Bill Perry

Crazy Kind of Life

Blind Pig 5078

Good records can be based on so many things - rhythm, theme, narrative, arrangement, improvisation, special effects, novelty, tradition, talent, tone - the list goes on. This one is based on tone, rhythm and more tone. There is a school of blues guitar in which the instrument chants and ululates like the chorus in a prehistoric religious ritual. It's a sound that goes beyond the ears; it's heard in the bloodstream, and it's answered by instincts that were old before Eve told Adam he needed a new fig leaf. Mojo Collins gets this kind of trance going sometimes. A few others do. In this school of blues guitar, Bill Perry is the principal.

His licks would be excessive and egotistical if he changed his equipment or equipment settings, but his rig is perfect. He's a Fender Telecaster man, and that's an axe that cuts. Backing vocalists, percussionists, piano, organ and harmonica might compete with or overshadow some guitars, but a Telly in the right hands can always be heard. Bill Perry's got the right hands, and you will want to hear what he's doing on these ten originals and one cover. A lot of acts want to sound like this, and a lot of them actually think they do, but it's actually quite rare for a blues band to nail it like this. Crazy Kind of Life is a well-rounded album, with song titles and feelings ranging from "Trouble in the Shotgun," a rollicking, rocking swamp pop blues piece, to "Morning Spiritual," an introspective, slow, subtly daring instrumental.

The aforementioned cover song deserves a paragraph of its own. It's "No Expectations," from the Rolling Stones' 1968 Beggars Banquet album, and it features guest vocals and acoustic guitar from Richie Havens. His trademark hoarse, folk vocals and percussive guitar lend a unique poignancy to the song that sounds like exactly what Mick and Keith were reaching for. Chris O'Leary's harmonica, too, is sensitive and caressing to the song's intentions.

The Ford Blues Band

In Memory of Mike Bloomfield

Blue Rock'It Records BR136

Mike Bloomfield's so famous that about five of one hundred general entertainment publication readers will have heard of him. Of those, three will be able to name, more or less guessing, some of the people he played with. One might know that he or she has at one time owned an album actually featuring Mike Bloomfield. Yet Mike Bloomfield was important. He was one of the first white rock guitarists to figure out where electric guitar really belonged in songs featuring well-amplified horn sections and organs. He contributed to the overall sounds we associate with Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield and John Hammond. Neither a frontman nor a businessman, Bloomfield sank slowly into the backwaters of rock-blues-rock before dying of an accidental drug overdose in 1981.

Robben Ford, an almost-first line blues guitarist/vocalist, was first hooked on his own career path by seeing the Butterfield Blues Band in 1965, and has been a Bloomfield apostle ever since. This album may be regarded as his "testimony." It includes five good, tastefully short interview segments with MB himself and some of his admirers and survivors and 13 very sweet, very adept covers of tunes associated, at least to hardcore fans like Robben Ford, with him.

The guitar sound is vintage 1969, back when improvisation was a new import from blues and jazz into rock. Important and telling about Ford himself, the other frontline instruments here, organ and harmonica, sound just as authentic. This could be a collection of out takes from the Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Stephen Stills Super Sessions release. The "Feelin' Groovy" half-speed jam is particularly facile and true.

Especially in today's economy, a hybrid rock-blues album themed as a tribute by an almost famous performer to an almost forgotten one is going to face some marketing challenges. Rock and blues fans and afficionados can help this project spread the Gospel of Bloomfield as both MB and Robben Ford deserve by finding and buying it. It is flawlessly executed and produced, and I cannot imagine any purchaser being disappointed.

Deborah Coleman

Soul Be It

Blind Pig 5079

I met Deborah Coleman in Charleston some years ago, when she came down from her parents' home in Chesapeake, Virginia to compete in a blues talent contest for which I served as a judge. I gave her a high score and was very happy when she won gigs and recording time. As I recall, she embraced the judges and contest organizers when her results were announced.

Deborah Coleman has been on the road since then, impressing live audiences, reviewers and labels as much as or more than she impressed that Low Country Blues Society judges' table a decade ago. She has become familiar to and with bandstands. She's a more than competent guitarist and vocalist within the Chicago-derivative modern blues mainstream. There's nothing wrong with her at all. There's nothing wrong with her band at all. Her live performances are probably very well received because even the squarest, most Caucasian Caucasians can figure out when to applaud when an African-American woman takes the stage. She's just not doing anything cutting edge or spectacular. This is a solid B.