VizzTone Label Group artist Bob Corritore & Friends - Down Home Blues Review - New Release Review

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Down Home Blues Review, from Bob Corritore & Friends and it's a heaping load of Chicago blues. Opening with Rooster Blues, Robert "Bilbo" Walker is upfront on lead vocal and guitar with Bob Corritore on harmonica and really has the place jumping. Joined by Johnny Rapp on guitar, Paul Thomas on bass Chico Chism on drums this is an excellent opener. Tomcat Courtney has center stage to himself on Clara Mae. With an electrifying voice and great guitar backing and solid backing by Corritore and Chris James, this is another favorite. Henry Townsend has the spotlight on piano and lead vocal on Nothing But Blues, backed by Rapp and Corritore. Nicely balanced, this is a great piano track showcasing Townsend. One of my favorite old school blues men is Dave Honeyboy Edwards and it's a pleasure to hear Take A Little Walk With Me featuring Honeyboy on vocal and guitar, backed by Corritore and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. Strong. Slower blues, My Money Run Out, is super with great vocals by Al Garrett who also plays guitar, backed by Rapp, Thomas, Chism and of course nice harmonica by Corritore. Dave Riley has the mic on Home In Chicago with strong vocal lead and fluid runs, complimented nicely by Corritore on harmonica, backed by Yahni Riley on bass and Brian Fahey on drums. Wrapping the release is  J.L. Williamson track, Bluebird Blues featuring Big Jack Johnson on lead vocal and guitar. This track is really a great closer with Johnson showing his guitar chops, Corritore getting a nice chance to stretch and with Rapp, Thomas and Chism rounding out the band. This most recent release from Corritore's archives may be my favorite with some really electrifying jams. 

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Omnivore Recordings artist: Henry Townsend and Roosevelt Sykes - Blues Piano and Guitar - New release review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Blues Piano and Guitar, live 1973 recordings of Henry Townsend and Roosevelt Sykes and it's really strong. Recorded live at Washington University, Graham Chapel, this is a great set. Opening with Townsend on Sloppy Drunk Again, the feel of a different era is alive and Townsend's percussive attack is a great accent for his perfect vocals. Tired Of Being Mistreated has great pace and Elmore style guitar riffs giving this track sensational life. Henry's Worry Blues is an excellent example of early blues with tight guitar riffs and excellent vocals. Roosevelt Sykes enters the stage with Night Time Is The Right Time and his distinctive piano style brings it all together. Piano boogie, Boot That Thing is one of my favorites on the first disc with excellent vocal and a great piano stretch. Dirty Mother For You (Don't You Know) is a humorous track by Sykes with solid piano work and vocal by Sykes. Contemporary blues listeners will recognize it as a standard in Buddy Guy's repertoire. Done Got Tired is an excellent Sykes/Townsend duet with Townsend on vocal and solid balanced soloing by both artists. I really love Sykes' dynamic piano work on Life Is A Puzzle. It's clean, bright and nicely accented. Another terrific piano boogie is Gulf Port Boogie. Sykes shows without a doubt why his style is popular. Henry's Guitar Boogie answers back with his own hot riffs getting the audience wound up. Vernell joins Henry on Tears Coming Rollin' Down, one of my certain favorites on disc two. Wrapping the release is Dangerous Man with Sykes on vocal and piano, This is a super conclusion for this 30 track set. Very nice. 

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Omnivore Recordings artist: Henry Townsend - Mule - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Mule, by Henry Townsend, and it's solid old school blues. Opening with Bad Luck Dice, Townsend is on vocal and piano laying down really strong piano blues. This is a great intro of things to come. Townsend's vocal wailing continues into Things Have Changed with terrific piano and added mandolin by Yank Rachell. On boogie piano track, The Old Man's Soul, Townsend changes it up a bit but it's all Townsend with signature piano style and vocals. Very nice. Vernell Townsend has excellent lead vocals on Tears Come Rollin' Down with additional guitar to henry by Norman Merritt. One of my favorite tracks on the release is It's A Hard Road To Travel with some of the more refined vocals by Townsend with smooth piano lead. Rachell joins Townsend on guitar on Talkin' Guitar Blues, another solid romping blues track with a cool jagged rhythm. Piano instrumental, Alley Strut is a cool piano boogie with Townsend on piano and in his traditional style. Excellent. Vernell is back up front on vocal with Henry on Can't You See. These two voices mesh together quite nicely with only jangly guitar behind. Rachell's mandolin playing on Dark Clouds Rising is very strong and again a superior vocal and piano effort by Henry. Another favorite is Nice and kind with crisp piano work and vocal by Henry. Rachell and Henry play guitar on Goin' Back Down South and with strong conviction, delivers super melodic vocals. Wrapping the release is Since You've Come Back Home with Henry on vocal and piano and Merritt on guitar. This is an excellent closer for a really strong early blues recording. This release has excellent fidelity and includes 8 previously unissued tracks. Very fine. 

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Cairo Blues - Henry Townsend

Henry 'Mule' Townsend (October 27, 1909 – September 24, 2006) was an American blues singer, guitarist and pianist
Townsend was born in Shelby, Mississippi and grew up in Cairo, Illinois. He left home at the age of nine because of an abusive father and hoboed his way to St. Louis, Missouri. He learned guitar while in his early teens from a locally renowned blues guitarist known as "Dudlow Joe".

By the late 1920s he had begun touring and recording with pianist Walter Davis, and had acquired the nickname "Mule" because he was sturdy in both physique and character. In St. Louis, he worked with some of the early blues pioneers, including J.D. Short.

Townsend was one of the only artists known to have recorded in nine consecutive decades (starting in the 1920s). He has recorded on several different labels including Columbia and Folkways Records. He first recorded in 1929 and remained active up to 2006. By the mid 1990s, Townsend and his one-time collaborator Yank Rachell were the only active blues artists whose performing lives stretched back to the 1920s.

Articulate and self-aware with an excellent memory, Townsend gave many invaluable interviews to Blues enthusiasts and scholars. Paul Oliver recorded him in 1960 and quoted him extensively in his 1967 work Conversations with the Blues.[3] Thirty years later, Bill Greensmith edited thirty hours of taped interviews with Henry to produce a full autobiography, giving a vivid history of the Blues scene in St Louis and East St Louis in its prime.

In 1985 he received the National Heritage Fellowship in recognition of being a master artist. In 1995 he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Townsend died, at the age of 96, on September 24, 2006, at St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital, Mequon, Wisconsin, just hours after having been the first person to be presented with a 'key' in Grafton's Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame.

On December 4, 2009, Henry Townsend was added to the Mississippi Blues Trail.

On February 10, 2008, The Late Henry Townsend received his first Grammy Award at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for his performances on Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas released by The Blue Shoe Project, The Grammy Award was accepted by his young son, Alonzo Townsend.
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