Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors - Keeping It In The Family - New Release Review

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Keeping It In The Family, by Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors, dedicated to keeping alive the sounds and spirit of blues master Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee. Magee was featured in the Netflix screened documentary, Satan & Adam, with Adam Gussow on harmonica. With Atlanta based "Sir Rod" Patterson, Magee's nephew, and Alan Gross on guitar, this trio released an album, Come Together in 2020 and are back now with this live release. Opening with Shake, Rattle and Roll, Gross sets a cool rock and roll guitar rhythm with solid harmonica work by Gussow and featuring Patterson on solid lead vocal. On Mack Rice's R&B mega hit, Mustang Sally, the guys get into a great groove with Patterson really showing his vocal prowess. James Brown's I Feel Good (I Got You) is up next with it's original arrangement. These guys do a real nice job of a track that was normally covered with full horns and drum/bass bottom. Addition of a harmonica and this is blues, man. Gussow steps out on Thunky Fing Rides Again with a bluesy rock feel giving it the full harmonica treatment. Best track on the release. Wrapping the release is blues based, Hot Tamale Baby, with Gross and Gussow jamming out on a traditional blues riff and featuring Patters on vocal lead. This is a cool, live release. 

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Modern Blues Harmonica label artists: The Blues Doctors - Same Old Blues Again - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Same Old Blues Again, from The Blues Doctors and it's cool. Opening with The Champs' track, Tequila, a Latin flavored R&B number ever popular since it's inception in the late 50's. Handled here with melody on harp and rhythm just claps and guitar. This is a lively song and a super opener. Mud's Rollin' & Tumblin' is up next with Adam Gussow on harp and Alan Gross on lead vocal and cigar box guitar. Very nice. Another Chicago style blues track, Cry For Me Baby features Gussow on lead vocal and harp and Gross laying down some nice electric guitar riffs. Bog Boy Crudup's That's Alright gets a great workout with lead vocal and harp solo by Gussow and snappy picking by Gross. Very cool. Original instrumental track, Blues For Hank is one of my favorites on the release with a nice walking bass line by Bill Harrison and each Gussow and Gross taking nice solos. Kicking it into high gear with Jimmy Reed's You Don't Have To Go, Gussow alternates harp and lead vocal and Gross's electric rhythm guitar tone is great. Another of my favorites on the track is Take You Downtown with warm chord work and bright solo exchange by Gross and lead vocal and harp by Gussow. Wrapping the release is Robert Johnson's Crossroads Blues with an emphasis on harp rather than guitar... a different take for this popular blues track made popular by the Cream. This is not to say that Gross doesn't get his turn and he does a real nice job but Gussow does come back and close with some tight harp riffs. Nice closer.

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Oxford, Mississippi's The Blues Doctors release debut CD

ROOSTERS HAPPY HOUR IS DEBUT CD FROM THE BLUES DOCTORS   Oxford, Mississippi — Got the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu? Or perhaps a hole in your soul? Well, a new Mississippi-made blues release aims to cure it.   The Blues Doctors are in.   Leading up to their performance at Clarksdale, Mississippi's Juke Joint Festival, the Oxford-based blues duo of Adam Gussow and Alan Gross has released its debut CD as The Blues Doctors.   "We're really looking forward to this year's Juke Joint Festival," said Gussow. "A lot of the tracks on our new album are things we beat into shape on the streets of Oxford, so a big street festival in Clarksdale should feel just like home."   Named for the steady Friday gig at Rooster’s Blues House in Oxford, Mississippi, where Gussow and Gross hammered our their dynamic two-man sound, Roosters Happy Hour aims to please traditional and adventurous blues fans alike.   Gussow describes The Blues Doctors as "a power blues trio without the bass." The third leg of the duo is actually Gussow’s thumping kick drum. The result is a hard-swinging jump combo distilled to the bare essentials, propelled by Gross’s jangling guitar and Gussow’s over-the-top harp lines.   "Alan and I had crossed paths on the Ole Miss campus for ten years, but we didn't actually hook up musically until the summer of 2012," recalled Gussow. "I needed a local guitar-man to go along with my one-man band thing, and he needed a new challenge. That's how the Blues Doctors were born."   Describing Roosters Happy Hour — a mix of new originals and classic covers — as "down-home blues with a big-city angle of attack," the duo is always ready to take the show on the road. They headline Juke Joint Festival's Sunflower Avenue Gazebo Stage on Saturday, April 12th at 5pm.   For those who can't make The Blues Doctors upcoming festival show, the new album is available as a download or CD at www.thebluesdoctors.net. The album is also available via iTunes, Amazon and CDbaby.   BIOGRAPHIES:   Adam Gussow needs little introduction to blues harmonica fans. Founder of ModernBluesHarmonica.com, organizer of the Hill Country Harmonica festival, Gussow is best known for his twenty-five year partnership with Mississippi-born guitarist and one-man-band Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee as the duo Satan and Adam. Their releases include the W. C. Handy-nominated Harlem Blues (1991), Mother Mojo (1993), Living on the River (1996), and Back in the Game (2011). A longtime member of the New York City blues scene before relocating to Mississippi in 2002, Gussow has performed and recorded with many guitar-men, including Wild Jimmy Spruill, Larry Johnson, Charlie Hilbert, Robert Ross, Andrew "Shine" Turner, Bill Sims, Jr., Irving Louis Lattin, and Brian Kramer. Gussow's debut solo album, Kick and Stomp (2010), rose to the #2 position in the "picks to click" category on Bluesville (SiriusXM), America's premier satellite radio blues show. His second solo album, Southbound (2011), spent March and April 2012 at the #1 position on the Mississippi Roots Radio Airplay Chart. An associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, Gussow has written three award-winning books about the blues, including Mister Satan's Apprentice (1998), a memoir about his time as a Harlem street musician.   Alan Gross is perhaps best-known for his long association with Mississippi bluesman Terry "Harmonica" Bean — he's played guitar in his band for a decade — and work with hill country performers Kenny Kimbrough, Lightnin' Malcolm and Eric Deaton. He's also gigged with R. L. Boyce, a mainstay of Otha Turner's Rising Star Fife and Drum ensemble, and played numerous festivals across the state of Mississippi. A professor of clinical psychology at the University of Mississippi for almost thirty years, his guitar influences include Muddy Waters, Duke Robillard, Jimmie Vaughan, and Warren Haynes. ####

For hi-res album art and photos, please email asgussow@aol.com

Sweet Home Chicago - Adam Gussow

As a blues harmonica player and teacher, Adam Gussow has few peers in the business. Currently an Associate Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi with a specialty in blues literature and culture, Gussow was one of the first amplified blues harp players to make overblows a key element of his stylistic approach, adapting Howard Levy's innovations in the late 1980s in a way that helped usher in a new generation of overblow masters such as Jason Ricci and Chris Michalek. According to a reviewer for American Harmonica Newsletter, Gussow's playing is characterized by "technical mastery and innovative brilliance that comes along once in a generation."

Gussow is best known for his long partnership with Mississippi-born guitarist and one-man-band Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee as the duo Satan and Adam. After working the streets of Harlem from 1986 to 1991, Gussow and Magee duo toured internationally between 1991 and 1998. Their performing credits include the Chicago Blues Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, the Kansas City Jazz & Blues Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and RiverBlues Festival, and more, along with hundreds of club gigs. They toured with Bo Diddley and opened for Buddy Guy, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Otis Clay, Johnny Winter, and Jimmy Thackery. They released two albums on Flying Fish Records, including the W. C. Handy-nominated Harlem Blues (1991) and Mother Mojo (1993). Later releases include Living on the River (1996) and, on the Modern Blues Harmonica label, Word on the Street: Harlem Recordings, 1989 (2008) and Back In The Game (201
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