There may have been a crisis of confidence in the music industry at large as record buyers continued to defect to digital downloads and CD sales dropped a whopping 20% in 2008 over the previous year. It was a great year for the blues, though, as artists both old and new released some of the most vital and creative music of their careers. These are the best blues albums of a great year for blues music. (Honorable Mention: The Mannish Boys, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, Magic Slim, Taj Mahal, Duke Robillard)
No doubt about it, this is the kind of stuff that B.B. King has built a legend on, and One Kind Favor further cements the guitarist's legacy as one of the greatest performers that the blues has ever produced. Choice covers, stellar guitar playing, throwback production...what's not to like? One Kind Favor is a considerable late-career statement from one of the Delta's last true blues warriors.More »
Whew...if Skin Deep doesn't scratch that blues music itch of yours way down deep, then go slap some Celine Dion on your stereo, 'cause you couldn't possibly be a blues music fan. Guy delivers his best six-string performance in over a decade, and the competition created by guest pickers like Clapton, Trucks, Tedeschi, and even Sullivan not only add electricity to their respective tracks, but they also help pull the best out of Guy as well. Overall, Skin Deep is an exciting and invigorating album, Guy reinforcing his legendary status with a work worthy of his great talents.More »
The blueprint for 2 Man Wrecking Crew is written on parchment as old as the blues itself. Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm have created a fusion of soul, funk, and hip-hop that uses the hypnotic mind-meld of grandpa R.L. Burnside and his pal Junior Kimbrough as its foundation. The young Burnside's kitwork is robust, his drumbeats shooting off the four walls with juke-joint precision. Malcolm's guitar is fluid and nasty, purring like a wildcat one moment, roaring like an out-of-tune Harley the next. Together, they update the ancient Mississippi blues sound of their forebears with new blood and fire.More »
A gifted instrumentalist with a variety of styles at his disposal, Dave Specter is an unsung talent on the Chicago blues scene. Specter is no blues purist, but rather an enthusiast who incorporates elements of bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Magic Sam, and Otis Rush in his work, along with jazzier influences like Kenny Burrell and, although it's understated, B.B. King. Live In Chicago is an incredible display of Specter's talents as a guitarist, as a stylist, and as a bandleader. This is a good show, and well worth hearing for any dedicated blues fan.More »
Janiva Magness continues to show enormous growth as a vocalist and performer, What Love Will Do representing her strongest collection of material to date. An inspired effort that masterfully blends raunchy blues with Memphis soul and classic R&B, What Love Will Do is deserving of a widespread mainstream audience...an audience that won't be able to deny Magness' talents much longer when the lovely Janiva delivers music as self-assured, insightful, and as powerful as she does here.More »
Witness To The Blues is the veteran bluesman's latest and greatest, a stunning collection of rambling soul, bluesy guitar, big band blues, and rambunctious R&B. Produced with a deft hand by six-string wizard Duke Robillard - who knows his own way around a fretboard - the collaboration between two accomplished musicians results in near-flawless performances on half-a-dozen Walker originals and a handful of choice covers.More »
Kenny Neal's Let Life Flow is so doggone good that it might just win the talented bluesman a second "Best Album" award from The Blues Foundation. Writing, playing, and singing with a renewed sense of purpose and energy, Neal has taken the tragedies of the past few years and, in the best blues tradition, turned them into great songs and performances. His fanciful guitarwork ranges from spry single-note leads that are scattered across the song to meaty riffs and funky rhythms. With an overall lyrical theme of perseverance and hope, Let Life Flow shows that Kenny Neal still has a few tricks left in his gris-gris bag.More »
Iron Man is undoubtedly an album directed at those listeners that love them some guitar-driven electric-blues. To this end, almost every song here features some variation of Burks' roughneck guitar-slinging. What Iron Man also does, however, is showcase Burks' growing talents as a singer and songwriter, the artist penning several near-classic tunes here that I could easily see being swiped, er...covered by some blues-rock band sometime in the future.More »
With Hattiesburg Blues, Mississippi Heat has delivered its biggest, brassiest and best album to date. Fueled by Pierre Lacocque's songwriting skills and ever-evolving harp style, the larger-than-life voice of Inetta Visor, a talented ensemble band, and special guests like Lurrie Bell and Carl Weathersby, Mississippi Heat continues to kick out creatively interesting and musically exciting works like Hattiesburg Blues.More »
With Blues Walkin' Like A Man, Block imbues these timeless Son House songs with her own voice, breathing new life into the material with her incredibly talented fretwork and perfect vocal interpretations. Not only does Blues Walkin' Like A Man pay proper tribute to the music of Eddie "Son" House, with all the love and respect due an artist of his importance, it also keeps the material alive for a new generation of listeners.More »
Costello's six-string skills are polished enough to stand tall with any of the current crop of blues stylists, yet still raw and rocking enough to excite blues-rock enthusiasts. With We Can Get Together, Costello manages that hardest of tricks - walking the tightrope between traditional blues and contemporary blues-rock - but he does it well, delivering an entertaining and multi-textured album that I promise you'll play over and over again.More »
Watermelon Slim's half-slurred, half-growled vocal patois (equal parts Carolina soul and Okie drawl) takes some getting used to hearing. But throw in Slim's haunting National Steel slide guitarplay, which hangs across these songs like vines dripping down from the limbs of a Cypress tree, combine it with his shotgun harp work, include a band that knows when to be quiet and when to be loud, and you have a lethal chemistry. Slim's whipsmart lyricism is backed up by real-life bumps-and-bruises… all a beautiful shade of blues… and enough skilled wordplay to entertain listeners for hours.More »
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