Blues Wednesday – Mike Zito

So I was thinking about what to listen to yesterday on blues Wednesday a little Tab Benoit, Dave Hole, Buddy Guy – well maybe I’ll check out the Blues Radio Chart and see what looks good number 23 looks interesting Mike Zito so I went to Rhapsody and downloaded his 2009 release Pearl River and was not disappointed!  Pearl River is Zito’s second major record release following on the heels of his first Eclecto Grove Records release Today. The St. Louis native Zito has had several independent releases and toured and shared the stage with some of my favorites  Tab Benoit, Walter Trout, Bernard Allison, Coco Montoya, and Joe Bonamassa along with many others!. read more

Old Friends Found – Goose Creek Symphony

The other day I was thinking about lost and forgotten music, well, maybe just not listened to in a while and I thought about Goose Creek Symphony. I first heard Goose Creek in the early 70’s and I think,  I was introduced to them by my wife! Anyway, in my vinyl collection I have their first three albums., Est. in 1970, Words of Earnest and Do Your Thing but Don’t Touch Mine. They are a good time country rock band that travels just a little beyond the norm. From their website:

Goose Creek Symphony is considered by many to be one of the most original bands of their time. Major record labels (Capitol & Columbia) of the 60s/early 70s didn’t know what to do with a band that played a mixture of rock and roll, folk, jazz and country with an undeniable hillbilly influence, a hippie attitude and a reckless sense of instrumental daring. They used horns and fiddles as well as effects and blended it with psychedelic rock and roll. The true definition of “Cosmic American Music”. read more

Blues Wednesday – Moreland and Arbuckle

So, I was on the No Depression website the other day and on the sidebar was an advertisement for a new CD  Flood by Moreland and Arbuckle, it looked interesting so I headed over to emusic.com and searched for the CD and found it and downloaded several of the songs and all I can say is WOW! Mississippi Delta Blues at its finest! The trio consists of leaders Aaron Moreland on guitars, Dustin Arbuckle on harp and vocals and drummer Brad Horner. You can read the band’s bio at their website. While they are from Wichita, Kansas they live in the Mississippi delta in spirit. Their songs and playing are great! Moreland plays Telecaster and Les Paul guitars and a Cigar Box guitar consisting of four strings, one of which goes to a bass amp and the other three to a guitar amp. This guitar really adds to the great original sound of the group. Dustin Arbuckle’s vocals are top notch but his harp playing is extraordinary and would make his heroes Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson proud. His playing takes the band to another level for me. read more

Moreland & Arbuckle – Flood

FloodBecause I listen to so much new music, I rarely take the time to listen to some of the stuff that I’ve discovered and really like, like this album  from Moreland & Arbuckle…….

So, I was on the No Depression website the other day and on the sidebar was an advertisement for a new CD  Flood by Moreland and Arbuckle, it looked interesting so I headed over to emusic.com and searched for the CD and found it and downloaded several of the songs and all I can say is WOW! Mississippi Delta Blues at its finest! The trio consists of leaders Aaron Moreland on guitars, Dustin Arbuckle on harp and vocals and drummer Brad Horner. You can read the band’s bio at their website. While they are from Wichita, Kansas they live in the Mississippi delta in spirit. Their songs and playing are great! Moreland plays Telecaster and Les Paul guitars and a Cigar Box guitar consisting of four strings, one of which goes to a bass amp and the other three to a guitar amp. This guitar really adds to the great original sound of the group. Dustin Arbuckle’s vocals are top notch but his harp playing is extraordinary and would make his heroes Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson proud. His playing takes the band to another level for me.   Flood is their first release on Telarc records a part of the Concord Music Group.   Previously they read more

Belated Blues Wednesday – Corey Stevens

So I started Wednesday thinking about the blues musician I was going to listen to and choose Corey Stevens. A couple of weeks ago I had downloaded Corey Stevens  new live CD called Myth Live. Actually a two disc CD/DVD of a concert at a new state of the art venue the Myth in Maplewood Minnesota. The album is a good mix of some of the tracks from his early albums which are the two I have Blue Drops of Rain and The Road to Zen. On the CD he plays both of the these title tracks.  They have always been my two favorites. There is one track on the CD  “Another Pretty Face” from his most recent CD Albertville, which is an album of covers of Albert King songs. I listened to that album today and thought it was really good. There are also some tracks from Bring on the Blues Stevens 2003 release. I listened to that CD briefly today and enjoyed it also. Stevens sounds a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughan and actually started out playing Vaughan covers but he can play guitar and that’s that counts. His band consists of Mark Johnson on bass, Jim Stark on guitar, Norm Stiffen on drums, Melody Gilbert background vocals and percussion and Paul Testa on Hammond organ. Testa is outstanding on the Myth Live CD. All in all it was a good two days listening to a good blues musician and his bandmates and if you’ve never heard Stevens give him a try! Check out the videos on the left sidebar! read more

Corey Stevens – Myth Live and Blue Drops of Rain

Myth Live 1So I started Wednesday thinking about the blues musician I was going to listen to and chose Corey Stevens.

A couple of weeks ago I had downloaded Corey Stevens  new live CD called Myth Live. which i a two disc CD/DVD of a concert at a new state of the art venue the Myth in Maplewood Minnesota. The album is a good mix of some of the tracks from his early albums Blue Drops of Rain and The Road to Zen both of which are in my music library . Stevens plays both of the title tracks from these albums.  Both of the tracks have always been two of my favorites. read more

Blues Wednesday – Walter Trout

So last night I was browsing through a list of new folk releases on Dirty Linen Magazine and one title jumped out  Crawlin’ – by Marc Benno and the Nightcrawlers featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan. Well, some of you oldsters may remember a duo called Asylum Choir, who put out a couple of albums in the 70’s. The duo was Marc Benno and Leon Russell. I haven’t listened to that album in forever, but will listen tonight  and report back. Anyway, I went to emusic.com ( a site I dearly love) and found the Marc Benno album and downloaded five tracks and listened this morning, pretty good and I will report with my comments on Asylum Choir. read more

A Night of Blues leads to a baker’s dozen playlist with Marc Benno, Sonny Terry and Walter Trout

crawlin2So last night I was browsing through a list of new folk releases on Dirty Linen Magazine and one title jumped out  Crawlin’ – by Marc Benno and the Nightcrawlers featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan. Well, some of you oldsters may remember a duo called Asylum Choir, who put out a couple of albums in the 70’s. The duo was Marc Benno and Leon Russell. I haven’t listened to that album in forever, but will listen tonight  and report back. Anyway, I went to emusic.com ( a site I dearly love) and found the Marc Benno album and downloaded five tracks and listened this morning, pretty good and I will report with my comments on Asylum Choir. read more

American Troubadours

Do you know who this is?

Ok so the other night I was reading through a book I picked up awhile ago called American Troubadours. It’s a good book with short biographies of nine folkies from the Greenwich Village scene. My questions is how many have any of you heard of?  Based on the results, I will know who I need to introduce you to! I can hear the collective, oh joys now!

[polldaddy poll=2734910]

Answer: David Ackles