So for some time, I've considered starting a page where I'd ramble a bit about my current interactions with blues and blues rock.  I get asked a lot at gigs what I'm listening to and "have you ever heard of these guys", etc.  So for you folks (assuming that there is someone listening/reading), here's what I'm doing.  Thanks for looking!

9/3/2009 8:29:31 PM

Ok, so I haven't been very good about updating this page.  This is something I intend to get better about.  I've had a lot of things going on, especially with trying to finish our first studio album.

However, here's a quick update on some recent acquisitions that I've made that are pretty cool:

BB King: Live at the BBC - This is a very decent album.  There's not a lot of surprises here, and it's not on par with Live at the Regal, Cook County Jail, or Blues Is King, but it IS still live BB.  So how bad can it be?

Bill Perry: Live at Manny's Car Wash - This is a live CD by a guy I caught live a couple years ago (see previous post).  He's a great player, and he always seems to have a great band behind him.  This album didn't disappoint either in that respect.  It's a good show, full of good performances, but in overall mojo, I think I dig his studio stuff better.  It's not that this album is bad by any means.  But if I was turning somebody on to Bill Perry and I was going to suggest a disc or two for them to pick, this one probably wouldn't make the list.  That being said, I am glad to have acquired it because he's awesome and it's very sad that he's gone (again, see previous post).

Luther Allison: Luther's Blues - This is a good disc.  I really like Luther's stuff here and there.  I've got a few discs by him and they're good, but I just kinda get the feeling that I haven't found my absolute favorite album by him yet.  As I said, I really like him and I've got some songs that I really, really like, but I just haven't seemed to have picked up the disc that I think is the *must have* Luther disc yet.  I also have Love Me Mama that's live 60's era Luther and it's very good too, but the previous statement applies there too.

Nick Moss & The Flip Tops: Live At Chan's Combo Platter No 2 - I bought this one at a live show.  I've met these guys a couple times and hung out with them a bit.  They're great guys, down to earth, easy to talk to and are very funny.  I heard a lot of this album on WGLT's blues stream and the whole album is good.  Nick gets a lot of distinct guitar tones and is good at changing up a simple thing like reverb from song to song to give it an overall different tone.  Very interesting.  I'm looking forward to working my way backwards through their catalog in the future.

Thorbjørn Risager: Live at Victoria - This is my most exciting find in the past few months, also as heard from WGLT's blues stream.  I haven't really read up on this guy yet, but he's fairly young, and I'm assuming by his name that he's of some sort of Scandinavian origin.  This dude's a killer guitar player.  He's plays very tasty and very clean, without a lot of overdrive or effects.  But it's his voice that steals the show.  He sings like bloody Ray Charles and has great songs.  I just downloaded this one, didn't buy the CD because Amazon didn't seem to have it.  But do yourself a favor and look this guy up.  Listen to You Walked Right In and Mr. Bad Luck.  I think you'll find them very diggable......

So I'm out.  Those are the latest items in my world of blues.  Hope to have more to report on soon.  Thanks for checking in! 

9:19 PM 5/16/2009

I was shopping around on Amazon MP3's today looking for blues stuff and I found that there's a "Deluxe" version of Buddy Guy's Skin Deep.  There are three additional tunes not on the CD that I got, so I bought them individually and they're pretty good.  I really like the "Insurance" song.

I also downloaded a tune that WGLT plays a lot by Danny Gatton called Funky Mama and another tune that I heard on podcast called Midnight Apt. #9 Blues by Mike Therieau.  It's got a ton of great bridge humbucker tone and slide work on it.  Good tune.

Here's some albums that I've really been digging for a while:

Buddy Guy - Skin Deep and his album before that Bring 'Em In

Susan Tedeschi - Back to the River
Derek Trucks - Already Free
Rusty Wright Band - Playin with Fire

I've also really been on a binge for Bill Perry for about two years now.  I saw this guy at the Peoria Blues Fest four or five years ago.  I bought a CD from him and met him and bought a few CD's by him over the years.  He's one of those guys that's just killer and hardly anyone's heard of him.  Anyway, he was set to play a fest in Quincy a couple years ago, but he died like a week before it.  Very sad.  I think he was only like 50 or something.  Anyway, so I've been trying to buy up all his stuff while I can still find it.  I'm guessing that Bill is going to slip into obscurity.