John’s Blues Picks is the monthly album review column originally launched by the late Toronto-based blues historian and broadcaster, John Valenteyn. Submission can be sent to the TBS office for consideration and will be circulated to a pool of journalists and others for review in the monthly Maple Blues newsletter and placed at the Spotify playlist.
Miss Angel Brown continues to honour the legacy of her late husband Mel Brown, supervising the Mel Brown Award and organizing the festival in his honour in Mississippi scheduled for next spring. Her own career continues too, with this new disc featuring Shawn Kellerman on guitar and as producer. Kellerman was an early protégé of Mel’s and was the first recipient of the Award.
After a long string of albums that attempted to transform him into a middle of the road crooner, Michael Kaeshammer has had enough and has put out an album that features him doing what he does best, play blues piano. The songs are in a kind of suite, with Big Maceo’s effortlessly performed knucklebuster “Chicago Breakdown” leading off. Kaeshammer’s own “Lands End Parade” starts off more slowly with hints of “St. James Infirmary” before the tempo picks up a little, staying in a New Orleans mode however.
Harmonica Shah’s latest report from the relationship wars lands on November 17 and again features the stellar backup cast of Jack de Keyzer, Julian Fauth, Alec Fraser & Bucky Berger. Seward ‘Harmonica’ Shah is from Detroit and perhaps it’s his background there that led him to come up with such unconventional songs. They don’t follow bar lines at all, being mostly made up on the spot but they do fit perfectly into the golden age of Chicago blues.
With the recent release of the Smithsonian Lead Belly Box, this is a very timely disc, adding an exceptional contemporary tribute album to the legacy. Eric Bibb is the son of legendary folksinger Leon, of the generation following Lead Belly and he actually got to see him perform. But the repertoire would have been all around the Bibb household. As Eric states in the beautiful booklet, this music is in his DNA. JJ Milteau is the French harmonica virtuoso who explains there why Lead Belly’s music resonated in France.
Quebec harmonica wizard, Jay Sewall, a lifetime-achievement-award winning veteran, has a new disc that showcases his vocals and harmonica in the company of some of Quebec’s blues & folk stars. He also adds acoustic guitar to his repertoire and other instruments come in as necessary. Stephen Barry duets on the first of the mostly original compositions by Sewall, “I’m A Lonesome Cat”. With just guitar, bass & harmonica, this is a lovely acoustic performance. “Shabby Doo Bop” is a delightful New Orleans style song with Monya Mathieu dueting, accompanied by second line drums and trombone from Geneviève Duval and tenor sax by David Parker.
Not so well known here but a fixture of the Hamilton blues/R&B scene, André Bisson, who just won the Male Vocalist of the Year at the Hamilton Blues Awards, has an impressive sixth disc for us. Left With The Blues is also a hugely ambitious effort, with a large cast to augment the basic five-piece band. And once again this young man has come up with some excellent songs as a strong foundation.
During the glory days of the Silver Dollar, David Owenwas a young country blues player just in from Ottawa firmly in the John Hammond tradition, opening for visiting acts. He subsequently left public performance to work for the blues community in another way: his postering company, Grassroots Advertising, has flourished. He also raised a family north of Toronto. He’s now ready to resume his career and shows that he’s a mature artist and a very capable songwriter. He’s brought along some invaluable assistance as well, withJimmy Bowskill on various stringed things & harmony vocals, Alec Fraser on his percussive brush bass and behind the glass, producer Gary Kendall.
The winner of this year’s Talent Search is not usually called a bluesman, although he also was a finalist in this year’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis. And yet Turn Back The Vikings shows that blues is an integral part of his eclectic repertoire. He plays guitar mostly, and he does that very well, but he also plays keyboards, violin, bass, drums, hammered dulcimer, banjo and mandolin. He’s also a very good entertainer, songwriter and singer.
This young Montreal vocalist is rapidly building a name for herself, already winning two Quebec Lys Awards. They were for Breakout Artist and, for her first CD, the award for Best Blues & Associated Styles, the awards’ catchall term for non-traditional blues. They were finalists at last year’s Talent Search leading to her well-received appearance at Blues Summit 7.
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