Josh Smith Blues Grab Bag

George Smith - Blues With A Feeling (1969) {Remastered & Expanded 2012, Beat Goes On Records BGOCD1035}
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© 1969, 2012 Capitol / Beat Goes On Records | BGOCD1035
Blues / Electric Blues / Harmonica Blues / Juke Joint Blues / West Coast Blues

Reissue of the first full length album recorded by this great West Coast harmonica player for the World Pacific label in 1968 with three bonus cuts. Most of the disc consists of George singing or playing some of the best sides recorded by the great Little Walter who had died shortly before these recordings. On this session he is accompanied by members of the Muddy Waters band who were touring the West Coast at the time with Muddy & Luther Johnson on guitars, Little Sonny Wimberly on bass and S.P. Leary on drums.

Guitar maestro Josh Smith has always been inventive in his work, but he goes the extra mile on this one by delivering the feel of one of his live performances even though this CD was recorded within the confines of his new Flat V Studios…

The former Muddy Waters drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith turns in an enjoyable, but unremarkable, set of Chicago blues with Bag Full of Blues. Supported by Pinetop Perkins and Fabulous Thunderbirds harpist Kim Wilson, Smith runs through a set of mid-tempo blues, combining some competent originals with covers like "Baby Please Don't Go." There's not many solos - Wilson mainly shines, while guitarists James Wheeler, Nick Moss, and Gareth Best all contribute small, pithy leads - but the grooves are nice and relaxed. Bag Full of Blues may not be a jaw-dropper, but it does have some fine moments.

Twenty years after Blues Deluxe, his first all-blues album, Joe Bonamassa delivers a sequel with 2023's Blues Deluxe, Vol. 2. He may follow the same blueprint – it largely consists of covers, supplemented by two originals – but the circumstances and collaborators have changed. Here, he foregoes using longtime producer Kevin Shirley to work with Josh Smith, a blues guitarist from Bonamassa's own generation who also contributes the album's closer "Is It Safe to Go Home." Smith helps give Blues Deluxe, Vol. 2 a loose, lived-in feeling that contrasts with the eager fire of the 2003 record. It's a change that suits Bonamassa well.

Voodoo Nation is the fourth album from California's Supersonic Blues Machine and the second with British vocalist/guitarist Kris Barras. Gorgeously produced by bassist Fabrizio Grossi, it balances gritty, even incendiary playing with polished behind-the-boards technique. Like its predecessors, the 12-song set features SBM's now trademark bumper crop of guest spots from top-shelf guitar slingers, including Sonny Landreth, Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke), Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, Ana Popovic, Kirk Fletcher, King Solomon Hicks, and Josh Smith. SBM deliver the first three tracks and the title number on their own. It's an opportunity to assess their studio sound with Barras, who joined just before 2019's Road Chronicles: Live!

Gary Hoey released his new blues album NEON HIGHWAY BLUES on March 15, 2019 on Provogue Records. Starting with 2013's DEJA BLUES and continuing with 2016's DUST & BONES, Hoey has tapped into his early musical influences and applied his own feral skills to take the format in a unique direction. He stays in the same lane on his latest endeavor, NEON HIGHWAY BLUES, steering its 11 tracks with the confidence and assuredness of a veteran and the freshness of someone who's still in the process of discovery and refinement – with the help of famous friends such as Eric Gales, Lance Lopez, Josh Smith and Hoey's 17-year-old son Ian.

Supersonic Blues Machine will be releasing their band-new studio album Voodoo Nation on June 24 via Provogue/Mascot Label Group. The album once again features another coming together of icons along with some of the most exciting names in blues; Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke), Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, Ana Popovic, Kirk Fletcher, King Solomon Hicks, Josh Smith & Sonny Landreth.