An album from Luther Allison's long-standing bandleader of the last several years. Released a few months after Allison's death, the album can be taken as a tribute album by Solberg of sorts to his old boss. Utilizing a strong, distorted tone throughout, Solberg keeps Luther's high-energy approach alive on a batch of shuffles ("Bubba's Boogie," "Must Be a Reason"), slow blues ("L.A. Blues," "Ballad of a Thin Man"), and uptempo rockers ("Wally World U.S.A.," "Rhumba Juice"). Midtempo shuffles abound in tracks like "A Closer Walk with Thee," "Robb's Souffle" and the closing "Happy Snails." The music on this record is heartfelt and inspired, a moving tribute. Fans of Allison's final work will say his memory is well served here.

Stevie Ray Vaughan had always been a phenomenal guitarist, but prior to In Step, his songwriting was hit or miss. Even when he wrote a classic modern blues song, it was firmly within the genre's conventions; only on Soul to Soul's exquisite soul-blues "Life Without You" did he attempt to stretch the boundaries of the form. As it turns out, that was the keynote for In Step, an album where Vaughan found his own songwriting voice, blending blues, soul, and rock in unique ways, and writing with startling emotional honesty. Yes, there are a few covers, all well chosen, but the heart of the album rests in the songs he co-wrote with Doyle Bramhall, the man who penned the Soul to Soul highlight "Change It."

This 2009 Blues Bureau International release rounds up highlights from Chris Duarte’s previous albums for the label (hence, the “something old”) and adds the previously unreleased “Outside Man” and three live cuts (“something new”). The new cuts are as reliable slices of modern blues-rock as the previously released tracks, so this winds up being a solid sampler of a sturdy group of records.

Cafe R&B is a five-piece band from the Los Angeles area consisting of female singer Roach, guitarist Byl Carruthers, keyboardists John "JT" Thomas, Harry Cohen and Stevie Utstein, bassist Bobby Pickett, and drummer Don Swanson and Adam Gust. Longtime music fans may remember lead singer "Roach" from her days fronting Los Angeles' "Roach and the White Boys" in the early 1980s. Critics in the U.S. and Europe have compared her hard-rocking vocals to the likes of Etta James, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. HITS Magazine declared: "Imagine Etta James riding a Harley out of an active volcano, and you'll have some vague inkling as to the vocal power…"

Tommy Cougar hails from Stockholm, Sweden. He has fronted many bands over the years, and has played many different styles of blues. His various bands have focus on styles including Hendrix, Trower, SRV, Albert Collin's and SRV.
This album is entirely in a style very reminiscent of Hound Dog Taylor. To achive a truly authentic sound, the band recorded with old, lo-fi equipment. The desired result was achived with great success. Fans of Hound Dog Taylor's rough, distorted, slide guitar and harsh vocals will defintely be able to relate to this CD.
Many songs are based on the shuffle blues style, ranging from slow blues to up tempo "houserockin' music", and driven by the crunching pulse of Tommy's rhythm playing…

To say Bob Corritore has friends is understating reality by quite a bit. Recorded over three years, from a total of eight different recording sessions, this collection features close to forty musical acquaintances along with Corritore, who is at the center of everything as usual, blowing fine harmonica accompaniment at every turn. Something of a blues renaissance man, Corritore has a long-running radio program, is a noted producer, and runs the Rhythm Room, a notable blues club in Phoenix, Arizona. Listeners can count on any project he spearheads to be loaded with sounds from some of the finest purveyors of the electric blues tradition.

Founding Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman essentially retired from music after leaving the band in 1993, choosing to dedicate time to his family and his restaurant, Sticky Fingers. He returned to music in 1997 with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, a rotating old-time rock & roll, R&B, blues, and boogie collective of superstar musicians anchored by keyboardist Georgie Fame, guitarist Albert Lee, pianist Gary Brooker, and guitarist Terry Taylor. Their first album, Struttin' Our Stuff, appeared that year and it was followed two years later by Anyway the Wind Blows, which featured cameos from Peter Frampton, Geraint Watkins, Paul Carrack, and, notably, fellow Stone Keith Richards. Groovin' arrived in 2000, reaching a career peak of 52 on the U.K. charts. Next was Double Bill in 2001 and Just for a Thrill in 2004, before the band primarily dedicated itself to live performances. A pair of these were featured on the live albums Rhythm Kings Live (2005) and Live Communication (2011), but it took them until 2017 to deliver a new studio album with Rocking the Roots.

No one will accuse Steve Freund of having the greatest voice in the blues world. While Freund is an impressive guitarist, he is merely adequate as a singer. But when you're evaluating an album, it is important to look at the big picture. Taking different things into consideration - impressive chops, adequate singing, likable songwriting - one concludes that "C" for Chicago, although slightly uneven, has more plusses than minuses. Freund won't blow you away with a great voice, but he still gets his points across on enjoyable (if derivative) Chicago-style blues numbers like "Everytime I Get to Drinking," "Working Man," and "Please Love Me" (which employs Boz Scaggs as a second guitarist). One of the CD's most memorable tracks is "I Love Money," a humorous account of having champagne tastes and a beer budget…

Chris Rea's voice is like the smoke off a prairie fire or the sparks and flame from a flint and steel. Coupled with his robust, tasteful songwriting, the effect is to pull the listener into a song or album, grabbing at the brain – not just the ears. Auberge is the follow-up to Road to Hell, an ambitious, dark-toned album that found European and critical success…

The addition of jazz pianist Skip Rose gave a new dimension to the ensemble sound, and provided a perfect foil to Charlie's own soloing – especially on the re-take of "Cristo Redentor," extended to 11 minutes, shifting to double-time in spots. Rose's instrumental, "A Nice Day for Something," is a welcome change of pace, and Musselwhite's "Blue Feeling Today" compares favorably to fine covers of Little Walter and Fenton Robinson tunes.

Kenny Brown is definitely a bluesman. The man has served his apprenticeship with the best and usually hands out his guitar shingle with R.L. Burnside. But this outing finds him doing a great job of leading the band. Three songs come from Burnside ("Miss Maybelle," the frantic shuffle "Goin' Down South," and "Shake 'Em on Down"), while most of the rest are traditional, including the roaring "France Chance" and "Cocaine Bill," where the bass does a perfect imitation of a cakewalk tuba. Brown lets his trademark slide sing throughout, with a wonderfully raw tone, while his voice carries the weight of years heavily - he doesn't just sing the blues, he lives them. To hear him on the goodbye of "Fare Thee Well Blues" is to experience loneliness. With a tight band of Cedric Burnside and Takeeshi Imura, he can handle anything, put the grease on it, and take it down home. If you're looking for the real deal, look no further.

If you can imagine a band whose members have performed with blues legends including Luther Allison, Popa Chubby, Jimmy Dawkins, Chuck Berry, Lucky Peterson, Billy Price , Otis Clay, Paul Personne, Hubert Sumlin, Johnny Copeland , Guy Davis, Rod Piazza, and many, many others… The B.T.C Blues Revue is that explosive combination of musicians from the U.S.A and France. The group is fronted by three great Dixiefrog Records Artists : Neal Black (from Texas) , Nico Wayne Toussaint and Fred Chapellier ( from France), and backed by an All Star Band including Mike Lattrell ( from New York ) as well as Christophe Garreau and Vincent Daune (from France).

Following on from the hard-hitting blues of their debut album, Plays On caught the Climax Chicago Blues Band in somewhat transitional waters, testing any number of different musical styles, but never really setting on any. Certainly the funk thump that characterized their better later work was still an idea waiting to be explored, as the group instead fluttered between the scurrying jazz of the opening "Flight," the psychedelic tinge of "Hey Baby, Everything's Gonna Be Alright Yeh Yeh Yeh," the semi-Santana fusion of "Cubano Chant," and the heavy blues of "So Many Roads," all interrupted by "Mum's the Word," a dynamic Moog sequence that builds out of the theme from 2001, and then freefalls into total space rock. Even amid all the other moods that litter the album, it's an unexpected find and a glorious treasure.