Delmark Records artist: Magic Sam Blues Band - Black Magic - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Black Magic, from Magic Sam Blues Band and it's nothing short of great! Magic Sam passed only days before the original release of Black Magic back in 1969 and this shows Sam with his allstar studded band and a few additional/alternate tracks. Opening with Roscoe Gordon's, I Just Want A little Bit, Sam leads the way on guitar and vocal for a snappy blues rocker. The great Eddie Shaw is right there blowing a great sax solo and Sam handles guitar with Mighty Joe Young. What Have I Done Wrong has a cool R&B underpinning supported by Lafayette Leake on piano, Mac Thompson on bass, and Odie Payne on drums. Willie Dixion's classic, Easy Baby has a super soul feel with strong horn work from Shaw. With it's Boogaloo style, Sam has this track hopping. Slick guitar work and rolling rhythm gives this track extra spark. Lowell Fulsom's, It's All Your Fault Baby has a great unique take showcasing Sam's vocal styling and tidy guitar riffs. Shaw's sax work gives the track depth and classic double stops and beautiful guitar runs make this one of my personal favorites on the release. Don Nix's Same Old Blues has a great swing and excellent solo's from both Sam and Eddie. Excellent! I really love Sam's take on You Don't Love Me Baby with a great tempo and spicy riffs from Shaw and Sam. Freddie King's San-Ho-Zay is a crisp rocker with Sam hittin the strings just right. You Better Stop is a really nice slow blues number with fluid "Magic Sam" riffs over Eddie Shaw tone and Leake piano riffs giving it just perfect balance on Payne's snappy drumming. Excellent! Otis Rush's Keep On Loving Me, Baby really gets up and goes. Sam leads the way with clean, simple guitar riffs, echoed by Shaw and grounded by Thompson and Payne. What Have I Done Wrong (alt)is tight with alternate vocal tracks. The alternate on I Just Want A Little Bit has some great sax work by Shaw so make certain you catch this! The alternate on Everything's Gonna Be Alright has a great feel and stinging guitar solo. Keep On Doing What Your Doing has a great Chicago feel with warm sax from Harris and cool guitar riffs from Sam, coupled with his soulful vocals...very nice! Blues For Odie Payne is a real hot one with Sam and Young each taking an excellent solo before letting Eddie off the chain for a super solo as well. Excellent! The alternate for Same Old Blues has a great groove and Sam is in it. Dig his guitar phrasing on this one! The alternate 2 on What Have I Done Wrong is a great R&B number with super vocals and close work between Shaw and Sam. Wrapping the release is the alternate to Keep On Loving Me, Baby with high energy and powerful vocals. Sam's guitar work is clean and concise speeding to a conclusion about to erupt. Excellent ending to an excellent release! Also included is an excellent 16 page booklet with some great photos and notes not published before.

 

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Delmark Artist: Magic Sam - Live At The Avant Garde - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Live At the Avant Garde, from Magic Sam and it's terrific! This is a rare recording from 1968 and we are fortunate to have this turn up and become available. Opening with Freddie King's San-Ho-Zay, Sam is really cutting the groove. A master of phrasing and with clear tone this track is bright and alive. Don't Want No Woman is a cool up paced shuffle track with Sam on vocal with his classic guitar retort followed by Big Mojo Elem on bass and Bob Richey on drums. Capturing Sam at his best this is a great track. BB King's I Need You So Bad is classic with a mixture of Sam, King and Walker riffs shows the diversity of his style. On Junior Parker's Feelin' Good, Sam takes the boogie to a new level. This is an excellent track and you can just feel the electricity in the club. In Lowell Fulson's It's All Your Fault Baby, Sam milks the blues out of a great blues track with nice tremolo effects. You Belong To Me is a blues/R&B track with a lot of chug a lug. Get up and dance... you got to! Bad Luck Blues is one of the best tracks on the release with just the right amount of tempo and guts. Sam's vocals are inspired and his playing spot on. Jr Wells' Come On In This House is a classic soul track and just perfect for Sam's vocal/guitar attack. Real nice guitar phrasing make the solo on this track one of the more memorable of those on this release. Really nice! Next up is Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man. Sam does a real nice cover of the track with cool guitar riffs throughout. On Muddy Water's Still A Fool, Sam maintains much of Morganfield's original arrangement but of course the addition of Sam's slick guitar work making it a cool change up. That's All I Need is another R&B style track and a great track in it's own right. Sam has a special touch with his own tracks and his own groove. On Otis Rush's All Your Love, Sam does a super job of capturing the feel of Rush yet adding his own flair. His shimmery guitar solo's on this track are spine chilling. On Jimmy Rogers' That's All Right, Sam lays down some of the best vocals on the release. This warm paced track has great drum riffs from Richey and Sam rips into the guitar with double stops that are really hot. On Lookin' Good, Sam takes the pace up to boogie level again and lays down some really chipper guitar riffs which would have been great to experience in person. Really super that it has been captured in audio form for us to enjoy. On Jimmy McCracklin's, Everynight Everyday, Sam has the perfect tempo to fan the flames of this scorching hot blues number. Sam captures the real essence of deep blues on this track tempting you to just lay back in your chair and close your eyes. Excellent! On BB King's Hully Gully Twist, Sam takes it home with a kick. A light hearted instrumental with a springy beat and bopping guitar riffs, Sam leaves you wanting more! This release is a must!!

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Delmark 60 Years of Blues - New release review

I just received a new release, Delmark 60 Years of Blues and it's terrific! Opening with Studebaker John's Maxwell Street Kings and When They Played The Real Blues. John on harp, guitar and vocals drives a hard Chicago line on this super track from Kingsville Jukin'. Really hot! Following this track is Junior Wells and Rock me Baby from the Southside Blues Jam sessions. With Otis Spann on piano, Louis Meyers on guitar, and Wells on vocal and harp, this is a band that is hard to beat. Wells is on top of his game and Spann is one of my all time favorite blues pianists so this track is primo! Lindsey Alexander plays Raffle Ticket with Mike Wheeler on guitar Roosevelt Purifoy laying down some excellent piano. Alexander leads a tight ship on this track released on Been There Done That. Magic Sam plays I Don't Want No Woman, from his Live At The Advant Garde. His guitar work is finely articulated and his vocals are inspired. This track is swinging! Quintus McCormick struts in with Fifty Fifty from Hey Jodie. This funky R&B/Albert King styled blues track gets your butt squirming in your seat. Little Walter is up next with Just Keep Lovin' Her, an alternate track to the one included on The Blues World Of Little Walter. This band includes Muddy Waters and Baby Face Leroy. Prime Little Walter. Giles Corey's Stoned Soul plays Oh Mademoiselle, a rockin blues track with a definite contemporary feel. Corey lays down a funky guitar rhythm along with Marty Sammon on clav, Joewaun Scott on bass, and Rick King on drums. This track will be released on much anticipated Giles Corey's Stoned Soul to be released in 2014. Eddie C. Campbell plays Big World, a jump track from his 2008 release Tear This World Up with full horn section. Campbell's slick guitar work with effects make this a standout track. Big Joe Williams brings 44 Blues, an unreleased tape from 1960. This is an excellent early tape with only Williams on 7 string guitar and vocal. Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire covers Blues Train from the Blues Train. This soul infused track is a real mover. Billy Branch steps up on this track with his distinctive harp sound. Delmark really should be commended for putting this release together in such a manner that it flows nicely from style to style ... cohesive yet diverse. Lurrie Bell plays She's A Good 'un from Blues In My Soul. Bell, a standout contemporary blues guitar player lays down some deep grooves on this well paced track also featuring Roosevelt Purifoy on piano. Playing just behind the beat gives this track a real grip! Mississippi Heat turns it up for Let's Live It Up, with Inetta Visor on vocal, the incredible Pierre Lacocque on harp and especially hot on this track are Giles Corey on guitar, Hambone Cameron on organ, Stephen Howard on bass and Blaze Thomas on drums from the releae Let's Live It Up. Again pacing the release, Detroit Jr. plays on of my favorites from the release, Key To The Highway, accompanying himself on piano from Blues On The Internet. Excellent!! Tail Dragger and an allstar band featuring Lurrie Bell and Kevin Shanahan on guitar, Billy Branch on harp extraordinaire, Bob Stroger on bass and Kenny Smith on drums set the Chicago groove with Tend To Your Business from My Head Is Bald, Live From Friendly's Lounge. Sleepy John Estes contributes Stop That Thing from Live In Japan. This track is yet to be release but will be in 2014. Featuring Estes on guitar and vocal and Hammie Nixon on harp this track is hot! Wrapping the release is Toronzo Cannon and John The Conquer Root from John The Conquer Root. This track successfully blends Jimi with contemporary blues for a truly smoking ending for a super release. Yeah, catch the guitar work on this deal! It's not often that I sing praises (ok, I don't sing much at all) of a compilation, but this is a really cool one! If you haven't got all of these releases already (excecpt the ones not yet released, this is a great sampler for what you have missed and if you do already have them, it's a great cd to put on and play if you want a mix of different great bands. No filler here!

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I DON'T WANT NO WOMAN - Earnest Johnson with Magic Sam

Earnest Johnson is a bass player known primarily for playing with Muddy Waters and Magic Sam. Johnson died in Chicago on December 24, 1982. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

All Your Love and Lookin' Good - Magic Sam

Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett (February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) was an American Chicago blues musician. Maghett was born in Grenada, Mississippi, United States, and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter. After moving to Chicago at the age of nineteen, he was signed by Cobra Records and became well known as a bluesman after his first record, "All Your Love" in 1957. He was known for his distinctive tremolo-guitar playing After moving to Chicago in 1950, his guitar playing earned bookings at blues clubs in Chicago's West Side. Sam recorded for Cobra Records from 1957 to 1959, recording singles, including "All Your Love" and "Easy Baby". They did not appear on the record charts, yet they had a profound influence, far beyond Chicago's guitarists and singers. Together with recordings by Otis Rush and Buddy Guy (also Cobra artists), they made a manifesto for a new kind of blues. Around this time Sam also worked briefly with Homesick James Williamson. Sam gained a following before being drafted into the Army. Not a natural soldier, Sam deserted after a couple of weeks' service and was subsequently caught and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was given a dishonorable discharge on release, but the experience had undermined his confidence and immediate recordings for Mel London's Chief Records lacked the purpose of their predecessors. In 1963, he gained national attention for his single "Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)". After successful touring of the US, UK, and Germany, he was signed to Delmark Records in 1967, where he recorded West Side Soul and Black Magic. He also continued performing live and toured with blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite and Sam Lay. Sam's breakthrough performance was at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, which won him many bookings in the U.S. and Europe. His life and career was cut short when he suddenly died of a heart attack in December 1969. He was 32 years old. He was buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. In February 1970, the Butterfield Blues Band played at a benefit concert for Magic Sam, at Fillmore West in San Francisco. Also on the bill were Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, and Nick Gravenites. His guitar style, vocals, and songwriting ability have inspired and influenced many blues musicians ever since. In The Blues Brothers, Jake Blues dedicates the band's performance of "Sweet Home Chicago" to the "late, great Magic Sam". The stage name, Magic Sam, was devised by Sam's bass player and childhood friend Mack Thompson, at Sam's first recording session for Cobra, from an approximation of "Maghett Sam". The name Sam was using at the time, Good Rocking Sam, was already being used by another artist If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Easy Baby - Mac Thompson with Magic Sam

Blues bass and guitar player, brother of Syl Johnson and Jimmy Johnson, Mac Thompson was born Mac Johnson in Lamar, MS.died of cancer in Chicago, IL at the age of fifty seven. Mac Played bass with Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Magic Sam among others. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

New Magic Slim, Deanna Bogart releases from Blind Pig Records

NEW MAGIC SLIM, DEANNA BOGART RELEASES OUT AUGUST 28th Blind Pig Records has announced an August 28th release date for new recordings by Magic Slim and the Teardrops and Deanna Bogart, both of whom are past multiple winners of Blues Music Awards. Magic Slim, turning seventy-five years young later this summer, proves on his newest Blind Pig release, Bad Boy, that he can still deliver the goods. When it comes to complete mastery of the blues in all its aspects and truly genre defining power of performance, he is one bad boy with few if any equals on the scene today. In fact, he is considered by many to be the greatest living proponent of the intense, electrified, Mississippi-to-Chicago blues style that spawned much of the music played by modern blues artists and rockers. Living Blues magazine has called Slim and his band "a national treasure," and last year the state of Mississippi honored him by erecting a Blues Trail Marker in his honor in Slim's hometown of Grenada. Keyboardist, pianist, saxophonist, vocalist and songwriter Deanna Bogart is best known as an award-winning multi-instrumentalist and multifaceted musician whose fans value the eclectic diversity of her genre defying sensibilities and talents. For her latest Blind Pig release, Deanna has produced something unique in her recorded work, a beautifully intimate effort entitled Pianoland that spotlights her considerable skills as a solo performer. Comprising instrumentals and vocal tracks, her own sparkling compositions and well-chosen covers by the likes of Errol Garner and Harold Arlen, and solo and small group arrangements, Pianoland stands as one of the highlights of Deanna's brilliant and varied career. Throughout, Pianoland combines technical prowess with Deanna's signature soulful and utterly honest delivery. Publicity: Debra Regur pigpress@blindpigrecords.com 415-550-6484 Radio: Peter Robinson radio@blindpigrecords.com 773-772-0043

Call Me If You Need Me - Magic Sam and Shakey Jake

Shakey Jake Harris (April 12, 1921 – March 2, 1990) was an American Chicago blues singer, harmonicist and songwriter. Harris released five albums over a period of almost 25 years, and he was often musically associated with his nephew, Magic Sam.
James D. Harris was born in Earle, Arkansas, but relocated with his family to Chicago, Illinois, at the age of seven. He played in several Chicago blues ensembles in the late 1940s. He also worked as a mechanic, and a professional gambler (from whence his nickname came - "Shake 'em"). His debut recording did not take place until 1958. His single, "Call Me If You Need Me" / "Roll Your Moneymaker", was released by Artistic Records, featured Magic Sam and Syl Johnson on guitar, and was produced by Willie Dixon. Harris was not paid for the session, but won $700 shooting craps with label owner Eli Toscano.

In 1960, Bluesville Records teamed Harris with the jazz musicians Jack McDuff and Bill Jennings, for the album Good Times. His later recording of Mouth Harp Blues returned to more traditional blues ground. Harris toured, and was part of the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962.

Throughout the 1960s Harris and Sam appeared regularly in concert together around Chicago, and Harris's patronage of younger musicians helped secure Luther Allison's recording debut. Harris moved on in the late 1960s, and recorded with Allison in Los Angeles on Further on Up the Road. He also played with other harmonica players, such as William Clarke.

Harris subsequently recorded for World Pacific. He also owned his own nightclub and a record label, but was forced by ill health to eventually return to Arkansas, where he died, at the age of 68, in March 1990
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Stop! You're Hurting Me - Magic Sam

Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett (February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) was an American Chicago blues musician. Maghett was born in Grenada, Mississippi, United States, and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter. After moving to Chicago at the age of nineteen, he was signed by Cobra Records and became well known as a blues man after his first record, "All Your Love" in 1957. He was known for his distinctive tremolo-guitar playing
After moving to Chicago in 1950, his guitar playing earned bookings at blues clubs in Chicago's West Side. Sam recorded for Cobra Records from 1957 to 1959, recording singles, including "All Your Love" and "Easy Baby". They did not appear on the record charts, yet they had a profound influence, far beyond Chicago's guitarists and singers. Together with recordings by Otis Rush and Buddy Guy (also Cobra artists), they made a manifesto for a new kind of blues. Around this time Sam also worked briefly with Homesick James Williamson. Sam gained a following before being drafted into the Army. Not a natural soldier, Sam deserted after a couple of weeks' service and was subsequently caught and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was given a dishonorable discharge on release, but the experience had undermined his confidence and immediate recordings for Mel London's Chief Records lacked the purpose of their predecessors.

In 1963, he gained national attention for his single "Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)". After successful touring of the US, UK, and Germany, he was signed to Delmark Records in 1967, where he recorded West Side Soul and Black Magic. He also continued performing live and toured with blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite and Sam Lay.

Sam's breakthrough performance was at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, which won him many bookings in the U.S. and Europe. His life and career was cut short when he suddenly died of a heart attack in December 1969. He was 32 years old. He was buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. In February 1970, the Butterfield Blues Band played at a benefit concert for Magic Sam, at Fillmore West in San Francisco. Also on the bill were Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, and Nick Gravenites.

His guitar style, vocals, and songwriting ability have inspired and influenced many blues musicians ever since. In The Blues Brothers, Jake Blues dedicates the band's performance of "Sweet Home Chicago" to the "late, great Magic Sam".

The stage name, Magic Sam, was devised by Sam's bass player and childhood friend Mack Thompson, at Sam's first recording session for Cobra, from an approximation of "Maghett Sam". The name Sam was using at the time, Good Rocking Sam, was already being used by another artist
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All Your Love - Magic Sam

Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett (February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) was a Chicago blues artist. Maghett was born in Grenada, Mississippi and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter. After moving to Chicago at the age of nineteen, he was signed by Cobra Records and became well known as a bluesman after his first record, "All Your Love" in 1957. He was known for his distinctive tremolo-guitar playing.In 1963, he gained national attention for his single "Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)". His life and career was cut short when he suddenly died of a heart attack in December 1969. He was 32 years old. The stage name Magic Sam was devised by Sam's bass player and childhood friend Mack Thompson at Sam's first recording session for Cobra, from an approximation of "Maghett Sam". The name Sam was using at the time, Good Rocking Sam, was already being used by another artist.