Blogcritics

Music Review: Luther Allison Underground

Richard Marcus — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:37:19 EST

Luther puts on a clinic for anybody who wants to learn how to build a lead.
People should just know better. In this day and age, you might be able to get away with faking something's provenance for a little while, but with information being so readily accessible and data so easily checked you're going to get caught out one way or another. What's amazing about the circumstances surrounding the supposed lost...

Music Review: Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan On The Jimmy Reed Highway

Richard Marcus — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:04:05 EST

...a great CD filled with superlative performances by great musicians.
It's hard for us who aren't the right generation to understand what a radical thing it was for Elvis Presley to play what he did back in the 1950s. It had nothing to do with how much or how he moved his hips and everything to do with the skin colour of the musicians that influenced him. Sure he was playing a lot of country music but that...

Music Review: Bob Brozman - Post Industrial Blues

Richard Marcus — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:47:56 EST

A recording that utilizes instruments from around the world and from different eras in history to make a thoroughly contemporary CD.
While there are plenty of multi-instrumentalists and plenty of multi-national players, it's a rare thing indeed to find a multi-national multi-instrumentalist. What surprises me is that I can actually name two of them off the top of my head. I'm sure most of the world has heard of Ry Cooder by now, but what about Bob Brozman? On his last...

Interview: Blues Guitarist Lurrie Bell

Richard Marcus — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 10:35:19 EST

"I wouldn�t change a thing; music is my life and always will be."
I first came to know about the extraordinary Blues guitar player Lurrie Bell through a wonderful DVD put out by Delmark Records of Chicago featuring his dad Carey and himself performing in three different locations around town. Gettin' Up Live caught them at Buddy Guy's Legends, Rosa's, and in the comfort of Lurrie's living room one...

Music Review: The Musicians Of New Orleans City Of Dreams: A Collection Of New Orleans Music

Richard Marcus — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 09:45:43 EST

New Orleans might go from being a City Of Dreams to be the city that lives only in our dreams.
What one President giveth another President takes away could be a political axiom in the United States, but I don't think in the history of the country has there been as obvious an example as the fate of Louisiana, specifically her jewel of a city New Orleans.In what is now seen as one of the all time real estate deals ever, the United States...

Music DVD Review: A Journey Through The Blues: The Son Seals Story

Richard Marcus — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:51:48 EDT

These folk loved what they did to the extent that they sacrificed their lives and their health for their music.
When young it's hard not to be blinded by the allure of being a professional entertainer or artist. Finding out that someone made their living by playing music, especially popular music, automatically gave them an elevated status in a young person's eyes. At that age, professional musician meant the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Even the...

Music Review: Lurrie Bell - Let's Talk About Love

Richard Marcus — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:24:52 EDT

It's not often that popular music can transcend personal tragedy with dignity and sincerity, but Lurrie Bell has done just that.
Why if someone was really upset and feeling down would they play music called the Blues? Wouldn't that just make them feel worse, singing about how down they are and all the troubles in their world? Yet, have you ever seen somebody playing the Blues who looks depressed? Hell, it usually looks like they're having the time of their life.They...

Music Review: Deering & Down - Break This Record

Richard Marcus — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:50:45 EDT

This soulful duo prove there is still gold up in the tundra, you just have to look for it different places now
I have to confess that when I think of Alaska, the blues, in any shape or form, are not something that first comes to mind. Then again, there are those endless nights when the sun barely works up the nerve to stick his nose above the horizon line because the temperature is so damn cold. What else are you going to do 'side from singing the...

Music Review: Sleepy John Estes - Sleepy John Estes On The Chicago Blues Scene

Richard Marcus — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:51:34 EDT

You can buy this disc for its historical significance...but the best reason for getting a copy is that it's great music.
In the past couple years of reviewing music for various blogs one of the nicest personal discoveries I've made is the amazing diversity to be found within specific genres. That's turned out to be especially true about the Blues; it's such a highly individual mode of expression that it almost changes from performer to performer.Maybe it's because of...

Music Review: Big Mama Thornton - Big Mama Thornton

Richard Marcus — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:13:11 EDT

Almost every female singer of popular music who performs rock and roll owes a debt of gratitude to Big Mama Thornton.
Few who have ever seen Janis Joplin perform on television or film (or those lucky enough to have seen her sing in person) will have a easy time forgetting her. She sang a mix bag of originals and old blues numbers, some of them like "Summer Time" by the Gershwin brothers, dating as far back as the 1920s. But perhaps one of the songs she...