Articles tagged "blues"

Column: Retro Remote

Pete Kelly’s Blues

by Kit MacFarlane

[20.Oct.09] :. Jack Webb's glum radio series 'Pete Kelly's Blues' is a sigh of a tribute to the roaring '20s, a melancholic parade of blistering jazz and the pointlessness of its own nostalgia.

Recent columns

 

Capsule Reviews

Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt: Slide to Freedom 2: Make a Better World

by Deanne Sole

[1.Sep.09] :. The ethereal diffusions of the sitar get a fine grounding from the North American blues-groove.

Capsule Reviews

 

Music Feature

“Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs”: An Interview with Otis Taylor

by Stephen Humphries

[21.Jul.09] :. The critically acclaimed bluesman talks to PopMatters about his musical path, bringing the banjo back to its roots in black music, and his new album Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs that marks his return to the guitar.

Recent features

 

Sound Affects

“Grits Ain’t Groceries’‘: A Semi-Definitive Guide to Food at Blues Festivals Everywhere

by G E Light

[8.Jul.09] :. Sorry but I couldn’t find a video of Little Milton doing his signature tune (don’t worry he takes his well-deserved bow later anyway). So you go to a blues festival for the music and...

Sound Affects

 

Capsule Reviews

Ben Reynolds: How Day Earnt Its Night

by Deanne Sole

[23.Jun.09] :. A thoughtful conversation between him and the guitar.

Capsule Reviews

 

Capsule Reviews

Betse Ellis: Don’t You Want to Go?

by Deanne Sole

[17.Jun.09] :. Proof that Americana is still winning her over.

Capsule Reviews

 

Buddy Guy colors his legacy in blues

by Jim Abbott [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[4.Feb.09] :. Looking forward to watching B.B. King on his current concert tour? So is the other guy on the bill. “Ain’t much you can say about that guy except that we all learned something from...

 

Los Cenzontles with David Hidalgo: Songs of Wood & Steel

by Deanne Sole

[14.Nov.08] :. This album is a worthy experiment that needs more work.

 

Blues Child: An Interview With Eli Cook

by Vijith Assar

[10.Oct.08] :. PopMatters talks with 21-year-old bluesman Eli Cook about cranking it up, turning it down, and balancing the expectations of different crowds.

 

With 40 years behind him, Taj Mahal has ‘tons more stuff to do’

by Nick Cristiano [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[7.Oct.08] :. He’s celebrating four decades as a solo artist with a guest-studded new album and a tour, but 66-year-old Taj Mahal is not one to dwell on past accomplishments. “It’s in progress...

 

Bluesman watermelon slim paints a different picture

by Len Righi [The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (MCT)]

[27.Aug.08] :. Watermelon Slim is spending a day off in Lawrenceville, a small town in north-central Pennsylvania along the New York border with one traffic light and a population of fewer than 700. Over the last...

 

Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara: Soul Science

by Deanne Sole

[11.Jul.08] :. Cross-cultural fusion albums are sometimes criticised for their falseness, but there’s no sense of falseness here, no condescension, simply a set of songs that couldn’t be made in any other way.

 

Deborah Bonham

by PopMatters Staff

[30.Jun.08] :. Sweetly soulful and powerful (think Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin), blues-rock singer-songwriter Deborah Bonham chats with PopMatters 20 Questions about Paul Rodgers, a beautiful ex-racehorse named Jack, and other inspirations in her life and music.

 

Blues guitarist Buddy Guy never fails to inspire

by Walter Tunis [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[28.May.08] :. It’s one thing to marvel at the magnitude of an IMAX-size Rolling Stones in Martin Scorsese’s recent concert documentary, “Shine a Light.” But you’re dealing with an...

 

Lonnie Johnson’s ‘fiery music’ has a new life

by Dan Deluca [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[1.Apr.08] :. Lonnie Johnson is coming back once again. “Who’s that?” a casual blues fan might ask. “You mean Robert Johnson?” Nope. I mean Lonnie Johnson. Robert Johnson is the...

 
PopMatters Pick

Books Review

In Search of the Blues by Marybeth Hamilton

by Chadwick Jenkins

[7.Mar.08] :. This is a different story of the blues; it is the story of those people (primarily white men and women) who were in search of something that they believed the blues or some other form of secular and "primitive" African-American music communicated in an undiluted manner.

Recent Book reviews

 

The life and death of Bessie Smith, 70 years later

by Andrea Lewis [(MCT)]

[27.Sep.07] :. Seventy years ago this week, the legendary blues singer Bessie Smith died under questionable circumstances. She was a uniquely talented, defiantly independent artist, whose life story was as...

 

Hillstomp: After Two but Before Five

by Robert R. Calder

[27.Aug.07] :. Hillstomp avoid the superfluous refinement which distances white blues conservationists from earlier performers. Bravo!

 

Like a Boyd on a Wire

by Steve Horowitz

[2.Aug.07] :. PopMatters talks to Joe Boyd, a man at the center of the folk, rock and blues scenes of the 1960s who lived to tell the tale. "The whole notion of folk music and an appreciation of things that are more rural and more traditional and more rustic than our lives are now is the privilege of the middle class."

 

Lonely Avenue by Alex Halberstadt

by Michael E. Ross

[13.Apr.07] :. The songs of Doc Pomus have become an indispensable part of the American songbook, largely without our even knowing it.

 

Chuck Berry: Blues

by Brian James

[15.Jan.04] :. “If you tried to give rock and roll another name,” John Lennon once said. “You might call it ‘Chuck Berry.’” True enough, perhaps, but though Berry is a huge part...