50 Electric Blues Guitar Licks

This gem of a disc shows Guitar Shorty (David Kearney) off on one of the highlights of his too-limited recorded efforts. He is one of the most flamboyant guitar players you will ever have the chance to see. His stage act was inspired by Guitar Slim, and he in turn inspired and influenced his stepbrother-in-law, a fellow by the name of Jimi Hendrix. This disc is filled with his searing blues guitar work. The only exception is the bouncy Mark "Kaz" Kasanoff tune "A Fool Who Wants to Stay," though Kasanoff is an associate producer of this disc (maybe that says enough). The rest will give you more than your fill of Shorty's inflammatory and slashing style of guitar licks, the very tight horn section arranged by Kasanoff augmenting him, and the solid musicians who are in the band that backs him…

Produced by Evans' former employer Ry Cooder, Blues for Thought often sounds like a Cooder album with a great singer. Better yet, Cooder has retained the services of some A-list studio cats, but manages to make them sound like drunken denizens of a Mississippi roadhouse. With the legendary Jim Keltner leading the way with his powerhouse thwacka-thwacka, and Cooder laying down his usual ultra-soulful licks, Evans and company groove mightily though a collection of first-rate material, including blues classics and Evans originals that sound like classics. Highlights are numerous, but one is the second song, "Hey Mama, Keep You Big Mouth Shut," which is almost assuredly the only version of a Bo Diddley tune to feature an oud…

Produced by Evans' former employer Ry Cooder, Blues for Thought often sounds like a Cooder album with a great singer. Better yet, Cooder has retained the services of some A-list studio cats, but manages to make them sound like drunken denizens of a Mississippi roadhouse. With the legendary Jim Keltner leading the way with his powerhouse thwacka-thwacka, and Cooder laying down his usual ultra-soulful licks, Evans and company groove mightily though a collection of first-rate material, including blues classics and Evans originals that sound like classics. Highlights are numerous, but one is the second song, "Hey Mama, Keep You Big Mouth Shut," which is almost assuredly the only version of a Bo Diddley tune to feature an oud…

After leaving Ukiah, CA, and moving south to San Francisco to form the Charles Ford Band (named for their father) in the late '60s with harmonica player Gary Smith, brothers Pat (drums) and Robben (guitar) were enlisted by Charlie Musselwhite and were pivotal members of one of the best aggregations the harpist ever led. Leaving Musselwhite after recording Arhoolie's Takin' My Time, they recruited bassist Stan Poplin and younger brother Mark, then age 17, on harmonica and played under the name the Real Charles Ford Band. Heavily influenced by the original Butterfield Blues Band and the Chess catalog, the quartet was famous for their live jazz explorations – often jamming for 30 minutes or more on a John Coltrane and George Benson tune – and hear-a pin-drop dynamics (with Mark abandoning mike and amp to play acoustically into the room or Robben turning the volume all the way off on his fat-body Gibson L-5).

After leaving Ukiah, CA, and moving south to San Francisco to form the Charles Ford Band (named for their father) in the late '60s with harmonica player Gary Smith, brothers Pat (drums) and Robben (guitar) were enlisted by Charlie Musselwhite and were pivotal members of one of the best aggregations the harpist ever led. Leaving Musselwhite after recording Arhoolie's Takin' My Time, they recruited bassist Stan Poplin and younger brother Mark, then age 17, on harmonica and played under the name the Real Charles Ford Band. Heavily influenced by the original Butterfield Blues Band and the Chess catalog, the quartet was famous for their live jazz explorations – often jamming for 30 minutes or more on a John Coltrane and George Benson tune – and hear-a pin-drop dynamics (with Mark abandoning mike and amp to play acoustically into the room or Robben turning the volume all the way off on his fat-body Gibson L-5).

This 1997 release by Too Slim & the Taildraggers is chock-full of the wide-ranging spectrum of blues in its plethora of styles as done by this fun group in their own inimitable fashion. The thing that always seems to come through on this group's discs is their love of playing. This band is rooted in the blues, but they are not confined to any one style of playing, and the wide-roaming influences of non-commercial radio expose wider and wider varieties of music which burst out all over this disc. A brief sampling of the styles shows that you've got the rockabilly swing of "Uranium Blues," and the Chicago sound of "A Girl Like Mine," and the New Orleans-influenced, Caribbean-inflected rhythms of "Have to Let You Go."

Mel Brown - The Wizard / Blues For We (1968) {Impulse! 2-on-1 Series Remaster rel 2011}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 413 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 148 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 22 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1968-69, 2011 Impulse! / Verve / Universal Music | 06025 2780945
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Jazz Blues / Jazz Funk / Blues / Guitar

This remastered two-fer combines guitarist Mel Brown's second Impulse release from 1968, The Wizard, with Blues for We released the following year. The Wizard is a straight-ahead soul-jazz date picking up where Chicken Fat left off with a few originals alongside funky renditions of “Ode to Billie Joe” and Pee Wee Crayton’s R&B hit of the late '40s “Blues After Hours.” Blues for We relies more on an interesting selection of cover versions ranging from “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Son of a Preacher Man” to the bubblegum staple by the 1910 Fruitgum Company “Indian Giver” and Acker Bilk’s “Stranger on the Shore,” which was the theme of a BBC television drama. Brown’s guitar work on both sessions is fluid and greasy, as are the funky drum licks, but occasionally, the arrangements drift into superior background music. New liner notes are absent, but the original packaging – front and back cover art and liner notes – remain intact.