For Guy Davis, keeping the blues alive means keeping it alive even its most stripped-down form. The Legend of Sugarbelly is a throwback to the blues’ purest, simplest acoustic form, so reminiscent of Lead Belly and the earliest masters one almost expects to hear the crackle of an old 78-inch record. Davis is a great […]
Bill’s (Belated) Blues-based Best of 2021
Well, here it is again … my inexpert, incomplete review of the best blues albums of 2021. Better late than never. 1. Selwyn Birchwood – Living in a Burning House. A mature masterwork of a young(ish) musician carrying the torch for the next generation of blues greats. 2. Eric Bibb – Dear America. Bibb takes […]
Guy Davis – Be Ready When I Call You
Nobody can accuse Guy Davis of being wishy washy. He says and sings what he thinks no matter the consequences. Yes, Be Ready When I Call You may be Guy Davis’ most political album yet. On it, he sings about the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 (“God’s Gonna Make Things Over”), Flint Michigan’s drinking water […]
Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi – Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train
Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi’s Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train takes a stroll through the past, with an homage to the traditional country blues of Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry that Davis refers to as “a love letter to Brownie and Sonny signed by both of us.” Harmonica virtuoso Terry (1911-1986) and acoustic guitarist McGhee (1915-1996) […]
Bill’s Blues-Based Best – 2015
There’s no way we can claim to track all the new music that comes out in a year. But we’re wired to find what we like. While I certainly enjoy the alt. country artists so popular on Twangville (caught Jason Isbell’s show at the Electric Factory last summer – fantastic!) I tend to write more […]
Guy Davis – Kokomo Kidd
Guy Davis is among the vanguard of musicians, including Keb’ Mo’, Eric Bibb, Otis Taylor, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Corey Harris, who have carried the blues torch lit by the post-war greats like Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King.  His newest album, Kokomo Kidd, reminds us why Davis is a key voice in […]
Eric Bibb – Blues People
Eric Bibb is one of a small number of elite blues musicians of his generation that define contemporary blues music. Along with Keb’ Mo’, Otis Taylor, Guy Davis, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood and a handful of others, Bibb has assumed the mantle from the great Mississippi Delta artists of the early 20th century and the post-World […]
Otis Taylor – Contraband
Otis Taylor and Corey Harris may be the most creative blues musicians active today. And with Harris spending much of his time exploring other musical avenues, that leaves Taylor pretty much in a class by himself as an avant-garde bluesman. His moody, atmospheric yet beautiful recordings are a welcome change from the many younger musicians trying […]