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Dan Forte
Canned Heat
Finyl Vinyl
In the mid/late ’60s, the top American groups of the Blues Revival were Chicago’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Los Angeles’ Canned Heat. The latter’s original incarnation featured Bob Hite, Henry Vestine, and Alan Wilson – record collectors and blues scholars turned rock stars. Drummer Fito de la Parra joined for the 1968 sophomore release,
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Dan Forte
Check This Action: Feeling Jazzy
Jazz guitar is one of my main loves, whether it’s Eddie Lang’s work with Bing Crosby in the early ’30s or Rick McRae playing at an Austin restaurant next week. But to be honest, much of what I hear these days bores me. Too much is an empty display of chops or arrangements that lack
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Dan Forte
Happy Traum
Folk Guru: 1936-2024
On July 17, folk music lost one of its guiding lights with the death of Happy Traum at age 86. A major player in the Greenwich Village and Woodstock scenes, he was best known for his catalog of Homespun instructional videos, boasting an eclectic roster of artists on a variety of instruments. “He was one
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Dan Forte
João Erbetta and Pete Curry
Los Angeles
Guitarist Erbetta has composed and produced film scores in his native Brazil, while Angelino Pete Curry plays bass with Los Straitjackets and was the surf-rock Halibuts’ lead guitarist. The two previously spearheaded the group Panamericans. Curry’s first instrument was drums, which he handles expertly on 10 instrumentals written by Erbetta, who plays guitar, banjo, keyboards,
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Dan Forte
The Blues Will Set You Free
We’ve all heard of blues in bars, but what about blues behind bars? That’s what Paul Oscher had in mind in the late ’80s, when he brought a world-class blues band to play for inmates at the Manhattan House of Detention. Oscher, who was 74 when he died of complications from Covid in 2021, began
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Dan Forte
Nat King Cole
Live at the Blue Note Chicago
Many Nat Cole fans, even diehards, are unaware that, in addition to his beautiful singing voice, he was among the greatest jazz pianists. Fewer still are aware of the world-class guitarists who played in his small combos. First was the great Oscar Moore, followed by Irving Ashby. But from 1951 until Cole’s death in ’65,
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Dan Forte
Rocky Athas
Livin’ My Best Life
Hailing from the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff, home of T-Bone Walker and the Vaughan brothers, Athas falls closest to Stevie Ray’s maximalist attitude. However, the title track on his new album aims farther south, namely Houston and sharp-dressed Billy Gibbons territory, in terms of groove and fat tone. After a stint playing and writing
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Dan Forte
Hilary Gardner
On The Trail with The Lonesome Pines
Vocalist Gardner explores the association between jazz and country, the Great American Songbook, and cowboy movie stars. Similar territory was mined by Asleep At The Wheel and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, but it goes back decades earlier. “Cow Cow Boogie” dates to the 1942 recording by pianist Freddie Slack with singer Ella Mae
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Dan Forte
Check This Action: Walking In Memphis
I first visited Memphis in 1990, and it struck me that radio stations played loads of music from the area. Soul, rockabilly, blues, gospel, country, and jazz – if there was a Memphis kinship, it was in heavy rotation. Granted, I haven’t been everywhere, but the only other place I’ve had a similar experience is
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Dan Forte
Kid Andersen/Lisa and “Little Baby” Andersen
Spirits/Soul
You’ve got to love a couple that sings Little Milton’s “We’re Gonna Make It” at their wedding (check out the home movie online). Their two CDs, joined in this double-CD package, were cut at the pair’s Greaseland recording studio in San Jose, California. At 44, Kid Andersen is one of the best blues guitarists anywhere.
