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Two Men With The Blues
Release Date: 2008-07-08
Sales rank: 24
The event was simply billed as "Willie Nelson Sings the Blues," but the historic two-night stand on January 12 and 13, 2007 at Jazz at Lincoln Center was far more than that. Call it a summit meeting between two American icons, Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, two of the most significant figures in modern-day country and jazz, who discovered common ground in their love for jazz standards and the blues. Their performance stirred the sounds of New Orleans, Nashville, Austin and New York City into a brilliantly programmed mix that was equal parts down-home and cosmopolitan, with plenty of swing and just a touch of melancholy. To say that these shows were a hot ticket would be an understatement. Luckily, the tapes were rolling and the results of this unique collaboration now constitute the Blue Note album Two Men With The Blues for everyone who couldn't cram into The Allen Room. Featuring great playing from one of the hottest bands around these classic tracks are given new life by the extraordinary dual talents of Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. At a time when most people are thinking of retirement, Willie has never been busier. His profile has been high in recent weeks with his various career retrospective releases and sold out tour and this album can rightly stake it's place alongside anything else he has done. Wynton rarely sounds so relaxed and both of these musical giants are clearly having the time of their lives together on these new interpretations of some of the greatest songs of the 20th century.Two Men with the Blues is no more a jazz album than a blues album. It's neither jazz returning home, nor blues wandering out. What Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis have created is a compilation of jump-blues standards with arrangements that compliment both genres. While most of the album is careful not to take itself too seriously, there are a few tracks that seem to plod on for ages. The live set kicks off with the upbeat "Bright Lights, Big City," on which Marsalis' horn is crisp and full. "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Basin Street Blues" are arranged slower than better known versions but still fit the album's context. Nelson and Marsalis's take on "Stardust" comes off as a bit too "Sinatra" for Nelson's thin vocal, while "Georgia on My Mind" just doesn't work at all. Still, the things that work, work well. "Night Life" and "Rainy Day Blues" are particular stand-outs, and "Caldonia" is a faithful homage to the Louis Jordan original--minus Jordan's screaming punch line, of course. The album ends riding high on the last song, "That's All," with its straight-out-of-a-New-Orleans-Baptist-church feel. Both Nelson and Marsalis are notorious for collaborating with other artists. Therefore, it seems only natural that they've found themselves on a project together. Overall, this set is well worth the wait. --Eric C.P. Martin People en Español
Aunque a primera vista un dúo entre Willie Nelson y Wynton Marsalis suena como una combinación extraña, la realidad es que Two Men with the Blues es un disco bastante interesante. El álbum fue grabado el 12 y 13 de enero de 2008 en dos actuaciones en el famoso Jazz at Lincoln Center en Nueva York. No se puede negar que por momentos Willie Nelson parece un poco perdido el dentro del jazz, pero también demuestra el por qué es una leyenda de la música en canciones como "Caledonia" y "Georgia on My Mind," ambas interpretadas de forma espectacular. Quizá este no sea el mejor disco de Blues, Jazz o Country del año, pero sin duda es una adquisición obligatoria para los fanáticos tanto de Nelson y Marsalis. Además hay que decir que el sonido del álbum es magnífico, muchos músicos sueñan con sonar así dentro de un estudio. --Ernesto Sánchez (People en Español  ) |
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Skin Deep
Release Date: 2008-07-22
Sales rank: 26
Skin Deep is the 2008 release by Buddy Guy. The album features The Memphis Horns, Willie Mitchell,Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph and Quinn Sullivan. |
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One Kind Favor
Release Date: 2008-08-26
Sales rank: 13
B.B. King returns to his blues roots with the help of producer T Bone Burnett on "One Kind Favor,". The legendary artist is backed on the effort by pianist Dr. John, drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Nathan East. The track list includes such blues chestnuts as Big Bill Broonzy's "Backwater Blues," Lonnie Johnson's "Tomorrow Night," Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and T-Bone Walker's "I Get So Weary." |
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Live from Nowhere in Particular
Release Date: 2008-08-19
Sales rank: 37
Two CD set. Live from Nowhere in Particular is the 2008 album from Joe Bonamassa, an US blues guitarist/singer. Guitar One Magazine has stated that 'he just might be the best guitarist of his generation.' His blues-rock style is similar to that of Stevie Ray Vaughan's. In an interview in 'Guitarist' magazine (issue 265), Joe Bonamassa cited the three albums that had the biggest influence on his playing: John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (the 'Beano Album'), Rory Gallagher's 'Irish Tour' and 'Goodbye' by Cream. |
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Raising Sand
Release Date: 2007-10-23
Sales rank: 43
The musical collaboration of the decade, Raising Sand is the sound of two iconic figures stepping out of their respective comfort zones and letting their instincts lead them across a brave new sonic landscape. Despite hailing from distinctly different backgrounds, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant share a maverick spirit and willingness to extend the boundaries of their respective genres. This spirit, expertly honed by producer T Bone Burnett, has resulted in an album pitched three steps beyond some cosmic collision of early urban blues, spacious West Texas country, and the untapped potential of the folk-rock revolution.
Supported by the unparalleled musicianship of Marc Ribot, Dennis Crouch, Mike Seeger, Jay Bellerose, Norman Blake, Greg Leisz, Patrick Warren, and Riley Baugus, Plant and Krauss -- as both solo and harmony vocalists -- tackle an intriguing selection of songs from such tunesmiths as Tom Waits, Gene Clark, Sam Phillips, Townes Van Zandt, The Everly Broth! ers, and Mel Tillis. Raising Sand finds Robert Plant and Alison Krauss exploring popular music's elemental roots while still sounding effortlessly, breath-takingly contemporary.
The song "Killing the Blues" is featured in the new JC Penney American Living Campaign.Perhaps only the fantasy duo of King Kong and Bambi could be a more bizarre pairing than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Yet on Raising Sand, their haunting and brilliant collaboration, the Led Zeppelin screamer and Nashville's most hypnotic song whisperer seem made for each other. This, however, is not the howling Plant of "Whole Lotta Love," but a far more precise and softer singer than even the one who emerged with Dreamland (2002). No matter that Plant seems so subdued as to be on downers, for that's one of the keys to this most improbable meeting of musical galaxies--almost all of it seems slowed down, out of time, otherworldly, and at times downright David Lynch-ian, the product of an altered consciousness. Yet probably the main reason it all works so well is the choice of producer T Bone Burnette, the third star of the album, who culled mostly lesser-known material from some of the great writers of blues, country, folk, gospel, and R&B, including Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Milt Campbell, the Everly Brothers, Sam Phillips, and A.D. and Rosa Lee Watson. At times, Burnette's spare and deliberate soundscape--incisively crafted by guitarists Marc Ribot and Norman Blake, bassist Dennis Crouch, drummer Jay Bellerose, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger, among others--is nearly as dreamy and subterranean as Daniel Lanois's work with Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball). Occasionally, Burnette opts for a fairly straightforward production while still reworking the original song (Plant's own "Please Read the Letter," Mel Tillis's "Stick with Me, Baby"). But much of the new flesh on these old bones is oddly unsettling, if not nightmarish. On the opening track of "Rich Woman," the soft-as-clouds vocals strike an optimistic mood, while the instrumental backing--loose snare, ominous bass line, and insinuating electric guitar lines--create a spooky, sinister undertow. Plant and Krauss trade out the solo and harmony vocals, and while they both venture into new waters here (Krauss as a mainstream blues mama, Plant as a gospel singer and honkytonker), she steals the show in Sam Phillips' new "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," where a dramatic violin and tremulous banjo strike a foreboding gypsy tone. When Krauss begins this strange, seductive song in a voice so ethereal that angels will take note, you may stop breathing. That, among other reasons, makes Raising Sand an album to die for. --Alanna Nash |
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From the Reach
Release Date: 2008-05-20
Sales rank: 74
Singer, songwriter and Louisiana slide guitar phenom Sonny Landreth’s first studio album in five years unites his band with a who’s who of musical guests for a set of all-original roots rock tinged with the blues and New Orleans soul. Featured guitarists and vocalists include Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Vince Gill, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Dr. John and Jimmy Buffett. |
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Keep It Simple
Release Date: 2008-04-01
Sales rank: 104
On April 1st, Lost Highway will proudly release Keep It Simple, the new album from Van Morrison. Keep It Simple is Morrison's first album of new material since 2005, and the first in several years in which he composed all 11 songs specifically for one album.
In the interim the legendary artist had a year that may be unprecedented for any living artist, having released three separate collections of his hits, with the latest, Still On Top entering the UK charts at #2 and selling platinum, proving the ongoing appetite for his unrivalled work.
His music has always incorporated the widely varied influences he heard and absorbed since his childhood days on the streets of Belfast- long before the bands of his youth and his initial breakthrough with the band he started early on- called "Them."
On Keep It Simple, Morrison honors all those varied influences - Ulster-Scots Celtic, Jazz, Folk, Blues, Country, Soul and Gospel - and an added surprise of a mighty Ukelele -most times melding them all together at once creating his unmistakable signature sound.
In some of these songs Morrison addresses the propaganda of the myth perpetrating rock music world. There is a definite theme that recurs throughout the album, especially in the title track.
In keeping with that idea, Keep It Simple does not boast the big horns or expected string arrangements of some of Morrison's previous work. What it does feature are gorgeous songs rich with emotion, depth and beauty.Those familiar with Van Morrison’s ever mercurial muse could hardly have been surprised when he turned up on the artistically centered, avant-country label Lost Highway to pay tribute to a era-spanning slate of country icons on the Nashville imprint's ‘06 collection, Pay the Devil. But while the ensuing years were dominated by several rich anthologies of Morrison’s work, he’s returned here to masterfully show his love of country was no passing fancy. As the title suggests, Morrison’s self-produced approach to the genre is both musically and emotionally elemental, a no frills approach that fits him like a well-worn pair of Tony Llamas. Indeed, even as he’s addressing matters of musical style and substance in an unusually introspective way on "That’s Entertainment" and "Soul," the veteran’s singing here is so natural and deceptively effortless as to disguise how forcefully Morrison has immersed himself in the country mold – or, more to the point, remade it lovingly in his own image, also marking the first time in several years he’s penned all the songs on one of his albums. Whether offering a little tutelage about the vagaries of fate on "School of Hard Knocks," taking W.C. Handy’s "St. Louis Blues" as the starting point for the slow-burning, Hammond B3-seeped country blues lament "Don’t Go to Nightclubs Anymore," or preaching the backroads Zen gospel of the title track and Banjo-seasoned elegy "Song of Home," Morrison’s warm, world-weary voice connects with themes that are as familiar as sunshine – and every bit as fundamentally complicated. --Jerry McCulley |
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Mess of Blues
Release Date: 2008-03-11
Sales rank: 239
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On and On
Release Date: 2003-05-06
Sales rank: 227
Japanese pressing limited edition price for Jack Johnson's 2003 album adds one bonus track. 17 tracks. Def Jam.Jack Johnson has found himself a groove. Indeed, the Hawaiian surfing champion turned alternative pop-folk star really hasn't changed things one iota for his sophomore release. Fans of Brushfire Fairytales should be delighted with the results. The groove is a mellow one--most of the 16 tracks here are semi-acoustic--and that easy-going spirit filters into Johnson's lyrical philosophies. "What will be will be / And so it goes" he sings on "Times Like These," the opening track. Thankfully, Johnson is never too mellow, and there's a "Don't worry, be happy" vibe to most of his music. "The Horizon Has Been Defeated" even has a pseudo-reggae feel to it. Although classified as an alternative musician, the singer-songwriter's compositions owe much to past hits. "Traffic in the Sky" is reminiscent of Jim Croce's "Operator" and Looking Glass's one-hit-wonder, "Brandy." On the splendid "Taylor," Johnson sounds an awful lot like Donovan. And "By The Way" recalls the Lovin' Spoonful. -- Bill Holdship |
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Simply Grand
Release Date: 2008-08-12
Sales rank: 66
There has always been a piano at the heart of Irma Thomas's music, and she is accompanied here by twelve of the best pianists around. The Grammy®-winning Soul Queen of New Orleans has never sounded better than in this all-acoustic setting. From the soul-searing passion of "Cold Rain" to the bittersweet intimacy of "This Bitter Earth," Irma's enduring warmth and soulfulness prevail, never straying far from the blues. Included are many new songs (including one from Burt Bacharach and Steve Krikorian) and a previously unrecorded Doc Pomus-Dr. John composition. |
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