Over the past decade or so Steve Dawson has become such an indelible fixture on the Canadian musical landscape that it’s tempting to take him for granted. One of the drawbacks of being so talented is that Dawson makes everything he does sound so effortless. The music that continually flows out of him is so natural and unforced that it’s possible to forget all of the toil that went into producing it. Behind the organic, flowing guitar work, the crisp arrangements and the laconic singing voice, resides one of the brightest, hardest working musicians the country has ever produced.

 

A new solo album from Steve is always something special. Because Dawson is such a diverse artist, you’re never quite sure what kind of mood he’ll be in when he finally makes it into the studio to record. A master of many genres from gentle acoustic ditties and gut bucket blues through to free flowing experimental compositions, Dawson is comfortable in almost any musical setting you could name, and his newest album, “Nightshade” draws from these many interests to form his most satisfyingly complete album to date.

 

Howard Glazer & the EL34s latest CD, Wired For Sound, is finally here!! Issued by the Detroit based label Lazy Brothers Records, and distributed world wide by Blue Skunk Music.

Howard Glazer & the EL34s latest CD, Wired For Sound, is finally here!! Issued by the Detroit based label Lazy Brothers Records, and distributed world wide by Blue Skunk Music.

Posted: March 10, 2011

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Even without his nimble fingers touching their strings, Eric Clapton's guitars rocked New York City on Wednesday as an auction of them brought in millions of dollars.

 

A 1948 Gibson L-5P sold for $82,960, well above its presale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. And a replica of a prized Clapton guitar that duplicates the cigarette burns and belt buckle scratches found on the original sold for $30,500 at the auction.

 

The sale at Bonhams New York included 75 guitars and 55 amps from the British artist's collection and brought in $2.15 million. Proceeds were to benefit a drug and alcohol treatment center Clapton founded in the West Indies.

 

The 65-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is a recovered addict who established the nonprofit Crossroads Centre in Antigua in 1998.

 

The replica Fender Stratocaster "Blackie" guitar is inscribed in silver felt pen with "Eric Clapton 2010." The original "Blackie" sold at Christie's in 2004 for $959,500. It was the most expensive guitar ever to be sold at auction, said Bonhams' expert, Carey Wallace. The Los Angeles-based Guitar Center bought it.

 

Other Clapton guitars sold even better than the "Blackie" replica Wednesday.

 

An original custom-made black Fender "Eric Clapton" signature Stratocaster sold for $51,240, including the buyer's premium. It had been used during the Cream Reunion Shows in New York and London in 2005. Its presale estimate was $20,000 to $30,000.

 

The amp with the loudest sale price was a pair of 1997 Fender Twin Amps, estimated at $9,000 to $12,000. They sold for a booming $42,700.

 

                             

 

(Woodstock, NY) Legendary blues singer Gregg Allman, top grossing action film star Steven Seagal and New Orleans sensation Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have been added to the star-filled lineup of the Bluestock Festival which  will take place at the beautiful Hunter Mountain ski resort in Hunter, NY on August 26th-28th.

 

Gregg Allman will join Buddy Guy and Elvin Bishop as one of Bluestock’s headlining acts. The Allman Brothers Band leader is currently touring behind his critically acclaimed solo album Low Country Blues, which debuted near the top of the Billboard charts in January. Allman continues to lead the Allman Brothers Band, who will kick off a three-week run at New York’s historic Beacon Theatre tonight.

 

Action star Steven Seagal has also joined Bluestock’s lineup as a special co-host of the Festival and performer along with his blues band Thunderbox. Seagal has played guitar since the age of 12 and released his first album, the blues-inspired Songs from The Crystal Cave, in 2004. His authentic approach to the blues recalls the work of blues greats such as Muddy Waters, BB King, Bo Diddley and Robert Lockwood.

 

Bluestock has also added rising New Orleans brass band Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue to its list of emerging artists. Known for his work with U2, Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz and Galactic, Trombone Shorty stepped into the spotlight with his 2010 crossover hit Backatown. Trombone Shorty can also be seen on the popular HBO series ­Treme. 

 

Bluestock’s inaugural lineup already includes Buddy Guy, Elvin Bishop, Tommy Castro & The LRBR (featuring Joe Louis Walker, Deanna Bogart and Rick Estrin), Tab Benoit, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Curtis Salgado, Zac Harmon, Bob Margolin & Matt Hill, The Reba Russell Band, Shakura S'Aida, Mitch Woods & Billy Gibson, Moreland & Arbuckle, The Alexis P Suter Band, Trampled Under Foot, Bruce Katz, Albert Cummings, Ty Curtis, Port City Prophets and 2011 International Blues Challenge winner, the Lionel Young Band. 

---

 

 

I had forgotten about Cyndi Lauper’s voice. It’s that notorious New York City accent that seems to particularly percolate in the borough of Queens, where indeed Lauper was born in Ozone Park. In a way, she sounds like a character in the now-defunct American sitcom The Nanny – all drawn-out vowels and nasal sounds. It’s not quite Brooklyn, Frankie Valli-thick, but it’s on the way.

 

 

This distinctive way of sounding-out words seems to become more exaggerated when Lauper talks about the blues – that glorious, melancholy, quintessentially American style of music that originated in the Deep South at the end of the 19th century as vivid narrative ballads about the trials of African-American life. Indeed Lauper’s most recent album, Memphis Blues, released last year, is a collection of blues covers and features appearances by seminal artists such as BB King, Jonny Lang, Allen Toussaint, Ann Peebles and Charlie Musselwhite.

 

“I’ve wanted to do a blues record for eight years,” Lauper tells SX. “I figured I might as well do it now while I still have teeth in my neck.”

 

"That sensual metaphor is perfect for the blues – a musical style that, perhaps more than any other, is designed to evoke both pleasure and pain. “The way everything has been going, especially in my country, people have got the blues,” Lauper says. “Things are happening – it’s tough out there."

 

“The best thing about the blues is the temporal thing, and I thought to reach out to people, strike a chord in their hearts and where it hurts, and then lift them up with spirit and humour, would be a good thing to do.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why would someone pay $959,500 for a used guitar?

 

That was a difficult enough question in 2004 when Eric Clapton sold his beloved Fender Stratocaster named Blackie. But now, as collectors around the world prepare to bid Wednesday at another charity auction of Mr. Clapton’s guitars, the questions are even tougher.

Why would someone create a replica of Blackie, complete with every single nick and scratch, including the wear pattern from Mr. Clapton’s belt buckle and the burn mark from his cigarettes? And why is that replica expected to fetch at least $20,000 at Wednesday’s auction, and probably much more?

Fortunately, social scientists have been hard at work on the answers. After conducting experiments and interviewing guitar players and collectors, they have just published papers analyzing “celebrity contagion” and “imitative magic,” not to mention “a dynamic cyclical model of fetishization appropriate to an age of mass-production.”

---

 

Kitchener, Canada – Heartwood Place, a well respected provider of affordable housing in the Region, has a great track record for presenting exceptional musical events. They will be hosting the Ninth Annual Heartwood Blues on March 26 at the Newfoundland Club in Cambridge.

 

The line up includes Dylan Wickens & The Grand Naturals who released their debut album, “Tattoo Black” to rave reviews and can be heard from coast to coast on commercial radio and The Galaxie Radio Network. They are garnering nominations and accolades including the 2009 Maple Blues Award and are a force to be reckoned with in the Canadian Blues music scene.

 

Bill Durst is an audience favourite and has been compared to the very best guitar players/singers/entertainers anywhere in the world. He has written and recorded over 100 songs on ten albums including 7 charted Canadian radio hits. Bill’s live performance is pure showmanship and the audience is always left wanting more.

 

 

The headliner, Paul James, is well known to all Blues fans. Having just celebrated his 60th birthday, James is a multi-Juno and Toronto Music Award Winner who has played with the likes of Bob Dylan, Bo Diddley, and Spencer Davis to name just a few. His talents as a guitarist, vocalist, band leader, stage acrobatic, and songwriter have allowed James to produce the music he loves for over three decades. This is a show not to be missed.

 

Ninth Annual Heartwood Blues Festival 

 

What could be letter than an evening with a fine acoustic blues artist? How about an evening with four fine acoustic blues artists?

 

 

 

The occasion was modestly billed as "The Greatest Acoustic Blues Show On Earth," and held at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, Fla., where, if you'll remember, BlueNotes has his winter headquarters.And for a few hours Saturday night, it lived up to its billing.

 

The featured artists were (in case you didn't read the the headline) Roy "Book" Binder, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Paul Geremia and Rory Block.Yes, it was a good evening, each offered a good look why he/she is considered one of the best at what he/she does. Let's take a look at them in the order they performed.

 

Binder is a wry, wiry guy with a deceptively easy fingerpicking style, clever songwriting skills and a cool cap.

 

He's one of the acknowledged acoustic masters, and demonstrated all his skills with original tunes like "St. Pete Blues" (dedicated to his home town), "New Age Woman Blues," and more traditional material like Blind Boy Fuller's "Rag Mama Rag," Mississippi John Hurt's "Keep on Knockin'," and Pink Anderson's "C.C. and O. Blues."

 

Next was the very pleasant surprise of Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, an acoustic player from Bentonia, Miss., and from that small but influential school of blues guitar -- think Skip James and Jack Owens.

 

Paul Geremia followed an intermission, an irascible dude with a floppy fedora, and a sly way with his guitar and lyrics. And an amazing set of fingers.

 

Rory Block closed the night with her usual amazing guitar work on blues classics like Johnson's "Crossroads Blues" and "Me and the Devil Blues," Son House's "Death Letter Blues," ''Preachin' Blues," and an old acoustic Muddy Waters tune, "I Be Bound."

 

So it was indeed a fine night, enjoying the spirit of great blues. 

 

Click here to view video.

---

We hear the blues, watch the performances and even take home a cd as a souvenier.  Do we ever think of what goes into creating a cd insert, artist promo pack or even a magazine cover?  I know that I have thought to myself, "Wow, that artist looks great!"  Hardly ever have I thought, "I wonder who took that great photo!"  Over the next few weeks I will be asking one varying question to different photographers who are hot on the blues artists' trails.  I will also ask them to loan us their favorite photo to show off and a link to their work.

 

This week - California blues photographer Mary Franklin.

Q: Everyone has goals in their chosen profession. Who would be your ultimate living goal to photograph?

 

A:  This past January, I was given a gift. I was trying to do a photo-documentary project for Lukas Nelson and his band, Promise of The Real. They were booked for a few days at The Fillmore in San Francisco. I was thrilled to be able to do this project. Shooting at the Fillmore was a dream I had from when I was growing up in New York, listening to the stories of the Grateful Dead and all the iconic artists who have graced that historic stage. It was the only large-scale, San Francisco, venue I had never seen from the inside.

As it so happened, Lukas and his band were the opener for Willie Nelson. It was thrilling to photograph the whiskery bandit from the balcony, the front row and everywhere else I was able to stick my lens, but I have yet to meet him and talk with him, so... technically, he's still at the top spot. 

 

March 4, 2011

 

KEITH RICHARDS may be the guitarist who helps Hubert Sumlin with his medical bills, but when Mr. Sumlin, 79, himself a renowned blues guitarist, talks about the younger musicians he admires, Eric Clapton’s name comes up most often.

 

 

“He’s a guy, let me tell you — Eric Clapton’s a guy who can really play the blues,” Mr. Sumlin said recently in an interview at the home he shares here with his manager, Toni Ann Mamary, and her elderly parents. “I feel it when he plays. He’s got soul, and a lot of it.” The oxygen tank that accompanies Mr. Sumlin everywhere these days, even onstage, whirred softly on the carpeted floor beside him, and a pair of tubes attached to it were hitched up to his nose. (He had surgery in 2002 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York after learning he had lung cancer.) But that did not distract him from animatedly relating a string of tales dating back to the 1930s.

 

Born in 1931 in Greenwood, Miss., Mr. Sumlin, who took up the guitar at age 6, first met his own musical mentor, Howlin’ Wolf, at a roadhouse nearby.

---

 

New is old and old is new for Eric Clapton, who performs Sunday at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center (formerly the Sports Arena). It’s his first area appearance since a 2007 show at the same venue, where he was memorably joined mid-show by longtime musical pal (and spotlight-shunning Valley Center resident) J.J. Cale.

 

 

At 65, Clapton is a tireless rock legend seeking new artistic vistas. As evidenced by his latest album, 2010’s “Clapton,” he is now gaining fresh inspiration by embracing vintage jazz and blues songs that predate his birth.

 

Moreover, he is doing so with so much warmth and reverence that it’s clear he has more than nostalgia — if not Georgia — on his mind. (“Georgia On My Mind” composer Hoagy Carmichael is represented on “Clapton” by another of his classics, “Rocking Chair.”)

 

“I never liked young kids’ music. I like old people’s music,” the bearded guitarist, singer and songwriter said upon the release of “Clapton” last fall. 

---

 

The full lineup is out for this year's Beale Street Music Festival, which takes place Friday, April 29th through Sunday, May 1st at Tom Lee Park. It's being heralded by Memphis in May as "the biggest lineup ever." At the very least, it's certainly one of the most interesting and most contemporary lineups in a long time, blending the familiar mix of strong local, blues, jam-rock, and hard-rock acts with a better-than-usual blend of contemporary hip-hop/pop (Ludacris, Ke$ha) and alt/indie/roots-rock acts (Wilco, MGMT).

 

 

And if you watched last month's Grammy broadcast, you'll see lots of familiar faces, with four Grammy performers — Cee Lo, B.O.B., Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers — on the bill. 

      

 

The Bluesmobile roars into Chicago this week, with a look back at Chess Records. Highlights of the label’s history will be played, including tracks from Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson. Plus Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Koko Taylor, Etta James, Fontella Bass, and more. Then there is brand new Chicago style old school blues out of San Francisco, from Tip of the Top. And some music to give away to a few lucky listeners this week.  Joe Bonamassa’s new CD is called Dust Bowl.

 

 

 

RBA Publishing Inc is based in Reno, NV with a satellite office in Beverly Hills, Florida. We produce the annual Blues Festival Guide magazine (now in its 7th year), the top-ranking website: www.BluesFestivalGuide.com, and this weekly blues newsletter: The Blues Festival E-Guide with approximately 20,000 weekly subscribers. We look forward to your suggestions, critiques, questions, etc.

Reach the E-Guide editor, Gordon Bulcock, gordon@bluesfestivalguide.com

or contact our home office at 775-337-8626, eguide@bluesfestivalguide.com
 

back to top