For players in their late 50s and early 60s, the Animals’ #1 “House Of The Rising Sun” is often cited as a benchmark, with guitarist Hilton Valentine’s arpeggiated intro as indelibly stamped as Alan Price’s organ solo. It’s not flashy or difficult; in fact, that’s the beauty of it – it’s an easy way to [...]
Martino has been recording for almost 50 years, originally as sideman to such funk-jazz greats as saxophonist Willis “Gator” Jackson and organists Brother Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Don Patterson, and Trudy Pitts. When he began leading his own sessions, first with 1967’s El Hombre, he delved into Middle Eastern modes, unorthodox time signatures, and [...]
In 1985, speaking of the ’83 Action Research into Muscle Distrophy (A.R.M.S.) Tour that united Yardbirds alumni Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton, the latter stated, “At that time and for many months after that, I began to think of Jeff as probably being the finest guitar player I’d ever seen. And I’ve been [...]
It’s difficult to say which is more ironic: the fact that Robbie Robertson, one of rock guitar’s true stylists, is more famous for his songwriting, or that beneath the minimal, compositional style that marked his work with The Band hid one of the most animalistic maniacs in rock guitar history. • The son of a [...]
Finally! At last! Considering that she made her recording debut in 1973 with Asleep at the Wheel’s maiden voyage, it’s amazing that it’s taken nearly 40 years for Chris O’Connell to release her first solo album. During the Wheel’s zenith, she dueted with leader Ray Benson on “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read,” managed to [...]
The late Cub Koda wrote that Rick Holmstrom’s “inventive ideas are topnotch,” comparing him to the great Earl Hooker. That was in reference to Holmstrom’s solo debut, released in ’96, when he was 31. Sixteen years and five solo albums later, Holmstrom has matured by leaps and bounds into a master of tone and taste. [...]
In a career spanning 45 years, Charlie Musselwhite has taken the blues to places its never been – literally (playing every corner of the globe) and artistically (on his two dozen solo albums and backing such diverse artists as Tom Waits, INXS, Doc Watson, Bonnie Raitt, Eliades Ochoa, Eddie Vedder, the Blind Boys Of Alabama, [...]
Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady have been playing music together for 53 years – 40 of them as Hot Tuna. What started as an acoustic splinter group from their gig with Jefferson Airplane morphed into both acoustic and electric variations and myriad combinations.Released on the heels of Tuna’s successful “blues tour” with Charlie [...]
The first of Flores’ 11 solo albums came out in ’87, but by then she’d run the gamut from singer/songwriter (in sort of an L.A./Ronstadt mold) to punk (including a 1984 LP by her all-girl Screaming Sirens). Along the way, she dueted with Wanda Jackson and Ray Campi, hosted NPR’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’” rockabilly series, [...]
Was there a specific concept or aim with the new CD? I wanted it to be what I would call a blues record, but really of the times in its content. Contemporary themes, not a throwback. Obviously, my whole life I’ve worked to try to make blues music that I felt was relevant. [...]
