LIVE AT SPA CE Dave Specter (Delmark Records) ****+
Over 3 decades into his career with this label, Specter is releasing his 14th album. Live At Space is, as the booklet says, “21st century Chicago blues, anchored into tradition and open to the future.” The sound is vibrant and exciting, the musicianship exquisite.
This album was recorded live at Space, Evanston Illinois’ premiere venue, produced by Specter himself. He comes with quite a track record, appearing on over 50 albums and DVD’s as guitarist, band leader and/ or producer. He also has road experience, playing behind legends like Son Seals and Sam Lay and has also recorded or performed with Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Robert Junior Lockwood. Live At Space, recorded in March of ’24, documents a ridiculously tight band at the top of their game… Dave on guitar and vocals, Brother John Kattke on vocals and keys, Rodrigo Manotvani on bass and Marty Binder on drums. The disc is a combination of instrumentals and vocal numbers with long instrumental passages, which is what you want and expect from a live blues record. In sound and feel this is not unlike a Ronnie Earl record, a blues artist I hold in very high regard.
Live At Space features several Specter originals along with covers of numbers by folks like Allen Toussaint, Don Nix, Bob Shelton and Sonny Boy Williamson. As a guitarist Specter doesn’t bring the thunder like an SRV or Buddy Guy, he’s more of a soulful, lyrical player. There’s a light precision to his rhythm and lead work here that is quite captivating. No interaction with the appreciative audience, not sure if that was a production choice to include more music or if the guys just get on stage, strap up and take us on an elegant blues cruise.
If I had to describe Live At Space in one word, it would be ‘sweet’…. This is worth your attention.
HOT TRACKS: On Your Way Down, Rumba & Tonic, Same Old Blues
LORD, WHY DO YOU DO THESE THINGS TO ME? Brayden Baird (independent) *** ½
Brooklyn-based Brayden Baird is labeled as ‘an anti-folk artist’, but maybe punk folk is more apt. Whatever you choose to call it, Lord is one of the darkest records I’ve heard in maybe ever. It rocks, rolls and grinds through themes of grief, love and family relationships. He’s not a great singer by any stretch and the lyrics are as startling as they are deep.
Written during a bleak period of his life, the winter of 2023, some of these songs are cathartic exclamations of doom and others are messages of love to himself and those around him. The lyrics are unusual in their depth and personal observations- surely autobiographical for the most part- but in their way they encourage us to take a closer look at our own lives and relationships and that’s a good thing… right? Brayden explains the title song “In the times of grief and pain that are expressed in this album, I often found myself asking this question; Lord, why do you do these things to me? in hopes of finding meaning in the seemingly never-ending darkness that surrounded me. I was at the time lost in a sea of broken dreams and abject failure and this song acted as the first step in looking towards the light.” While many of the songs are lively rockers, there is some really downbeat material here which, of course, I find infinitely appealing.
What am I talking about? When Will The Sun Rise Again addresses the loss of a friend, It Kills Me To See You Sick is about unexpected health situations in his family like his mother’s cancer diagnosis, and Gone Like The Indian is pretty much self-explanatory. I’ve never been a fan of the punk musical esthetic but given the subject matter Baird deals with here it actually works pretty well. Lord was laid down in a single day of live tracking with his Once In A Lifetime Band, and the jagged performances crackle with an energy you just can’t get any other way. I’m sure Neil Young would really appreciate that.
While I don’t fully connect with this disc musically, having had my own dark nights of the soul more times than I care to count Lord is telling the kind of stories I’ll be wanting/ needing to revisit time and time again.
https://www.instagram.com/bboial/
HOT TRACKS: Lord Why Do You Do These Things To Me, Blue Haired Partner, When Will The Sun Rise Again
CROWN JEWELS Koko Taylor (Alligator Records) ******
If you love the blues this is one album you’ve got to have. Crown Jewels is a best of, culled from her 34 years with and 9 albums (8 of them Grammy nominated) for Alligator. For this set the label picked and remastered songs from throughout her career, many fan favorites included. From her earth-shaking voice to stellar musicians involved, this is as blues as blues gets.
When giving this a spin I was unsettled by the knowledge that, although I’ve heard several of her songs over the years Crown Jewels is my first actual Koko Taylor album but hey, not a bad place to start. That’s a fitting title to this collection as Koko surely was the queen of the blues up until her death in 2009, with Rolling Stone calling her “the greatest blues singer of her generation.” The Chicago Tribune called her “a national treasure. She packs firepower a lot of youngsters only wish they had.” Like many others I’ve often referred to her as ‘a force of nature’, and one listen to any of these 12 songs will make you a believer. The album is riddled with a number of legendary players too including Buddy Guy, Carey Bell, Sammy Lawhorn, Mighty Joe Young, Vino Louden, Eddie King and the great gospel guitarist Criss Johnson- Koko’s cousin.
Alligator’s remastering of the songs on Crown Jewels ensures a consistent sound, from good time songs like Wang Dang Doodle (one of her actual hits), to her version of the classic ballad I’d Rather Go Blind. Her stuff has been referred to by People as “Raucous, gritty good-time blues”, which is a pretty accurate description; just give I’m A Woman a spin and get back to me. When you talk about mighty blues women, Koko Taylor must be a part of that discussion. Her vocals are primal and emotional, drawing you into every tale she spins as if she’s grabbing you by the hand and saying “come with me, you’ve got to hear this.”
When I first interviewed label founder Bruce Iglaur in 2011 on the occasion of Alligator’s incredible 40th Anniversary compilation, he told me the story of how she arrived in Chicago with “35 cents and a box of Ritz crackers”, and how she cleaned houses until her music career took off. Koko Taylor was no pretender- she went from being born on a sharecropper’s farm to becoming a musical legend… she sang the blues, she was the blues.
A legendary singer and performer, 12 tough as nail performances, Crown Jewels is perfection. As of July 18th this will be available on 140 gram vinyl and at all digital service providers. Mark that date on your calendar; you know what to do.
https://www.alligator.com/albums/Crown-Jewels-Vinyl-LP/
HOT TRACKS: Born Under A Bad Sign (with Buddy Guy), I’d Rather Go Blind, I’m A Woman
AMERICANA RADIO J. Isaiah Evans & The Boss Tweed (independent) ****
If ever there was a rowdy good time looking for a place to land, it’s this disc. Americana Radio is American rock & roll powered Texas country boogie from a band described as “playing revved-up roots music for garages, roadhouses and juke joints, a contemporary take on classic rhythm n blues.” Their love for bands like Booker T. & The MG’s really shows.
The band is led by Evans, a songwriter and guitar player who grew up in Dallas in a creative household filled with swamp pop, southern soul, country, Texas blues and funk, all of which can be felt in these grooves. His mom played piano so that sound was a prominent part of his childhood. “I was raised around the piano and organ” he says, “it was always there… in the church, in the home, in my head.” Other members of this trio include Matthew Vasquez on organ and keys and Spud Crowley behind the kit, and they make a powerful, compelling noise. That’s called ‘an organ trio’, a lineup usually found in jazz. “Not being a part of the traditional rock & roll band formulas has set us apart” Isaiah says, “and for that we’re grateful. “It gives us the freedom to do something unique. It forces us to explore.”
Evans was the founder and front man for The 40 Acre Mule, but his love for the aforementioned Booker T. plus the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio inspired him to try a different path. “I want to take Americana and blues and soul and garage rock and make it into something unique” he says. Americana Radio is all of those things wrapped up together, a solid example of the whole being more than equal to the sum of its parts. It’s like blues and R&B delivered with genuine rock & roll excitement via overdriven amps and a sense of the musical history that came before them. Evans calls their sound “Garageicana rock n roll” so maybe this is the start of a new genre… we can only hope so! Americana Radio is not just a good time- it’s also really, really cool.
HOT TRACKS: Let’s Rock, Pullman Porter Blues, Trouble Bound
TOO HIGH A PRICE TO PAY Mercedes Nicole (independent) **** ½
Tastes like jazz, sounds like blues; that’s Too High A Price To Pay, the latest from the Northwest’s Mercedes Nicole. With a smooth as silk voice and a crack band behind her, she not only entertains she provides us with a direct escape root back to the era of smoky gin joints.
“Everyone has known heartache and pain” she says, “and everyone deserves release from that in the form of emotional, spiritual and physical healing. Music can do that, especially the blues.” That’s something I firmly believe and have experienced many times over. Too High A Price To Pay, as was her 2022 debut Constellation, is the perfect marriage of band and singer. Her phrasing and feeling for a lyric recall some of the greats like Billie Holiday as she wraps herself around words and phrases in her silky smooth delivery. Equally important here is the band; Tommy Warren on backup vocals, Jake Sele on keys, bassist Scotty Harris, drummer Andrew Cloutiere, Alexey Nikolaev on tenor sax and harmonica by Stacy Jones. Guitarist Rod Cook’s leads are supple and expressive, a combination of BB King and Buddy Guy, though I find their place often buried in the mix a bit troubling. I love Nicole’s sensuous voice, but I’d go and see this band just to watch Rod play.
I like what Jazz Weekly had to say about Too High A Price To Pay; “wonderful songs that give you a perfect balance between jazz and blue as if we are being catapulted back to the era of the 1930’s”, and that’s a time travel adventure I can definitely get behind. Jazzy blues or bluesy jazz, call it what you will… THAPTP is mighty fine company under any circumstances.
HOT TRACKS: I’ll Play the Blues For You, These Last Two Dollars, The Sky Is Crying
