Third Man Records: Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969 - Various Artists - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent 2 cd release, Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969 from Third Man Records and it's terrific! Opening with Dirty Mother For You, a classic by Roosevelt Sykes, this classic track really gets the ball rolling with his suggestive language and his classic piano style. JB Hutto and his Hawk do a terrific Too Much Alcohol with Hutto's dynamic slide work. An excellent contribution by Jimmy Dawkins, I Wonder Why shows exactly why his nickname was Fast Fingers. Luther Allison and the Blue Nebulae play a super log take on Everybody Must Suffer/Stone Crazy and really gives his guitar a workout... makes you sweat just listening to it. Excellent! Another really fat guitar laden track is Otis Rush and So Many Roads. This is an excellent closer for disc one.

Disc 2 opens with Muddy Waters and Long Distance Call. Muddy's vocals are super and he has that crying slide work, backed by Paul Oscher on harp. Very nice. Charlie Musselwhite really brings the tempo up with Movin and Groovin, a super harp boogie. Of particular interest is Shirley Griffith's delta style rendition of Jelly Jelly Blues accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. Very strong. T-Bone Walker performs his classic, Stormy Monday and a nice long 10 minute plus guitar duet with Luthur Allison. Must be heard. Big Mama Thornton performs her classic, Ball and Chain, supported by T-Bone Walker. I mean, what else could you ask for...really? Sam Lay performs Key To The Highway with Luther Tucker another stellar track with excellent piano by possibly Skip Rose. When you think this is winding down you get the triple whammy. Lightnin' Hopkins on Mojo Hand with Luther Tucker, James Cotton blowing the walls down on Off The Wall with Luther Tucker and Bill Nugent on sax and Lastly... Son House... Son House...  on Death Letter Blues. I was born far too early. This concert is totally off the hook. Thankfully it is released by Third Man. Excellent!

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New Blues Guitar Books from Hal Leonard

Roy Buchanan – Guitar Signature Licks
A Step-by-Step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques
Format: Softcover Audio Online - TAB
Author: Dave Rubin
This exclusive book/audio pack features in-depth analysis of the songs and solos that made Roy Buchanan “The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World.” Though he never achieved stardom, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #57 on their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." With this pack, you'll learn 12 of his best licks, including: After Hours • Chicago Smokeshop • Five String Blues • Hey Joe • High Wire • I Won't Tell You No Lies • The Messiah Will Come Again • Pete's Blues • Peter Gunn • Roy's Bluz • Short Fuse • Sweet Dreams.
$22.99 (US)
Inventory #HL 00696654

Best of Robert Cray

Series: Guitar Recorded Version
Format: Softcover - TAB

Notes and tab for 16 songs from this modern blues master: Baby's Arms · Bad Influence · (Won't Be) Coming Home · Don't Be Afraid of the Dark · The Forecast (Calls for Pain) · Nothing Against You · Phone Booth · Poor Johnny · Right Next Door · She's Into Somethin' · Smoking Gun · and more.     

$19.99 (US)
Inventory #HL 00127184

Robben Ford Guitar Anthology
Series: Guitar Recorded Version
Format: Softcover - TAB
Iconic jazz/blues guitarist Robben Ford has played with a wide range of artists including Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, The Yellowjackets, George Harrison, and many more. This collection features guitar tab for 17 of his best-known songs, including: Busted Up • Chevrolet • Get Away • Homework • I Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues • Mama Talk to Your Daughter • Nothing to Nobody • Revelation • Step on It • Tell Me I'm Your Man • You Cut Me to the Bone • and more.
$24.99 (US)
Inventory #HL 00120220

T-Bone Walker
Guitar Play-Along Volume 160
Format: Softcover with CD - TAB
The Guitar Play-Along Series will help you play your favorite songs quickly and easily! Just follow the tab, listen to the CD to hear how the guitar should sound, and then play along using the separate backing tracks. The melody and lyrics are also included in the book in case you want to sing, or to simply help you follow along. The audio CD is playable on any CD player, and also enhanced so PC & Mac users can adjust the recording to any tempo without changing pitch! This volume includes: Glamour Girl • I Got a Break Baby • Mean Old World • Papa Ain't Salty • (They Call It) Stormy Monday (Stormy Monday Blues) • Strollin' with Bones • T-Bone Jumps Again • You Don't Love Me.
$16.99 (US)
Inventory #HL 00102641

 

Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong - T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked him at #47 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". On the 2011 list of Rolling Stone magazine's "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" Walker had dropped to #67. T-Bone Walker, nė Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in Linden, Texas, of African American and Cherokee descent. Walker's parents, Movelia Jimerson and Rance Walker, were both musicians. His stepfather, Marco Washington, taught him to play the guitar, ukulele, banjo, violin, mandolin, and piano. Early in the 1900s, the teenage Walker learned his craft among the street-strolling string bands of Dallas. His mother and stepfather (a member of the Dallas String Band) were musicians, and family friend Blind Lemon Jefferson sometimes joined the family for dinner. Walker left school at age 10, and by 15, he was a professional performer on the blues circuit. Initially, he was Jefferson's protégé and would guide him around town for his gigs. In 1929, Walker made his recording debut with a single for Columbia Records, "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity River Blues," billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone. Oak Cliff was the community he lived in at the time and T-Bone a corruption of his middle name. Pianist Douglas Fernell was his musical partner for the record. Walker married Vida Lee in 1935; the couple had three children. By age 25 Walker was working and the clubs in Los Angeles' Central Avenue, sometimes as the featured singer and guitarist with Les Hite's orchestra. By 1942, with his second album release, Walker's new-found musical maturity and ability had advanced to the point that Rolling Stone claimed that he "shocked everyone" with his newly developed distinctive sound upon the release of his first single "Mean Old World", on the Capitol Records label. Much of his output was recorded from 1946–1948 on Black & White Records, including his most famous song, 1947's "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)". Other notable songs he recorded during this period were "Bobby Sox Blues" (a #3 R&B hit in 1946), and "West Side Baby" (#8 on the R&B singles charts in 1948). Throughout his career Walker worked with top notch musicians, including trumpeter Teddy Buckner, pianist Lloyd Glenn, Billy Hadnott (bass), and tenor saxophonist Jack McVea. Following his work with Black & White, he recorded from 1950-54 for Imperial Records (backed by Dave Bartholomew). Walker's only record in the next five years was T-Bone Blues, recorded over three widely separated sessions in 1955, 1956 and 1959, and finally released by Atlantic Records in 1960. By the early 1960s, Walker's career had slowed down, in spite of a hyped appearance at the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 with Memphis Slim and prolific writer and musician Willie Dixon, among others.[1] However, several critically acclaimed albums followed, such as I Want a Little Girl (recorded for Delmark Records in 1968). Walker recorded in his last years, from 1968–1975, for Robin Hemingway's Jitney Jane Songs music publishing company, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1971 for Good Feelin', while signed by Polydor Records, produced by Hemingway,[4] followed by another album produced by Hemingway; Walker's Fly Walker Airlines which was released in 1973. T-Bone Walker at the American Folk Blues Festival in Hamburg, March 1972 Persistent stomach woes and a 1974 stroke slowed Walker's career down to a crawl. He died of bronchial pneumonia following another stroke in March 1975, at the age of 64.Walker was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. 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!