For me, and perhaps for all of us, 2017 was a year of challenges and changes. But through the challenges we’re facing, it’s reassuring to fall back on great music that expresses our frustrations and hopes. The following are my inexpert highlights of the best of blues-based (not strictly blues) music of 2017. North Mississippi Allstars – Prayer […]
Bill’s Blues Based Best of 2016
2016 was a hard year. But it was a pretty good year for the blues, with some of the highest profile blues musicians releasing fantastic albums. Below is my inexpert summary of some of the most memorable blues releases from the year to forget. 1. Steve Dawson – Solid States & Loose Ends. A relative unknown, Dawson’s […]
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 […]
2014 Americana Music Awards
On September 17th, the glitterati of the Americana Music Scene gathered at the historic Ryman Theater for their annual Awards show and presentation. Mayer and I were lucky enough to procure a seat to the festivities. You can get a full list of the award nominees and winners here, but these are the highlights from our […]
Eric Bibb – Jericho Road
Eric Bibb is one of the elite handful of African-American blues musicians who have built on the legacy of the great post-World War II generation of bluesmen who brought the music form from the back woods of the Mississippi Delta to the streets of Chicago and beyond. About a decade younger than Taj Mahal, who […]
Eric Bibb & Habib Koite – Brothers in Bamako
Bluesman Eric Bibb is the latest in a succession of American musicians to get his passport stamped in Mali since Ry Cooder and the late Ali Farka Toure won the Grammy for Best World Music Recording in 1994. Bibb’s fine collaboration with Malian Habib Koite, Brothers in Bamako, stands up well next to Cooder and Toure’s Talking Timbuktu; […]
Joseph Arthur + More, Releases 9/30
Joseph Arthur playing “Temporary People” from his SXSW performance at Red Fez on March 15th, 2008. JOSEPH ARTHUR & THE ASTRONAUTS, Temporary People (Lonely Astronauts) Official Site | MySpace | Samples (Amazon) Joseph Arthur has been dropping EPs all year long and now we have a full length to chew on. As if the video […]