Honey Babe/No Happy Home - Arthur Gunter

Arthur Gunter (May 23, 1926 – March 16, 1976) was an American blues guitarist and musician. He was best known for his song "Baby Let's Play House", which was later a hit single for Elvis Presley. Gunter was born in Nashville, Tennessee, a musician from an early age; as a child, he was in a gospel group with his brothers and cousins called the Gunter Brothers Quartet. In the early 1950s he played in various blues groups around Nashville, and began recording for Excello Records in 1954. In November 1954, Gunter recorded "Baby Let's Play House" for Excello (2047), which became a local hit. It became nationally known later that year when Elvis Presley recorded a version for Sun Records. "Elvis got that number and made it famous. But I didn't get a chance to shake his hand," Gunter would later say. His first royalty check, received that same year, was for $6500. Gunter continued to record for Excello until 1961. His regular band broke up in 1966 and he moved to Pontiac, Michigan, performing only occasionally thereafter. He died of pneumonia in 1976 at his home in Port Huron, Michigan

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Mustang Sally - Sweet Charles Sherell

"Sweet" Charles Sherrell (born Charles Emanuel Sherrell, March 8, 1943) is an American bassist known for recording and performing with James Brown. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Sherrell began his career playing drums with fellow Nashville residents Jimi Hendrix and Billy Cox, practicing at a club a block from Hendrix's residence. Sherrell learned to play the guitar by washing the car (a Jaguar) of Curtis Mayfield in exchange for guitar lessons. Sherrell soon began teaching himself to play the bass after buying one from a local pawn shop for $69, which led him to join Johnny Jones & The King Kasuals Band, Aretha Franklin's backing group. Sherrell joined James Brown's band in August 1968 and played on some of Brown's most famous recordings of the late 1960s, including the No. 1 R&B hits "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn", and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose". In the 1970s, Sherrell rejoined Brown and performed with The J.B.'s. He later played with Al Green and Maceo & All the King's Men. He also released some recordings under the name Sweet Charles, including his first solo album, Sweet Charles: For Sweet People, on James Brown's label People Records.  

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John Henry - Blind James Campbell String Band

Blind James Campbell (September 17, 1906 - January 22, 1981) was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is mostly remembered for his 1962-1963 recording for the Arhoolie label with his Nashville Street Band. James Campbell was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 17, 1906. He later became known as Blind James Campbell after an accident at a fertilizer plant left him permanently blinded. In 1936 he formed a band and began playing folk, country, pop, jazz and blues music at parties, dances and for other local events. The Nashville Street Band consisted of fiddler Beauford Clay (born 1900) who was a great influence on Campbell's playing, second guitarist Bell Ray (born 1909), bass horn player Ralph Robinson (born 1885), and trumpeter George Bell. Campbell and his band appeared to be quite content with the steady work they were receiving, and did not seem to have any desire to pursue a career in recording. However, Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records became interested in the band after hearing a field recording of them made by a fellow blues fan, Donald Hill. Hill had recorded Campbell in the spring of 1959 and again in April 1961. Hill's recordings include Campbell singing country songs as well as blues. He also recorded Cambpell and his string band on a street corner in downtown Nashville and recorded him with Beauford Clay. Both the original tapes and digital copies of Hill's recordings have been deposited at Library of Congress as a part of the Hill/Mangurian collection of field recordings made between 1958 and 1961. After listening to Hill's tapes, Strachwitz set off to Nashville to find and record Campbell and his band. After two recording sessions with Campbell and his band in 1962 and 1963, the Arhoolie LP, Blind James Campbell And His Nashville Street Band (Arhoolie 1015) was released in 1963. While these recordings never excelled Campbell into prominence, and the history of James Campbell and his band since the 1963 recordings is hazy, Strachwitz revisited these recordings and released them on CD in 1995, along with additional tracks from both recording sessions. Certainly, these recordings show evidence of a street band of considerable skill and quality, who were able to play American music from a variety of genres. James Campbell died in Nashville, Tennessee on January 22, 1981. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

We're Gonna Rock - Cecil Gant

Cecil Gant (April 4, 1913 - February 4, 1951) was an American blues singer and pianist. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Gant worked local clubs through the mid 1930s up until the Second World War, when he enlisted in the United States Army. Though his piano was blues-based, vocally he was a crooner of considerable cross-over appeal. He sang at a War Bond rally in Los Angeles, California, signed with the Gilt Edge record label, and recorded the self-penned ballad "I Wonder" late in 1944, billed as "Pvt. Cecil Gant." "I Wonder" reached number one on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade (as the R&B chart was called then) and sold impressively nationwide. Gant then went on tour billed as "The G.I. Sing-sation," dressed in Army khaki and breaking attendance records at major venues, attracting both black and white audiences. As well as singing in the dream vein of his hit, Gant could deliver a pleasant blues and energetic boogie-woogie; versatility shared by his West Coast contemporaries, Charles Brown and Ivory Joe Hunter. Gant had other releases on King Records (1947), Bullet Records (1948-49), Downbeat/Swingtime (1949), and Imperial Records (1950), but his moment of jukebox glory was gone. Some of his later recordings were rockabilly boogies utilising a Nashville studio guitarist, a few steps away from the soon-to-emerge rock and roll. However, he did not live long enough to see that new trend. Gant died of a heart attack in Nashville in 1951, at the age of 37. He is buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

DELTA GROOVE “BLUES STIMULUS PROGRAM” WINNERS!

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	DELTA GROOVE “BLUES STIMULUS PROGRAM” WINNERS! Delta Groove Music is very pleased to announce the participants in their first annual Blues Stimulus Program, an opportunity for blues talent around the world to become members of the successful Delta Groove Family.  Over the last decade, Delta Groove Music has set the new standard for producing, promoting, and booking exciting blues and roots music talent.  Now they’re sharing in their success by inviting emerging blues acts to submit their recordings for review, and each year Delta Groove will choose two U.S. and one foreign blues act to come on board with one of the biggest success stories in blues in this millennium!  After much careful review and painstaking consideration over the last several months, the producers and talent scouts at Delta Groove have chosen the Nashville-based Andy T and Nick Nixon Band, and Portland, Oregon’s Kevin Selfe as this year’s U.S. participants in the Blues Stimulus Program.  Guitarist Andy T and singer/guitarist Nixon are both veteran blues players who enjoyed long and successful careers on their own for years before joining forces to create one of the most dynamic and soulful blues bands in Nashville – a town with no shortage of great musicians.  Andy T’s fiery yet tasteful guitar provides the perfect backdrop to Nixon’s deeply bluesy, church-schooled vocals, an appealing combination that caught the attention of Texas blues guitar legend Anson Funderburgh, who produced and guests on their debut CD for Delta Groove. Virginia native Kevin Selfe is one of the most exciting and tasteful young blues guitarists and singers on the scene today, with that golden combination of reverence for the masters and the fire and passion of an artist from a new generation, out to write his own chapter in the blues history books.  Selfe has been on the scene since 1997, and appeared on numerous CDs with The Fat Daddy Band and Little Roger and The Cheap Thrills.  In 2005 he formed Kevin Selfe & The Tornadoes in his native Roanoke, VA, eventually relocating to the other side of the country in Portland, OR.  Since then he’s continued to hone and perfect his own unique sound, using his mastery of traditional blues as a springboard into his own exciting blend of cutting edge attitude and original songs that speak to several generations of roots music and blues fans. The debut CDs on Delta Groove by Andy T - Nick Nixon Band “Drink Drank Drunk”, and Kevin Selfe “Long Walk Home”, are scheduled for release by Delta Groove in February of 2013.  ANDY T - NICK NIXON BAND Andy T - Nick Nixon Band "Drink Drank Drunk" Featuring: Anson Funderburgh John Garza Christian Dozzler and more! "Andy was a great musician when we started and I think he's an even better player now. His dedication to the music that he loves is unstoppable…And Nick is one of the greatest singers in blues today. When people hear his voice, they are moved." – Anson Funderburgh "Andy T Band, featuring James "Nick" Nixon is one of those amazing artists that rarely surface today." – Bman's Blues Report "Nick and Andy T are both world class performers with a show that offers something for everyone." – Peter Fleming co-founder, Nashville Office – AirPlay Direct   KEVIN SELFE Kevin Selfe "Long Walk Home" Featuring: Jimi Bott Mitch Kashmar Gene Taylor and more! "Selfe plays with rare thoughtfulness and taste…his clean tone and deep well of approaches keep things fresh." - Blues Revue "They have originality of lyrics, individuality of playing their chosen instruments and a collective output which ranks at the best of the modern era in blues" - Blues Matters "Kevin draws the crowds to the band with fiery fretwork that gets"wanna-be" guitar heroes excited and professionals listening closely." – Greg Johnson, President, Cascade Blues Association FOR MORE INFO VISIT US AT: WWW.DELTAGROOVEMUSIC.COM

Scuttle Buttin' / Marry Had a Little Lamb - Michael Vance Trio

Michael Vance is a 24 year old guitarist/ vocalist/ songwriter who was born and raised in Nashville TN. Having only picked up his first guitar at the later age of 16, in the short span of 8 years, is now performing in the ranks with world–class musicians, including Derek St.Holmes ( Ted Nugent), Shaun Murphy (Eric Clapton, Bob Seger), Johnny Hiland, The Wooten Brothers, James "Nick" Nixon, Darrel Roberts of Motown, Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) in 2007 as well as studio sessions Nahsville studio drum legend Milton Sledge. But perhaps the most surreal moment of Michael's young career came when legendary rock star, Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin happened in to Nashville's Hotel Preston one night. Michael was playing with his band and on a break they came to pay homage to the rock great and get a photo. Robert commented that he not only liked the band but thought they were great. With influences like Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and many more, The Michael Vance Trio (MV3) has quickly made a name for themselves in and out of the Nashville community. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

EARLY IN THE MORNING - RICKY ALLEN

Richard A. "Ricky" Allen (January 6, 1935 – May 29, 2005) was an American blues singer from Chicago. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee and began his singing career as member of a church choir in his home town. He relocated to Chicago in 1960, and received a recording contract one year later at Age Records. He had a local hit with "You Better Be Sure" and in 1963, his hit "Cut You A-Loose" reached #20 in Billboard's R&B chart. Some of his recordings of the 1960s such as "It's A Mess I Tell You" and "I Can't Stand No Signifying," portended the emerging soul-blues style of the 1970s. After his retirement from the music industry in the early 1970s, he conducted a laundry and a limousine service. In 2001, he performed at the Mönsterås Festival in Sweden, and the following year at the Chicago Blues Festival. He died in 2005, aged 70. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Going Down Slow - St. Louis Jimmy Oden

James Burke "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden (June 26, 1903 – December 30, 1977) was an American blues vocalist and songwriter. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, Oden sang and taught himself to play the piano in childhood. In his teens, he left home to go to St. Louis, Missouri (c. 1917 ) where piano-based blues was prominent. He was able to develop his vocal talents and began performing with the pianist, Roosevelt Sykes. After more than ten years playing in and around St. Louis, in 1933 he and Sykes decided to move on to Chicago. In Chicago he was dubbed St. Louis Jimmy and there he would enjoy a solid performing and recording career for the next four decades. While Chicago became his home base, Oden traveled with a group of blues players to various places throughout the United States. He recorded a large number of records, his best known coming in 1941 on the Bluebird Records label called "Goin' Down Slow." Oden wrote a number of songs, two of which, "Take the Bitter with the Sweet" and "Soon Forgotten," were recorded by his friend, Muddy Waters. In 1948 on Aristocrat Records Oden cut "Florida Hurricane", accompanied by the pianist Sunnyland Slim and the guitarist Muddy Waters. In 1949, Oden partnered with Joe Brown to form a small recording company called J.O.B. Records. Oden appears to have ended his involvement within a year, but with other partners the company remained in business till 1974. After a serious road accident in 1957 he devoted himself to writing and placed material with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf ("What a Woman!") and John Lee Hooker. In 1960 he made an album with Bluesville Records, and sang on a Candid Records session with Robert Lockwood, Jr. and Otis Spann. Oden died of bronchopneumonia, at the age of 74, in 1977 and was interred in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, near Chicago. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Come And Go Blues - Gregg Allman

Gregory LeNoir "Gregg" Allman (born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006. His distinctive voice placed him in 70th place in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". At the beginning of the 1970s, The Allman Brothers Band enjoyed huge success and a number of their most characteristic songs were written by Allman. Unusual for the time, the band was based in the Southeastern United States and their music, which has been called ‘Southern Rock’, a term derided by Allman, incorporates an innovative fusion of rock, blues, and jazz. Following the death of his older brother, guitarist Duane Allman in 1971, and a year later, bass guitarist Berry Oakley, both in motorcycle accidents, the band struggled on and continued to perform and record. In addition, Allman developed a solo career and a band under his own name. Allman’s solo music has perhaps a greater resonance of soul music than his work with ABB, possibly because of the influence of artists such as Bobby Bland and Little Milton, singers who he has long admired. Despite recent health issues, Allman still tours. Allman's memoirs of his life in music, My Cross to Bear, was released on May 1, 2012 After the death of Duane Allman in 1971, Gregg Allman started out on a solo career. His first album, Laid Back, was released in 1973 to a positive critical reception. It included a couple of reworked Allman Brothers songs, such as a horn-infused version of "Midnight Rider" that made it to #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and originals like "Queen of Hearts", the other ABB members felt did not quite fit the Allman Brothers sound. Gregg also covered a traditional gospel song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" and former California roommate Jackson Browne's song "These Days." Allman in 2006 His solo career has continued intermittently throughout the subsequent decades, sometimes touring when the Allman Brothers Band is off the road. Generally, these solo efforts - first with the Gregg Allman Band, and later with Gregg Allman & Friends - eschew lengthy guitar solos and cast Allman more in the mode of his favorite soul singers. The bands often include a horn section and are more groove-oriented, mixing original songs with reworked Allman Brothers songs and covers of blues, R&B, and soul songs. Allman's second chart single came in 1987 with the #49 peaking "I'm No Angel", from the album of the same name. The album went on to be certified Gold for 500,000 copies sold and led to a renewed interest in Allman and to a reformation of the Allman Brothers Band less than three years later. His solo album, Low Country Blues, was produced by T-Bone Burnett and issued in early 2011. It is a collection of eleven blues standards and one new song written by him. The album was nominated as the Best Blues Album for the 2011 Grammy Awards. He has also made guest appearances on albums and concert videos by a wide variety of other artists, including a concert DVD celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Radiators, playing Midnight Rider with that band. In addition to his musical career, Allman took acting roles in the films Rush Week (1989) and Rush (1991), and in episodes of the TV series Superboy. He also had a brief speaking cameo in the Family Guy episode "Let's Go to the Hop". If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

CUT IT OUT, YOU'RE ALWAYS RUNNING YOUR MOUTH - Bobby Hebb

Bobby Hebb (July 26, 1938 – August 3, 2010) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his writing and recording of "Sunny". He was born Robert Von Hebb in Nashville, Tennessee. Hebb's parents, William and Ovalla Hebb, were both blind musicians. Hebb and his older brother Harold performed as a song-and-dance team in Nashville, beginning when Bobby was three and Harold was nine. Hebb performed on a TV show hosted by country music record producer Owen Bradley, which earned him a place with Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff. Hebb played spoons and other instruments in Acuff's band. Harold later became a member of Johnny Bragg and the Marigolds. Bobby Hebb sang backup on Bo Diddley's "Diddley Daddy". Hebb played "West-coast-style" trumpet in a United States Navy jazz band, and replaced Mickey Baker in Mickey and Sylvia. On November 23, 1963, the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination, Harold Hebb was killed in a knife fight outside a Nashville nightclub. Hebb was devastated by both events and sought comfort in songwriting. Though many claim that the song he wrote after both tragedies was the optimistic "Sunny", Hebb himself stated otherwise. He immersed himself in the Gerald Wilson album, You Better Believe It!, for comfort. "All my intentions were just to think of happier times – basically looking for a brighter day – because times were at a low tide. After I wrote it, I thought "Sunny" just might be a different approach to what Johnny Bragg was talking about in "Just Walkin' in the Rain".[citation needed] "Sunny" was recorded in New York City, after demos were made with the record producer Jerry Ross. Released as a single, it reached #3 on the R&B charts, # 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, # 12 in the UK, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. When Hebb toured with The Beatles in 1966 his "Sunny" was as well received as any Beatles tune, as evidenced by tapes of the concerts. BMI rated "Sunny" number 25 in its "Top 100 songs of the century". "Sunny" has been recorded by, among others Jamiroquai, Cher, Boney M, Georgie Fame, Johnny Rivers, Oscar Peterson, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Electric Flag, The Four Seasons, Leonard Nimoy, two different versions from Frankie Valli, the Four Tops, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Les McCann, Wes Montgomery, Dusty Springfield, and Classics IV.[2] One re-recording, a disco version called "Sunny '76" was a minor hit for Hebb in that year hitting #94 on the R&B chart. In 2000, Musiq did an updated dance version retitled "Just Friends (Sunny)," which went to #31 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Hebb also had lesser hits with his "A Satisfied Mind" in 1966 (#39 on the Billboard chart and #40 on the R&B chart) and "Love Me" in 1967 (# 84),[3] and wrote many other songs, including Lou Rawls' 1971 hit "A Natural Man" (co-written with comedian Sandy Baron). Six years prior to "Sunny", Hebb reached the New York Top 50 with a remake of Roy Acuff's "Night Train to Memphis". In 1972, his single "Love Love Love" reached #32 in the UK charts. After a recording gap of thirty five years, Hebb recorded That's All I Wanna Know, his first commercial release since Love Games for Epic Records in 1970. It was released in Europe in late 2005 by Tuition, a pop indie label. New versions of "Sunny" were also issued (two duets: one with Astrid North, and one with Pat Appleton). In October 2008 he toured and played in Osaka and Tokyo in Japan. Ipanema Films of Germany was involved in a biographical film which included Hebb, his biographer Joseph Tortelli and Billy Cox. Hebb continued to live in his hometown of Nashville until his death from lung cancer, at the Centennial Medical Center on August 3, 2010 If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Death Letter Jubilee - The Delta Saints - New Release Review

I just received the newest recordings, Death Letter Jubilee by the Delta Saints. This recording takes a lot of hints from the blues but I'd say a far cry from your typical blues recording. The recording opens with Liar, a funky sounding, pop style tune with contemporary vocal styling, R&B vocal backing, rock guitar riffs and modern harmonica dressing. Chicago has an interesting blues rock feel to it with a solid foot drum from Ben Azzi setting the pace. Ben Ringel is a strong vocalist and his saturated slide work along with Dylan Fitch on guitar creates a very thick rich sound. Greg Hommert plays some screaming harp on this track creating a very coo track. Jezebel has a more primitive styling with acoustic guitar, harp, percussion and vocals. Although possibly one of the least complex of the compositions it may be one of the most interesting. Boogie is a straight up rocker again with strong blues roots. Ringel continues to demonstrate his leadership through strong vocal capabilities and Hommert sounding a bit like John Popper. Sing To Me begins as a quiet folk type track but ends as a rocker with a bit of an eastern twist reminiscent of earlier Led Zep tracks. NOLA has a very strong hook and should easily gain foot holds on the radio. A solid dance beat, slammin drums and cool bass riffs from David Supica add to the guitar riffs and more solid vocals from Ringel. Fitch plays a flaming guitar solo on this track that pops out as fast as it starts. This track is very well composed. Supica, leading off From The Dirt, sets the table for another blues track with strong roots in 60's British blues but keeping it's own identity. River has a strong delta feel with warm and enchanting vocal backing. Another of my favorites on the recording... but much too short. Old Man creates it's own world and puts me in mind of an old country western tune with it's capability to paint a story. The track is all blues rock and very solid. This is another contender for best track on the recording. I hate to draw further comparisons, but it has the rawness and strength of a Neil Young track. Jericho is the final track on this recording and has a swagger of it's own. With the intensity of a well refined band and the dramatics of an orchestra it is a great summary of the recording.(There is a New Orleans style jazz track after the conclusion of the primary last track...don't miss it). This is a very cool cd and one that I think a lot of people will enjoy.

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Real Gone Music : John Hartford - Aereo-Plain/Morning Bugle: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings - New Release review

John Hartford was an incredibly creative, talented, irreverent and funny musician and song writer. For the general public, Hartford's work is condensed to one track, Gentle On My Mind, made popular by Glen Campbell. I was more attracted to Hartford's incredible musicianship, ability to attract the absolute best talent in the bluegrass world and get them focused on his projects and just to write creative stories and funny songs. Hartford would "tap dance" along with his banjo playing to add his own percussion having fabricated a wooden platform with a microphone underneath to amplify his foot steps. Hartford also performed a number of bluegrass standards and, along with the likes of David Bromberg, Jerry Garcia and the New Grass Revival, brought the joy of the bluegrass movement into the public eye. This double cd recording includes the original 16 tracks from Aero-Plain plus an additional 4 unreleased tracks. The release opens with Turn Your Radio On, the opening track which is as earthy as they come. Done in a very pure form this track is a real treat. Hartford is in the middle of his most creative period when this recording was released and Up On The Hill Where They Do The Boogie is a good example. Followup track, Boogie, was always a crowd favorite and it still brings a smile to my face when I hear it. The most heartfelt grunts ever recorded! Presbyterian Guitar has a beautiful melody and holds its own with most any Lennon McCartney melody. Symphony Hall Rag gives the guys a great opportunity to just stretch out and do what they do best...sit back and enjoy! Tear Down The Grand Ole Opry, a collaboration with Taylor, is distinctively Hartford because of his vocal style but the arrangement of the vocals on this track are particularly smart. Leather Britches featuring Clements is another standout. If you have never seen Vassar, he's a treasure. Sweetheart Can't You hear Me Calling, the first of the unreleased tracks, is a terrific track with traditional bluegrass picking and harmonizing. Taylor and Blake wrote Weave and Way and that should be enough to perk your ears in itself. If you love listening to people who can really play.... this is it! Cumberland Gap adds fuel to the instrumental fire and the boys just jam out concluding with Orange Blossom Special. This is a terrific recording in it's entirety. The second cd, Morning Bugle includes the original 11 tracks plus 4 additional unreleased tracks. This is an extremely strong contemporary bluegrass recording, some of my favorites being Old Joe Clark, instrumental track My Rag, Got No Place To Go where Hartford creates and world of his own both with candid instrumentals and unique vocals and the extremely traditional sounding Flower Power. Among the unreleased tracks, Don't Let Your Deal Go Down gets a great Hartford-esqe treatment. Back Up And Push is another great instrumental that is a fortunate find. Hartford closes the package with original track Bye-Bye where the boys rip it up and Hartford has a good time on his vocals. A perfect send off. This package is also supplemented with a beautiful 14 page booklet which include the original liner notes and covers, 4 pages of history, a great photo of Hartford performing with Earl Scruggs and Norman Blake, one of Hartford playing banjo in front of the White House and another candid photo of Tut Taylor, Vassar Clements, Norman Blake and Hartford. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Boogie Tune - The Delta Saints

The Delta Saints are an interesting mix of delta blues, rock, and soul with a solid groove oriented rhythm section, furious harmonica lines, and a Dobro tone that will melt your soul. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

The Man Won't Work - Lillian Offitt

b. 4 November 1938, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. On the evidence of her half dozen releases, Lillian Offit was a plain but lusty blues shouter, of small stature and commensurate talent. She was still attending college when she visited the offices of Nashboro Records in the hope of making a gospel record. Owner Ernie Young suggested that she try secular music, and ‘Miss You So’ was issued on Excello in 1957. It was successful enough for her to turn professional, and two further singles were issued, with diminishing success. In 1958 she moved to Chicago to become featured singer with the Earl Hooker band at Robert’s Show Lounge. Through Hooker, she met Me London, owner of Chief Records, and cut her first record for the label in February 1960. ‘Will My Man Be Home Tonight’, heavily featuring Hooker’s slide guitar, became a hit in the Chicago area. ‘My Man I A Lover’, recorded in May 1960, and ‘Troubles’ from a year later, repeated the downward curve of Excello releases. She left music to start a family, preventing her from joining the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival tour, her place taken by Sugar Pie DeSanto. She was last sighted in 1974 as part of the Streakers Rated-X Revue in St. Joseph, Michigan. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band!

Nothin' But Smoke - Runnin' Blind Blues Band

Rick Gilbreath - keyboard Donnie Miller - vocals and guitar Johnny Dalton - Drums Willie B - bass guitar Toured the U.S.for many years before signing with SONY (product#44309)for my first album "ONE OF THE BOYS" in 1987,,,,of which I put up 3 songs even tho they aren't BLUES,,,(with Cyndi Lauper & Tommy Shaw doing guest appearances on backing vocals)Started playing the BLUES in 1992 & found just where I belong in the music world,,,,RIGHT HERE! I am also the CEO & founder of THE NATIONAL BLUES NETWORK on facebook & youtube! “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band!

On The Road Again - Ellen Mcilwaine

Ellen McIlwaine (born October 1, 1945, Nashville, Tennessee) is an American singer-songwriter and musician best known for her career as a slide guitarist. Born in Nashville, McIlwaine was adopted by missionaries and raised in Kobe, Japan, giving her exposure to multiple languages and cultures. She attended the Canadian Academy school in Kobe, graduating in 1963. Her first experience in music was playing Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Professor Longhair songs on piano that she heard on Japanese radio. On moving to back to the United States she bought a guitar, beginning a stage career in Atlanta, Georgia in the mid-1960s. In 1966, she had a stint in New York City's Greenwich Village where she opened every night at the Cafe Au Go Go, playing with a young Jimi Hendrix, and opening for Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and Big Joe Williams. She returned to Atlanta to form the band Fear Itself, a psychedelic blues-rock band. After recording one album with Fear Itself, McIlwaine went solo, recording two albums for Polydor, Honky Tonk Angel (1972) and We the People (1973), the latter featuring a hit single, "I Don't Want to Play". Those albums, and most of her work since, have featured McIlwaine's approach to acoustic slide guitar. McIlwaine's career has been irregular, plagued by what she has often described of conflict with her record producers who wanted to change her sound. She once remarked of the 1978 album Ellen McIlwaine, "It could have been any other female vocalist, and next time it will be."[citation needed] As a female vocalist who is known more for her acoustic guitar, her music tends to be classified in the folk sections of record stores, despite her strong roots in blues, soul and rock music, and her cover versions of songs by Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder and Browning Bryant. She has also recorded several covers of songs by Jimi Hendrix: she wrote "Underground River" about him. By the mid-1970s McIlwaine's songs "Sliding", "We the People" and "Losing You" were included on the compilation album, The Guitar Album. McIlwaine's album The Real Ellen McIlwaine, recorded in Montreal in 1975 for the Kotai label, won the NAIRD Indie Award. A 1982 project, Everybody Needs It, was also successful, and featured Jack Bruce, an artist who influenced her strongly and whose songs she has covered on several of her albums. In 1980 she made her first tour of Australia, after being spotted by the Australian singer-guitarist Margret RoadKnight, who was one of the co-promoters of the tour. She returned to Australia in 1984, and during this tour was the last performer to appear at Sydney's Regent Theatre. Since moving to Canada in 1987, (first Toronto, later Alberta), McIlwaine recorded Looking for Trouble for Stony Plain Records, which has also re-released her early vinyl material on CD. Her next CD Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine, recorded live in Germany in 1999; and then Spontaneous Combustion featuring Taj Mahal are on the German Tradition und Moderne label. In spite of debilitating arthritis in her hips, she undertook a third tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2003, which reunited her with RoadKnight and the other Honky Tonk Angels, who had first brought her to Australia in 1980. McIlwaine has since successfully undergone hip replacement surgery. She has long favored Guild brand guitars. She plays Guild S-250 and S-300D electric guitars; in earlier years, even when performing solo, she often played her electric guitar through an octave multiplier to emulate a bass player.[citation needed] Her acoustic guitar is a venerable and well-traveled Guild instrument, purchased for her in New York by a friend in 1966. This guitar has a unique history, being a former Guild company "loaner" which was used by leading artists including Mississippi John Hurt and Richie Havens while Guild repaired their own guitars.[citation needed] In 2006 she started her own label Ellen McIlwaine Music and released Mystic Bridge featuring the Indian tabla drummer Cassius Khan. They were joined by the soprano saxophone of Linsey Wellman on three tracks, including their version of "Take Me to the River", and harmonium playing by Amika Kushwaha on the last track, "The Question". This was a poem by Christine Steele, recited over Cassius Khan's vocal rendition of the ancient Urdu poem set to music, "Darbari Raag". In 2008, 2009, and 2010 she toured with Patty Larkin's La Guitara ensemble in the US, and in Canada with Sue Foley's Guitar Women, and appeared at various US and Canadian venues and festivals as a solo artist. She has been nominated for the 2011 Toronto Blues Society's "Blues with a Feeling" Lifetime Achievement Award. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Baby Please Don't Go - "Blind" James Campbell

Blind James Campbell (September 17, 1906 - January 22, 1981) was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is mostly remembered for his 1962-1963 recording for the Arhoolie label with his Nashville Street Band.
James Campbell was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 17, 1906. He later became known as Blind James Campbell after an accident at a fertilizer plant left him permanently blinded. In 1936 he formed a band and began playing folk, country, pop, jazz and blues music at parties, dances and for other local events. The Nashville Street Band consisted of fiddler Beauford Clay (born 1900) who was a great influence on Campbell's playing, second guitarist Bell Ray (born 1909), bass horn player Ralph Robinson (born 1885), and trumpeter George Bell.

Campbell and his band appeared to be quite content with the steady work they were receiving, and did not seem to have any desire to pursue a career in recording. However, Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records became interested in the band after hearing a field recording of them made by a fellow blues fan, Donald Hill. Hill had recorded Campbell in the spring of 1959 and again in April 1961. Hill's recordings include Campbell singing country songs as well as blues. He also recorded Cambpell and his string band on a street corner in downtown Nashville and recorded him with Beauford Clay. Both the original tapes and digital copies of Hill's recordings have been deposited at Library of Congress as a part of the Hill/Mangurian collection of field recordings made between 1958 and 1961.

After listening to Hill's tapes, Strachwitz set off to Nashville to find and record Campbell and his band. After two recording sessions with Campbell and his band in 1962 and 1963, the Arhoolie LP, Blind James Campbell And His Nashville Street Band (Arhoolie 1015) was released in 1963.

While these recordings never excelled Campbell into prominence, and the history of James Campbell and his band since the 1963 recordings is hazy, Strachwitz revisited these recordings and released them on CD in 1995, along with additional tracks from both recording sessions. Certainly, these recordings show evidence of a street band of considerable skill and quality, who were able to play American music from a variety of genres.

James Campbell died in Nashville, Tennessee on January 22, 1981.
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Thrill Is Gone - Jim Duff & the Necessities

Jim Duff & the Necessities are a fresh take on the very kind of music you want and long for. It's a true musical melting pot of the blues, soul, jazz, classic rock and traditional country. Merging strong rhythms, meaty lyrics, and classic testosterone-filled sounds defines the sound of Jim Duff & the Necessities. The band completed a South Eastern tour that hit cities like Nashville TN, Ashville NC, and Louisville KY. The band has also played venues such as BB Kings and many major music festivals throughout the south East. Jim also landed a feature film gig in the movie "Surviving Christmas" staring Ben Affleck.
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Sittin And Drinkin - Christine Kittrell

Christine Kittrell (August 11, 1929 – December 19, 2001) was an American R&B singer, who first recorded tracks in 1951 with Louis Brooks and his Band. In 1954 she recorded tracks for the Republic record label, two of which featured Little Richard on piano and a third with Richard as backing vocalist.

Kittrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, and went on to work with Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams, John Coltrane, Johnny Otis and Earl Bostic.

In 1967, Kittrell was wounded while performing to troops in Vietnam, and recorded her final music in 1968. Throughout her life Kittrell recorded thirty four tracks for six separate labels.

Kittrell died in 2001 of emphysema at the Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
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Slow Movin Train - Bart Walker Band

Bart Walker’s debut, Who I Am, is a portrait of the Nashville-based guitar and vocal powerhouse as a dreamer, a fan, a survivor, a creative dynamo and, most of all, a one-man argument for the continued vitality and emotional heat of the blues.

A born virtuoso who began playing and singing at age four, Walker and his band — which includes ex-Stevie Ray Vaughan keyboardist Reese Wynans — make his original plucked-from-life tunes sound like classics, delivered with the same incendiary energy as the live performances that have won them a growing following in the South and Midwest.

With the release of Who I Am and Walker’s continuing on-stage exposure as country star Bo Bice’s six-string right-hand man, Walker is ready to claim his place as a bold young torchbearer in the national and international blues scene, with his own distinctive and gritty guitar sound and a dynamic voice dappled with honey and gravel.

“I truly and deeply love what I do,” he says, “This music has given me so much, and has so much to give, and I feel Who I Am is just the beginning of what I have to give back to it.”
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