Ticket West - 49 Park St. Blues (2022)

 Op 3 juni 2022 verschijnt het derde album van Ticket West, de bluesband rondom de broers Pascal en Walter Wilhelm. Het album is getiteld “49 Park St. Blues” en een tweetal singles (“l Did You Wrong” en “Good Woman”) zijn op alle streamingsdiensten al te beluisteren. Waar de voorgangers “Highclass Horse” (2O20) en “Cab Driving Man” (2021)* nog leunden op een mix van West Coast – en Chicago blues laat het nieuwe album een nog gevarieerder geluid horen met dit keer uitsluitend eigen werk.

Naast zangeres Laura Kits en zanger Arjen Veldman nodigden de broers voor het nieuwe album harmonicaspeler Bas Kleine en saxofonist Wouter Schueler uit. Toetsenist Roel Spanjers en drummer Kees van Herk waren dit keer ook weer van de partij. Het album werd opgenomen in de Vuurland Studio in Utrecht en geproduceerd door Erny Green, die ook voor de vorige twee albums tekende.

Verschil met de vorige albums is dat het uitsluitend eigen werk bevat. De nummers gaan over over oude en nieuwe liefde, ouder worden en de dood. De bluesstijlen waarvan Ticket West zich bedient zijn dit keer nog gevarieerder en het album komt ook op vinyl uit.

Ticket West is het verhaal van twee broers die in hun jonge jaren luisterden naar bluesoptredens die hun vader opnam van de radio. ln 1984 (ze waren toen 14 en 11) nam hij een concert op van Jimmy Johnson en Billy Boy Arnold die optraden in Nick Vollebregt’s jazz Café in Laren. Hij gebruikte hiervoor een grote bandrecorder die in de huiskamer stond. Voor zijn verjaardag ging zijn vrouw naar de platenwinkel. Ze kwam thuis met platen van Albert King (King of the blues guitar) en Lightnin’ Hopkins. Deze platen raakten een snaar bij de oudste broer die op dat moment klassiek gitaarles had. De platen werden grijs gedraaid, de oudste broer kon binnen de kortste keren alle solo’s van Albert hardop nazingen. Hij wist: dit wil ik ook. De broers hadden twee vrienden (ook broers) die gitaar en drums speelden. De oudste broer koos voor de bas en overtuigde zijn jongere broer dat hij wel kon zingen. Een band was geboren. Maar na een paar jaartjes repeteren en een handvol optredens ging de band uit elkaar. De broers kozen allebei een eigen muzikaal pad, maar ze wisten dat ze ooit weer bij elkaar zouden komen om muziek te maken. Na dertig jaar was die tijd daar. Ticket West is het verhaal van twee broers die doen wat ze het liefst doen; nummers schrijven, opnemen en optreden met vrienden, zonder gebukt te gaan onder de last van roem en rijkdom.

Gewoon je best doen om iets moois te maken. Hun blues is weer levend.

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Lauren Glick - Lush (2022)

 “Free,” the title track from singer-songwriter Lauren Glick‘s 2021 EP, is a boisterous, celebratory take on becoming an empty nester and having a world of new paths open up at your feet. Over a driving, blues-rock beat punctuated by her driving bass work and an equally free-spirited guitar solo, Glick’s vocals soar with authority, propelling the song ever-forward. 

“It’s about moving past raising children and becoming free in that aspect of her life,” she comments on the woman the song revolves around. “She’s finally having the chance to go on the road, down the path and play the music she loves.” 

Shot entirely in her hometown of Ocean City, MD, she’s clearly more than at ease in the video and having a downright blast. “As much fun as I’m having in the video, and as much fun as the song conveys, there is a more serious subtext. It’s about women’s freedom in general, especially in the context of trying to make it in music.”

Sass Jordan - Bitches Blues (2022)

 Release date: June 3, 2022

Examining the visceral emotional territory of a pandemic and the world’s reeling in its rolling aftermath, multi Platinum-selling and award-winning artist Sass Jordan readies herself to rock the blues once again with the announcement of her new album, Bitches Blues — available June 3rd, 2022 via Stony Plain Records.

Following rave reviews of her 2020 all-blues offering, Rebel Moon Blues, the Billboard Best Female Rock Vocalist winner mines even more of her expansive talent in the genre to deliver eight new tracks — including originals “Change Is Coming,” “Still The World Goes Round,” and

more.

A pioneer of powerful, gritty female-fronted rock, Sass Jordan has worked alongside fellow greats like Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and Van Halen, among many more. Born in Britain and raised in Montreal, she launched her solo career with the single “Tell Somebody” from her 1988 debut of the same name, garnering national acclaim and a JUNO Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. Throughout her career, she’s earned three more nominations for Best Female Vocalist thanks to albums like Racine (1992), Rats (1994), Present (1997), Hot Gossip (2000), Get What You Give (2006), From Dusk Til Dawn (2009) and her side project S.U.N.’;s album, Something Unto Nothing (2011) — along with singles like “Make You A Believer,” “You Don’t Have to Remind Me,” “Sun’s Gonna Rise” and 1992’s “Trust in Me”, a duet with Joe Cocker from the record-selling Bodyguard soundtrack.

Jordan starred in the off-Broadway Janis Joplin show, Love Janis, performed The Vagina Monologues in Winnipeg and Toronto, toured the world with A Bowie Celebration, guest-starred on NBC’s Sisters, weighed in as the only female judge on Canadian Idol for all six seasons

beginning in 2003, and branded her own lines of wine and spirits, Rebel Moon Whisky and Kick Ass Sass Wine.

In 2017, she released Racine Revisited, recreating her sophomore album with an all-star cast for its 25th anniversary, and celebrated the same milestone for Rats in 2020 with a coloured- vinyl reissue. With Bitches Blues, Sass returns to a genre that’s long been ingrained in her grasp since the start. “There’s been an undercurrent of blues throughout my whole career”, she shares. “The music that I have mostly been drawn to has always had that gritty, rootsy vein running through it, and that’s why I’m enjoying making these records so much”.

As such, anticipate piercingly fierce guitar licks and defiantly driving tempos alongside Sass’ soulful signature rasp and the full backing of a glorious assortment of rambling road dogs, the Champagne Hookers — guitarists Chris Caddell and Jimmy Reid, drummer Cass Pereira, keyboardist Jesse O’Brien, and Steve Marriner on bass and harmonica.

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The Phantom Blues Band - Blues For Breakfast (2022)

 For all his considerable musical talents, Taj Mahal has always been shrewd. And smart. In the early 1990s he knew he’d assembled something special in his backing band. He dubbed his secret weapon the Phantom Blues Band.

After helping Taj win two Grammys and gain three other nominations, the band members realized they could stand on their own. The Phantom Blues Band began assembling what would become ‘Out Of The Shadows’ in 2006, an album that stretched the band and won raves at every turn.

The Phantom Blues Band – drummer Tony Braunagel, bassist/singer Larry Fulcher, guitarist/singer Johnny Lee Schell, saxophonists Joe Sublett, trumpeter Darrell Leonard, and keyboardist/singer Mike Finnigan – has been a resilient unit.

At various times, its members have backed just about every marquis band you can name, but they continued to support Taj when he needed them.

On its own, Phantom has recorded ‘Out Of The Shadows’ and Footprints in 2007 for Delta Groove and Inside Out in 2012 and Still Cookin’ in 2020, both for VizzTone. Album after album features the same musicians, although at one point Les Lovitt replaced Leonard on trumpet.

It’s a rather remarkable testimonial that these guys who are first-call sidemen for people such as Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Robert Cray, Eric Burdon, and Bob Marley among others, always seem to come back to their nest with the Phantom Blues Band. Unusual allegiance and true camaraderie come to mind as character traits.

So it was especially painful during the pandemic shadow in 2020 when Mike Finnigan was diagnosed with cancer. Finnigan held his own place in the music industry. Through the years, he played on hundreds of records and thousands of shows with artists as varied as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Crosby, Stills & Nash. He made it through the Still Cookin’ album, but succumbed to his illness in August 2021.

The Phantom Blues Band wasn’t going to let that knock them out. They recruited veteran Jim Pugh on keyboards (Etta James, Robert Cray, Chris Isaak) and immediately set about to produce an album in tribute to the fallen Finnigan.

Schell and Fulcher handle most of the vocals on the new album, which is scheduled for an early summer release on Pugh’s Little Village record label.

The band invited two of its long-time musical companions – Bonnie Raitt and Curtis Salgado – to pitch in on the effort.

As a tribute to the Finnigan, proceeds from the new CD will be donated to the Mike Finnigan School of Music at the Stiefel Theater in Salina, Kansas. It is surely an honor Finnigan, a native of Kansas, would smile at.

The members of the Phantom Blues Band can take plenty of pride from their aggregated musical experiences, but they know this project is something special.

Of course, Taj Mahal could have probably told you that they could do this long ago. He believed in them first.

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Ron Addison - Ride On (2022)

 12 Blues/Rock songs ranging from heartfelt emotional blues to a Latin-beat rock. 7 original songs written by Ron and played by his band the Tomcats along with special guest musicians. Physical CD available for pre-order as well, just go to the merchandise page.

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Mungo Jerry - Somelight (2022)

 Some Light is the latest Mungo Jerry album, and it is packed with a dozen life-affirming songs. It is a tour-de-force, triumphant celebration of life.

Overall, it is so good that it seems to contain much, much more than the dozen brilliantly crafted songs therein. You could even call it a concept album, if that’s not too cheesy a thing to say. It is arguably the best MJ album ever released.

Ray Dorset and Mungo Jerry are two sides of the same gold sovereign.

Music moves elementally through Ray Dorset, and it is hard to say who is in control on this album. The musician Ray Dorset? Or the Mungo Jerry Muse that has driven this irrepressible force of nature to produce his music for more than six decades.

This hypnotising album is a musical gem. Ray’s band grooves in harmonious sync, amid a framework of the highest production values.

Some Light was conceived, composed and recorded during the darkest days of the 2020/21 Pandemic and light itself is the energy that shines through this astonishing output.

Ray squared up to the modern plague by producing this truly classic Mungo Jerry collection. Some Light is his plea to humanity to stop destroying the planet and going against Nature, a cause he has been crusading since the late 1960s.

But have we left it too late? Some Light poses that question in a beautifully crafted way. The title tips a wink at the inclusion of uniquely ‘light’ Mungo Jerry songs. They defiantly and cheerfully proclaim the endurance of the human spirit in these strange times. ~Mick O’Hanlon

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Mudlow Bad Turn (2022)

 Mudlow play the soundtrack to the dark worries...

when you can't sleep at night!

There's trouble everyday!

The dread of a flat tire

on a country two-lane road

at ten o'clock at night,

where you can still be seen.

Somebody's at the back door,

there's a lady at the bar you used to know, and she's strapped,

...and a jukebox plays a Mudlow album.

~Rick Saunders.

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