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Category: Blues

Another Strong Run with Blues from Sean Chambers

The Run

Yesterday it was pretty cold in the morning, so I put off running until the afternoon. It was actually pretty nice in the early afternoon but when the sun started to go down it got chilly pretty fast. I ran the same 3.1 mile loop that I’ve been running since I resumed running back in October. It was a pretty easy, nondescript run. The GPS seemed just on target. Here are the results……

The Results

Total Distance: 3.11 Total Time: 32:39

Average Pace: 10:29

Mile Splits Mile 1. 10:32. Mile 2. 10:39 Mile 3 10:24 Mile:0.10 9:22 read more

Voodoo In the Shadows – Fiona Boyes

Voodoo in the Shadows – Cajun Blues from Australia
I may not have known about blues artist Fiona Boyes., until the last few years,  but the Blues music world certainly did!  Consequently, Fiona is Australia’s most celebrated and successful blues artist. Here are a few of the latest awards…..

  • Professin’ the Blues, received the 2017 Acoustic Album of the Year award from Blues Blast Magazine
  • The Blues Foundation in Memphis has honored her with 6 Blues Music Award nominations, including Acoustic Album of the Year and Best Acoustic Artist in 2017.
  • In 2003, she won their International Blues Challenge, representing the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society.
    • read more

    A Good Run, Great Blues and some Explaining!

    What’s Been Happening….
    Ok so no long recap of why I haven’t posted here for a long time. I’ll just say I had some health issues that appear to have been resolved favorably! The biggest being a high PSA level which is a test used for detection of prostate problems. But after a retest and a normal exam by a urologist, it appears I am good to go. One of the positives that has happened between the initial PSA test and the retest is switching my aerobic exercise from my heavy dance-Kundalini- cardio workout to running. Another is that I have added a 25-30 minute before bed yoga routine. Many of the asanas in the nightly routine are ones that are good for my prostate. Additionally, I have made some dietary changes, adding foods like avocado to my diet! On the downside, but good side, I also tried to eliminate sugary cakey snacks and potato chips!! Anyway, I think all of the above helped to reduce my PSA level. I still think that the main reason that my PSA level was high in the first place was excessive exercise over the weekend leading up to the test. But that’s neither here nor there, the bottom line is hopefully things are good. And the changes that I made to my exercise routines and diet are positive!
    A Return to Running
    So let’s get to some new stuff and then I’ll try to catch up on some older stuff as we move on! My plan when I started to run again was to return to my old running routine. That routine was running four miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then a 5-8 mile run on a weekend day. So far I have only been running a 3.1 mile course and I think I have made three days a week once. However, my minute per mile pace has been much faster than anticipated. Typically, in recent years when I start back running after a layoff my pace hovers around 11:30 minutes per mile for a long while. This time my pace was only around 11:30 for the first two runs. By the third run it was around 11 minutes/mile and it has gone down from there! I think the major reason for that was that was the pretty hard dance-cardio exercising I did from July up until the fateful PSA test. I believe that through that exercising I was in great aerobic shape and that made the transition to running easier than in the past. My average pace for today’s 3.1 mile run was 10:27 min/mile. Here are the stats for the run….. Mile Splits— Mile 1 – 10:24 Mile 2 -10:39 Mile 3 – 10:30 Mile 0.15 – 9:13 Average HR – 141 bpm  Max 172? Calories Burned -419 So hopefully, I can keep running through the winter and not have to start over again next spring! But at least now I know if I do my dance cardio in those super cold or snowy days I will remain in pretty good shape!!
    The Soundtrack
    The soundtrack for today’s run was Hold On the latest release from blues guitarist Kirk Fletcher. Kirk Fletcher is one of the world’s best blues guitarist. He is a four-time Blues Music Award and a 2015 British Blues Award nominee and has played with a variety of popular artists, including Joe Bonamassa and a three-year role as lead guitarist of The Fabulous Thunderbird. Additionally,not that anybody cares, he has played on many of the albums that have been in my music rotation over the last several years.
    About Hold On
    Hold On is a great album. It had me from the first track “Two Steps Forward” and it wasn’t Fletcher’s guitar that caught my attention. It was the organ! Subsequently, I have discovered the keyboardist was Jonny Henderson. Henderson is a well-respected British keyboard artist who has been a member of the Matt Schofield Trio since 2004.Additionally, he has been voted Keyboard Player of the Year at both the 2010 and 2011 British Blues Awards. The other member of Fletcher’s band is drummer Mack Brown. Brown has played with Henderson many times. The trio first played together a year or two ago at the Bristol Jazz Festival and as they say the rest is history. It’s my hope that they will be playing together a lot more!! Hold On will certainly be in my music rotation over the next several weeks and beyond! The songs on the album are varied and Fletcher’s guitar work is perfect on each track. Here;’s what Matt Koehler said about the album….

    Hold On as an album is so solid, so listenable and so moving that the word
    “monumental” comes to mind. It sets the bar for modern Rhythm & Blues albums to come, from Kirk or otherwise, and it reminds the world that the genre is still as strong and meaningful as ever. ~ by Mat Koehler
    read more

    A Little Heart Scare? Not! – Music by Anthony Gomes

    The Run – 3.13 Miles 

    So today was my first run since Thursday the 25th of last month. I took off last week because of a head cold with lots of nasal congestion. Anyway the run was pretty good except for a little heart rate scare that slowed me down.

    I completed the first mile in 10:50 and was running fairly comfortably. My HR was around 145-147 beats per minute (bpm). The rate dropped a little over the next half-mile and didn’t hit 147 until I got to the top of a short hill near the 1.75 mile mark. I did a quick check of my HR a few minutes later and it said 183? I didn’t feel bad so I thought it was just a fluke from the Fitbit. As I passed the 2 mile mark it was still rising 200 then 202 I slowed down but still felt ok. When it went over 210 I though I better stop and make sure everything was OK. When I stopped and started to walk I pushed up the sleeve covering my Fitbit and discovered that the reading had switched from heart rate to miles. So it was 2.16 miles instead of 216 bpm! I was one hand relived and one the other I felt really stupid!! Anyway after I had walked a few feet my HR was really 126 bpm. I started again and finished the run throughout the last mile my HR was between 142-147 bpm like it had been through the first part of the run. Here are the splits: Mile 1- 10:50  Mile 2- 11:20  Mile 3- 11:26  Mile 0.13 9:37 So overall it was a good return!
    The Soundtrack – Peace, Love and Loud Guitars – Anthony Gomes

    The soundtrack for the run was Peace,Love & Loud Guitars the new album from blues artist Anthony Gomes. From Wikipedia:

    Anthony Gomes is a Canadian blues and blues rock guitarist and singer. He was born to a Portuguese father and a French-Canadian mother. After his 1998 debut album release Blues in Technicolor, he began touring the United States and Canada and he has since recorded eight more albums. Read More: Wikipedia
    I knew throughout the first 1.5 to 1.75 miles that I was running comfortably because never lost contact with the music. Here’s a little about the album From Gones’ Website…..
     Peace, Love & Loud Guitars, is the culmination of a life spent honoring blues traditions while never losing sight of his own identity. He is that rare artist able to take the Zen simplicity of blues music, fuse it with the rush of rock and roll, and write memorable new songs that exist somewhere between creative geniuses Willie Dixon and Billy Gibbons. He stands his ground as a creative artist, not a derivative history lesson, and is eager to push the blues back into the mainstream.
    “White Trash Princess”, “Nasty Good” and “Whiskey Made Me Do It”  are three of the songs that I remember listening to. Any question about the topics?? Two other songs mention blues greats. “Come Down” is a plea for B.B,King to come down from heaven. While the other tells the story of Robert Johnson “Stealin’ from the Devil” All in all it’s a Great Blues album. So Check it out!

    Links for the Further Exploration of the Blues of Anthony Gomes….. read more

    Steve Krase Band – Just Waitin’ – Gets A Body Moving!!

    Just Waitin’ – Steve Krase Band

    Over the last few years one of my favorite blues harmonica players has been Steve Krase. So the other day when I saw his latest release Just Waitin’  on Spotify I knew it would be going into my music rotation. The other morning I decided that it would be the soundtrack for my morning walk.

    “Settin’ the Woods on Fire” opened the album and started my walk off on the right foot. The only problem was the song sounded a lot more rockabilly than bluesy! Not that it was a problem because Krase handled the song just fine!! And the rockin’ music got me started in a good mood! It set the tone for the songs that followed, note necessarily the blues but just flat-out good music. read more

    My Yoga and Walking Challenges Lead to a Month of Runs…

    A few weeks after I started my 21-day Yoga Challenge I realize that wanted to add some more to my exercise regime. I thought back and remembered how I started to gain weight, when I stopped babysitting Oliver two plus years ago. While I was babysitting I would take him for two or three 30 minute walks during the day.

    Once those walks stopped on came the weight! Anyway I thought even though you won’t be pushing a stroller you can walk twice a day numb nuts! So I created the 30-day Oliver Walking Challenge. The aim of the challenge was to use walking to help me get back into shape with the idea that I would then be able to start and run again. read more

    The High Cost of Low Living a Great Soundtrack for a Slow Run!

    The Run – (if you can call it that)

    Yesterday afternoon I looked at my Fitbit totals for the day and saw that I only had recorded 2,200 steps. Now I had proof that I had sat around all day!. So my thoughts maybe I’ll run became I have to run today if  want to get to 10,000 steps!

    As I prepared to run, I decided that the plan was to run. a minimum of two miles or a maximum of 30 minutes. My main focus during the run was not how fast I was running but keeping my heart rate below 150 beats per minute (bpm). So as I was running every time I saw the rate going over 150, I slowed up  until my rate went down and back under 150. read more

    New Blues Albums from Mayall, Karp, Ellis and Morvan

    New Blues Albums – March 3, 2018

    I haven’t posted here in a long, long while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been seeking out and listening to new music. I just have been writing at ekkarn.com instead. However, it may be time to start this blog up again.

    With that being said let’s jump right back into some blues. A few days ago I was reviewing the recent releases as well as the Roots Music Reports Charts and came away with four albums to put into my music rotation. All four are musicians whose music I have listened to and enjoyed previously. read more

    Exploring the Chicago Blues of Lurrie Bell

    I have mentioned before that I often use a review of the birthdays listed at AllAboutJazz.com as a way to explore new music. Many times I write a post about whose music I have discovered. The following posts was written back in 2013, about Lurrie Bell…..

    Lurrie Bell carrying on the Chicago Blues tradition of his father Carey

    Last year 2013 was a great year for Chicago Blues artist Lurrie Bell. Bell, the son of the great blues harpist Carey Bell released one of his most successful solo albums, Blues in My Soul.  Blues in My Soul, released on the Delmark label, was Bell’s return to electric blues after two albums which saw him playing in acoustic and religious styles. The Blues community received Lurrie Bell’s return to traditional Chicago blues positively.  The Blues Foundation nominated him for five 2014 Blues Music Awards. Here are Lurrie Bell’s five Blues Music Award’s nominations. read more

    A Six Pack Playlist of New Blues – (Dec 3-9 2017)

    Tommy Castro’s Stompin’ Ground Kicks off a  Playlist of New Blues 

    So last week after I made the John Gorka playlist I visited the Roots Music Report’’s Blues Chart. I scanned down the list. There were new releases from a few artists I know and like and several new artists. I decided to make a playlist to see which albums I would like to explore in more detail, I.e. listen to the full album. Here are the albums and artists, the playlist and my thoughts on the albums.

    Stompin Ground - Tommy CastroStompin’ Ground – Tommy Castro

    Tommy Castro has been a favorite of mine since the late 90s. Many of his albums are in my music library. There are times when I wish that his songs had more guitar, but the music is always infectious. read more