Results for "Elmore James"

Elmore James

Guitarist Elmore James established himself in Chicago in 1952, forming his legendary band the Broomdusters. While never attaining the fame of fellow Mississippi expatriates Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, James became one of the city's most influential guitarists. He recorded for a variety of labels throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, leaving a legacy of slow blues, boogies, and full-fledged rave ups that dominate the musical vocabulary of Chicago blues. His slide guitar technique and signature riffs have become mainstays and are fundamental studies for any guitarist attempting this style. Elmore James was born on January 27, 1918 in Richland, Mississippi, to Leola Brooks

Zappa

By IAN PATTERSON

Alex Winter Zappa Magnolia Pictures 2020 Composer, guitarist and iconoclast nonpareil, Frank Zappa was never an easy artist to pin down, as Alex Winter's perceptive and entertaining documentary makes abundantly clear. If an artist's music should speak for itself, what are we to make of Zappa's freakish '60s collage ...

B.B. King: Through the Years

By ALAN BRYSON

Sixty-six years passed from the time in 1948 when Riley King auditioned for a spot on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program, until his final performance at the House of Blues on October 3, 2014 in Chicago. His life was a remarkable odyssey from a sharecropper's cabin to the pinnacle of success. We'll never know how many ...

Allman Brothers Band: Trouble No More: 50th Anniversary Collection

By DOUG COLLETTE

The gold-embossed lettering on the front and back cover of the roughly 5" by 7" slipcase enclosing the Allman Brothers Band's box set Trouble No More belies its otherwise generic art work. Yet the graphic design isn't all that gives the lie to an otherwise positive first impression gleaned from 50th Anniversary Collection. A glance at ...

Ronnie Wood and Mike Zito: Tributes to Chuck Berry - Playin' Guitar Like Ringin' a Bell

By DOUG COLLETTE

Chuck Berry should be revered as one of American history's great storytellers. His depictions of people ("Johnny B. Goode"), places ("Memphis Tennessee) and things ("Rock and Roll Music") carried a vivid attention to detail further distinguished by the author's immediately recognizable electric guitar sound: marrying the blues with country music Berry set himself apart from forebears ...

Live From The New Adelphi Club: Pram, The Brackish, Les Bécasses & Dr. Feelgood

By MARTIN LONGLEY

Pram The New Adelphi Club Hull, England August 13, 2019 The New Adelphi Club in Hull, England, is not so new anymore. In the last couple of months this legendary alternative haunt has celebrated its 35th anniversary, since opening in the heady post-punk days. It's mostly been a ...

Various Artists: Confessin' The Blues

By DOUG COLLETTE

If it weren't so scrupulously annotated (at least up to a point) or attractively designed, this title might be flippantly described as “The Greatest Hits of the Blues." As is, it is the third in a roots revival series of sorts. Confessin' The Blues follows Chicago Plays the Stones (Raisin' Music, 2018), where a Windy city ...

Anthem Of The Sun 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

By DOUG COLLETTE

In an essay dense with historical detail and rich in provocative allusions, Steve Silberman accurately and vividly recounts the sequence of events involved in the original production of the Grateful Dead's second studio album Anthem of the Sun. The writer recounts a herculean task, the comparable likes of which has resulted in this 50th Anniversary Deluxe ...

Kim Wilson: Blues and Boogie Vol. 1

By DOUG COLLETTE

Spearheaded by this long-time linchpin of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, on Blues and Boogie Vol. 1, a group of musicians as versatile as they are empathetic tackles classics from Little Walter, Elmore James and others. Kim Wilson and the ensemble not only display innate knowledge of its roots, but that elusive joy derived from actively honoring same. ...

Gary Clark, Jr.: Live North America 2016

By DOUG COLLETTE

At first glance and upon initial listen, Gary Clark Jr.'s Live North America 2016 suggests a holding pattern on his rapidly-developing career. More careful perusal, however, reveals the man's second concert release, out in fairly quick succession to both Live (Warner Bros., 2014) and his last studio album, The Story of Sunny Boy Slim (Warner Bros., ...