LOVING YOU Bernard Allison (Ruf Records) ****+
More than 20 albums into his career Bernard Allison packs a wallop with energy to spare. Loving You combines the urban smoothness of a Robert Cray with the feral intensity of a Buddy Guy to create some unforgettable blues. Bringing a bunch of friends along for the ride, Allison has made his best record in years.
The son of blues legend Luther Allison, Bernard freely shows his Texas and Chicago roots here. He combines the fire of Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray (and his father of course) with funk and R&B flavors, which gives Loving You a wider flavor profile than you might expect. Special guests include Larry McCray, Devon Allman and Victor Wainwright plus his new rhythm guitarist Steve Johnson, aka Stevie J Blues, who co-wrote 5 of the 7 originals. Allison’s band also includes drummer Sam Butts Jr., bassist George Moye and keyboard player Eric Roberts.
“I’ve always wanted to record an album bringing family and friends together” Bernard says of Loving You. “(This) is simply showing my respect and appreciation for my family and friends. I placed them on tracks where I felt they could bring out their true emotions and musical passions.” One of those collaborations is 4 O Clock In The Morning which features some killer piano and a vocal assist from Victor Wainwright, easily a highlight of an already impressive record. When you get to the middle with tracks like Busted & Disgusted, a real gut-bucket blues number, and a hot remake of Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo- that’s the real meat right there.
Loving You is both familiar if you know Allison’s stuff and yet unlike what has come before, thanks to the numerous collaborations. Blues, funk, R&B and more blues is as good a description as these 10 songs take you from Chicago to Dallas and back again. Great stuff!
HOT TRACKS: 4 O’Clock In The Morning, Busted & Disgusted, Left Me With My Guitar
THE TULSA SESSIONS Kent Blazy (independent) *****
The latest from acclaimed songwriter Blazy is sheer magic. The Tulsa Sessions is 11 deeply personal songs, captured at Church Studio in Tulsa in a single session. He’s written massive hits for people like Garth Brooks, George Jones, Diamond Rio, Patty Loveless and others. With just his voice and guitar Kent has nowhere to hide on this- not that he needs to.
Church Studio is where people like Leon Russell, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and JJ Cale made some of their best records. Describing the day The Tulsa Sessions came together Blazy says “sometimes everything just falls into place. I left home before daylight, flew to Tulsa, dropped my bag at the hotel, and headed straight to The Church Studio. From the moment we started recording with Gary Laney, there was an energy in that room you could feel. By the end of the day after recording 11 songs, I realized we hadn’t just made demoes; we had made a record. That’s how The Tulsa Sessions came to life.”
With just Kent’s voice and his acoustic guitar, there’s a vulnerable intimacy to these songs that wouldn’t be there with a full band. The Tulsa Sessions comes across as quite personal storytellin’. It’s naked musically which gives it a quiet sort of power. “I wanted this record to capture a real moment in time” Kent says. “There are no artificial enhancements, no Auto-Tune, no Pro-Tools fixes, just musicians, songs, and a performance exactly as it happened.” He adds “Most of these songs had only recently been written and were still being road-tested.”
The Tulsa Sessions is simplicity in action with great songwriting resulting in quiet excellence. It’s one of those albums that will grow on the QT as friends share and pass it around, saying “you gotta come over to my place and give this thing a listen; it’ll get you right in the heart.” I’ll definitely be sharing tracks on my Soft Rock Café internet radio show for months to come… it’s available on all major digital platforms.
HOT TRACKS: Sunshine Girl, Everything You Are, Footsteps Of Dylan
TEUTONIC TITANS 1976-2026 Accept (Napalm Records) ****
How do you celebrate 50 years of leading the charge for German heavy metal? A career spanning “Best Of” would be so passe, so Accept came up with a unique and effective solution; re-record 19 tracks from across their career with the assistance of some helpful and famous friends like Billy Corgan, Rob Halford and Kirk Hammett. The result is Teutonic Titans, a worthy nod combining big hits and deep cuts from a stunning and crushing career.
Fans of the band know that guitarist Wolf Hoffmann is the sole remaining member from the original lineup, but the band has been going strong since their surprise resurrection with 2010’s Blood Of The Nations with singer Mark Tornillo. In a business where careers are measured in a handful of years, reaching 5 decades is a Stones-worthy milestone and Teutonic Titans delivers what even fair weather fans will find eminently diggable. The guest list reads like a who’s who of heavy metal and boy does this collection deliver. The first number, Fast As A Shark featuring Kirk Hammett, bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Mikki Dee and singer Phil Anselmo is a solid signal that we are in for a hell of a ride. Was the song the beginning of speed metal? Could be.
Part of the joy of spinning this is hearing the classics you know so well redone as well as hearing deeper cuts that may have gotten by you the first time around. I bought Balls To The Wall in ’83 like the rest of the world, but my interest in the band was spotty until 2010’s aforementioned Blood Of The Nations, so these songs are an exercise in familiarity and discovery for me as they concentrate on the 80’s period of the band’s career.
Where does Accept go from here? That’s anyone’s guess. In the meantime Teutonic Titans 1976-2026 is huge fun for metal fans in general and Accept fans in particular. Well done, lads.
HOT TRACKS: Fast As A Shark (guests listed above), London Leatherboys (with Sebastian Bach, Rex Brown, Shawn Drover), Balls To The Wall (with Rob Halford, Matthias Jabs, Rex Brown)
ANTONE’S 50TH PRESENTS CHICAGO BOUND Various Artists (Blues Till 2 Recording Company) *****
If you know the blues then you know Antone’s in Austin Texas has been a home of the blues since 1975. The club is celebrating a half century the right way; with an all-star album bringing together a staggering array of players from across their musical family. John Primer, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Billy Gibbons- Antone’s 50th is bursting with blues star power.
The concept for this record was born when co-producer Zach Ernst- Antone’s nightclub director and creative force- heard John Primer record an impromptu version of the Jimmy Rogers classic Chicago Bound. “Beyond the song’s deeper meaning- the journey through music cities by African-American artists seeking a better life and better pay than they could find in the south- a ‘road trip record’ or ‘truck stop cassette’ felt like a creative way for Antone’s to honor the great musicians who live on the road” Ernst says. “It also traces a spiritual route from central Louisiana through Houston, Austin, Memphis and on to Chicago.” Club founder Clifford Antone, who passed in June of 2006, would be well pleased with what’s been done here.
Antone’s 50th is live-to-tape recordings produced by Jacob Sciba and Zach Ernst by a list of bluesmen that staggers the imagination. Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood from The Stones through in with Jimmie Vaughan and Ivan Neville for One Step At A Time and Li’l Ed Williams with John Primer burn the house down with Muddy Waters’ signature Got My Mojo Workin’. The Blues Is So Big (interlude) is an interview clip with Clifford Antone, followed by a greasy Texas blues from Billy Gibbons & The BFG’s called Hangin’ On A Cliff, which has already been played on my internet radio show Hellhounds On My Trail.
Thanks to the recording approach Antone’s 50th has the energy and vibe of a live gig, it’s almost like being there. You know when the blues is played and sung well, done right, and that is very much the case with this one. It’s a disc that belongs in EVERY blues fan’s collection.
https://antones.lnk.to/Antones50thChicagoBound
HOT TRACKS: Hangin’ On A Cliff (Billy Gibbons & The BFG’s), Chicago Bound (John Primer), Give Me Back my Wig (Doyle Bramhall II
RESILIENCE The Pszenny Project (independent) *****
This is a mighty powerful hunk of blues/ rock that hits you right between the eyes like a well-aimed cast iron frying pan. Resilience is muscular and expressive, the kind of straight up blues-powered rock & roll with elements of southern rock and a dash of Latin that makes The Pszenny Project irresistible. This is the sound of a band in hot pursuit of great things.
The band these days is Mark Pszenny on guitar and vocals with Raz on bass and vocals and Dalton Reynolds on drums. “This lineup pushes the boundaries of this album to the limit” Mark says. “The combination of Raz and Reynolds are a thunderous rhythm section.” I can imagine them playing in the studio, looking at each other with that ‘jeez, we’re really onto something here’ look in their eyes. If you’ve ever been in a band then you know how delicious that is.
Resilience is chock full of bluesy, greasy grooves, a perfect road trip album with the occasional ballad like Piece Of My Soul to bring the heat down for a bit. The disc is 11 tracks including 4 covers that mix in with the rest as if the band wrote them themselves. A cover of Eric Clapton’s Let It Rain in particular hit me hard, a song I’ve always enjoyed but hadn’t heard probably in years. The trio format works well for these guys as Raz & Reynolds just knuckle down and get the job done- no overly fancy stuff; no putting lipstick on a pig. Pszenny’s guitar playing is bluesy and exciting, and the combination of all three gives you that goose-bump feeling that good rock & roll is supposed to do.
Resilience isn’t just blues and it isn’t just rock as touchstones all over the musical map keep things lively and exciting… but overall “southern blues/rock” is as apt a description as any. This album is what my Friday nights used to feel like and I love it!
HOT TRACKS: Let It Rain, Knee Deep In Trouble, Beautiful You
A BEAUTIFUL LIFE Angel Forrest (independent) *****
One of Canada’s most exciting blues artists is back with a wonderful new album. Angel’s signature raw vocal style combined with a hot, swingin’ band makes A Beautiful Life one of THE albums of the year- this thing rocks, swings and grooves like mad.
A Beautiful Life is Forrest’s first fully independent album. Honest and powerful, this blend of blues, rock and soul has beaucoup de Mojo. She’s been on this journey for more than 35 years, she’s an artist driven by connection and storytelling, which makes this album personal and universal at the same time. Angel has a knack for singing about things we all know and feel, you can’t help but find yourself in her songs too. 5 of her previous records have found their way into my collection and each time I get a new one I rub my hands together and wonder what Angel has up her sleeve for me this time.
From straight up rock to a reggae vibe like you find on Don’t Say My Name, A Beautiful Life sticks a finger in a few different musical pies. And when she rocks as she does on the cut immediately after, Can You Feel Her (Mother Earth) she and her band really lean into it and deliver the goods… it’s a song that would sound at home on any rock or metal radio station. The way this disc flows certainly isn’t linear, her smoky ballads are seductive and heartfelt. Guitbox is lyrically unusual as she compares herself to a guitar and uses all kinds of musical metaphors to get her lover to wrap their arms around her. A cheesy idea maybe but it works like a hot-damn.
A Beautiful Life is sequenced like a great radio show you love listening to with the songs programmed like a wave. She starts out strong and takes it up a notch before working her way down to a ballad like Guitbox before kicking out the jams on Beautiful Boy. Angel Forrest is a great singer and an even better songwriter as each of her albums reveals, and this time out she’s really delivered something special. I gotta stop typing now so I can listen to this again.
HOT TRACKS: Can You Feel Her (Mother Earth),Not Without A Plea, Beautiful Thing
