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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T-Model Ford has passed. Our thoughts are with his family and friends

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — James Lewis Carter "T-Model" Ford, a hard-living blues singer who taught himself to play guitar when he was 58 years old and his fifth wife left him, died Tuesday at his home in Greenville, Miss. His age was uncertain. Washington County Coroner Methel Johnson said the family told her Ford was born in 1924 and had already had his birthday this year, which would have made him 89. But a blues expert and longtime friend, Roger Stolle (STOH-lee), said Ford didn't remember what year he was born and claimed to be 93. Johnson told The Associated Press that Ford had been under hospice care and died of respiratory failure shortly after 10 a.m. CDT Tuesday. She said he was at home with several relatives, including his wife, Estella Ford. Stolle, who owns a Clarksdale, Miss., store called Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, accompanied Ford and other blues men when they toured Europe in 2009. He also traveled with Ford to gigs in New York. "He was known as one of the last really authentic Mississippi blues men," Stolle told AP on Tuesday. "He has a story and could back it up." When Ford was young, he served two years of a 10-year prison sentence for killing a man in self-defense, and he had scars on his ankles from serving on a prison chain gang, Stolle said. Ford had six wives and 26 children, Stolle said. When Ford's fifth wife left him, she gave him a guitar as a parting gift. "He stayed up all night drinking white whiskey," or moonshine, "and playing the guitar," Stolle said. "He kind of went on from there." Ford started his blues career by playing at private parties and at juke joints in Greenville. "He'd play late, then he'd spray himself with a bunch of mosquito spray and sleep in his van," Stolle said. Stolle said Ford recorded seven albums with three labels, including three albums with Fat Possum Records in Oxford, Miss. Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett, who co-owns the city's Ground Zero Blues Club with actor Morgan Freeman, said Ford was "a master of old-school blues" with an international following. "His music would take you right back to the heart and soul of the Delta, back in the day," Luckett said. Ford would show up for gigs early and often play longer than expected, even when he started experiencing heart problems in recent years, Stolle said. Ford would also swig Jack Daniels on stage and chat with the audience. Often, he'd pick out a happy-looking couple that included an attractive woman and would talk directly to the man. "He'd say, 'You'd better put your stamp on her because if she flags my train, I'm going to let her ride,'" Stolle said. "He'd do it with a gleam in his eye and a smile. He could get away with a lot."  

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Sallie Mae - T-Model Ford

James Lewis Carter Ford (born c. 1920, Forest, Mississippi, United States) is an American blues musician, using the name T-Model Ford. Unable to remember his exact date of birth, he began his musical career in his early seventies, and has continuously recorded for the Fat Possum label, then switched to Alive Naturalsound Records. His musical style melds the rawness of Delta blues with Chicago blues and juke joint blues styles According to records, Ford's year of birth is between 1921 and 1925. According to his half-sister (still alive in Tennessee), he was born in 1922. Starting with an abusive father who had permanently injured him at eleven, Ford has lived his entire life in a distressed and violent environment, towards which he is quite indifferent. Ford, an illiterate, had been working in various blue collar jobs as early as his preteen years, such as plowing fields, working at a sawmill, and later in life becoming a lumber company foreman and then a truck driver. At this time Ford was sentenced to ten years on a chain gang for murder. Allegedly Ford was able to reduce his sentence to two years. He ensuingly spent many of his years in conflicts with law enforcement. Currently, Ford resides in Greenville, Mississippi and for a time wrote an advice column for Arthur magazine. Reportedly, he has twenty six children. According to music writer Will Hodgkinson, who met and interviewed Ford for his book Guitar Man, Ford took up the guitar when his fifth wife left him and gave him a guitar as a leaving present. Ford trained himself without being able to read music or guitar tabs. Hodgkinson observed that Ford could not explain his technique. He had simply worked out a way of playing that sounded like the guitarists he admired - Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Ford toured juke joints and other venues, for a while opening for Buddy Guy. In 1995, he was discovered by Matthew Johnson of Fat Possum Records, under which he released five albums from 1997 to 2008. Since 2008, Ford worked with the Seattle-based band, GravelRoad. The project began as a single event, with Ford needing assistance to play the Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota in July 2008. GravelRoad, longtime fans of Ford and performers already scheduled for the festival, agreed to provide support for a ten-show US tour for Ford through July. Ford had a pacemaker inserted at the end of that tour, but appeared on stage again with GravelRoad in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He suffered a stroke in early 2010, but despite difficulty with right-hand mobility, managed to complete a successful tour with GravelRoad. This tour concluded with an appearance at Pickathon Festival. Ford and GravelRoad opened the third day of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, in New York over Labor Day weekend, 2010, curated by American independent film-maker Jim Jarmusch. GravelRoad backed Ford on his 2010 and 2011 albums, The Ladies Man and Taledragger, both released by Alive Naturalsound Records. Ford suffered a second stroke in the summer of 2012 that limited his public appearances. However, he was able to perform at that year's King Biscuit Blues Festival in October.  

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Chickenhead Man - T-Model Ford

James Lewis Carter Ford (born c. 1920, Forest, Mississippi, United States) is an American blues musician, using the name T-Model Ford. Unable to remember his exact date of birth, he began his musical career in his early seventies, and has continuously recorded for the Fat Possum label, then switched to Alive Naturalsound Records. His musical style melds the rawness of Delta blues. with Chicago blues and juke joint blues styles

According to records, Ford's year of birth is between 1921 and 1925. According to his half-sister (still alive in Tennessee), he was born in 1922. Starting with an abusive father who had permanently injured him at eleven, Ford has lived his entire life in a distressed and violent environment, towards which he is quite indifferent.

Ford, an illiterate, had been working in various blue collar jobs as early as his preteen years, such as plowing fields, working at a sawmill, and later in life becoming a lumber company foreman and then a truck driver. At this time Ford was sentenced to ten years on a chain gang for murder. Allegedly Ford was able to reduce his sentence to two years. He ensuingly spent many of his years in conflicts with law enforcement.

Currently, Ford resides in Greenville, Mississippi and for a time wrote an advice column for Arthur magazine. Reportedly, he has twenty six children.

According to music writer Will Hodgkinson, who met and interviewed Ford for his book Guitar Man, Ford took up the guitar when his fifth wife left him and gave him a guitar as a leaving present. Ford trained himself without being able to read music or guitar tabs. Hodgkinson observed that Ford could not explain his technique. He had simply worked out a way of playing that sounded like the guitarists he admired - Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

Ford toured juke joints and other venues, for a while opening for Buddy Guy. In 1995, he was discovered by Matthew Johnson of Fat Possum Records, under which he released five albums from 1997 to 2008.

Since 2008, Ford worked with the Seattle-based band, GravelRoad. The project began as a single event, with Ford needing assistance to play the Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota in July 2008. GravelRoad, long time fans of Ford and performers already scheduled for the festival, agreed to provide support for a ten-show US tour for Ford through July.

Ford had a pacemaker inserted at the end of that tour, but appeared on stage again with GravelRoad in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He suffered a stroke in early 2010, but despite difficulty with right-hand mobility, managed to complete a successful tour with GravelRoad. This tour concluded with an appearance at Pickathon Festival. Ford and GravelRoad opened the third day of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, in New York over Labor Day weekend, 2010, curated by American independent film-maker Jim Jarmusch.

GravelRoad backed Ford on his 2010 and 2011 albums, The Ladies Man and Taledragger, both released by Alive Naturalsound Records.

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