The Blues Blog Festive Fifteen A Yuletide sample of the new releases from 2008 that you can’t afford to miss. 1. Chris Bergson Band: Fall Changes “Timeless” we called it way back in January, and by December we are thinking that it still improves with every listen. Mojo made it their Blues album of the year and so do we. Will 2009 be the big one for Chris Bergson? 2. North Mississippi Allstars: Hernando “A career best for the band” we said in February. Admirers of their legendary debut may dispute the actuality, but everyone agrees that this is a stunning return to form. 3. Duke Danger: If it Ain’t One Thing It’s Another The former Jerry Lee sideman impressed us with “impeccable vocal phrasing and electrifying guitar playing”. And we still haven’t heard a better song than “Damn Your Eyes” since this album arrived. 4. Dr John: City That Care Forgot The Dr has been quietly boogying away making quality recordings ever since his heyday in the mid-seventies, but this powerful indictment of the non-response to America’s biggest natural catastrophe saw his profile surge again. 5. Ron Franklin: Ron Franklin We insisted in the Spring that “this uncommonly successful mesh of roots styles from folk and rockabilly to swamp-rock simply screams out to be heard”. It still sounds “primal, edgy and entrancing” and you need to hear it. 6. Joe Louis Walker: Witness To The Blues Released late in the season this amazing collaboration with Duke Robillard secures Walker’s place among the greatest names in Blues history. One of tomorrow’s biggest and brightest stars. 7. Jimmy Vaughan: Do You Get The Blues? A long overdue collection from Mr. V, we commended the album’s “mature restraint” and held it up as “a truly rewarding collection of laid-back moods”. 8. Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir: Ten Thousand “An appealing collage of aural textures from the riotous and uplifting to the pounding and menacing, via the funereal and haunting, which actually adds up to something that sounds superficially venerable but is ultimately (strangely) cutting edge”. 9. The Mannish Boys: Lowdown Feelin’ “The fourth offering from the established heavyweight 10 piece revue…... presents a panoramic spectrum of sounds from Clarksdale to Chicago, Memphis to Detroit”. 10. The Black Keys: Attack and Release With a more eclectic set of songs and a certain Mr. Danger Mouse at the controls The Keys hit the big time without compromising their top quality and quintessentially modern take on blues rock. 11. Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the True Loves: Roll With You Hyped to the rafters he may have been, but we couldn’t ignore the “impressive range (complete with the finest screaming and hollering), impeccable playing and flawless production”. 12. Los Fabulocos: Los Fabulocos Like the Mannish Boys (see above) the debut for this tight Cal-Mex outfit featured irrepressible ex-Thunderbird Kid Ramos, this time dishing up “a spicy set of Spanish and Mexican influenced blues, R&B and rockabilly”. 13. Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen: Mo Hippa Live “Influenced by Dr John, James Booker and Allan Toussaint” Jon and the Band delivered a breathless and scintillating live recording which promised to “save us from twelve-bar hell”. 14. Pete Molinari: A Virtual Landslide Not one for the purists by any means, but this Hillbilly Blues from North London was a definite grower with oodles of charm. Handle with care. 15. Oli Brown: Open Road Young UK guitar prodigy noted for “a seasoned voice and fluid playing which are assured way beyond his mere nineteen years. On its own terms the album succeeds admirably and hints that this time the claims may actually be justified”. Neil B. Next