The Oxford, Ohio based Biales has independently released seven previous albums mostly focused on the blues but with a healthy dose of country.  Her early works, beginning with Chasing Away the Blues in 2006, featured mostly original works.  Just Like Honey, released in 2012, was the first of her releases to feature more covers than originals.  It began with a rousing interpretation of Memphis Minnie’s “Call the Fire Wagon” and included, among others, covers of Bonnie Raitt’s “Give It Up” and the Delmore Brothers’ “Blues Stay Away From Me.”  Her originals, “Gypsy Woman Blues,” “Come To Me” and “Peaches” stood up well in the collection.

For Singing In My Soul Biales is joined by guitarist and producer Ricky Nye and the Paris Blues Band (Thibaut Chopin on upright bass, Anthony Stelmaszack on guitars, and Simon “Shuffle” Boyer on drums).  The songs are all covers except for Biales’ “Magic Garden.”  The covers include “Strange Things Happening Every Day” and “Singing In My Soul” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me” by Mississippi John Hurt and “Careless Love” by W.C. Handy.  But the song that bests them all is an old show tune, “I Only Have Eyes For You” by Harry Warren and Al Dubin.  On that track, it is clear how entrancing and true Biales’ singing can be at its best.

Singing In My Soul is worth a listen and shows that the relatively unknown Lisa Biales has a clear direction on the path to success.

If Robillard had stopped at creating the jump blues revival outfit Roomful of Blues in the late 1960s, his contribution to blues music would have been sizable.  Jump blues, an up-tempo form of blues often featuring horns that was popularized during the 1940s war years, has an old-timey feel that is a refreshing change from more traditional blues forms.

But Robillard didn’t stop at helping to revive jump blues.  Over a career spanning decades, Robillard has explored many avenues of blues and rock both in his solo work and as a member (replacing Jimmie Vaughan) of the Fabulous Thunderbirds in the early 1990s.  Over the course of his career he has also worked with such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Dr. John.  To get a flavor of Robillard’s range, check out the snappy After Hours Swing Session from 1990 and Living With the Blues from 2002.  There is also his 2005 collaboration with Ronnie Earl, The Duke Meets the Earl, which was the first collaboration between these two great Roomful alumni.

Independently Blue is another solid Robillard album.   Featuring guitarist Mike Welch as a guest artist, the album opens with Al Basile’s bouncy “I Wouldn’t-a Done That.”  The blues-rock guitar on the Basile and Robillard-penned “Below Zero” is worth the price of admission.  Welch’s instrumental “Stapled to the Chicken’s Back” has some great playing.  Other highlights include Robillard’s own “Laurene,” “Moongate,” and “Strollin’ With Lowell and BB.”  Welch’s ”This Man, This Monster” features some gorgeous playing by Robillard and Welch.  The band features Bruce Bears on keyboards, Brad Hallen on bass, Mark Teixeira on drums, and guest performances by trumpeter Doug Woolverton and clarinetist Billy Novick.

Earl’s limitations are self-imposed – his remedy for conditions of his own circumstances.  A recovered drug addict and alcoholic, Earl has also struggled with manic depression, diabetes and chronic fatigue syndrome.  He does not self-promote.  He rarely goes on the road anymore, mainly confining his appearances to his New England base (although he stole the show at the Western Maryland Blues Festival in one of his rare real road appearances in 2012).  He seems at peace with the place he has found in the hearts of his current followers   A two-time Blues Music Awards winner for guitarist of the year, he has received at least some of the recognition he deserves for his awe-inspiring work.

Ronnie Earl at the Western Maryland Blues Festival, 2012

Born Ronald Horvath in Queens, New York, Earl has made his home in the Boston area since finishing college at BU in the 1970s.  In 1979, he replaced another great blues guitarist, Duke Robillard, as lead guitarist in the jump blues band Roomful of Blues (Robillard’s umpteenth album, Independently Blue, was released on the same day as Just For Today).  He took his stage name to honor Earl Hooker, an important influence.  He stayed with Roomful of Blues for most of a decade before forming the Broadcasters, named after the original name of the earliest telecasters guitar (though Earl generally plays a strat).

Over the past 25 years, Earl has created a rich body of great music.  Originally, Earl worked extensively with vocalists, but adapted his sound, starting in the mid-1990s, to use vocals much more sparingly, and many of the Broadcasters’ best albums are entirely instrumental.  Check out 1996′s Grateful Heart: Blues and Ballads to hear the Broadcasters’ jazzier side, or 1994′s Still River,  The Colour of Love from 1997, Now My Soul from 2004, Hope Radio from 2007 to hear the jazz-blues blend mix more typical of Earl and the Broadcasters.  If you want to get an idea of Earl’s mastery in a single track, check out “Beautiful Child” from Hope Radio.  For a bit of twang, check out “Harvard Square Stomp” from 1994′s Language of the Soul.  Earl has also collaborated on a couple excellent projects, including Eye to Eye in 1996, on which he worked with blues legends Pinetop Perkins (piano), Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (drums), and Calvin Jones (bass); and The Duke Meets the Earl in 2005, the ultimate collaboration between the two great Roomful of Blues guitarist alumni – Earl and Duke Robillard.

From the first phrases of the call and response conversation between Earl and organist Dave Limina on “The Big Train,” it is clear that Just For Today will provide a taste of that expressive instrumental blend that the Broadcasters’ followers crave.  The song choices on the album, which was recorded live at three New England venues, provide a good taste of what the Broadcasters are all about.  Earl pays tribute to many of his influences, including as Otis Rush (with the song “Rush Hour”), Hubert Sumlin (“Blues for Hubert Sumlin”) and Robert Nighthawk (“Robert Nighthawk Stomp”).  Earl also dedicated the album to Sumlin, as well as to the memory of Bob Babbitt, Duck Dunn, Whitney Houston, and Gil Scott-Heron.  He also included a surprising cover of John Coltrane’s “Equinox.”  The only vocals on the album are from Diane Blue, who adds her awesome voice to “I’d Rather Go Blind,” a soul-blues classic by Bill Foster and Ellington Jordan.  The Broadcasters’ rhythm section, Lorne Entress on drums and Jim Mouradian on bass, provided a solid foundation.  Nicholas Tabarias joins in on guitar for two songs.

Ronnie Earl is more than a blues master – he is also the architect of a blues-jazz music that is all his own.  Just For Today is a solid contribution to the body of music Earl has created.

Anchored by harmonica player and vocalist Joe Nosek, guitarist and vocalist Oscar Wilson, drummer Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith (son of Muddy Waters’ longtime drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith), and guitarist Joel Patterson, the “CBKs” have also called upon the talents of upright bass player Beau Sample, guitarist Billy Flynn, drummer Mark Haines, electric bass player Gerry Hundt, keyboard player Barrelhouse Chuck, sax player Jerry Devivo, and drummer Alex Hall.  The ensemble built a following in Chicago for the past ten years and has been building its reputation outside the Windy City for the past several.

On Black Toppin’, the CBKs record a mix of original music with a few covers.  Nosek and Wilson are the main songwriters for the group, and the songwriting mix provides a refreshingly retro feel beginning with Nosek’s “Blues Falling Down On Me” and Wilson’s lively title tune.  Other highlights include “Oscar’s Jump,” the cover of Dixon’s “Too Late,” and Nosek’s rock ‘n’ roller ”I Don’t Want to Fight.”  The album closes with the Velvet Underground’s “Run Run Run,” which is a surprising choice for the collection but that somehow fits.

The CBKs, by embracing the golden era of blues music, in which musicians first plugged their instruments in and recorded extensively, have created a great sound.  Black Toppin’ seems like something pulled from a time capsule, but it is also a lot of fun to listen to.

Fowler, who hails from Brandon, Florida, had produced three self-released albums beginning in 1999 before signing with Blind Pig Records, which released Sugar Shack in 2009 and Devil Got His Way in 2011.  Fowler is a guitarist with a passion for lap steel and Dobro.

Soars gained attention in 2009 when his band won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge and he won the Albert King Award as the best guitarist.  Originally from Arkansas, Soars moved to Florida during his teens, and spent six years playing in death metal bands.

Wainwright, who adds his swampy, boogie-woogie keyboards to the mixture, grew up in Savannah, Georgia and moved to Daytona Beach, Florida to attend college.  He worked as an air-traffic controller for several years in Memphis, continued to play music, and managed to release three albums.

SOHO came about in July 2011 when the three musicians, separately performing at a music festival in Florida, had an impromptu jam session.  The trio was joined on Easy Livin’ by Chuck Riley on bass and Chris Peet on drums.

The band’s first offering begins with a funky, swampy “Southern Livin’” penned by the band members and Benoit.  Soars’ “Long Way Home” is a beefy blues rocker, which is followed by Fowler’s laid-back soul “Kind Lies & Whiskey,” Soars’ ”Mile After Mile” with its Smokey-and-the-Bandit twang, and Wainwright’s cool soul “Certified Lover.”  Willie Bobo and Melvin C. Lastie’s classic instrumental “Fried Neckbonds and Home Fries,” made famous with rock audiences by Santana, is one of only two covers in the collection.  The musicianship on the release is solid, and the song selection is an appealing variety.  Check out Fowler’s “Don’t Feel Like Going There Today” and “Sky is What I Breathe” to see the range of songwriting these guys are putting together.

Bratcher isn’t kidding when he says he is a preacher.  Many of his appearances are at churches or faith-based organizations, and he makes frequent visits to prisons across the country.  But then he’ll show up at a blues festival and show off his blues-rock chops.  After playing guitar since he was 12, Bratcher can play with the best of the blues rockers.

Bratcher’s seventh album, Secretly Famous features themes – tempting women, living through hard times – typical of blues music.  The religious themes that were more overt in some of Bratcher’s earlier work, including a Christmas album, are toned down.  The selections begin with the funky “Jupiter & Mars,” co-written by Bratcher’s son Jason, followed by an ode to the Shure SM57 microphone, “57.”  ”Feels Like Friday” is an upbeat romp, which is followed by the soft, acoustic-focused ballad ”It Just Feels Right,” a love song written for Bratcher’s wife.  The gritty rhythm on Bratcher’s cover of John D. Loudermilk’s “Tobacco Road” is among the highlights of the collection, along with “I Can’t Shake That Thing,” ”Check Your Blues at the Door,” the playful “Bologna Sandwich Man,” and the closer, “Starting All Over Again.”  The songs are all originals except for “Tobacco Road” and Donald & Richard Addrisi’s “Never My Love.”

Bratcher makes no secret about his devotion to his religion, and some of his earlier work has been pretty obviously religious-based.  Secretly Famous, as Bratcher describes it, draws on his experience before he became a preacher, making for a more secular selection that may be more accessible to blues and roots music fans as interested in the music as the message.  And, produced by Grammy-winning producer Jim Gaines, Secretly Famous succeeds as an enjoyable blues-rock musical collection.  Bratcher’s core band features the reverend on guitars and vocals, Craig Kew on bass, and Lester Estelle on drums, and Gaines engaged a host of background singers and keyboardist Rick Steff to fill out the studio sound.

As a musical adventurer, Harris can be compared with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.  He first gained notice with a pure Delta blues style with his straightforward lyrics and fantastic acoustic slide playing.  As his following grew, he began incorporating Creole and reggae influences.  In 2003, Harris was featured in Martin Scorsese’s film Feel Like Going Home, which was the first installment in the Scorsese-produced series The Blues on PBS.  After travelling to Mississippi and West Africa for the Scorsese film, Harris released his own masterful CD, Mississippi to Mali, using some of the connections he had made during filming.

Then Harris began to explore more aggressively in unexpected directions.  With Daily Bread in 2005, Harris explored reggae, coupling rasta numbers with traditional blues.  Zion Crossroads in 2007 defied any notion Harris could be pigeonholed, with a pure reggae effort – and a great one at that.  Since then, Harris has seesawed between genres, teaming with ex-Cephas & Wiggins harpist Phil Wiggins in 2009 to tour and produce a self-released album of acoustic blues.  Harris has also toured with his  ”Rasta Blues Experience” putting on amazingly eclectic shows that run from reggae to blues to jazz and recorded the self-released Father Sun, Mother Earth in 2011.  Throughout it all, Harris has participated in other projects, such as the Billy Bragg/Wilco 1998 collaboration to celebrate Woody Guthrie’s unrecorded songs, Mermaid Avenue, and Otis Taylor’s 2008 Recapturing the Banjo.       

On his website, Harris describes Fulton as a community in Richmond, Virginia in which former slaves settled, which was demolished during the 1970s.  Consistent with the subject matter of its title song, Fulton Blues continues Harris’ conversation about the African American experience – there is no mistaking Harris’ point in “House Negro Blues.”  The album, which features mostly acoustic blues, is largely a return to the form of his first two albums, Between Midnight and Day in 1995 and Fish Ain’t Bitin’ in 1997.  But Fulton Blues differs from those earliest albums by including just a taste of soul and reggae.  The variety gives the album a texture somewhat similar to Harris’ 1999 classic, Greens From the Garden.  It opens with a sort of jump blues-inflected “Crying Blues” before settling into the acoustic Delta blues pattern on “Underground” that dominates most of the rest of the album.  It continues in that acoustic vein with the exception of “Tallahatchie,” a sort of fusion piece complete with horns; the soul-reggae inflected “House Negro Blues;” his electrified version of “Catfish Blues,” originally recorded on his first album; and the jazzy instrumental “Fat Duck’s Groove,” which closes the album out.

Most of the tunes are originals, with Harris putting a new spin on “Catfish Blues” and “Lynch Blues,” which he first recorded on Greens from the Garden.  Harris’  band includes Chris Whitley on piano, Kenneth Joseph on drums, Gordon Jones on sax and Jayson Morgan on bass.

Originally from Detroit but based in Boston, harmonica player and singer Montgomery has been a presence on the blues scene since the late 1960s, with the release of his band’s first album – First Time Out – coming in 1973.  Montgomery has been around.  Once affiliated with Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen and backup to Delbert McClinton, he also played for four years with Johnny Winter and toured with or backed a laundry list of rockers and bluesmen.

With several legendary guest artists, including Winter and James Cotton, there are some memorable tunes on the album being released this month.  The opening song, “Intoxicated,”  has an R&B flavor, as does the Willie Dixon tune that follows, “Same Thing.”  “Little Johnny” features Winter playing some sizzling slide guitar, and “Who Do You Love” features rapper DMC (Darryl Matthews McDaniels) in a new twist to the classic Bo Diddley (and Doors) song.  “The Motor City is Burning” starts out with a slower blues tempo but builds to a blues-rock crescendo with horns.  Although the album is styled Detroit to the Delta, most of the tunes favor the uptempo sounds of Detroit, except for the instrumental “Rivers Edge” and the closing number, Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Black Cadillac,” with Cotton joining in on harmonica.

Montgomery’s band is comprised of a solid group of veterans, including George McCann on guitars, David Hull on bass, and Seth Pappas on drums.

With Haywire Riot, Estes accomplished what he was seeking.  If listeners are looking for subtle, sensitive lyrics, they should look elsewhere.  Skinny Molly takes its scruffy 1970s bar band approach to the hilt.  From the first licks on the opener, “If You Don’t Care,” through “Dodgin’ Bullets,” the final number, the album features big, loud guitar solos and straight-forward rock vocals.  There is not much variety on Haywire Riot. Only the next-to-last track, “None of Me No More,” features an acoustic opening and verses  – but it climbs in to a southern rock crescendo on each refrain.

Skinny Molly, featuring Jay Johnson on lead guitar along with Estes, Kurt Pietro on drums and Luke Bradshaw on bass, hasn’t created great art or fine music with Haywire Riot, the band’s second album following its 2008 debut, No Good Deed …, but it has created exactly what Estes was going for – a rollicking good time to bring back memories of shot-gunning “brewskis” in your best friend’s basement and cruising the strip in your Pontiac Le Mans Coupe.

Composer of the Glen Campbell hit “Gentle on My Mind,” Hartford gained some exposure as a sort of novelty artist on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and on Campbell’s own television show.  But there was much more to Hartford than the his brief period in the limelight would show.  A multi-talented musician, Hartford was expert on just about any instrument with strings, and he was a devoted ambassador for traditional music.  Born in New York in 1938 but a native of St. Louis, he had a childhood out of Mark Twain mythology, mastering the fiddle and banjo by age 13 and working on a riverboat for his first job.  In  the 1960s, he moved first to Nashville and later Los Angeles to pursue his career but found time to earn his riverboat pilot’s license.

In 1971 and 1972, back in Nashville, Hartford recorded his two albums for Warner Bros., Aereo Plain and Morning Bugle.  Aereo Plain, with a hirsute Hartford in airplane goggles staring from the cover, was not a big seller but it was destined to become a classic.  With songs like “Turn Your Radio On” and “Steamboat Whistle Blues,” Hartford proved he was a master at traditional bluegrass music.  But with “Back in the Goodle Days” and “Up on the Hill Where They Do the Boogie,” Hartford added lyrics that made the music relevant to a counter-culture searching for an organic form of music.  The album was produced by a young David Bromberg, who would himself establish a substantial body of work in roots music.  Part of what made Aereo Plain a collector’s item was that it was out of print for many years.  A collection of outtakes from the 1971 recording session, Steam Powered Aereo-Takes, was released in 2002 but the main album continued to be hard to find.

Hartford’s follow-up to Aereo Plain, Morning Bugle, released in 1972, was another creative success.  It again featured the work of Blake, although Clements and Taylor did not return, and Miles Davis collaborator Dave Holland replaced Scruggs on bass.  It featured great songs, including the poignant “Nobody Eats at Linebaugh’s Anymore.”

After parting with Warner Bros., Hartford put together a one-man show, sporting his signature bowler hat and vest, and toured alone for several years starting in the mid-1970s.  Mark Twang, released in 1976, featured some of his best solo work and garnered him a Grammy.  In th 1980s, Hartford was back collaborating with other artists – 1987′s Gum Tree Canoe was a creative success.  But by the late 1980s, Hartford was struggling with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, although he continued to perform and record until shortly before his death in 2001.

But with the reissue of Aereo Plain and Morning Bugle, some of the best of this great artist’s work, along with eight previously unreleased tracks, is available once again.