Wah Pedal

Grammy award Winning bassist Mark Egan teams up with the all-star rhythm section of Shawn Pelton-Drums and Shane Theriot-Guitar. This powerful and elegant musical tapestry bridges contemporary jazz, R&B and Rock roots to create a captivating musical journey exploring highly adventurous interplay and soloing over multi layered orchestrations.

Malmsteen shocked some longtime listeners with his heavy reliance on blues-rock on this album, especially his extensive, Hendrix-influenced use of a wah-wah pedal. This alone makes the album necessary for Malmsteen fans, even though his more neo-classical work (solos, instrumentals, etc.) seems less inspired here. And the saccharine ballad "Prisoner of Your Love" is downright embarrassing. ~ Steve Huey

Only one year after his last release, Tinsley Ellis gives us Midnight Blue, his second album on his Heartfixer Music Label and on this release we see him return to the gritty blues rock style that made everyone really take notice of him 20 years ago on Storm Warning. Tinsley has always been known for his aggressive fretboard work and also his emotional vocal style. This album delivers both in spades.

By 1968, Waters was no longer reaching black audiences, who were mostly listening to soul music by that time, and he also wasn't selling records to more than a relatively small cult of white blues enthusiasts. Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream were selling millions of records each using licks and sometimes songs learned from Waters. Previously, in 1966, Chess Records had recorded Waters' Brass and the Blues, trying to make him sound like B.B. King, and this time Leonard Chess' son Marshall conceived Electric Mud as a way for Waters to reach out to the Rolling Stones/Hendrix/Cream audience. Recorded in May of 1968, Electric Mud features Waters in excellent vocal form, running through new versions of old songs such as "I Just Want to Make Love to You," "She's Alright," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Mannish Boy," and "The Same Thing"…

Going Up, Going Down is a double-disc set on the Castle label focusing on Chicken Shack singer and guitarist Stan Webb. The first disc captures the early days of his British electric blues band when the lineup included future Fleetwood Mac keyboardist Christine Perfect (pre-McVie). Their earliest repertoire, made up of electric blues cover versions, is reflected through both studio recordings and various live gigs, with fundamentally decent takes of "Everyday I Have the Blues," "Tell Me," "San Ho Zay," "I'm Tore Down," "I'd Rather Go Blind," and "He Knows the Rules."

This end-of-the-millennium quartet session probably best defines all the inherent contradictions in who ECM attracts to the label – what kind of musician records for them – and what concerns these artists and ECM's chief producer (and creator) Manfred Eicher hold in common. This set, although clearly fronted by Markus Stockhausen and Arild Andersen on brass and bass, respectively, allows space for the entire quartet to inform its direction. Héral and Rypdal are not musicians who can play with just anybody; their distinctive styles and strengths often go against the grain of contemporary European jazz and improvised music. Of the 11 compositions here, four are collectively written, with two each by Andersen and Stockhausen.

Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985 is a historically significant recording, presenting Stevie Ray Vaughan in the biggest show of his life to that date, then three years later, once he had become a star. The 1982 show is essentially the show that got his career started. He met both Jackson Browne and David Bowie after his set, and they were so impressed that Browne volunteered use of his studio (for free!) for Stevie to record what would become his debut album, and Bowie recruited him as lead guitarist for the Let's Dance album and tour (alas, the tour was not to be). However, not everyone was so impressed. In fact, there are choruses of boos that follow nearly every tune. Vaughan was basically a nobody at the time, playing very electric blues at the end of a mostly acoustic program.

Chuck Berry - Have Mercy: His Complete Chess Recordings 1969 To 1974 (2010) {4CD Set Hip-O Select B0013790-02}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.56 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 646 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 17 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969-74, 2010 Chess / Geffen / Hip-O Select | B0013790-02
Rock & Roll / Blues / Early R&B

Following an unsatisfying three-year stint at Mercury Records, Chuck Berry returned home to Chess in 1969, just like Phil Chess predicted. Heading home didn’t necessarily mean retreating, as the four-disc Have Mercy: His Complete Chess Recordings 1969-1974 illustrates. During his time at Mercury, Chuck followed the kids wherever they went, aligning himself with the psychedelic ‘60s in a way none of his peers did. This shift is immediately apparent on “Tulane,” the very first song he cut upon his return to Chess. An ode to a couple of kids who dealt dope underneath the counter of a novelty shop, “Tulane” puts Chuck on the side of the counterculture, and over the next five years, he never strayed back to the other side of the fence, often singing about getting stoned, dabbling with a wah-wah pedal, rhapsodizing about rock festivals, cheerfully telling smutty jokes.

NORTHWINDS is a Doom Rock/Metal band, formed in 1987 in France. Some line-up changes delayed some of their recordings over the years, especially between 2005 and 2012. They are back now with “Eternal Winter” as their fifth, full-length album, containing seven tracks…