Bell Numbers

It's a mite ragged around the edges, but Bell's 1969 debut session certainly sports the proper ambience - and no wonder, with guitarists Eddie Taylor and Jimmy Dawkins and pianist Pinetop Perkins on hand to help out. No less than four Little Walter covers and two more from Muddy Waters' songbook dot the set, but many of the best moments occur on the original numbers. Delmark's CD reissue includes three previously unissued items.

This brilliant effort by Carey Bell and his son Lurrie Bell, both of whom are blues legends, almost did not take place. Carey suffered a minor stroke and broke his hip, spending four months in the hospital. Three days after he left the hospital, he was on his way to Chicago to perform at a concert with Lurrie. Although still in a wheelchair, Carey is heard throughout at the peak of his powers, taking powerful and inventive harmonica solos along with most of the vocals. Lurrie's guitar work is excellent and he sings on "Baby Please Don't Go." There are two live sessions with a rhythm section, three numbers that were recorded at Lurrie's home as intimate duets between father and son, and a solo "Stand by Me" by Lurrie Bell for his wife. This is a classic and memorable program that is highly recommended to fans of Chicago blues and Carey and Lurrie Bell.

Mercurial Son, Lurrie Bell's intense second album, is a searing, passionate collection of urban blues laced with the rhythmic fury of vintage '50s R&B and rock & roll. In particular, Bell works the classic Bo Diddley shuffle a number of times, tapping into the scary, menacing undertones of Diddley's primal beats. Not only is his guitar playing white hot, his vocals are gutsy and impassioned - he makes even the weaker numbers on the album sound convincing. And the songs on Mercurial Son are varied and intriguing, ranging from rollicking rockers and dense, funky boogie to heartfelt ballads and even an a cappella track. The variety is what makes the album stand out from the pack of contemporary blues releases - it's one of the more compelling recent blues records.

A sequel to 2014's Torsten the Bareback Saint, this 2016 release continues the collaboration between Erasure vocalist Andy Bell and theatrical writers Barney Ashton-Bullock and Christopher Frost and revives their Torsten character, who is described completely in the opening "Statement of Intent." "Used to be someone doesn't mean that I'm a has-been" it goes, but this thoroughly modern Millie also proudly crows "I'm gonna do it all before I go to seed." Later titles "Blow Jobs for Cocaine" and "The Slums We Loved" prove that Torsten's "do it all" is different than the everyday "do it all," but debauchery rarely comes framed in such artful flair, as Torsten joins Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Hedwig, and Quentin Crisp on the Mt. Rushmore of the queer and aggressively inquisitive…