Blues CDs--Flower, Hawkins & Logan
Flower, Mary -- "Bywater Dance" (Yellow Dog Records) - A-Mary Flower is an old folkie who was transformed to a "blues" player by a workshop given by Steve James and Jim Schwall. She plays wonderful acoustic finger-style blues and rag and a mean slide guitar. Her vocals are still white-folkish, which gives the tunes an odd sound. Still, the playing is masterful and all tunes on the disc well done. I like instrumentals best. Playing is lighthearted--what she does best. Disc produced by Bloomington's Mark Bingham.
Hawkins, Ernie -- "Rags & Bones" (Indie) A-
An avid student of the Rev. Gary Davis, Hawkins has mastered many acoustic blues finger-picking styles and likes to showcase his arrangements of them via tunes of the "masters." His vocals pale next to his picking prowess; he alternates instrumentals with vocalized numbers, and is joined by Maria Muldaur on one Gary Davis number. Hawkins covers Gary Davis, Jimmy Rogers, Willie McTell, Mance Lipscomb, and some really interesting Louis Armstrong tunes. Playing is stellar. I still favor the instrumentals.
Logan, John "Juke" -- "The Truth Will Rock You" (Mocombo Records) B+
Juke is the first to say he doesn't stick absolutely to blues, and several tunes on this disc will rock you. He puts over great music backed by pal Gary Primich and Gary's band, along with Guitarists Johnny Moeller, Nick Curran and some KILLER playing by Bloomington's Dave Biller. Not to mention assists of great rhythm section artists like Sarah Brown and Jimi Bott. You can hardly go wrong. Juke (writer of "Let's Buzz") pens earthy tunes with no extra syllables and a street approach, but he still sounds like a clean white guy singing (smile). Everyone had a great time making this one.
posted by Cathi N @ 4:06:00 PM
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