Back to the future with Marc Benno's "Crawlin"

Once upon a time, back in the day -- roughly the early 1970s -- a handful of guitarists and musicians were tearing up the territory around Austin, Texas, including a young Stevie Ray Vaughan, Marc Benno and Doyle Bramhall.

They came together with Billy Etheridge and Tommy McClure to form a hot little blues-rock band called Marc Benno and the Nigthcrawlers, and toured and made quite a name for themselves in local music circles. They even came up with a bunch of songs for an album titled "Crawlin," which they recorded -- just before their record deal fell apart, and put this record on the shelf in 1973.

But now, thanks to the efforts of a little label called Blue Skunk Music, you can go back and hear Stevie and Marc play lead guitar, with Marc on vocals, and work their way through a set of bluesy rock that sounds like it could have been recorded last month. They also added four songs that were recorded shortly after "Crawlin" was shelved, and now you get a look at the roots of some of the best Texas blues rock of the day.

I especially like the uptempo tracks, starting off with the opener, "Last Train," and it's bluesy riffs and wails, and the young Benno doing his best Southern bluesman vocals. He wrote or cowrote most of the tracks, with Bramhall and McClure contributing a nice scorching "Love is Turning Green," and Vaughan creating the title track. Stevie also plays lead on a couple of songs that were added later -- "Whole Thang" and "Long Ride Home."

It's a fun CD, that gives a nice look into the early days of some of the roots of Texas blues rock.

Here are a few audio clips:

"Last Train"

"Love is Turning Green"

"Long Ride Home"

Coming up tomorrow is the fine New Orleans-flavored musician, Eric Lindell. He'll be doing a studio show at WYEP at 1 p.m., then a set at Moondog's tomorrow night at 8. Catch him if you can.

The night of Friday the 13th, you can also catch guitarist Ana Popovic and harp player Jason Ricci at Moondog's. They burned up the stage the last time they were there, and should produce an exciting show.

I mention these dates now, because, as you read this, I'm spending a few days across the state in Philadelphia. I won't make it to the Lindell show, and I'm not sure about Ana and Jason. So reviews or photos are definitely welcome.

For your enjoyment, here is a slideshow of photos from the Bye Week Blues show at Moondog's a week ago, sponsored by the Blues Society of Western Pa.

Zac Harmon ~ "From the Root" explores all shades of the blues

BlueNotes is way behind on this CD -- it was released in April I think -- but it's still worth calling your attention to the album and the artist.

The artist is Zac Harmon, out of Jackson, Miss., many years ago, and the album is "From the Root" (NorthernBlues), a look at blues and soul and other fine music that Harmon seems to have mastered with considerable skill and musicality.

Harmon is an IBC winner, a singer-songwriter, an excellent guitarist and a man who seems to want to explore many possibilities that are included in the blues genre -- some sweet soul, R&B, some reggae, some acoustic and some tough down-home blues. He does them all well, and if I had one criticism of this CD, it would be that it moves around a little bit too much between these styles. 

Still, it's a fine showcase for his talents as a silky-smooth soul balladeer, a tough blues singer, and an axeman who can wrap his music around all of those styles.

The CD shifts between sensuous, soulful blues like the opener, "Don't Give Me Another Reason," to the final tough acoustic "Man is Not Meant to be Alone." Harmon sounds like another of those blues talents who hasn't yet gotten enough national recognition for his talents. Maybe this album will help.

Here's a clip of each of those songs:

"Don't Give Me Another Reason"

"Man is Not Meant to be Alone"

And here's a video from a recent concert:

A couple of upcoming local shows

Jeff Ingersoll, the head BoneDaddy of Bonedog Records in McKeesport, seems determined to keep producing fine shows at the Palisades Ballroom in McKeesport, hard on the shores of the mighty Youghiogheny, that feature local blues talent.

He has two shows coming up, one this Saturday (11.7), and one the following Saturday (11.14). This Saturday will feature fine Burgh bluesguy Gary Belloma and the Blue Bombers, and the following weekend offers up Jimmy Adler, Miss Freddye, and Robert "Pecky" Peckman and the Bonedog Allstars. I'll be in Philadelphia this weekend, applying for a job as pitching coach, so I'll miss Gary, but we'll see what next week holds.

The Palisades, by the way, is a great place for concerts -- it's big enough to hold a good crowd, but still small enough to get you up close and personal. And there's lots of room to dance (not that BlueNotes is Fred Astaire, or even Ginger Rogers, but he's been known to move his feet around a little bit once the drugs take effect).

Blues legends spread some harmonica jam

Here's a great video clip from the American Folk Blues Festival in Germany in 1965. It came my way in a newsletter from Bob Corritore, a Phoenix blues harp player, who's obviously a fan of harp players.

This clip shows Big Mama Thornton, Big Walter Horton, J.B. Lenoir, Dr. Ross, and John Lee Hooker, taking turns on harp at the festival. Maybe you've seen this. I hadn't, and it's a lot of fun for its look at all these blues greats in one place.

Here's a very nice piece from NPR on a book by William Ferris, "Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues," a collection of short articles about blues musicians he found while traveling Highway 61in Mississippi in the 1960s and '70s. The book sounds interesting.

Some blues notes: Blues Blast winners, Bye Week Blues, harpist Norton Buffalo dies

Blues Blast, the online blues magazine with a set of awards that lets the public (you) vote on favorites, has announced its winners from this year's poll. They are all interesting choices. You can see all the nominees in those categories here.

Here's the list:

Best Contemporary Blues Recording
The Insomniacs - At Least I'm Not With You

Best Traditional Blues Recording
Various Artists - Chicago Blues: A Living History

Best Blues Song
Albert Castiglia - "Bad Year Blues"

Best Blues Band
Nick Moss & the Flip Tops

Best Male Artist
Elvin Bishop

Best Female Artist
Robin Rogers

Best New Artist Debut Recording
Chris James & Patrick Rynn - Stop And Think About It

Sean Costello Rising Star Award
Kilborn Alley Blues Band

Food bank wins on the bye week

Don Vecchio of the Blues Society of Western Pa. reports that the Bye Week Blues show at Moondog's on Sunday raised $2,000 and a dozen cases of food for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Norton Buffalo dies

Harp player Norton Buffalo, who played with -- among many others -- the very fine blues slide guitarist Roy Rogers, has died at the age of 58. He had played with the Steve Miller Band for years, and was regarded as one of the most versatile harp players around, having recorded on 180 albums with all kinds of musicians. Here's his obit, from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Here's a video of Buffalo and one of his best-known songs, "Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox":

Paul Rishell, Annie Raines give new life to old blues

Paul and Annie work on one of their electric numbers. (Jim White photo)

As you will no doubt remember, I was really looking forward to seeing the very fine blues duo of Paul Rishell and Annie Raines Friday night at the Thunderbird Cafe. Well, I did exactly that, and I did not leave disappointed --  just like the rest of the audience.

Their ability to create an intimate evening of passionate music carved from the legacy of country blues was not really surprising, since it's what they've been so doing well for years, but still leaves you in awe of both the power of the music and the ability of Paul and Annie to so completely capture its essence.

They not only play and sing, they talk about their music with love and intelligence, putting the songs into a little historical perspective as they perform them.

They kicked off the evening with Blind Boy Fuller's "Custard Pie," one of those classic blues in which the "custard pie" could be almost anything, but most likely has something to with a woman.

It's worth mentioning that guitar and harp duos are not all that common anymore, but Paul and Annie make all their music sound as though this was just the way it was always meant to sound. The music moves effortlessly from guitar to harp and back, always complementing, never overstepping their boundaries. They've done a lot more than learn to play the blues -- they've absorbed the music and are sharing what the blues have made them. That's why what they share is so authentic and so damn good.

They filled their set with a number of songs from their current CD and now DVD, "A Night in Woodstock" -- Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues" (with a little introduction on the value of Sterno), the stark Johnny Winter tune, "Dallas," Scrapper Blackwell's "Trouble Blues,"  Spider John Koerner's "Good Luck Child," before which Paul noted that Koerner was one of his favorite artists.

At one point, Annie used her mandolin to flavor Ma Rainey's "Black Eye Blues," and they turned the traditional "Old Man Mose" into a sing-along.

They are both masters of their acoustical domains, and they took turns displaying Paul's prowess with guitar and slide, and Annie's uncanny blues harp. They did a version of their own "Got to Fly," featuring Annie's vocals and harp, and her soaring solo midway was simply breathtaking.

Then they turned the last part of their set into an electric version, with Paul giving up the Resonator that speaks so well of him, and Annie using a gritty-sounding hand-held mike for her harps. She said they've been trying to revive their shows' electric segment, after having given it up a few years ago.

It's an excellent revival. Yes, they're unmatched in their acoustic prowess, but  also do great work while plugged in. The result was still the same -- a powerful tribute to their ability to channel the blues.

Among other electric things, they turned Big Maybelle's "Candy" into a stunning instrumental, and closed with their untraditional and very slowwww version of the usually fiercely upbeat Sophie Tucker thing, "Some of These Days" -- very, very interesting. 

They spent about 90 wonderful minutes doing all this, and the evening went down just like good whiskey -- satisfying, yet leaving you wanting another taste. And then another. Thank you both very much. I suppose that sounds trite, but it's awfully hard to capture the spirit of great music with mere words.

 A few related after-thoughts

-- Paul and Annie passed on a copy of their new DVD, "A Night in Woodstock," a visual record of their CD by the same name,from a live show at Woodstock, N.Y., featuring Rishell, Raines, their band, plus Bruce Katz on keyboards and John Sebastien. It add a couple of songs not on the CD, and includes an interview with the pair that focuses on how they got interested in the music they play. Paul talks about growing up hearing black music from the '50s in New York. Then he heard old recordings by Son House, and said it was his "rosetta stone" for the blues. The DVD is a very nice, personal experience if you're a fan -- or if you don't know yet that you are.

-- It's always fun to see the people who make the music you love, especially in an up-close setting like the T-Bird. It's the first time I've seen Paul and Annie -- and they could be the reason that I move back to Massachusetts (Yes, BlueNotes, child of the Mon Valley when it was still hell with the lid off, lived and worked in Mass for a few years).

 -- I only had a brief chance to chat with both, and the best thing I can say is that they both seem like real people.  

-- The show was sponsored by Calliope, the Pittsburgh Folk Music Society. I caught Calliope board member Phil Smith helping to carry in Paul and Annie's gear. "Just a roadie," he said.

 -- Tim, also known as BlueNotes contributor rd350c, passes along some photos and videos he took at the show. Thanks, Tim.

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines

This is just a quick note to tell all of you who were not there to see Paul Rishell and Annie Raines at the Thunderbird Cafe last night, what a fine show you missed.

It's all the more obvious close up, watching Paul's fingers pick out elegant blues melodies, and Annie do magical things with her harp, ranging from quiet blues to soaring solos. They did a fine acoustic set, and closed with some classic Chicago blues. They're both masters of the genre, and the musical passion they generate together leaves you both satisfied and craving more.

Watch this space for more. Soon. With photos.

Until then, happy Halloween (see all those those fine examples of the devil's music that Bluzer put into his comment yesterday.)

Just a few blues and other notes

BlueNotes is busy getting his blues face ready for Paul Rishell and Annie Raines tonight, so here are a few items by other writers to keep your blues jones happy.

Keb Mo is in Greensburg at the Palace Theater tonight, and here's a review of his latest CD, "Live & Mo' (which I haven't heard), fom Blogcritics, which can always be relied upon for some good blues work.

Here's a nice writeup on Delbert McClinton and his latest, "Acquired Taste," which I've only heard parts of, but which sounds like another fine Delbert CD. He's produced a bunch of great ones in the past decade. I know, I know, he's not really a bluesguy, but he's got that spirit, a great band, smart lyrics and a gritty voice that's full of feeling.

This is another interesting one, on the far fringes of the blues, but I do love the work of legendary illustrator and sometimes musician, R. Crumb. But he's just created a graphic work that depicts the biblical Book of Genesis, and if you know anything at all about Crumb, that's just too good to resist. Besides, he created the now-famous cover art for Janis Joplin's great, great album, "Cheap Thrills." He once had a band called the Cheap Suit Serenaders.

By the way, when I was writing about Paul and Annie the other day, I failed to mention that they are releasing a DVD version of their latest CD, "A Night in Woodstock." It offers a lot of extras, and sounds like a good deal for fans of their music.

And finally, I didn't make it to the Candye Kane show last night, but if you did, reviews are always welcome here. The same goes for the Keb Mo show tonight. And the same goes for anything else you want to write about.

Trick or treat. You say it wouldn't be Halloween without a black cat blues song? Here's Kokomo Arnold and "Old Black Cat Blues"

Blues for the weekend, Part 2

In my last post, I wrote about the national blues acts coming to town this weekend. But there are also a couple of Blues Society of Western Pa. events this weekend worth mentioning.

Tonight, Thursday, the BSWPA will hold its Blues Thursday Jam at Moondog's in Blawnox, hosted by Jim Hamel, the BSWPA and Moondog himself. The Jimmy Adler Band will be featured.

And since this weekend is the bye week for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Moondog's will be the site of the Fourth Annual Bye Week Blues, featuring an afternoon and evening of local blues bands, instead of local football.

Bye Week Blues is presented by Marcy Brown of the Sweaty Betty Blues Band and the BSWPA, and benefits the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank as well as anyone who likes to listen to the blues.

Here's the Bye Week Blues schedule:

1 pm -  Mahajibee Blues
2:20 pm - Felix and the Hurricanes  (2009 International Blues Challenge winners)
4 pm - Bubs McKeg and Doc Blue (2009 Duo International Blues Challenge winners)
5:15 pm - The Eldorado Kings featuring Johnny Rooster
6:30 pm - Billy the Kid and the Regulators (2008 WV International Blues Challenge winners)
7:40 pm - Big Ol' Blues Jam (all musicians welcome)

There's a suggestion donation of $10, and they're asking people to bring some non-perishable food items for the food bank.

Blues for the weekend: Rishell & Raines (plus interview), Keb Mo, Candye Kane

I know it's only Wednesday, but there are some good blues coming our way this week, starting tomorrow night, so I want to get started talking about them.

Songstress Candye Kane brings her large voice to the intimate Club Cafe on the South Side Thursday night (10/29), and on Friday night (10/30), we're blessed, or cursed, with the simultaneous riches of Keb Mo at the Palace Theater in Greensburg and Paul Rishell and Annie Raines at the Thunderbird in Lawrenceville.

Many weeks ago, as this lineup unfolded, BlueNotes made Rishell & Raines a must-see. I've enjoyed their traditional blues stylings for years, and the combination of Paul's splendid acoustic guitar and Annie's soaring harp is just too good to resist. They both stir the best kind of blues emotions. I've never seen them, and they don't seem to get here that often, so I don't want to miss them this time. I've seen Keb Mo several times, and I've read good things about his ongoing solo tour, so that's hard to pass up. I'm sure those of you who wind up there will come away more than satisfied.

So with all that in mind, I decided that I wanted to focus on Paul and Annie this week. Paul is one of the country's premier acoustic bluesmen, carrying on a tradition that he began early in life, and learned from playing in in the 1970s in Cambridge, Mass., with artists like  Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Howlin’ Wolf. Annie is flat out one of the best blues harp players around, and like Paul, seems especially moved by the spirit of of great old blues.

They are not just a couple of capable musicians who like to play the blues, they are a couple of artists who have absorbed the passion of country blues, and through their performances, deliver it to their audiences. They're touring on the release of their latest and very excellent album, "A Night in Woodstock," released late last year. So this show gets two BlueNotes' thumbs-up, even before it happens.

Not only are they fine musicians, but Paul and Annie are also nice enough people to humor my request to answer some questions by e-mail. Here they are:

BlueNotes: You both have been passionately playing passionate blues music for many years. What is it about this music that speaks to you?

Paul: If I hadn't heard blues, I would have missed a big part of myself. I've been recording, teaching and performing this music for over 40 years, and my desire to learn more about it has not abated since I was 13 years old and first heard Son House's recording of "County Farm Blues." For those of us who didn't grow up in the South, blues is the music we didn't know we needed.  

BN: Why have you focused on these older blues forms, and not, say, more contemporary electric blues or blues-rock?

Annie: It's not as though we think older is necessarily better.  There are lots of awful songs out there, old and new.  But we're drawn to great musicians whose work has have stood the test of time - from Mozart to Charley Patton to Jimi Hendrix.

BN: How do you try to communicate your feelings for the music to your audiences?

Paul: first of all, by playing it accurately.  But not in a stilted fashion.  You have to find your own voice in the music as you study it.

Annie: I'm reminded of when our daughter was doing her college admission essays and trying to convince the reader - and herself - of her great passion for writing.  She was so self-conscious that it negated her real feelings and made her writing sound stilted.   If you're relaxed and you're sincere, the music itself will carry your emotions and your story to the listener.

BN: Audiences seem to still love this old music. Why do you think that is? Unless you disagree. What do your audiences want to hear?

Annie: I've met country blues fans from all walks of life.  There does seem to be particular interest from educators.  I think the elements of teaching are so strong in blues and jazz, it naturally attracts people who love to learn.

BN: You have had a close personal relationship with each other for years. How does that affect your music? Or to put it another way, how do you keep making such beautiful music together?

Paul: It's hard to put certain aspects of music or personal relationships into words without making either sound trivial.

BN: Annie, you said this somewhere on your web site: "First of all, there are only two kinds of financial transactions in the music business: Robbery and Charity."  It sounds like you've experienced both. Please elaborate.

Annie: I must have said that when I was younger and more idealistic.  It's more like this: think of music as a shore bird in Alaska, covered in buoyant feathers and natural oils that allow it to float and stay warm all winter.  Think of money as the oil carried on the Exxon Valdez.  Now watch as the profit-driven barge careens out of control, spilling crude oil all over the birds, imperiling them until a team of volunteers arrives to scrub them off by hand using toothbrushes and Arm & Hammer.   Some of the birds (music) survive to be returned to the wild, the volunteers (musicians and music lovers) go home exhausted but fulfilled, and the oil company still declares a profit.

BN: You advertise a lot of music lessons on your web site, including the unusual-sounding lessons by phone. Do you have many students learning the blues? How encouraging -- or discouraging -- is that?

Annie: I give harp lessons by phone to a guy in Nebraska.  It's great if the student knows what he or she wants, but a lot still gets lost in translation.  Now Paul and I can both give video lessons using Skype.  There are so many resources online now, especially on Youtube, that make this music more accessible to people and connect students and teachers to each other from opposite points of the globe.  I think it's fantastic.

BN: How tough is it for young musicians to make a living playing the blues? How tough is it for yor you?

Paul: You can't pander to public tastes.  You just have to keep seeking out the people who are sympathetic to the music.  It's a grass-roots thing, one person at a time.

BN: Annie, judging from the enjoyable blog posts and diaries on your web site, you seem to enjoy expressing yourself that way. Do you ever think of expanding those thoughts by  publishing a journal/novel/play of your blues life? 

Annie: I have; I just worry that the parts that could actually be printed would only take up a couple of pages.

BN: What music would you recommend to blues beginners -- besides your own?

Annie: the first blues music I heard was Muddy Waters with the Legendary Blues Band.  That lit a fire under me that's still burning.  But it's just like love; it has more to do with what you're experiencing at the moment of discovery than the person or the music itself.  I can recommend Little Walter, Blind Boy Fuller, or Jimmy Reed, for example, but it's much more important to make a personal connection with someone who will share their knowledge and their love of music with you.

BN: What beverage goes best with the blues? Beer? Wine? Whiskey? Iced tea? You can speak from personal experience if you like. Noboby is reading this but me.  

Paul: The famous drink in blues lyrics is gin.  Whiskey is too expensive and only men like to drink it.  Of course there was lots of homemade corn liquor during Prohibition and everyone drank that. Good Cognac is what I like.

Thanks to both of you. For me, the most striking sentence in those answers is: "For those of us who didn't grow up in the South, blues is the music we didn't know we needed." If anything sums up my own attraction to the music, as a young white kid growing up in Pittsburgh many, many, many years ago, that would be it. I suspect that same thought might apply to a lot of us who follow the blues today. It's the music, the passion, the experience, the voice that we didn't know we needed -- until we heard it.

And how you can you possibly question the taste of someone who likes good Cognac with his blues?

Just to get you started, here's a video of Paul and Annie at work:

By the way, BeerNotes suggests that if you do go to Greensburg, you stop by the Red Star Agave Grill and brewery before or after the Mo show for some of their special homemade beers. He's very fond of the brown ale he had there a couple weeks ago.

Nothin' But Trouble has "One Trouble After Another"

The band that the Blues Society of Western Pa. sent to the International Blues Challenge in 2008 -- Nothin' But Trouble -- has a new CD, "One Trouble After Another," and it sounds like the guys have been not only licking, but practicing, their chops.

This album stretches them out a little, with some gospel, some acoustic blues, and some thoughtful blues ballads, mostly originals. They open the CD with a traditionally down-and-dirty blues shuffle rich in guitar and double entendre,  "Maintenance Man" (... I'll fix anything you got).

After another romp through "Dear Old Dad," they get thoughtfully bluesy with "Dead End Street," and then turn out a fine little thing called "Gone, Gone, Gone," with what sounds like a lap steel at work and kind of a country blues flavor. Very tasty. Here's an audio clip of "Gone, Gone, Gone":

Later there's a slow blues scorcher with big fat blue notes from David Stromberg in a Stromberg tune called "This Month." They do a nice cover of the chestnut "Blues is My Business," and there's a very nice instrumental acoustic slide number with a tuba in the background titled "Sliding Home." Here's an audio sample of "Sliding Home":

Just before they close with another instrumental, the elegantly played "Hanna," they cut loose with one of the songs that helped them collect the BSWPA victory a couple of years ago -- an a cappella but still electric version of the traditional "John the Revelator."

This is a nice album from the guys from Magnolia, Del., and maybe they'll get back to the Burgh soon to show it off.