#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

 

#682 : Alastair Greene - Standing Out Loud (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

2024 – Ruf Records

Release Date : May 17, 2024

 

By Phillip Smith; May 11, 2024

 Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

Alastair Greene is one of those artists I am always excited to hear new music from. He really does elevate blues-rock to a whole new level. In the past, Greene has worked with other favorites of mine such as Alan Parsons, and Sugaray Rayford. For his latest and eleventh solo record Standing Out Loud, Greene has enlisted the extraordinary J.D. Simo to co-produce and engineer this off-the-chain listening experience.

The churning, driving rhythm of “Slow Burn” pulls me in tight for a tasty dish of ZZ-Top-inspired Texas blues slathered in a spicy slide sauce. “In Trouble”  is an incredible-sounding blues-rocker. If KISS played blues, this track definitely represents what it would sound like. It’s indeed a favorite. I love hearing that swampy slide guitar as it echoes out from “The Last to Cry”. Greene slows it way down for “Rusty Dagger” for an amazing listen where notes seem to hang in mid-air. His guitar-mastery absolutely shines on this one. A stellar cover of Rory Gallagher’s “Bullfrog Blues” brings this record to its finish. It truly is a smashing performance.

It's refreshing to hear such an unbridled approach to blues as Greene and Simo exhibit in this recording. It’s raw, it’s to the point, and it rocks.

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For more information about Alastair Greene, visit his website at www.alastairgreene.com 

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Rich Mahan - Blame Bobby Bare

2012 -  Snortin Horse Records

By Phillip Smith; May 31, 2014

Listening to Rich Mahan’s ten track album, Blame Bobby Bare, is like hitching a ride on a time machine headed back to the ending of an era when country music was still raw and listened to on 8-track tapes.  Not only was the album inspired by the music of Country music legend Bobby Bare, it was recorded in Nashville using vintage analog gear.  This, along with Mahan’s brilliantly written verses make this a killer retro-country album.

Jimmy Buffet would be right at home performing Tex-Mex friendly, “Tequilla Y Mota”, an ode to the weekend bender. I love the sound of Steve Herman’s mariachi trumpet coupled with Robby Turner’s pedal steel and Arlan Oscar’s accordion. That musical combination ties the song up into one big, tasty tamale.  A strong Bruce Springsteen vibe is with Mahan as he moves the party to another state in ‘Overserved in Alabam’. 

Mahan has a great sense of humor, and it shines through on his song of karmic backlash, “The Hills of South Dakota”.  He finds out the hard way, drinking scotch and philandering with a bartender may just land him with a problem below the belt and trouble with his wife.  Another song of good times gone bad, “Mama Found My Bong”, is a coming of age country ditty.  The wah-wah provided by JD Simo puts a big ol’ smile on my face.  Mahan’s “Rehab’s For Quitters” is bound to be a country classic, with quirky lyrics that seem to have fallen off bumper stickers at a truck stop.  If I didn’t know, I would have sworn this song was written by John Prine or David Allen Coe.

Rich Mahan is the real deal, and Blame Bobby Bare is a hell of a good listen.  I highly recommend this album to fans of classic and outlaw country. 

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