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There's more coming so please stay tuned. As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and participating.
Richard Ray Farrell
Acoustic Roots
Blue Beet (2005) 100002
19 tracks, 59 minutes. Recommended. Although Richard Ray Farrell is surely a 21st century blues artist, his stellar approach to music has an unquestionable ability to carry listeners back decades in time, and wrapping your ears around his new Acoustic Roots CD may well have you lost in a time warp. Recorded completely live in the studio without overdubs, Farrell tackles a full slate of country blues gems with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, a racked harmonica, and a voice that sounds as tough and coarse as a Mississippi dirt road in July. Whether he's channelling Blind Lemon Jefferson in One Dime Blues, Leadbelly in Ella Speed, or Blind Blake in Rope Stretchin' Blues, Farrell digs down to the basics of great blues with conviction and offers deft guitar work, scrappy harp interplay, and vocals that deliver lyrics in solid form be they poignant, potent, or playful. His slide work in Sassy Mae recalls the brilliantly ragged approach of Son House, and for the traditional Buck Dancer's Choice or his own Blues-Flamenco, the fingerpicking is stellar. Farrell shines just as brightly on Delta pieces associated with the masters; Bukka White's Fixin' To Die and Shake 'Em On Down, Son House's Jinx Blues, or the absolutely chilling version of Robert Curtis Smith's Lonely Widower, all standouts. He leaves few stones unturned with more from the catalogs of Mississippi John Hurt (Louis Collins), Smokey Hogg (a searing Too Many Drivers), Blind Boy Fuller (Jivin' Woman Blues), Bo Carter (Let's Get Drunk Again and I Want You To Know) and others. While times and technology have changed drastically over the years, Richard Ray Farrell seems to have stepped right out of the 1930s and into the present on Acoustic Roots, and never once sounds out of place. A crowning achievement and a winner from start to finish.
Richard Ray Farrell
Doug Jay & The Blue Jays
Jackpot!
Crosscut (2005) 11083
14 tracks, 54 minutes. Recommended. For today's blues fan with a penchant for tough, amplified, 1950s harmonica blues, names like Junior Wells, Little Walter, and Billy Boy Arnold will often rise to the surface along with with Kim Wilson, James Harman and others in less than a heartbeat, but there are certainly more practitioners who travel the same circles with little fanfare. Doug Jay & The Blue Jays might not be well-known unless your radar is positioned to pick up on discs that come from smaller independent labels, but make no mistake about it, Jackpot! is no crap-shoot. Jay is a seasoned harp-blower with old-school veins that run hot and his handpicked band provide the necessary racket to complement this lowdown blowdown. From the opening notes of the bone-rattling In The Darkest Hour, a storming nod to Chicago's West Side school with sizzling guitar and snarling harmonica, to Real Bad Girl with its Howlin' Wolf underpinnings, The Blue Jays hand in a set that wins as often as back-alley craps master with a pocketful of loaded dice. Christoph "Jimmy" Reiter's guitar work is dazzling with touches of Willie Johnson, Otis Rush, and Bill Jennings, and the rocket-fueled rhythm section of Jasper Mortier on bass and Andre Werkmeister's drumming lock the grooves giving Jay plenty of room to show his wares as a powerful singer and masterful harpman. Whether jumping through West Coast blues on Floyd Dixon's When I Get Lucky or coming straight out of Chicago's South Side for Otis Spann's Half Ain't Been Told or It Must Have Been The Devil, this disc is a true blues Jackpot! A few guests step in with special mention going to Chris Rannenburg for his soulful Otis Spann piano on half of the tracks. With Crosscut's stronger distribution channels, Doug Jay & The Blue Jays should be garnering more recognition soon. Killer blues.
Doug Jay & the Blue Jays
© 2005 by Craig Ruskey
There's more coming so please stay tuned. As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and participating.
Richard Ray Farrell
Acoustic Roots
Blue Beet (2005) 100002
19 tracks, 59 minutes. Recommended. Although Richard Ray Farrell is surely a 21st century blues artist, his stellar approach to music has an unquestionable ability to carry listeners back decades in time, and wrapping your ears around his new Acoustic Roots CD may well have you lost in a time warp. Recorded completely live in the studio without overdubs, Farrell tackles a full slate of country blues gems with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, a racked harmonica, and a voice that sounds as tough and coarse as a Mississippi dirt road in July. Whether he's channelling Blind Lemon Jefferson in One Dime Blues, Leadbelly in Ella Speed, or Blind Blake in Rope Stretchin' Blues, Farrell digs down to the basics of great blues with conviction and offers deft guitar work, scrappy harp interplay, and vocals that deliver lyrics in solid form be they poignant, potent, or playful. His slide work in Sassy Mae recalls the brilliantly ragged approach of Son House, and for the traditional Buck Dancer's Choice or his own Blues-Flamenco, the fingerpicking is stellar. Farrell shines just as brightly on Delta pieces associated with the masters; Bukka White's Fixin' To Die and Shake 'Em On Down, Son House's Jinx Blues, or the absolutely chilling version of Robert Curtis Smith's Lonely Widower, all standouts. He leaves few stones unturned with more from the catalogs of Mississippi John Hurt (Louis Collins), Smokey Hogg (a searing Too Many Drivers), Blind Boy Fuller (Jivin' Woman Blues), Bo Carter (Let's Get Drunk Again and I Want You To Know) and others. While times and technology have changed drastically over the years, Richard Ray Farrell seems to have stepped right out of the 1930s and into the present on Acoustic Roots, and never once sounds out of place. A crowning achievement and a winner from start to finish.
Richard Ray Farrell
Doug Jay & The Blue Jays
Jackpot!
Crosscut (2005) 11083
14 tracks, 54 minutes. Recommended. For today's blues fan with a penchant for tough, amplified, 1950s harmonica blues, names like Junior Wells, Little Walter, and Billy Boy Arnold will often rise to the surface along with with Kim Wilson, James Harman and others in less than a heartbeat, but there are certainly more practitioners who travel the same circles with little fanfare. Doug Jay & The Blue Jays might not be well-known unless your radar is positioned to pick up on discs that come from smaller independent labels, but make no mistake about it, Jackpot! is no crap-shoot. Jay is a seasoned harp-blower with old-school veins that run hot and his handpicked band provide the necessary racket to complement this lowdown blowdown. From the opening notes of the bone-rattling In The Darkest Hour, a storming nod to Chicago's West Side school with sizzling guitar and snarling harmonica, to Real Bad Girl with its Howlin' Wolf underpinnings, The Blue Jays hand in a set that wins as often as back-alley craps master with a pocketful of loaded dice. Christoph "Jimmy" Reiter's guitar work is dazzling with touches of Willie Johnson, Otis Rush, and Bill Jennings, and the rocket-fueled rhythm section of Jasper Mortier on bass and Andre Werkmeister's drumming lock the grooves giving Jay plenty of room to show his wares as a powerful singer and masterful harpman. Whether jumping through West Coast blues on Floyd Dixon's When I Get Lucky or coming straight out of Chicago's South Side for Otis Spann's Half Ain't Been Told or It Must Have Been The Devil, this disc is a true blues Jackpot! A few guests step in with special mention going to Chris Rannenburg for his soulful Otis Spann piano on half of the tracks. With Crosscut's stronger distribution channels, Doug Jay & The Blue Jays should be garnering more recognition soon. Killer blues.
Doug Jay & the Blue Jays
© 2005 by Craig Ruskey
