Showing posts with label Laura Chavez. Show all posts

Saturday, March 29, 2025

#738- > Tony Holiday - Keep Your Head Up (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

Tony Holiday

Keep Your Head Up
2025 – Forty Below Records
Release Date : Apr. 18, 2025

By Phillip Smith; Mar. 29, 2025

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

There is new music from Tony Holiday and it is outstanding. Keep Your Head Up, the fifth album from the Memphis-based bluesman pulls me tightly in with its soulful grooves and expressive blues. This eight-track release, produced by Eric Corne, features Jad Tariq on guitar on each song and includes an amazing guest list consisting of Edde 9V, Kevin Burt, Laura Chavez, and Albert Castiglia.

From the beginning of the album, I’m onboard. In a splash of Seventies dramatic R&B, Holiday is joined by Eddie 9V on “She’s a Burglar”. I love the fiery guitar licks Eddie lets loose on top of the horns and keys. “Twist My Fate” brings Kevin Burt, triple winner of the 2018 International Blues Challenge, to the microphone to join Holiday in a fabulously blues-soaked duet. I absolutely love the cover of Little Sonny’s 1971 single “Woman Named Trouble”. Previously recorded on Enterprise Records, a subsidiary of Stax Records, this version strongly emits that Stax rhythmic sound fueled by drummer Andrew McNeil, keyboardist Sasha Smith, and a horn section comprised of Mark Pender and David Ralicke. That Memphis soul-driven sound carries on as 2023 Blues Music Award winner for Best Guitarist Laura Chavez steps in on lead guitar for “Shoulda Known Better”. It’s great to hear Albert Castiglia join in for a riveting cover of the Snooks Eaglin 1971 cut “Drive It Home”. This one absolutely cooks.

Tony Holiday’s Keep Your Head Up sits among my favorite albums of the year. I highly recommend it.

---

Photo Credit - Mary Gunning

WEBSITE & SOCIALS

Tony Holiday

https://tonyholidaymusic.com/

Past articles on PhillyCheeze Rock & Blues Reviews featuring Tony Holiday

https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/search?q=tony+holiday

Saturday, August 12, 2023

#628: Chickenbone Slim - Damn Good and Ready (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

2023 – Vizztone Label Group

By Phillip Smith; Aug. 12, 2023

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

San Diego-based musician Larry Teves aka Chickenbone Slim has returned to Greaseland Studios to record his fifth release Damn Good and Ready. The album is a cocktail of all-original blues and rockabilly with a cool-as-hell vintage sound. It is quite obvious why he was awarded the 2022 San Diego Music Award for “Best Jazz/Blues Recording”. With Christoffer “Kid” Anderson engineering, mixing, and mastering this twelve-track recording, Chickenbone Slim is joined by Laura Chavez (2023 Blues Music Award winner for Best Blues Guitarist) on guitar, Marty Dodson on drums/percussion, Justice Guevara on electric and stand-up bass, and Kid Anderson on everything else.

Loaded with a fistful of musical badassery and a searing blues riff, Teves’ homage to the wonderous lifeforce H2O has me hooked with “Drink Me”. “Rather Be Up” follows up with sweet twangy tones and a western delivery. It’s a beautiful song, and draws me in tight. From the first smokin’ guitar lick Chavez drops, title-track “Damn Good and Ready” is pure unadulterated blues, and sounds absolutely wonderful. With a fearless vocal delivery, Slim belts out “Ice in My Whiskey”. Chavez truly shines on this favorite track. It is songs like “Ty Cobb’s Chiclets” which put a spotlight on Teves’ songwriting mastery. This suspenseful tale of a baseball legend and his false teeth unfolds with a splash of surf guitar, and I dig it immensely.

Chickenbone Slim’s Damn Good and Ready is a one-of-a-kind album and I highly recommend it.

---

Note:

I caught Chickenbone Slim live in Memphis this past May performing at Rum Boogie Café on Beale Street for the Vizztone Blues Music Award Showcase, and had the opportunity to speak with him a bit while we were waiting for Uber rides at the end of the evening. That was very cool. The next evening, I attended the Blues Music Awards where Laura Chavez was awarded Guitarist of the Year. Being the first female to be honored with that prestigious award in the forty-four years they have been held, will hopefully begin a new trend. It was a special moment, and I am very happy she won.

Visit Chickenbone Slim’s webpage at https//chickenboneslim.com to purchase Damn Good and Ready.

Monday, May 29, 2023

#616 : Blues Music Awards Showcase - May 10, 2023 (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

Blues Music Awards Showcase

Presented by BratGirlmedia

Rum Boogie Cafe

Memphis, Tennessee

May 10, 2023

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

For many years, I've been wanting to visit Memphis for the Blues Music Awards. I finally made it down for that this year on May 11. It was an amazing experience.

On May 10th, the evening before the BMA's, I attended a music showcase presented by BratgirlMedia at Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street. The event featured a prestigious lineup of blues musicians. It served as a fund-raiser to benefit John Nemeth who underwent surgery last year to have a tumor removed from his lower jaw. It was an extraordinary event to say the least. If heaven has a juke-joint, I imagine it would be a lot like this.

Without camera in tow, I still captured a few photos of this fabulous event on my iPhone.

---

* all photos by Phillip Smith