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January
2009
The
Maple Blues Revue Live At
Twisted Pines Preservation/EMI
The Maple Blues Revue grew out of the house band assembled for the Maple Blues Awards Shows. The players, and especially Musical Director Gary Kendall, realized that something special was at work here. Although they had worked together often in different bands and on different occasions, the chemistry of this group demanded more opportunities than a once a year show could provide. John Mays, Dawn Tyler Watson and Chuck Jackson had each performed with the house band, became the vocalists of choice and festival gigs followed. The band starts things off with “Open Up” before all three vocalists kick in with a roaring version of “Let The Good Times Roll”. With everyone now introduced, the vocalists take turns leading the Revue. Dawn Tyler Watson chose three songs by Patti Griffin, a Boston songwriter who’s “Stay On The Ride” is a particular highlight. It’s a strong song about a homeless man on a bus. She also does a new one of her own, “One Day At A Time”. John Mays chose four songs from the Fathead songbook and they get a sparkling new look in these arrangements. Chuck Jackson supplied a song he wrote for the Downchild Lucky 13 CD and two new originals led by the 50’s R&B-flavoured “I Just Think Of You”. The set concludes with the assembled cast doing a rousing performance of “Wang Dang Doodle” Behind Gary Kendall, band leader & bassist, Tim Bona is on drums, Teddy Leonard on guitar, Michael Fonfara on keyboards, Chris Murphy, baritone sax, Pat Carey, tenor sax, Al Lerman, tenor sax & harmonica and Chris Whiteley, trumpet. It truly is an assembly of Canada’s blues elite and this CD does them full justice.
Colin Linden The Columbia Years True North/Universal
Blackie
& The Rodeo Kings Swinging
From The Chains Of love
True North/Universal
Colin Linden is no stranger to this column and the four CDs that make up The Columbia Years were reviewed as they appeared after the column began. Not so Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, whose focus seemed less on blues than on other kinds of roots music, especially that of the late Willie P. Bennett, in whose honour the band was named and whose songs they specialized in performing, for the first album, anyway. Colin, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson toured to support that album and found so much encouragement that, five CDs later, we have this ‘greatest hits’ collection. You’ll be as surprised as I was at the blues content. Blues Booster Award winner Rob Bowman has supplied a history of this band in the liner booklet so I won’t do that here, I’ll simply point to some songs you might enjoy. “49 Tons” is a barreling train song, the version of “Remedy” here is the best, and bluesiest, version of a song Colin wrote with Jim Weider for The Band, the band without Robbie Robertson. It was the highest chart success for any Band song. His own version is a bonus track on Sad & Beautiful World, a 2000 career retrospective and sadly no longer available. Not from a Rodeo Kings CD is “Folsom Prison Blues”, from the NorthernBlues CD Johnny’s Blues, A Tribute to Johnny Cash, done as a straight-ahead, albeit unconventional, blues. The other songs on the disc all justify their inclusion on such a package and if you want “Jackie Washington”, which Rob Bowman thought should have been here, well, Bark is still available. As for The Columbia Years, Colin’s four CDs have not been available for some years now. When The Spirit Comes first appeared on A&M Records in 1987 (my copy is an LP) and was Colin’s third album as a leader. Rick Danko and Garth Hudson of The Band appeared on it and a lifelong connection was cemented. With South At Eight North At Nine (the Blues JUNO winner in 1994) Through The Storm and Raised By Wolves you can follow his progression from idolizing The Band through to continuing on his own on the journey they began. His albums since then have shown how far he has gone in mining the rich vein of American southern musical culture. There’s a great deal of fine music here, available once again.
Stephen
Barry & Andrew Cowan Duo
Disques BROS
These veterans of the Montreal blues scene trace their roots back to 1965 when they met at McGill University. They formed The Stephen Barry Band in 1975, a unit that is still performing and recording today with much the same lineup. Disques BROS thought an acoustic album with just the two of them would be a good idea: they were right. That their scene was also part of the folk music scene is readily apparent as one listens to this varied program. The songs range from the traditional “Forty-Four Blues” to Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” to Percy Mayfield’s “What A Fool I Was” to Mose Allison’s “Don’t Forget To Smile”. Jimmy Rogers’ “Goin’ Away Baby” gets an intricate finger picking pattern in this acoustic version. Some songs feature Jody Golick on sax & Gord Adamson on drums, making them closer to Stephen Barry Band tracks but it lends a change of pace. Jordan Officer also guests, on “Mender”, a pleasing country tune with duo vocals to match the duo guitars. “Fool’s Paradise” another band track gets a Mose Allison treatment with Barry’s vocal, making it one of the album’s highlights. The web site is www.myspace.com/stephenbarryband.
Trevor Caswell Folksinger Blues TCM
Currently based in Kamloops BC, Trevor Caswell has also lived here and returns frequently to perform. It seems he’s primarily an acoustic folksinger, one who has been performing blues as encores. For his fifth release, he’s collected these blues and it’s a very impressive package, no doubt helped by his early years busking. He has a high, plaintive voice, not unlike that of Sleepy John Estes, a comparison he plays up on “Most Things Don’t Work Out” with Hammie Nixon’s harmonica and Yank Rachell’s mandolin (played by Caswell & Sean Curry) very much in evidence. He has his own songs, though, and doesn’t rely much on the common tradition for lyrics. Other songs follow a similar pattern, with Rev. Gary Davis or Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee recalled, but only recalled - Caswell has largely been successful in forging his own sound. “Devil In Disguise” has Caswell channeling Son House on his National Steel with a vocal just as powerful in his own way. “World Gone Wrong” is a traditional blues to which Caswell has added lyrics but the one cover is a surprisingly bluesy version of a Pretenders song, “How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?”. Chrissie Hynde’s song does not sound out of place here at all and is another one of the highlights. “Yukon Lizzie” is a good example of his presentation, with a spoken introduction to a lovely little song about a girl in Dawson City who loved to dance. Check out his web site at www.trevorcaswell.com.
Mitch
Kashmar Live at Labatt
Delta Groove/EMI
With Delta Groove Music winning a Keeping The Blues Alive Award from The Blues Foundation this year, it’s timely that its new release should have Canadian content. Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival has long been recognized as one of the best-programmed events of the summer, a status also recognized by the Blues Foundation with it’s own KBA Award last year. This CBC recording from the 2007 Festival could be submitted as proof. Mitch Kashmar is a veteran of the Los Angeles scene that produces so many fantastic harp players and he too has Blues Award nominations under his belt for his work. He has also filled Lee Oskar’s position in the latest touring incarnation of the group, War. The music here is firmly in the Chicago/West Coast school. The superb band includes John Marx on guitar from the late William Clarke’s band and Jimmy Calire on piano. “Dirty Deal” has a couple of excellent harp solos and “Whisky Drinkin’ Woman” some excellent singing. That last song is a slow blues written by Lou Donaldson and with Horace Silver’s, “Song For My Father” the band and especially Kashmar on chromatic, get to show their chops in a jazz mode. Muddy’s “Sugar Sweet” gets things back to the blues in a most enjoyable fashion. Jimmy Rogers’ “You’re The One”, Roy Brown’s “Lollipop Mama” (A tribute to William Clarke), “Wake Up & Worry”, the title song his 2nd CD, and set closer “Castle Rock” bring the program to a fine conclusion. As with many live recordings, the songs are on the long side but the musicianship here is of such high caliber, you’ll appreciate the chance the players had to stretch out.
Last time, in my review of Terry Blersh’s self-titled CD, I inadvertently omitted the main keyboard player. Dennis Keldie noticed. He wants you to know that in addition to appearing on a lot of other people’s albums he should have another on of his own soon.
- John Valenteyn, jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
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