Blues Deluxe

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note as well as spotlights on those titles in the aforementioned genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar.

BLUES DELUXE May 17, 2020

Spring 2020

By Doug Collette

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note. It spotlights titles in those genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. David Clayton-Thomas Say Somethin' Linus Entertainment 2020 Circa “Spinnin' Wheel" plus “And When I Die," David Clayton-Thomas' is best-known voice of Blood Sweat and Tears. But his savvy production takes precedence over immediately-recognizable singing within the topicality of Say ...

BLUES DELUXE March 28, 2020

Cotton Pickin' Blues

By Martin McFie

Blues began with enslaved African peoples' work songs in the cotton fields of the Deep South of America. The Slave Narrative of Mr. Sam Polite, given at 93 years of age, chronicles that life. It was written on St. Helena, a cotton producing Sea Island in the Carolinas, where Mr. Polite was born into slavery. The Sea Island slaves were cut off from the mainland, there were no bridges and they had no boats so the musical traditions were locked ...

BLUES DELUXE February 8, 2020

Winter 2020

By Doug Collette

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note. It spotlights titles in those genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. Sugar Blue Colors Beeble Music 2020 Musiclovers listening to Colors may or may not be aware they've heard Sugar Blue in the past: his was the saucy harp featured so prominently on the Rolling Stones' “Miss You." Nevertheless, the ...

BLUES DELUXE September 4, 2019

Late Summer 2019

By Doug Collette

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note. It spotlights titles in those genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. The Mike Duke Project ...took a while Little Village Foundation 2019 ...took a while is an absolutely delightful piece of work in which Mike Duke's sharp pop sensibilities run parallel to (and often intersect with) his soul/r&b roots. ...

BLUES DELUXE June 29, 2019

Summer 2019

By Doug Collette

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note. It spotlights titles in those genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. Johnny Shines The Blues Came Falling Down: Live 1973 Omnivore Recordings 2019 The cumulative force of Johnny Shines' performances here, recorded nearly a half-century ago and unreleased until now, deliver an impact that belies his lone voice underpinned with ...

BLUES DELUXE October 14, 2018

Fall 2018

By Doug Collette

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note. It spotlights titles in those genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. Introductory text goes here. Shemekia Copeland America's Child Alligator Records 2018 Notwithstanding its topical undercurrent, Shemekia Copland's American's Child packs a wallop because of its fundamental musical virtues: the quality of the material, the unity of the core accompanists ...

BLUES DELUXE July 28, 2018

Summer 2018

By Doug Collette

Blues Deluxe is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent blues and roots-music releases of note. It spotlights titles in those genres that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. Brother Dege Farmer's Almanac Psyouthern Records2018 Brother Dege is in no hurry on Farmer's Almanac. He and his accompanists The Brethren proceed patiently on “Partial to the Bitters," subsequently proceeding apace as if hell-hounds are on their trail, while ...