Electric Roller

Hollywood never learns. Hot on the heels of box-office failures Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Can't Stop the Music, comes the roller-skating Olivia Newton John in Xanadu. This soundtrack is fluff stuff to be sure, but some pearls float amongst the mire. Lead-off "Magic" remains a fine single…

As MCA reconfigures their Chess catalog, this 20-track single-disc compilation now takes the place of their original 12-track Best of Little Walter collection, a landmark blues album which had remained in print for over three decades. His Best (Chess 50th Anniversary Collection) reprises ten of those seminal tracks (leaving off the echoey "Blue Light" and "You Better Watch Yourself," the latter being available on the two-disc anthology The Essential Little Walter) and brings ten others cherry-picked from the catalog to the mix. If you've never experienced the innovative instrumental genius of Little Walter, classics like "Juke," "Off the Wall," "Mean Old World," "Sad Hours," "Blues with a Feeling," "My Babe," "Boom Out Goes the Light," "Last Night," "Mellow Down Easy" and "Roller Coaster" (written by Bo Diddley, who also guests on guitar) will come as a major revelation.

On the heels of their excellent Family Album, the new Agriculture shows again that the Wentus Blues Band deserves greater attention. With a snappy version of Lonnie Brooks’ “Brand New Mojo Hand” the lone cover amid 11 originals that span upbeat shuffles (“Moonshine”), push-pull soul (“Take It Away”), slow-drags done Muddy Waters-style (“Passenger Blues”), roots rock (“Love Bug”), uptown slow blues (“Here in the Night”), and raging country-blues boogies (“Biscuit Roller”), these Finns play an electrifying brand of blues not far from Omar & the Howlers. Juho Kinaret’s vocals are appropriately wild, and the guitars of Niko Riippa and Kim Wikman are crisp, clean, and penetrating.

A gritty roots and blues band with infectious grooves, compelling original songs, and sizzling improvisations. Kevin Bilchik Band offers an eclectic mash-up of Americana styles. The five-piece combo, led by singer/songwriter Kevin Bilchik, brings together smoky vocals, deep-pocket rhythms, funky saxophone riffs and jazz-infused guitar solos. Born in a city famous for blues music–St. Louis, Missouri–Bilchik explored a wide variety of musical terrain before settling into the musical heritage that his city is known for. The Kevin Bilchik Band came together over time, starting with a two-piece rhythm section, featuring well traveled percussionist R. Scott Bryan and stalwart bassist Eric Warren.

WANTED! Guitarist and singer Rockin' Johnny Burginhangs his fedora in the Frisco Bay, and harpman and singer Quiqué Gomezhails from Madrid, Spain. Together and separately they have ridden many a dusty trail with some of the last of the great Chicago bluesmen. Today they are the feared gunslingers of the international blues scene In the winter of 2018 they partnered up, galloped through the Western Territories, and took dead aim on twelve originals and two blues classics. Rockin' Johnny Burgin and Quiqué Gomezare both internationally acclaimed as world class bluesmen Burgin has a storied history on Chicago's Delmark Records, and Gomez is a versatile jazz-influenced blues singer who also sings Frank Sinatra songs with a Spanish Big Band. They are currently on tour in support of their first collaborative album, hopefully the first of many.