Skinny Legs and All

Jesse Barry is somewhat of a local celebrity in Asheville, NC these days. Recently selected for the latest American Idol to go to Hollywood, she is one great singer. She didn't make it past the first round or so and I have to confess to being not so sad about that, given the show's well deserved reputation for destroying great talent (Taylor Hicks, anyone?). Here she is performing with her band when she was only 16 years old. I think the blues has a great future with stuff like this coming up.

Soul Shakers

These guys are another I caught at Blind Willie's in Atlanta. Calling themselves a "rhythm and soul" band, it sounds to me like simple, clean, straight up blues. I think we will seeing and hearing more of them. I could tell you their story, but you can find it here. Next step for them is the festival circuit. I hope to hear a lot of good stuff coming down the line. If you get a chance to hear them, you should take it.

You Ain't Nuttin But A Hound Dog!

Its not the best performance of this song, but for some reason I love it. Macy just seems to capture the moment. I first saw this on the 2004 video of the Lightning in a Bottle documentary by Antoine Fuqua.



Here is a great version of this song by the original Big Mama Thornton with Buddy Guy!

How To Play the Blues...

Just like this...

Delta Moon

I think I first saw this group at a festival in Wilmington, NC. I have seen them several times since then and its always a good show. Dual slide guitars is their signature sound and they make it work. Atlanta based, they make their way around the south quite a bit, including regular gigs at Blind Willie's. Looks like they also have a European tour coming up. I plan on catching them at Jack Of The Wood in Asheville, NC on February 13th. If you are in the area, you should really try to catch the show.

Enjoy the clip. And no, they are not covering Cindy Lauper. She covered them.

Cee Cee James

There is still nothing like live music and the lesser known and local artists offer some of the best. For them its still about the music and not the glitz. A nice contrast to the Grammys. If you saw those this week, well...

The name Cee Cee James is starting to get around, mostly known in the northwest part of the country. I did a double take the first time I heard her. If anyone channels Janis, its this woman. Not that she tries to, it just happens. Hope she makes it to this area. This one deserves an audience.



Check out her website here. You can also get her stuff at Amazon

The Soul of John Black

Ok, so its not strictly blues. But it is "bluesy", whatever the hell that really means. In this case it means its a great piece of work. Suggestive of hot sun, tired field hands, and hard times, John "JB" Bigham takes you back, probably to a place you know about but haven't ever really been.

Bigham has a widely varied background, working with household names including jazz great Miles Davis and heavy metal/funk/ska Fishbone, Dr. Dre and Bruce Hornsby.

Bigham wrote every cut on this CD, performed all lead vocals, guitar and drum work. His driving bass work is the heart and soul of this collection. It weaves a consistency that grabs you in the gut and lets you know this is low down, keepin' it real stuff. Clean, simple and you don't miss the point.

The Hole channels turn of the century chain gangs. You can almost hear the sledge hammers and the breaking rocks. The driving bass ties together the sparse guitar work and soulful vocals.

Moon Blues brings you in to a smokey back alley dive with cheap liquor and Saturday night specials. Watch your backside.

I Got Work is just good old soul. Some nice slide work on this one.

One Hit stood out from the rest. Very reminiscent of One Toke Over The Line, an old Brewer and Shipley song from the 70s. Probably the only cut where the acoustic guitar took over center stage from the bass. Leads in this also reminded me of Amy from Pure Prairie League.

There are several more cuts on this CD, but they don't stand out as much different from the rest of the album. That is not to say they are uninteresting or don't add to the package. On the contrary, I think Bigham has done his job of bringing old time music forward to today, rather than bringing us back to it. I enjoyed this album immensely and look forward to more from him. Given his background, I expect it will be very different from this. We'll see.

JohnnyG's rating: 4.5 out of 6 strings - a good buy.

Available on Yellow Dog Records: http://yellowdogrecords.com/sojb/index.html