Blues in Elsewhere

Various Artists: God Don't Never Change; The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (Alligator/Southbound)

4 Apr 2016 | <1 min read | 1

Late last year Elsewhere essayed the life and music of the great Blind Willie Johnson, the man who gave blues (and then rock and country) such cornerstone songs as It's Nobody's Fault But Mine, John the Revelator (which appeared on the Harry Smith collection) and Dark was the Night, among many others. Johnson was a man for whom Jesus and Satan were as real as his fellow travelers on this... > Read more

Jesus is Coming Soon (Cowboy Junkies)

Jeff Healey: Heal My Soul (Warners)

28 Mar 2016 | <1 min read

Blind blues guitarist Healey – who died in 2008 – would have been 50 this year and these previously unreleased songs confirm he was in a class of his own (Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, Benmont Tench and many hardcore black blues musicians happily played alongside him). A Canadian, he had jazz and the sound of old 78rpm records in his soul, but couldn't be confined to any... > Read more

Daze of the Night

The Kentucky Headhunters with Johnnie Johnson: Meet Me in Bluesland (Alligator/Southbound)

18 Jan 2016 | <1 min read

Here's one literally pulled from the vaults, a decade after the death of pianist Johnnie Johnson who was there for all those classic, early Chuck Berry sides. In the Eighties and Nineties, Johnson finally enjoyed a career under his own name (Johnnie B. Bad from '92 is excellent) and along the way became friends with the Kentucky Headhunters. The story behind this album is that the day... > Read more

Meet Me in Bluesland

JULIA LEE RECONSIDERED: Not just the KC queen of rude blues

9 Nov 2015 | 3 min read

At the time of her death in 1958 at age 56, blues singer and pianist Julia Lee – who had started her career at 16, worked with the young Walter Page (bass), saxophonist Benny Carter and others around Kansas City and used Jay McShann, Red Norvo and other name players on some of her sessions — was largely overlooked. And after her death, until Britain's Charley label... > Read more

Come On Over to My House (1944)

JAMES “WEE WILLIE” WAYNE CONSIDERED: Not tending to his business

26 Oct 2015 | 3 min read

Such mystery as there is about rhythm'n'blues singer James Wayne is compounded by the well-meaning writer of the liner notes to the 1980 Dutch compilation Travelin' From Texas to New Orleans, one of the very few existing collections of Wayne's work. With English clearly a second language and a somewhat imperfect understanding of geography the unnamed writer informed his readers that,... > Read more

Junco Partner

R.L. BURNSIDE CONSIDERED: Blues from before fame

28 Sep 2015 | 4 min read

For many decades before his career was given a high-profile resurrection by the Fat Possum label in Nineties (and he toured with the likes of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), R.L. Burnside was a working bluesman who had grown up in North Mississippi and followed the trail to Chicago. In Mississippi he'd heard Fred McDowell (who reputedly taught him a little guitar), and fife and drum... > Read more

Sweet Black Angel

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON CONSIDERED: From deep in the soul to deep space

7 Sep 2015 | 4 min read | 1

The old saying, “You gotta sin to get saved” perhaps accounts for the wayward careers and emotional U-turns of people like Little Richard and Roy Buchanan who would vacillate between the secular and spiritual worlds. If you believe that Jesus is real and your savior, then you are just as likely to have to accept the corollary, that Satan is also real and ready to drag you... > Read more

Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed

DAVE ALVIN INTERVIEWED (2015): Brothers in arms, again

16 Feb 2015 | 7 min read

Dave Alvin has, as they say, miles on the tyres. At 59, the acclaimed guitarist and singer can look back to the roots-rock band the Blasters he formed with his brother Phil in the late Seventies, a band that blended punk energy with Americana and blues, and shared bills with the likes of Black Flag and The Gun Club. The Alvin brothers however had one of those volatile sibling... > Read more

Southern Flood Blues

Joe Bonamassa: Different Shades of Blue (J&R/Southbound)

12 Sep 2014 | <1 min read

Astutely released today in advance of his sole New Zealand concert in Auckland tonight, this is the first album by acclaimed American guitarist/singer Joe Bonamassa featuring all his own compositions. That's surprising given he has quite a body of releases behind him, but as always he refers to the past and the masters: the two-minute opener is the Hendrix-referencing Hey Baby/New Rising... > Read more

So, What Would I Do

JOE BONAMASSA INTERVIEWED (2014): The plan is do what you do

3 Sep 2014 | 5 min read | 2

Joe Bonamassa – the 37-year old Grammy nominated blues-rock guitarist considered one of the finest players of his generation – is talking about what he does when he takes a break. But first let it be said, he rarely has down-time. In fewer than 15 years he's released 11 studio albums under his own name and two with gutsy soul-blues singer Beth Hart (many with DVD footage),... > Read more

Lonely Town Lonely Street

Joe Louis Walker: Hornet's Nest (Alligator/Southbound)

7 Jul 2014 | 1 min read

The furious and fiery, award-winning 64-year old Joe Louis Walker is, of course, a bluesman . . . but you could equally file some of his material under "rock" and even "hard rock". Or "gospel blues" if you catch him in another mood. With about 20 albums behind him -- with titles like Hellfire, Playin' Dirty and Blues Survivor -- Walker has an attack as... > Read more

Stick a Fork in Me

Lowell Fulson: Trouble Trouble, The Definitive Early Years Collection (Fantastic Voyage/Southbound)

22 Nov 2013 | 1 min read

Sometimes the singer-guitarist Lowell Fulson (1921-99) recorded as Lowell Fulsom and even Lowell Fullsom, but he was born Fulson although the liner notes to this three CD set suggest where the variations came from. Fulson himself would adopt the various spellings for his own reasons (think: the taxman), but his grandfather was actually Henry Fulsom who was black freeman living with the... > Read more

The Train is Leaving (1947)

DARCY PERRY PROFILED (2013): Long years and hard miles

16 Oct 2013 | 2 min read

Because of so many other pressing commitments, Elsewhere missed acknowledging the blues journeyman Darcy Perry when he played a few shows with his band during Blue September. But he has re-released digitally every track he had ever recorded along with two previously unreleased live albums. And there is also the new album Eleven Long Years, the title of which nods to just how long he... > Read more

Blues for Earl

James Cotton: Cotton Mouth Man (Alligator/Southbound)

28 May 2013 | <1 min read | 1

It's extraordinary to think that harmonica player Cotton played with Howlin' Wolf back in the early Fifties and then Muddy Waters, and at 77 he's not only still here but blowing up a hurricane on this album with high class fans like Joe Bonamassa, Gregg Allman, Chuck Leavell, Keb Mo, Ruthie Foster, Delbert McClinton and Darrell Nulisch. He's survived every phase of the fickle interest in... > Read more

Midnight Train

Hugh Laurie: Didn't It Rain (Warners)

13 May 2013 | 1 min read

Musicians can get very territorial when actors are perceived to be moving into their turf. People like Juliette Lewis, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron have hardly been welcomed (sometimes with good reason) and so Hugh Laurie was met with some scepticism when he released his Let Them Talk (nice title!) a couple of years back. Clearly Laurie -- who sings and plays piano -- loved and... > Read more

The Weed Smoker's Dream

Watermelon Slim: Up Close & Personal (Southern/Yellow Eye)

17 Apr 2013 | <1 min read | 1

Not only does white bluesman Watermelon Slim sound like the blackest 1940s blues player that ever was, but he's also has had an extraordinary life. Believable if you read it in a novel, but all true. Check out his backstory in this archival interview at Elsewhere and also have a look here for his music, then close your eyes as he transports to to Southern juke-joints or -- as on this... > Read more

The Last Blues

Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite: Get Up! (Stax)

4 Feb 2013 | 1 min read | 1

To be honest, the first couple of times I saw Ben Harper I walked out being bored witless by a man I jokingly came to refer to as "Taj Marley" because he simply seemed to weld together the most crowd pleasing aspects of Taj Mahal and Bob Marley. I faithfully listened to his many albums down the years but only rarely found them genuinely interesting (and Eric Bibb was doing much... > Read more

Blood Side Out

Dani Wilde/Victoria Smith/Samantha Fish: Girls with Guitars Live (Ruf/Yellow Eye)

14 Dec 2012 | 1 min read | 1

As mentioned about a previous album of this concept of gals with guitars, there's nothing like giving 'em what it says on the box. And yep, these three are blues-rock women with guitars and that Girls With Guitars label is a flexible membership (currently Cassie Taylor out, Victoria Smith in). This CD/DVD set is blues-based but this time the version of the Stones' Bitch which opens the CD... > Read more

I Put a Spell on You

Joanne Shaw Taylor: Almost Always Never (Ruf/Yellow Eye)

10 Dec 2012 | 1 min read | 1

Until you are told otherwise, just on listening to this tough, sassy and earthy blues singer and fiery guitarist you'd assume she was black American, probably forged in the fires of Chicago clubs and constant touring down South. Almost right. She's blonde, British-born and now lives in Detroit. As noted about her earlier and excellent Diamonds in the Dirt, the States is her natural home... > Read more

Maybe Tomorrow

Billy TK Jnr and the Groove Shakers: Blues Benediction (Southbound)

5 Nov 2012 | 2 min read | 1

You might think being the guitarist son of Billy TK -- whose name is usually preceded by the phrase "the legendary Maori guitarist" -- might be a serious hindrance to a career under your own name, but Billy TK Jnr long ago lit out on his own directions. While his dad drew favourable comparisons with Hendrix back in the late Sixties/early Seventies (in Human Instinct, later Ticket... > Read more