout.
Blind Willie Johnson was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who is widely recognised as having been the leading exponent of what was occasionally called "holy blues" - blues music with religious subject matter that as result could also be termed gospel music, which as a result was highly distinctive and unusual. Born in Texas in 1897, he was blinded by his stepmother during a domestic confrontation when he was seven, and turned to music, performing around his native state from the 1920s through to near his death in 1945, but was active as a recording artist only between 1927 and 1930, recording four sessions in Dallas and one in Atlanta. This 30-track 2-CD collection comprises his complete recordings for Columbia across his career, on occasions accompanied on vocals by his first wife Willie B. Harris. Among the titles it features the highly-acclaimed and influential recordings "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed", "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine", "Mother's Children Have A Hard Time", and "John the Revelator". It's a comprehensive and worthy showcase for a distinctive and unique artist.
Big Joe Williams - Baby Please Don't Go: The Collection 1935-62 / Big Joe Williams was a Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist famous for the distinctive sound of his unique nine-string guitar, as well as for recording classic songs like "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Crawling King Snake". His career was remarkable for the fact that he recorded through every decade from the mid-1930s into the'70s, although his periods of active recording were somewhat erratic, while he maintained a constant round of 'live' performing. This great-value 115-track 5-CD set comprises most of the A & B sides of his releases on the Bluebird, Columbia, Bullet, Trumpet & VeeJay labels from 1935 to 1957, plus EP titles and the titles from his albums "Piney Woods Blues", "A Man Sings The Blues, "Tough Times", "Blues On Highway 69", "Nine-String Guitar Blues" and "Mississippi's Big Joe Williams & his Nine-String Guitar" from 1957 through to 1962. It includes recordings where he is accompanied by noted contemporaries like Sonny Boy Williamson, Ransom Knowling, Robert Lee McCoy, Judge Riley and others. He was one of the most impressive blues performers of his era who inspired many artists of later years like Bob Dylan, and this substantial collection offers an entertaining showcase for a highly original and influential artist.
Harmonica ace Dennis Gruenling joins Nick-who has earned an astonishing 21 Blues Music Award nominations-and his well-oiled-machine of a band on this fiery new album. Chicago blues and old-school rock 'n' roll merge across "Crazy Mixed Up Baby," "Get Right Before You Get Left," "No Sense," "He Walked with Giants" (an homage to Barrelhouse Chuck), the title cut and more! Alligator.
2024 release. 11 striking new originals delivered with purpose and passion. From scorching-hot blues to a gospel-inspired rave-up to deep, slow burners, the songs tackle the gamut of human emotions, all sparked by Cannon's dynamic guitar work and commanding, cathartic singing.
In a time when the regional flavor of the blues is being diluted, guitar-slinger Long John Hunter is Texas Blues with a big ol' "T". Fame has eluded this legend of the Tex-Mex roadhouses for way too long and Border Town Legend is wicked redemption. From the first bristling notes of "T-Bone Intentions," you know you're in for a hot time. This CD is a flat-out party. Propelled by a crackerjack outfit of brassy horns, Hunter fires up a spicy mix of jump blues, soulful laments, and joyous rave-ups. "Ole Red" is a stone-cold butt-shaker, "Arkansas" is smoky, seductive R&B at it's best, and no guitarist is left standing once the "Lone Star Shootout" has ended. Even more astonishing, all but one of these tracks are Hunter-penned originals. Make a run for Border Town Legend or die trying. -Genevieve Williams
Get Your Back Into It features 14 original songs inspired by the electrifying blues sounds of 1940s through 1960s, and performed with taste, sly humor and pure joy. From locomotive shuffles to deep, slow blues, Moss shines with a Willie Dixon-like ability to write and sing the blues' honest truth.
Lightnin' Hopkins - The Singles Collection Vol. 1 1946-53 - This substantial collection covering the early years of his recording career helps to explain and underline that view / Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins was one of the true blues greats, a singer, guitarist, songwriter and occasional pianist from Texas, who through a life as a long-time solo performer developed a highly distinctive style, playing rhythm, lead, bass and percussion, with a legendarily unstructured approach to the 12-bar format. Musicologist Mark McCormick said that Hopkins is "the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing it's ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act". Born in 1912, he did not get an opportunity to record until the post-war years, and then recorded prolifically for a variety of labels. Acrobat has addressed his output on 78s and 45s from 1946 to 1962 with two 3-CD sets of which this is the first. This 78-track collection comprises the A & B sides of just about all his releases during these years on the Aladdin, Modern, Gold Star and RPM labels. His RPM releases overlapped with his releases on the Sittin' In With label which begin in 1951 and start Vol. 2. It includes his hits in the US R&B charts with "Shotgun Blues", "T Model Blues" and "Tim Moore's Farm". It also includes records for Aladdin with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith. His New York Times obituary in 1982 said he was "one of the great country blues singers and perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players", and this substantial collection covering the early years of his recording career helps to explain and underline that view.
