#704 : J.D. Simo & Luther Dickinson - Do the Rump (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

2024 – Forty Below Records

Release Date : Sep. 20, 2024

By Phillip Smith; Sep. 21, 2024

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

I was very excited when I first heard Luther Dickinson and J.D. Simo were going to collaborate on an album together. I have been an avid follower of Luther’s for quite a while, and became a fan of J.D.’s after catching a live performance of him opening up for Tab Benoit last year. The two forces first played together while touring with Phil Lesh and Friends. They discovered they both had a lot of the same influences and musical alignments. Although their approaches to playing guitar is vastly different, they found their styles complemented each other very much so. Simo and Dickinson joined forces, bringing drummer Adam Abrashoff onboard to complete the band and recorded Do the Rump at Simo’s home studio in Nashville.  The album has a strong hill-country blues presence. It collides the familiar with the unfamiliar and slow-simmers the results in a swampy goodness.

They pour a beautifully haunting groove into JJ Cale’s “Right Down There” from his 1972 album Really. With Abrashoff’s notorious beat laying the tracks, a lush dose of greasy slide guitar and heavy fuzz-laden guitar breathes a new glorious life into the song. “Lonesome Road” is downright amazing. It conjures images in my head of Hendrix and SRV playing together in a smoky, whiskey-soaked juke joint in the middle of Mississippi. I dig the John Lee Hooker cover of “Serve Me Right to Suffer”. Served in a bowlful of hypnotic North Mississippi hill country blues, it truly becomes an entirely different song. I find it fascinating to hear the results of mashing Junior Kimbrough’s “Do the Rump” and Fred McDowell’s “Louise” together and backed with a Fela Kuti-inspired afro-beat. “Do the Rump Louise”, a nearly eight-minute-long performance is quickly absorbed into my inner being. I love every bit of it. The album ends with an extraordinary extended ten-minute jam taking on R.L. Burnside’s “Peaches” for another healthy dose of music for the soul.

Do the Rump is everything I hoped this album would be and more. I truly hope to hear more musical collaborations between Simo and Dickinson.

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For more information about J.D. Simo, visit his website at simo.fm

 

For more information about Luther Dickinson, visit his website at lutherdickinson.com

 

For more information about Forty Below Records, visit their website at fortybelowrecords.com

 

#662 : Philip Sayce - The Wolves Are Coming (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

2024 – Forty Below Records

By Phillip Smith; Feb. 17, 2024

Release Date : Feb. 23, 2024

 

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

There’s a bright and fierce energy surrounding the music of LA-based blues-rocker Philip Sayce.  The tours-of-duty he ventured with alongside legends like Jeff Healy and Melissa Etheridge certainly pushed him to obtain his 10,000+ hours of experience, elevating him to his current level of greatness.  Loaded with explosive guitar performances, and drizzled with his soulful vocals, Sayce’s ninth and latest album The Wolves are Coming is an extraordinary listen.     

Sayce smashes the gates open with a Hendrix-inspired “Oh! That Bitches Brew”, leaving me gob smacked as I take in his unleashed arsenal of atomic guitar licks.  An infectious rhythm draws me into the funky, smoking anthem of “Babylon is Burning”.  I can’t help but feel his heart-felt emotions poured all over slow ballad “It’s Over Now”.  It is such a beautiful song.  His covers of John Lee Hooker’s “This is Hip” and Albert Collins' “The Moon is Full” both bring smiles to my face too.  I dig the high-octane track “Black Moon”.  Its pulsing rhythm and fuzzy guitar host a furious punch and hits like the go-to songs I loved from The White Stripes.  Sayce’s vocal and guitar performance are absolutely amazing on “Backstabber”.  With the force of a derecho, he tears the freaking roof off.

I highly recommend picking up Philip Sayce’s “The Wolves Are Coming”.  It’s superb from beginning to end. 

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 For more information about the artist, visit this website : https://www.philipsayce.com/

#533 : Sugaray Rayford - In Too Deep

 

2022 – Forty Below Records

By Phillip Smith; Dec.25, 2021

I was super thrilled to see the new Sugaray Rayford disc In Too Deep when it recently arrived.  I was in total awe of his prior album, Somebody Save Me, which earned him a Grammy nomination and two Blues Music Awards.  Sugaray’s brand of hot buttered soul makes me feel alive with each and every listen.  Fabulously written and produced by Eric Corne, founder and president of Forty Below Records, this record is drenched in Seventies Soul and /R&B.  With Sugarray behind the mic, his band consists of Rick Holmstrom and Eamon Ryland splitting up the guitar performances, Sasha Smith and Drake Munkihaid Shining sharing keyboard responsibilities, Taras Prodaniuk on bass, and Matt Tecu on drums.

“Invisible Soldier” leads the album off with a megaton of groove and a reminder to us all about the struggles experienced by wartime veterans.  This song in particular was inspired by Sugaray’s personal battle with insomnia stemming from PTSD.  With every listen, I get swooped up by the hypnotic rhythm woven into “In Too Deep”.  The array of guitar licks thrown in by Ryland adds a sweet extra layer to this song of despair.  The horn-laden jam on “Under the Crescent Moon” is a superb and funky throwback to those Seventies cop drama scores I loved so much.  It’s a very infectious track.  I also adore “Miss Information” where the melody takes a brassy, disco-esque route and the lyrics rap to a beat of their own.  With a vibrant breath, and silky-smooth vocals, Sugaray delivers “Gonna Lift You Up”.  Blues-soaked guitar, gospel-inspired organ, and horns all come together for an enormous good time.  The album closes in a unifying way with “United We Stand”.  There’s a definite Stax influence embedded in this track, and I love every bit of it.

In Too Deep has already secured a place in my favorite albums of the year, although the release date will be in 2022.   This is an album you will surely want to keep an eye out for.  It’s an absolute gem.  

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For more information about the artist, visit this website : https://sugarrayrayford.com  

#367 : Sugaray Rayford - Somebody Save Me

2018 – Forty Below Records

Release Date : Mar. 1, 2019

By Phillip Smith; Dec. 22, 2018

My first exposure to Caron “Sugaray” Rayford was through listening to the Double Dynamite record from the Mannish Boys.  Rayford sang lead on nine of the twenty-six tracks on that double album.  Take a listen to any of his music, and it will become so very evident why he was nominated for four Blues Music Awards in 2018.  Written and produced by Forty Below Records founder Eric Corne, Somebody Save Me, the latest from Sugaray Rayford is bathed in the goodness of Sixties soul.  Rayford’s suave and powerful voice is accented quite nicely on this new recording with interesting hooks and a tight-knit band.  It’s much akin to the music of Charles Bradley, which I simply adore. The backbone of the band on this album consists of Rick Holmstrom on guitar, Matt Tecu on drums, Taras Prodaniuk on bass, and Sasha Smith on keys/organ.

The album begins with “The Revelator”, a hypnotic track with an Isaac Hayes delivery that magically beckons me like a porch light to a moth.  The bassline from Prodaniuk was quick to embed itself deep within my subconscious.  “Time to Get Moving” is a blues-soaked adrenalin jolt.  Its heightened pace is fortified with a groovy guitar twang from Holmstrom and topped with a juicy harp performance from Corne.  One listen to “You and I” and the music of Memphis’ Stax Records immediately comes to mind.  There’s certainly a call-back to the Memphis Horns with the sweet sounds of brass from Mark Pender on trumpet, Ron Dziubla on sax, and Richard A Rosenberg on trombone.  Swampy and dangerous, there’s an obvious Howlin’ Wolf vibe radiating off “I’d Kill For You, Honey”.  “Angels and Devils” keeps the atmosphere ominous, and unpredictable.  If ever there was a need for a blues-centric James Bond theme, this song would be on the top of the list.  Sugaray takes it nice and slow like Teddy Pendergrass on title track, “Somebody Save Me”.  His smooth, buttery vocals delicately dance atop a backing of violin and cello.  This definitely sets the mood for a slow dance.  

Sugaray is the real deal and Somebody Save Me is an amazing listen. 

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For more information about the artist, visit this website :  https://sugarayblues.com

#339 : Eric Corne - Happy Songs for the Apocalypse

2018 – Forty Below Records

By Phillip Smith; June 30, 2018

Eric Corne, founder and president of Forty Below Records, has brought fabulous new artists like Sam Morrow and Jaime Wyatt to my attention and recorded established favorites such as John Mayall, Walter Trout, Joe Walsh, Lucinda Williams, Edgar Winter, Joe Bonamassa, John Doe (X) and Glen Campbell.  Happy Songs for the Apocalypse, the latest release from award winning producer/singer/song-writer Eric Corne is rather reflective of the world today, and is an amazing listen.  The dozen original tracks are beautifully written and tightly woven together in the assembly of this album.

I love the way Corne splendidly starts the album off with “Mad World”, his prophetic account of the beginning of the end.  Eamon Ryland lends a dreamy texture to this personal favorite on pedal steel.  Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams) provides a delicate Dobro performance on “The Guilded Age” while Corne sings of the wolves of Wall Street. Sasha Smith on dolceola and violinist Freddy Koella (Bob Dylan, KD Lang, Dr. John) inject a bright Celtic sound into Corne’s dispirited observance of current day politics “Short Wave Preachers”.

Corne taps into the spirit of the early Rolling Stones with “Ridin’ with Lady Luck” and “Locomotion”.  “Ridin’ with Lady Luck” features the legendary Walter Trout laying down some fabulous licks on lead guitar and Corne ripping it up on harp.  The excitement builds as Smith lays the piano groundwork on the upbeat “Locomotion”.  Guest David Ralicke (Degue Fever, Beck) orchestrates a rich horn arrangement on this captivating song as Corne revs it up with a side of guitar twang and more harp.

Corne utterly wins me over with Happy Songs for the Apocalypse. It is definitely a delightful and intelligent listen. 

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John Mayall - Talk About That

2017 – Forty Below Records  

By Phillip Smith; May 12, 2017

I’m always happy to hear new material from John Mayall,.  With his latest album, Talk About That, Mayall nails down another winner in a long string of rock-solid blues albums.  Returning to record the eleven track jewel with Mayall is guitarist Rocky Athas, bassist Greg Rzab, and drummer Jay Davenport.    

Mayall lays down seriously groovy keyboard riffs alongside Rzab’s thick and saucy bassline in title track, “Talk About That”.  I love it when he breaks out that juicy Bourbon Street blues with the deliciously horn-rich “Gimme Some of That Gumbo”.  Athas delivers a searing guitar performance which brings this one home.  When Mayall plays the harmonica in the Jimmy Rogers All Stars cover, ”Goin’ Away Baby”, it sounds so damn good.  This is one killer blues song indeed.  His piano performance on life-questioning “You Never Know” is quite delightful too.  I get lost in the stirring sounds of “Blue Midnight”. Its vibrant and intoxicating rhythm pulls me deeply in.       

For “The Devil Must Be Laughing” and “Cards on the Table”, Mayall enlists non-other than the fabulous Joe Walsh to play guitar.  Both are rather outstanding and capture the legendary Walsh sound.   

Talk About That is an enchanting album which showcases a wonderful set of Mayall masterminded blues.    

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Sam Morrow - There Is No Map

2016 – Forty Below Records

By Phillip Smith; May 28, 2016

Sam Morrow’s debut album Ephemeral was one of my favorites of 2014, therefore, I was most curious to hear the new songs on his latest release There Is No Map.  As expected, the new album revealed to be another masterpiece.  With poetic beauty and brutal honesty, Morrow explores the not-so-glamorous gonzo journeys his modern-day outlaw life has taken.

The soulful boogie-laced tale of destitution and addiction in “Barely Holding On” is a sure-fire hit.  Like a freight train, the songs keep fearlessly rolling.  I get goose bumps when I hear “The Deaf Conductor”, written by the album’s producer Eric Corne.  Accompanied by the lush and beautifully textured sounds of a B3, this one has an instant familiarity to it.  I feel as if I’ve heard this song a hundred times before.  Then there’s the swirling, melancholy, country-flavored dirge “Green”, in which Morrow, like a burdened Buddha sings “The same old bullshit don’t make the grass green.”  This one is flawlessly and soulfully performed.  The eerie and ominous vibe woven into the wonderfully dark “Devil’s in the Details” are quick to grab my attention as well. The song is short, but sweet.

With two strong albums like these under Morrow’s belt, I already await the next.

For more info about Sam Morrow, check out his website... http://sammorrowmusic.com/