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Dan Forte
Albert Collins – Live at Montreux
The justifiably nicknamed “Master Of The Telecaster” was one of the great blues guitarists of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, at age 61, he had exerted a major influence on players such as Jimi Hendrix, Robben Ford, Savoy Brown’s Kim Simmonds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Grissom, and Robert Cray. And
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Dan Forte
Jimi Hendrix – Live at Monterey
Forty years after the fact, some people (people who weren’t around at the time) might say that Jimi Hendrix wasn’t all that revolutionary. These people would be wrong. There had been sonic experimentation prior to Hendrix (prominently by Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend), and some of Hendrix’s influences were blues players and the R&B chordal
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Dan Forte
Amos Garrett – Get Way Back
Garrett is, of course, best known as a guitarist (his tasteful solo on Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight At The Oasis” should have topped Rolling Stone‘s recent “100 Greatest Guitar Songs”). Percy Mayfield (a big influence on Ray Charles and Mose Allison, among many others) was dubbed “The Poet Laureate of the Blues,” having penned classics like
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Dan Forte
Rory Block
Keeping The Blues Alive
From her first album appearance, at age 12, with her father’s string band, to guesting on Stefan Grossman’s 1971 album, How To Play Blues Guitar, and her 1975 solo debut, Rory Block has staked a claim as one of country blues’ foremost interpreters. Simultaneously, she has emerged as a distinctive singer/songwriter, and both sides of
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Dan Forte
Davie Allan & the Arrows – Moving Along
Davie Allan came along when, by all rights, instrumental rock should have been long past rigor mortis and decomposing, after the British Invasion nailed instro surf’s coffin shut. But, against all odds, as garage rock was becoming psychedelic, Allan carved out a niche, stuck to it, and is still making great records today. Part of
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Dan Forte
Russell D – One Thing
Russell D is Austin singer/songwriter duo Russell Forsyth and percussionist Arron Michaels, and the “one thing” referenced in the CD title is love – the overriding or underlying theme that runs throughout the album. The music is folk and psychedelic, but has nothing to do with the pretentious psych-folk movement. Forsyth and Michaels could be
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Dan Forte
Koerner, Ray & Glover – Blues, Rags & Hollers: The Koerner, Ray & Glover Story
The fact that this folk-blues trio existed at all is noteworthy. By the time KR&G hit the national scene, first at the 1963 Philadelphia Folk Festival and then Newport a year later, you could count the number of white blues performers on one hand (a very young John Hammond and, at times, Dave Van Ronk
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Dan Forte
Grisman & Sebastian – Satisfied
John Sebastian and David Grisman first ran into each other in the early ’60s, when Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park was the epicenter of the national Folk Boom. They were both recruited by guitarist Stefan Grossman for a recording project to be dubbed The Even Dozen Jug Band – in hindsight, somewhat of a supergroup,
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Dan Forte
Pat Conte – Gravest Hits
Long Island’s Pat Conte is a rarity among record and instrument collectors in that he can really play. Actually, that’s an understatement. One of the foremost experts on “world music,” Conte compiled and annotated Yazoo Records’ Secret Museum Of Mankind volumes – all manner of music, from all over the world, remastered from 78s recorded
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Dan Forte
Otis Taylor – Recapturing the Banjo
Multi-instrumentalist Taylor has never been afraid to push the blues envelope, both stylistically (ranging from Appalachian to psychedelic to explorations with jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara) and lyrically (boldly addressing social and racial issues). Even though his latest effort reaches back in time, as its title indicates, it’s far from an exercise in nostalgia or academia.
