The blues: Get it while you can

I wrote last time about B.B. King's latest, "One Kind Favor," and also a while back about Buddy Guy's new CD, "Skin Deep." Irma Thomas has a beautiful new album, "Simply Grand." I have new CDs on my desk from Taj Mahal and Magic Slim (reviews coming soon). It should be reassuring to blues lovers that these great musicians are still recording, and while they are at it, making equally great music. Both of these CDs rank among the best they've done.

Jim White photo

Muddy Waters at Mancini's, McKees Rocks,
about 1979.

I think it's worth noting that even while we sometimes cry in our bluesy beer (quality beer only, please) that not all the good old blues is gone, it's actually here for the taking. It's true, those blues are not here in the quantity that they once were, but they are still

 But we can still go to Moondog's and hear Magic Slim or Hubert Sumlin, or the Pittsburgh Blues Festival for Taj Mahal, or hear Koko Taylor at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. James Cotton and Johnny Winter were paired at the recent Wheeling blues festival. Otis Clay came to town to sing with Billy Price.

 If we're lucky, we can still make it to a King or Guy concert. Shoot, Guy performed right Downtown last summer. In the past couple of years, you could take in Honeyboy Edwards, Pinetop Perkins and others in the city or not too far away.

And that doesn't begin to count the blues offered by the ranks of younger musicians, black and white, who are carrying on the traditions. Two fine recent shows by Tab Benoit and Tommy Castro at the Pittsburgh Blues Festival come to mind. not-yet-old masters: Robert Cray, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Bob Margolin, Duke Robillard, Guy Davis ... fill in your own list of names here.

It's true, it's not like the good old days, when BlueNotes' young ancestor would hang at Mancini's and hear Koko, Albert Collins, Muddy, Albert King, Son Seals, John Lee Hooker, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Eddie Shaw, J.B. Hutto, Willie Dixon and many many more.  There's a reason they were called the good old days. (Unless you go back too far, to the vapid music that came close to shutting down the BlueNotes blue genes.)

Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say here is that there's much fine new music to listen to, and you can still hear a lot of it from some of the people who created it.  So, as Janis Joplin once sang, persuasively, get it while you can. 

Laborless days ahead

BlueNotes is planning a long, relaxing weekend off. Maybe with a friendy libation or two. And a few good CDs in the player. You should all do the same, and meet me back here next week.

No comments

That's what y'all do way too much. How about sharing some of your all-time favorite blues CDs. Or your favorite artists. Or your favorite beer.