Old News Blues

This whole post is relatively old news, which means it ain't news. I will start with the newest by mentioning Rick Estrin winning the award in the Best Harmonica category at the Blues Music Awards back in May against some might powerful competition. He also snagged a nomination for The B.B. King Entertainer of the year, which he certainly deserved to win also. I've never seen the winner, Curtis Salgado, play a live set, but he must put a whale of a show to beat out what Estrin brings to the stage. Certainly, with all the health battles that Salgado has faced (and is still facing), he dang sure deserves the nod there. Rick Estrin and The Nightcats received a nomination, but were beat out for Best Band honors by the Tedeschi Trucks band, and Kid Andersen (Estrin's guitar slinging partner) was trumped by Derek Trucks for Best Guitarist. Not the way I think it should have gone, but I guess a somewhat youth movement moved the voters. At the end of it all, though, I think that Rick Estrin and The Nightcats have perched themselves back on the plateau that they reached when his co-conspirator, Little Charlie, led the band with him.

What is news, since it ain't happened yet, is that Rick Estrin and The Nightcats will return to Houston's Dan Electro's Guitar Bar on June 22. Great news, I'd say, since they'll be within driving distance of my Ford pickup. The H Town Jukes, some friends of mine, will open the show, so that'll be a treat also. Looking forward to seeing the bad boy of the blues again. That's what my wife called him after I took her to see him years back and hearing some of his lyrical double entendres. "He's a bad boy" says she.

Back to the old news. I almost hung my head, but didn't, when I pulled my copy of One Wrong Turn out of its cubby hole and realized that I've had the darn thing almost a year and never got around to jotting down a review of some sort here on the blog. I'm sure that everyone with a passing interest in blues harmonica has had it almost as long as I have and have spun its wheels off since then. If not, then their interest in blues harmonica was just that--a passing interest, because this one deserves a spot in their blues rotation. Still can't believe I didn't pass along my opinion last year, but since I didn't I'll throw down something short and sweet.

One Wrong Turn picks up where Twisted left off with Estrin and crew establishing themselves as a band setting out to establish their Nightcats groove, not in opposition to the Little Charlie era, but with a stamp that says this is Rick's crew now. Of course, Estrin's witty observations of life as he knows it are on full display on every song. It's even rubbed off on drummer J. Hansen's song smithing, which fits nicely in the Estrin camp when he sings "You Ain't The Boss Of Me". His relentless beat drives this rocker and Kid Andersen rips the heart out of it. He also does the dog bark on the opener D.O.G. When Estrin's not lauding or lamenting over those of the female persuasion, he takes the dastardly deeds of male members of society. Here he sings Sniffin' 'round, sneakin' where you don't belong/Just huntin' for a spot to bury your bone/You're just a DOG.

And speaking of old news, Estrin does just that on "Old News". He does his superb Rice Miller acoustic best while talking about staying confused as he trots through life and as he says Yeah, but that's old news. He's always nailed down Sonny Williamson II's timbre, tone and attack and tends to give a nod to the master on most every album he's played upon, and while he can spit out the book of Chi-town style amplified at will, he's moved way beyond anything remotely slavish to that mode of doing his business with his harp. Beginning with the release of Twisted, I think that he began to develop a Rick Estrin mode of playing amplified blues harp that'll be as readily identifiable as his own, much in the same way that us harp players recognize a Sonny Boy or James Cotton style. I'll be darned if I can describe all the different tonal shifts that he get going with his harp in his mouth. He goes from wide open, full chord blasts with double stops torching his amp speakers to superbly bent slip sliding single notes with nary a cliched note. He yanks out some great chromatic bombs on 'Lucky You", on which he just wishes he had the luck of someone else.

Of course, I'm preaching to the choir here as far as Estrin's harp skills go, but if you only know him from the Little Charlie era, then you owe it to yourself to experience the signature sound that he's developing. If you don't know him from the Little Charlie era, then you've missed a one of a kind blues band at work. Iconic, I'd venture to say. And, I have to assume that there are those who aren't familiar with Rick Estrin's body of work. I had to chuckle when I read a One Wrong Turn review on Amazon that read "This is a guy with a great future". Well, this reviewer needs to work his way back to 1989s Big Break and should definitely stop off and enjoy Estrin's On The Harp Side aimed to appease blues harp fans with a program of covers representing some of the finest traditional blues songs ever written.

Same for the Nightcats. Back in the day, they were never a twelve bar shuffling groove blues band and they darned sure ain't now. They certainly play the blues while they mess with the timing, the rhythms, and the beats on the songs, sticking in a bit of jazz or roots rocking along the way. J. Hansen and Lorenzo Farrell are no small part of the overall sound that the band achieves. Besides playing bass, Farrell is also adept at swirling some organ and piano in the mix, which is highlighted on "Zonin'" with a great sax break by Terry Hanck and wild guitar leads from Kid Andersen. I think Farrell and Hansen deserved their own nominations at those blues awards for what they bring to this band.

Of course, Kid Andersen makes the stew simmer and boil over throughout the entire session. "Broke and Lonesome" is a tour de force from the Kid's fretboard, and if it's the lowdown twelve bar you want, then listen to what he twists through the song. Ya never know which way he's going to head once he sticks his fingers on the strings. Now, I guess there are a few guitarist who could have stepped into the shoes of Little Charlie; Rusty Zinn paired up with Andersen on the aforementioned On The Harp Side and smoked it on down, but I don't think anyone can equal the Kid as the perfect foil for Estrin's vision. Doesn't hurt that he runs Greaseland Studios, which is fast becoming the go to recording facilities on the West Coast.

Ok, I don't think I'm going drag out this old news review any longer than I have. Said I'd keep it shourt and sweet. Sure I could go through each song and gush about the witty lyrics, the outstanding harp licks, guitar licks, and the jump and jive of each, but I feel sure that most readers here know all that by now. I ain't gonna promise, but I darn sure plan to not wait a year to get a review up on the next great thing in the world of blues harp. 'Nuff for now.

Random Blues Stew

Just throwing together a random stew of what's simmering on the burners around here.

May 18--The Devil's Blues book signing @ The Twig Book Shop 11am-1pm, 306 Pearl Pkwy, San Antonio, Texas

June 1--The Devil's Blues book signing @ Hasting Book Store 1-3pm, 735 Villa Maria, Bryan, Texas

June 7--Rob Moorman & Company @ Mobius Coffeehouse, w/me on harmonica, Brenham, Texas

July 23--The Devil's Blues book siging @ Murder By The Book 6:30-9pm, 2342 Bissonnet, Houston, Texas

Have to mention that it's about time that Rick Estrin was presented the award for best harmonica player at the  Blues Music Awards. I've been listening to One Wrong Turn for awhile now and haven't written a review yet. Hell, just get it. Then, you can agree or disagree with me when I ooh and ahh when I get around to writing my opinion.

I returned to the Rob Moorman stage with the Kalamazoo amp last week. They agreed that it sounded stupendous and worked well in the mix this time out. The little booger has a great tone. I blew through a Shure bullet with a CR41 element in it and my Dan Echo delay modified for harp. Pretty sweet.

By the way, I sent the bullet to Greg Heumann at Blowsmeaway Mics. He stuck a Switchcraft screwon connector in it to make it work like a champ once more. Also bought one of his volume controls. Highly recommended.

I've been working on my third book featuring those crime fighting bluesmen Mitty Andersen and Pete Bolden. Working title is Howling Mountain Blues and follows them to Belize for a blues festival where they run across a blues fanatic who operates a business he calls Abductions Are Us. I'm somewhere about halfway through with the first draft. Life has been getting in the way and slowing the process down a bit. I'll get her done, though. 'Nuff for now.

Eddie C. Campbell

I previously posted just how much Eddie C. Campbell means to me a couple of times. The first time I ever stepped on a stage and played amplified harmonica was with a stupendous ChiTown blues band that Eddie C brought to Texas back in the day. He graciously invited me up to sit in that night without having a clue as to whether I could play a blues lick or not. A few years ago I took my wife and son to eat lunch at Buddy Guy's Legends during a visit to Chicago. Lurrie Bell and Matthew Skoller were doing an acoustic set and the only other person in the club was Eddie C, who remembered the gig fifteen or so years ago. He invited Lurrie and Matthew over to meet me during their break and told me that he was Lurrie's Godfather. Best lunch break I ever had.

A few months ago Eddie C had a stroke in Germany and is finally making it back to Chicago. He's slowly recovering, but the medical bills have added up substantially. Bob Corritore sent this out in his recent newsletter, so I thought that I'd pass it along.

Out of the Comfort Zone

Just trying to get the groove back here. I'm not going to offer up a bunch of lame excuses at to why I've been neglecting the ol' blog, just going to jump in and write a post. Many of my posts on Back In The Day have had to do with my journey with the harmonica. Posted lots of thing about how I got to where I got to with the instrument and the tales relating. This one will be relative to that.

Somewhere about a year ago, a fellow named Rob Moorman contacted me and said that he had a coffee house gig and asked if I'd be willing to add my harmonica to a couple of bluesy tunes during the evening. "I could do that," I told him. I met up with him and fellow guitarist, Raymond Lynch the night before for a little run through.

One tune was a Randy Newman song called "Guilty", by way of Bonnie Raitt, which was indeed bluesy enough and the other was the pretty much a 12 bar groove by Cookie and the Cupcakes' "I've Got You On My Mind". He felt that I could hang with "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" at the end of the show, also.

Now, Rob used to be on the road as a professional musician back in the day. He ramrodded an outfit known as The Silver City Saddle Tramps in Austin during the Cosmic Cowboy wave. His group caught that wave and surfed it throughout the region fairly successfully. At some point, he found Jesus, quit the biz, returned to his hometown, found a traditional occupation, and raised a family of kids (most of whom I taught in high school). This gig would be his first such one in about thirty years or so.

For you gear guys (or gals), I decided to plug straight into the p.a. with my Astatic crystal mic running through a Lone Wolf Harp Break pedal and a modified for harp Dan Electro Echo pedal. The Harp Break adds a bit of distortion to the mix and the Dan Echo, a little slap back echo. He asked if I could play along with his opening number, John Denver's "Country Roads". Said I'd give it a whirl. What I stuck in there seemed to work well enough and I attempted to step from the stage.

"No, don't go anywhere. You should be able to add something to Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings"," he said. So I did that one also. At that point he would let me leave.

Keep in mind. When the music strays from blues, I get away from my comfort zone. We strayed way away from that zone. We played music by Bob Marley, Neil Diamond, Buddy Holly, Hank Williams, Dave Loggins, Elvis Presley, The Eagles, The Beatles, and even Herman Hermits, with a handful of originals thrown into the mix. To say that I was lost and remained so most of the night would be an under statement. I flew by the seat of my pants and just hung on throughout most the proceedings, and dearly hoped that I wasn't screwing his songs and wonderful voice up too much.

I really thought that I'd exceeded my limitations and was relieved that he and Raymond thought that I'd done just fine. I also felt that "Okay, I made it through a trial by fire, and that that was that." I figured that he learned his lesson and wouldn't ask me to do that again. The next night he sent me a Facebook message asking me if a date suited me for the next gig. "What?" I replied. "You want me to do that again?" "Well, heck yeah, I do. Can you make it or not?" That was a year ago, and the Rob Moorman and Company trio has been doing it once a month since then. We'll be back in action at Mobius Coffeehouse this Friday. I thought that somewhere along the line that I'd hear, "Thanks, but we won't really be needing you any longer", but that hasn't happened.

I still feel way out of my element (the other two guys are outstanding musicians) and I'm still way more comfortable with the blues. It does keep me on my toes, especially when he takes a request from the audience or brings something new to the stage. That happens frequently, but it's all been quite fun.

P.S. on gear--I have experimented from time to time with different stage gear scenarios. One night I brought in my Kalamazoo amp (which is a great blues harp amp), and even though it is low wattage, it prove to be a bit loud for the room, so we turned it down and miked it through the p.a. Turning it down robbed it's tone, so I went back to plugging into the p.a. I've stuck with the Harp Break and Dan Echo, but I've used different mics. I used my Shure 545 stick mic a couple of times, but I missed the volume control that's built into my Astatic. The last gig I tried out my Shure Bullet with a controlled reluctance element that mic whiz Greg Heumann stuck a volume control into, and it worked really well. I think it's more compatible than the Astatic with the straight into p.a. arrangement. Hard to say, since I only do this with the trio once a month, and sometimes Raymond totes in a different p.a. head.

'Nuff for now. Excuse me while I go practice "Three Little Birds".

Read An eBook Week

My publisher is offering 40% off all eBooks they publish for the national Read An eBook week from March 3-9. Details are at this link: Barking Rain Press.

THE DEVIL'S BLUES is LIVE

Those crime fighting bluesmen, Mitty Andersen and Pete Bolden are officially back in action in The Devil's Blues which popped up on Amazon this weekend. The book is the second in my series featuring these two blues harp musicians. Once again, they lay their Marine Bands down long enough to rid the world of a bit more of the evil that finds a way to cross their paths. This time out they are trying to clear the name of a good friend accused of blowing up the congregation of his church and end up in the sights of a wicked paramilitary group aimed at bringing Christianity to its knees. 

The Devil's Blues is available in paperback at Amazon and will roll out on Barnes and Noble and a dozen other sites over the next couple of months. It'll also be offered in all the possible eBook formats. The publisher, Barking Rain Press, has eBooks available now, and they also offer a FREE PDF preview of the first four chapters. 

Once I receive a stash of books, then I'll sell signed copies from here. There will be a "buy now" button in the sidebar, similar to what exists for the predecessor, River Bottom Blues. I dang sure appreciate those of you who ordered that one and will dang sure appreciate being able to fulfill orders for the new adventure. Anyone who still needs a signed copy of River Bottom Blues, it is certainly still available and provides a significant amount of background on the protagonists, but The Devil's Blues stands alone as a story quite well. If Mitty and Pete are your kind of guys, then help me get the word out. 

I'll supply updates as the book reaches more retailers. In the meantime, I'll get another round of CD reviews up and rolling here on the blog. Thanks so much for tuning in...and stay tuned. 'Nuff for now.

Dave Nevling-Sweet Bijou

The first time I heard Dave Nevling play, the tone he produced really impressed me. More than that, though, it was his intonation on the instrument which floored me. I've reviewed his work hear before, and I'm pretty sure that I said something like "he worries the hell out of a note" on the harmonica. I can't come up with a better description of what Nevling does with each hole that he hits than that. He's back doing just that on his latest release, Sweet Bijou. I'm also quite sure that I mentioned back then that if anyone deserves wider recognition beyond his Texas stomping grounds that it is he. This release further solidifies that opinion.

If you pick it up, just skip down to the final track, Sancho, and see that I ain't fibbing. He romps through a Latin tinged instrumental and gets everything he wants out of each hole that crosses his lips and tongue. He immaculately intones deep bends, double stops, flutter tongues, octaves and runs up and down the diatonic. I don't know if he'd call himself a perfectionist or not, but if so, then he's achieved that goal. Then go back a few tracks to Drink You Away for a taste of what he pulls out acoustically. To me, what separates the great players from the also rans is an acoustic tone that proves they don't have to rely on amplification to achieve a fabulous tone. Any weakness in intonation will be revealed with just harp to mouth. This track proves that Nevling has no weaknesses when it comes to pulling notes out of our humble diatonic.

Of course, I'm darned sure not saying that the other tracks aren't just as worthy; they are in spades. Nevling is certainly the proverbial triple threat. He writes great songs (these are all originals), plays the hell out his harp and sings his butt off. I'm quite sure that apprenticing with Gulf Coast legend, Bert Wills, was quite instrumental in helping him get his vocal chops together sufficiently enough to strike out with his own band. He vocals are fine through out, but if you're still skipping around, cue up Night Into Day. It's a marvelous ballad with a vintage vibe that he just slays vocally. I was going to compare it to a classic that it reminded me of, but as I sat down to write, that memory faded away. Actually, I hate doing those comparisons anyway, so forget about it.

A Dave Nevling release is aways about flowing through a variety of moods and modes. Upside is a nasty little number, lyrically as well as tonewise, on which he produces an accordion sound from his harp; I suspect with help from the Lone Wolf Octave pedal that he sticks into this Meteor Mini Meat amplifier. Guitaris Tom Bryan dishes out a fine solo on the tune and plays pretty darned tastefully throughout.

On the title cut, Nevling nails down and absolutely rules the use of hitting octave runs on the swampy song and stays with that Louisiana vibe with a rocking rhythm on Vieux Carre (which I assume is about partying in New Orleans' French Quarter). Lenora reeks of an Otis Rush style (see, I did use a comparison after all) minor keyed blues on which he whips out his skill on the chromatic. He doesn't chime in with the big harp until the five minute mark of the seven minute tune, but he doesn't hold back once he does. Bryan helps get that slow mo groove going with some nice string bending, similar in style to...naw.

He rounds out Josiah, about an innocent man executed, by playing organ to help set the tone. Drummer, Joe Campise and bassman, Jeff Parmenter are instrumental in providing stomping rhythms to lend a bit of seriousness to the song. Nevling pulls some of his deepest, dark tones on this one.

Connie's Cafe and I Need Love are both jumping, rollicking numbers. The former jumps and jives with some rockabilly picking, standup bass playing off the drums, and more expertly delivered octaves, flutter tongued licks (which he's mastered) and note pulls from Nevling. The latter is just some good time rock and roll on which he and Bryan bounce notes off each other. Heck of a tight band that he's leading down the road.

If he's playing third position harp on the opening cut, She's All That, and I think he is, then I'd have to say that it's some of the best harmonica that I've heard using such. If it's not in third, then the playing is deep toned and deep fried and well played anyway.

That's about all I have to say, other than...just get it. I know CD Baby has it available. His previous releases can be found there, also. As a disclaimer, I guess I need to mention that, yes, Dave Nevling is a friend of mine, and that, yes, he offered me a copy. I sent him a copy of River Bottom Blues as a swap. I got the better deal. I know that he'll read my book only once, but I'll listen to Sweet Bijou numerous times.