The Blues Comes Alive…Live – Part I

For people who have frequently visited this blog or know me otherwise, this won’t come as a big surprise: I love the blues and blues rock. I also feel it’s a type of music that’s perfect to be experienced live. I was reminded of this on Saturday when thanks to fellow blogger Mike from Ticket 2 Ride I listened to Layla Revisited (Live at LOCKN’).

This cool live album by Tedeschi Trucks Band, released back in July, celebrates Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the sole 1970 studio album by Derek and the Dominos. And just like blues musicians often feed off one another, I let this inspire me and decided to come up with a post of great live blues and blues rock performances. I’m going to do this in two parts. Hope you dig this as much as I do!

B.B. King/The Thrill Is Gone

Let’s kick off part I with the king of electric guitar blues, the amazing B.B. King. He demonstrated that it’s not about speed and how many notes you play, it’s what you play. And when it comes to this man, he made every note count he played on his beloved “Lucille”. Check out this cool rendition of The Thrill Is Gone, captured in Chicago at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival. Written by Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell and first recorded by Hawkins in 1951, The Thrill Is Gone became a major hit for King in 1969 and I would argue his signature song. King is joined by many of the musicians he influenced, including Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan, among others. Check it out, this is just amazing!

John Lee Hooker/Boogie Chillen’

Recently, I watched the great documentary Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away, in which Guy identified John Lee Hooker’s Boogie Chillen’ as the first single he bought, and the song that got him hooked to the guitar and the blues! I’m thrilled I found this clip of Hooker performing the tune with Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones in 1989 in Atlantic City, N.J. That’s what I call a cool backing band! Hooker wrote and first recorded the song in 1948. Clapton and the Stones, who are huge fans of American blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker and have done a lot to promote their music, especially in the U.S., clearly cherished the moment.

Muddy Waters/Rollin’ Stone

Speaking of Muddy Waters, here’s a great live performance of Rollin’ Stone, the very song that inspired the name of the “world’s greatest rock & roll band.” An interpretation of delta blues tune Catfish Blues, Waters recorded Rollin’ Stone in 1950. The clip shows his performance of the song at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. It’s the oldest footage features in this two-part post.

Cream/Crossroads

Cream possibly are my all-time favorite blues rock band. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker perfectionated the art of the power trio. Here’s a great clip of Crossroads performed by the band in March 1968 at the Fillmore Auditorium & Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Written by Robert Johnson who originally recorded it as Cross Road Blues in 1936, Crossroads (arranged by Clapton) appeared on Cream’s 1968 album Wheels of Fire. The live version on the record seems to be the same than the one that is captured in this clip.

Dani Wilde/Mississippi Kisses

Buddy Guy, who together with Taj Mahal is one of the last men standing of what I would call the old blues guard, often speaks about the need for young artists to come along to keep the blues alive when he will be gone. I’m actually pretty optimistic about this. Some great examples coming to mind include 22-year-old Christone “Kingfish” Ingram; 24-year-old Jontavious Willis who has been called “wunderkind” by none other than Mahal; or 44-year-old Kenny Wayne Shepherd. But guess what? There are also some dynamite female blues and blues rock artists out there like 36-year-old British singer-songwriter Dani Wilde. Ana Popović, Shemekia Copeland and Eliana Cargnelutti are among some of the others who come to mind. Here’s a 2015 performance by Wilde of Mississippi Kisses, a tune she wrote for her 2012 album Juice Me Up.

J. Geils Band/First I Look at the Purse

A post about great live renditions of blues rock tunes would be amiss without the ultimate party group, the J. Geils Band, don’t you agree? I think it’s also a perfect way to wrap up part I. Here’s a cool clip taken from what looks like a 1979 appearance of the band on the German music TV program Rockpalast. One of my all-time favorites by the J. Geils Band is their high energy rendition of First I Look at the Purse. It’s the main part of this encore medley, which starts at around 4 minutes into the clip. Co-written by Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers, the song was first released by Motown R&B group The Contours in 1965. J Geils Band recorded their cover of the tune for their eponymous debut album from November 1970, but it’s really their live rendition that brings out the song’s true magic. When watching this, don’t you feel like dropping anything you’re doing right now and going to a fuckin’ rock & roll show? What a killer performance by a killer live band!

Sources: Wikipedia; Discogs; YouTube

Woke Up This Morning, With the Blues in My Head (Ahhh)…

Woke up this morning, with the blues in my head…

I don’t even want to pretend I know how to write lyrics, so let’s better stop it right here. But the content of these words largely reflects the truth, if you allow that “the blues in my head” actually was a set of headphones and that I was listening to a Buddy Guy tune, followed by a Walter Trout song this morning.

While I never need an excuse to blog about music I dig, the aforementioned little episode gave me the idea to put together a post about blues and blues rock tunes, so I wanted to acknowledge it. In fact, I would say the majority of my blogging is triggered by spontaneous music encounters. With that explanation out of the way, let’s get to some music!

Buddy Guy/I Suffer With the Blues

Given the intro, it makes sense to kick things off with Buddy Guy. This is a tune from his 1967 debut album Left My Blues in San Francisco. I Suffer With the Blues was written by Guy who today, more than 50 years years later at age 84, still plays his energetic brand of electric guitar blues. I guess he wasn’t kidding when he titled his 17th studio album from July 2015 Born to Play Guitar, an amazing album, btw.

Janis Joplin/Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)

Boy, would I have loved to see Janis Joplin in concert! Her incredibly powerful voice and her energy were just off the charts. Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) is the incredible opener of what sadly was Joplin’s only solo album that appeared during her short lifetime, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, released in September 1969. The tune was co-written by Jerry Ragovoy and Chip Taylor.

Walter Trout/All Out Of Tears

Since I listened to Survivor Blues, Walter Trout’s aptly titled studio album from Jan 2019, I’ve really come to dig this bluesman who originally is from New Jersey. After overcoming alcohol and drug addiction in the ’80s and making it through a liver transplant necessitated by liver failure, Trout perhaps is the ultimate blues rock survivor. All Out Of Tears is a tune from is most recent album Ordinary Madness that came out in August 2020. The great slow blues, which has a bit of a Gary Moore vibe, was co-written by him, his wife and manager Marie Trout and blues fellow artist Teeny Tucker.

Bonnie Raitt/Mighty Tight Woman

While Bonnie Raitt crosses genres, I simply couldn’t do this post without including her. She’s one of my all-time favorite artists, not only because of her extraordinary slide guitar playing, but also because of her sincerity. Raitt covered Mighty Tight Woman, a Sippie Wallace tune, on her eponymous debut album from November 1971.

B.B. King/What Happened

B.B. King needs no further introduction. I pretty much could have picked any tune. What Happened is from Completely Well, King’s 17th studio album released in December 1969, which is best known for his cover of The Thrill Is Gone. What Happened holds the distinction of being the only tune on the album, which was written by King.

Dani Wilde/Bring Your Loving Home

The blues is a genre that has a number of great young female guitarists. One is 35-year-old Dani Wilde from South West England. At age 22, she was signed to Ruf Records, an independent German blues label, a force in blues with an impressive roster of artists. A significant portion of them are women. Bring Your Loving Home, written by Wilde, is the opener of her debut album Heal My Blues from 2008.

Stevie Ray Vaughan/Pride and Joy

A post about blues tunes really would be incomplete without Stevie Ray Vaughan. Sadly, this amazing guitarist from Texas lost his life already at age 35 in a helicopter crash, one of so many talented musicians who died in air travel accidents. Pride and Joy, written by Vaughan, appeared on his debut album Texas Floods released in June 1983. He’s also an artist I would have loved to see live.

Ana Popović/Fearless

Serbian blues singer and guitarist Ana Popović, who currently resides in Los Angeles, is another talented female artist who started her solo career at Ruf Records with the album Hush! from January 2001. Written by Popović, Fearless is the opener of her fifth studio album Unconditional that came out in August 2011.

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’/Don’t Leave Me Here

One of the coolest collaboration albums I know is TajMo from May 2017, which brought together two blues greats from different generations: Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’. I was fortunate to catch them during a tour they did that year to support the album – one of the best shows I’ve seen. Here’s the fantastic opener Don’t Leave Me Here cowritten by Gary Nicholson, Mo’ and Mahal.

Eliana Cargnelutti/Just For Me

Time to wrap up this post. How many female blues guitarists from Italy do you know? Had you asked me that question a few years ago, I would have come up completely empty. I “discovered” Eliana Cargnelutti in January 2019, when I did a feature on female blues artists. The 31-year-old from Udine, Italy, who is yet another artist on Ruf Records’ roster, has released two albums to date. Here is Just For Me, a track from Cargnelutti’s sophomore album Electric Woman  released in January 2015.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube

Ladies Singing The Blues And Killing It – An Encore

Last October, I wrote about five outstanding female blues artists who may not be top of mind when thinking about the genre. I was reminded of this recently when fellow blogger Music Enthusiast included British blues rock guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor in one of his “New Music Revues” and during a discussion noted an increasing number of female guitarists nowadays, especially blues. This inspired me to do some more digging on female blues artists to see who else is out there. Here are three additional dynamite ladies singing the blues. They are also great guitarists. And none of them is from the U.S.

Dani Wilde

Dani Wilde (left in above picture) is a 33-year-old blues and country singer-songwriter from Hullavington, a village in Southwest England. In 2007, she signed with German independent record label Ruf Records and released her debut album Heal My Blues in January 2008. Six additional records featuring Wilde have since appeared, the most recent being Live At Brighton Road from June 2017. According to her website, Blues Blast Magazine called Wilde “a modern day British blues phenomenon” and the album “a treat for the ear and the eyes.” Over the past 10 years, Wilde has performed across Europe, America, Canada and Africa and shared tickets with artists like Johnny Winter, Robben Ford, Bobby Womack and Taj Mahal. Here’s Don’t Quit Me Baby from the above live album, a tune written by Wilde.

Ana Popović

Ana Popović (middle in above picture) is a blues guitarist and singer from Serbia, who was born in Belgrade in May 1976 (then Yugoslavia). According to Popović’s website, her father, a guitar and bass player with an impressive blues and soul collection, always invited friends for nightly jam sessions. Popović started playing guitar as a 15-year-old and four years later formed the band Hush. In 1998, she recorded her first album with Hush, Hometown. Shortly thereafter, Popović went to The Netherlands and started to study jazz guitar. The following year, she formed the Ana Popović Band there and decided to terminate her studies after signing a deal with Ruf Records. BTW, that label seems to do a great job with signing new blues artists. In early 2001, Popović’s solo debut Hush! came out. She has since released 10 additional albums. Popović and her six-piece band have shared stages with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck and Joe Bonamassa, among others. Here’s a great funky tune called Like It On Top, the title track from her latest album, which appeared last September and was co-produced by her and Keb’ Mo’. Co-written by the two, the track features Robben Ford on guitar.

Eliana Cargnelutti

Eliana Cargnelutti (right in above picture) is a 29-year-old guitarist and singer from Udine, Italy. According to her website, she graduated in jazz guitar at the conservatory “G. Frescobaldi” in Ferrara…is the new hope of Italian rock blues…and one of the rare real front women of the Italian scene.  She plays a flavor of rock blues with a bit of everything in between: electric funk, mixed with pop and jazzy instrumentals, raw rock, tight blues grooves, illuminated by her skills as an electric guitarist. In addition to various Italian blues artists, Cargnelutti has played with American artists like John Craig (guitarist of Ike & Tina Turner), Peter Stroud (guitarist of Sheryl Crow) and the Joe Pitts Band. To date she has released two solo albums: Love Affairs (November 2013) and Electric Woman (January 2015). She also appeared together with Sadie Johnson and Heather Crosse on Girls With Guitars, a record and tour project by yes, you guessed it right: Ruf Records. Here’s I’m A Woman, an original tune from Electric Woman – mamma mia!

With all this great music, I can’t help but think about Etta James’ line The blues is my business, and business is good. Still, when it comes to female blues artists, I feel they still don’t get the limelight they deserve. But with labels like Ruf Records and kick-ass artists such as the above, things seem to be changing.

Sources: Wikipedia, Dani Wilde website, Ana Popović website, Eliana Cargnelutti website, YouTube