The Blues Blog 5 If the Postman looks to be straining as he lugs his mailbag up the drive its because there’s nothing lightweight about this week’s delivery, containing as it does a fair cross section of the present and future Blues aristocracy. It’s remarkable to think that Jimmy Vaughan’s “Do You Get The Blues” (Blues Boulevard) is only his third solo release, since his distinguished career began back in the mid-seventies, with the formation of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Many will know him best for the “Family Style” album on which he duetted with his brother Stevie Ray, released only weeks after the latter’s untimely death in 1990, and following which he retreated from performance for the best part of a decade. Listeners expecting fire-cracking guitar work had best look elsewhere, as it is the mature restraint of this very Texan album that explains why he is so admired by the likes of Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, rather than the standard pyrotechnics of lesser players. The outstanding mid-section triumvirate of “Without You”, “Let Me In” and “Don’t Let The Sun Set” forms the conceptual centre-piece of a truly rewarding collection of laid-back moods, which elsewhere extend from Booker T-ish instrumental opener “Dirty Girl” and the casually swampy “The Deep End” to the slightly raunchier “Power of Love” and “In the Middle of the Night”, both enlivened by throaty contributions from singing legend Lou Ann Barton. Susan Tedeschi emerged seemingly fully formed in the late nineties as the most exciting white female blues artist since Janis Joplin, with a raw earthy singing voice, vibrant new songs, and a guitar style which was at once uninhibited and heartfelt. “Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean” (Blues Boulevard) compiles the best eight tracks from each of her first two albums, “Just Won’t Burn” (1998) and “Wait For Me” (2002), and provides documentary evidence of the starmaker grooming machine in full swing. While the debut effort is full of flawed vitality in the guise of “Rock Me Right”, “It Hurt So Bad”, the enthralling “Found Someone New” and the primal passion of the title track, the follow on fettles off all the endearing rough edges in pursuit of radio airplay and crossover sales. Out go the old Susan Tedeschi Band members Adrienne Hayes, Jim Lomond and Tom Hambridge, and in comes a bouquet garni of hard-nosed industry pros, topped off by the production skills of husband and latter-day Allman Derek Trucks and seasoned studio ace Tom Dowd. The results, including “Gonna Move”, “Till I Found You” and “In the Garden” show her voice deeper and more consistent than before, and the playing safer and easier on the ear. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s still damned fine stuff, but the suspicion lingers that somewhere a lot of the spirit of the earlier work has been squeezed out. Bernard Allison’s “The River Rising” is also a Blues Boulevard compendium of two earlier records, but here there’s no such contrast. By the time he released “Across the Water” and “Storms of Life” at the turn of the noughties the still young man had stepped out from the shadow of his illustrious father and established himself as a formidable artist in his own right. There’s much here to please aficionados of guitar-dominated Blues Rock on a spectrum which includes the three Kings, the Allmans, SRV and Hendrix, and I can report that here Allison sings and plays magnificently, and fits in well with such company. He’s at his best when he gets lowdown, dirty and dramatic as on “Coming Back (Across the Water)”, “Fistful of Dirt” and the title track, but he can turn on the funk, slip on the slide, and rock the house with the best of ‘em. This week’s fourth from Blues Boulevard features southern guitarist Jimmy Nalls, a man with a fine pedigree hiding behind a modest profile, here in partnership with Nashville singer-songwriter and Mink Deville/Amazing Rhythm Aces associate Rick Moore. Nalls has history with The Nighthawks, Dr John, and Gregg Allman, appeared on recordings by Bobby Whitlock, Bonnie Bramlett, and Percy Sledge, and made five albums for Capricorn and Arista as a founder member of Allman Bros. offshoot Sea Level. The pair are joined by the veteran cast of the Mr. Lucky studio band (plus guests) for a largely successful romp through thirteen enthusiastic Memphis soul/Muscle Shoals type numbers including the sweaty “Talk to me Baby”, the sultry “Good Woman Bad” and the smouldering “Let Me Down Easy”. If nothing else, Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the True Love’s “Roll With You” (Q Division) has certainly divided opinion among the cognoscenti with its “Soul Jukebox” approach to the sounds of the late fifties and early sixties. Sadly, in certain quarters what has appeared a meteoric rise to fame based on a basically derivative style has obscured both his authentic Clarksdale apprenticeship and the undeniably perfect execution of his own original songs. In any case, hours of fun can be had spotting (and arguing over) his influences, from early Smokie on “Am I Wasting My Time”, James Brown on “The Satisfier”, “I’m Gonna Get You Back” and “Boom Boom”, the Saturday night Otis on “Stake Your Claim” and the Sunday morning Otis on “It’s Easier”, and even Gary U.S. Bonds on “Take My Love With You”. You may disagree with some or all of these, but elsewhere you’ll find your own Wilson, Marvin and Sam and Dave in Eli’s impressive range (complete with the finest screaming and hollering), the band’s impeccable playing and the flawless production. In a world of Beth Rowley (average), Jamie Cullum (bad), and Joss Stone (criminal) only the most hard-hearted would want to deny Mr. Reed a stonking big hit and all the attention that goes with it. Tragically, its hard to forecast a glittering stadium rock future for the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir, but on balance both they and you might take that as something of a compliment. In fact the wonderful combination of duelling slide guitar, upright bass, tin-can drumming, banjo and trombone that makes up this Canadian quartet’s glorious manic mess of a sound is on first hearing so authentically Mississippi that they might be easily be taken as the hillbilly equivalent of Fat Possum’s delta discoveries. The real life version of that of course is Seasick Steve, and it’s no coincidence that he has endorsed the Agnostics as his new favourite band, so impressed was he with their high energy acoustic onslaught and genuine old blues spirit. Although a young band building a larger-than-life image they tactfully avoid the temptation of cod back-wood evangelism which drags others into cheap pastiche, and stick to genuine blues themes of personal misfortune and despair. There’s an appealing collage of aural textures too, 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. Neil B. www.music-avenue.net www.cadizmusic.com www.qdivision.com www.theagnostics.com Next