#699 : Tab Benoit - I Hear Thunder (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

2024 – Whiskey Bayou Records
Release Date : Aug 30, 2024

By Phillip Smith;

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

It’s been a long thirteen years since Tab Benoit has released a new studio album. I Hear Thunder, the latest, is well worth the wait.  Benoit delivers ten striking new Telecaster Thinline-fueled tracks he co-wrote with guitarist Anders Osborne. They glisten like rays of sunlight reflecting off a Louisiana bayou. With Tab on vocals and guitar, he is joined by drummer Terence Higgins, bassist Corey Duplechin, Osborne on guitar. And guest George Porter Jr. (The Meters) who plays bass on two tracks.

Title-track “I Hear Thunder” is powered by a quick-setting, lush, swampy groove adorned with thick bass, a heavy pulse, and riveting guitar licks. I absolutely love it.  “The Ghost of Gatemouth Brown” follows next with an infectious beat and a fabulous tribute to the Grammy-winning Louisiana bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (April 18, 1924 – September 10, 2005).  Benoit is picturesque with his lyrics as he transports the listener into the swamps and marshes of the delta with “Watching the Gaters Roll In”.  It’s a favorite indeed. When Porter joins in on “Little Queenie”, it makes for a damn fine dance-inducing jam. I can’t help but move my feet when this flows through the speakers. The album comes to its glorious end with “Bayou Man”, a bodacious track oozing with searing guitar licks covered in gator grease.

Tab Benoit’s I Hear Thunder excites me at every turn with his delectable guitar performances and powerful vocals. It truly is a fantastic album.  

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For more information about Tab Benoit, visit his website at https://www.tabbenoit.com/

#638: Jonah Tolchin - Dockside (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

2023 – Clover Music Group

By Phillip Smith; Oct. 7, 2023

 

Release Date : Oct. 20, 2023

 

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

Dockside, the fifth album from Jonah Tolchin swiftly swept me off my feet with its real-deal North Mississippi blues, and sweet southern soul.  Co-produced by Tolchin and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), and recorded at Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, twelve-track recording of all-original songs signifies the first release on Tolchin’s brand new label Clover Music Group.  With Tolchin on vocals, lead guitar, and harmonica, and Dickinson on rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and clave, the other performers are comprised of drummer Terence Higgins (Warren Haynes), bassist Nic Coolidge, keyboardist Chris Joyner (Ben Harper), pianist Carey Frank (Tedeschi Trucks Band), vocalist Chavonne Stewart (Jackson Brown) and vocalist Marley Monroe.

When the Mississippi Hill Country sounds of “Blues With a Feeling” begin to flow from the first track, I knew this was going to be a great listen.  This funky and hypnotizing song sinks its teeth right in.  Without letting up, Tolchin pours a delightful glassful of Muscle Shoals-inspired music in “Searching For My Soul”.  This amalgam of blues, soul, and southern-roots-rock is finely crafted with insightful lyrics and an infectious hook.  Chills shoot down my spine when Tolchin opens with ‘I was born without a soul and a heart as dark as coal..” in “Save Me (From Myself)”.  I latch on quickly to the dark groove running through this track.  It’s a fabulous song.  Sometimes the mind is racing on auto-pilot and sleep begins to become a thing of the past.  Tolchin brilliantly reflects upon the whole experience in “Can’t Close My Eyes”.  Dickinson steps in on lead guitar for “Suffering Well”.  Strong breaths of Bentonia blues are released from this masterpiece, as scorching guitar licks burst from its soul.  The piano accompaniment from Frank sounds terrific as it glides along the funky rhythm on “Mama Don’t Worry”.  My ears perk up even more as Tolchin dazzles me on slide guitar.  

The blues of Dockside is as authentic as it gets.  Tolchin’s music on this album had my full attention from beginning to end.  It flowed from song to song in a perfectly constructed fashion.  This record will surely be noted as one of my favorite albums of 2023 and beyond.          

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

  

#620 : Eric Johanson - The Deep and the Dirty (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

2023 – Ruf Records

By Phillip Smith; June 25, 2023

Release Date : July 28, 2023

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

Louisiana blues-rocker Eric Johanson has a ridiculously cool album with his latest release The Deep and the Dirty.  Enlisting Jesse Dayton (Rob Zombie, X, Samantha Fish) surely accounts for the badassery which abundantly flows out of the dozen original tracks contained on this record.  With Eric Johanson on guitar and vocals, the band is comprised of drummer Terence Higgins, and bassist Eric Vogel, along with Jesse Dayton and Patrick Herzfeld on shaker/tambourine.

Rocking out in a Hendrix fashion, Johanson greets the listener with “Don’t Hold Back”.  The infectious hard-driving riff is painted with explosive guitar licks.  Immediately following is the title-track The “Deep and the Dirty”.  I love Vogel’s buttery blues-soaked bassline.  It sounds great and draws me quickly in to enjoy Johanson’s smokin’ performance.  His slide-play on “Beyond the Sky” and “Familiar Sound” is deliciously swampy and captivating.  Led Zeppelin had a “Stairway to Heaven”.  Johanson on the other hand has a ride to “Elysian Fields”.  That song stands out as instrumentally grand and wonderfully poetic.  I quickly fall for the highly infectious “Galaxy Girl”.  Johanson cooks this one to a rapid boil from the git-go with an amazing guitar performance.   

The Deep and the Dirty from Eric Johanson is a heavy load of blues served with hard-driving guitar.  I love every single bit of it, and highly recommend giving it a listen.   

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For more information about Eric Johanson visit his website at :  https://ericjohanson.com