Mike Zito - Blue Room

Bitrate: 192K/s
Year: 2018
Time: 50:58
Size: 72,0 MB
Label: Ruf Records
Styles: Blues/Blues Rock
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Hollywood - 4:05
 2. Pull the Trigger - 4:54
 3. It's All Good - 3:29
 4. Gravy Jam - 5:06
 5. Lovering - 7:45
 6. Shoes Blues - 3:50
 7. Ways About You - 4:15
 8. Soundcheck - 4:17
 9. Lightening Bug - 7:56
10. Rocket Man - 5:17

It’s back. The debut album that blew up the ’90s blues scene. The songs that announced the touchdown of a major new talent. In modern times, as an established solo star and former member of the globally acclaimed Royal Southern Brotherhood, Mike Zito’s reputation precedes him. But turn back the clocks. Rewind the film reels. Slip through the wormhole to 1998, when a 27-year-old punk kid took his first shot in the studio. “Blue Room,” he reflects, “is the beginning of me becoming an artist.”
By 1998, Zito had been around the block. Raised at the sharp end in St. Louis, Missouri, he’d witnessed the lean years of the ’70s, as his father – a union employee at the local Anheuser-Busch brewery – grafted to support five kids in a cramped apartment. Music was a way out, with Zito learning his craft at a downtown guitar store, then seizing any live work that fell his way. As he told the Blues Mag: “I’ve played with country bands, dance bands, rock bands, alternative bands…”
Blue Room was the moment of clarity, when Zito realised he was burning to be more than a roadhouse-filling covers band. In 1997, he assembled a dedicated lineup and announced his new mission statement: original songs written from the heart. But artistic integrity didn’t come cheap. With just $1000 for studio bills, Zito knew he had one shot. “I have many great memories of the Blue Room sessions,” he says. “It was recorded in the basement of a house outside of St. Louis. We recorded the whole album in one day and all the tracks are live with no overdubs – except the vocals. We had played the night before until 6am at an all-night club in St. Louis and went to the studio at 9am. We brought beer with us and basically did not sleep.”
Play Blue Room today and you can still feel the urgency flood through the speakers. The scratchy funk-blues of Hollywood sets a breakneck pace. Pull The Trigger has an irresistible stop-start lick that underpins Zito’s ragged vocal. It’s All Good pairs a muscular lick with a virtuoso solo. Gravy Jam andSoundcheck are chop-flexing instrumentals, while Lovering is a slow-blues pulsing with potency.
Elsewhere, Shoes Blues is a rampant good-time anthem, offset by Ways About You’s jazzy shuffle and the glassy funk of Lightning Bug. Finally, there’s a wah-soaked cover of Elton John’s Rocket Man, closing a tracklisting that offers a signpost to the artist Zito would become. “The singing is sometimes not quite there,” he considers, “and the guitar playing is so over the top. But it’s full of honesty.”
Likewise, while Zito’s later albums would find him drilling deeper as a lyricist –to examine themes from mortality to sobriety – this opening gambit captures the worldview of a young man enjoying primal pleasures. “The vibe of Blue Room is total bravado,” he reflects. “I was so full of myself back then, and mostly the songs were about partying and sex. I was 27 years old and trying to be a rock star.”
Blue Room changed everything. As the album sold, the songs began to be requested live – displacing the Cream and Hendrix covers – and Zito was heralded as an artist of rare potential. Back then, he didn’t anticipate the bitter-sweet future about to unfold – the lost years of alcoholism in the post-millennium, the salvation offered by his wife, Laura, the plaudits of Royal Southern Brotherhood in 2012 and the rising trajectory of his solo career since he picked it back up with 2015’s Keep Coming Back. But when Zito looks back now at Blue Room, he wouldn’t change a thing: “I find such joy in listening to the young man on this recording. I’m so proud that it’s finally being released by Ruf Records after twenty years…”

Blue Room

Afrissippi - Fulani Journey

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2005
Time: 47:52
Size: 109,8 MB
Label: Electric Catfish Records
Styles: Mississippi Blues/West African Music
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Ngol Jimol - 4:45
 2. Ngoppe Kam Mi Yana - 5:36
 3. Bafal - 5:22
 4. Ayo Leele - 4:31
 5. Dono - 3:51
 6. Nduumandii / Hands Off That Girl - 6:27
 7. Njulli / Fulani Journey feat. John Sinclair - 9:17
 8. Bambangel - 6:10
 9. Nawle - 1:45

Senegalese guitarist moves to Oxford town, joins Kimbrough-Burnside crew, shows Ali Farka TourA© who can play the blues ("Dono," "Ngol Jimol").
Mississippi blues and West African music continue to be fascinated by each other, and their latest reunion is a particularly potent one. Senegalese griot (and Mississippi transplant) Guelel Kumba sings in Fulani while bluesmen from R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough's bands shake Mississippi mud from their guitars. The guttural loneliness of the blues seems to find redemption in Kumba's joyous sound, and vice versa. Check out John Sinclair's cameo on "Njulli/Fulani Journey": he (perhaps unintentionally) impersonates an inebriated Tom Brokaw as he details the history of the Fulani people.

Fulani Journey

Roy Rogers & Norton Buffalo - Roots Of Our Nature

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2002
Time: 56:31
Size: 131,3 MB
Label: Blind Pig Records
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. Don't Throw Your Changes On Me - 3:49
 2. All I Want - 3:41
 3. Under The Rug - 3:23
 4. Requiem - 4:11
 5. If I Were A King - 5:34
 6. Ritmo de las Almas (Rythm Of The Souls) - 4:51
 7. Making New Love Out Of Old - 3:07
 8. Long Hard Road - 4:50
 9. Trinity - 4:09
10. Deny And Down The Distance - 5:16
11. Seven Hearts - 6:23
12. Highway Bound - 4:23
13. Happy Go Lucky - 2:49

In an intimate acoustic setting, Norton Buffalo and Roy Rogers present a set of original tunes whose flavor suggests roots much further back in time. Aside from a few tasteful string parts, Roots is all about crisp finger-picked and slide guitar, Buffalo's earthy and expressive harmonica, and each artist's agreeably unpolished vocals. Their lyrics embrace traditional imagery, from saloon balladry to ramblin' songs. On "Trinity" the words sustain an especially rustic eloquence through multiple verses dedicated to visions of salvation. If retro affectation bothers you, it's best to imagine this session transpiring on some snowy night, within the glow of an iron stove at some crossroads general store. When heard on these terms, Roots can cast a spell to remember.
As quintessentially American as corn on the cob or the rodeo, the blues-streaked music created here by slide guitarist Roy Rogers and harmonica player Norton Buffalo marks their first studio collaboration since two early-'90s releases. Buffalo, a longtime Steve Miller Band member, and Rogers, who has played with Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker, are so musically in synch that all 13 of their original songs on this CD serve as engaging testimonials to their friendship. Each West Coaster is a virtuoso on his instrument, but neither engages in showiness. Instead, their phrases combine in low-key expressions of faith, longing, struggle, and triumph. Rogers and Norton aren't outstanding singers, yet they get by without disrupting the special guitar-harp rapport at the crux of the music. Buffalo does deliver his all-time best studio vocal on "If I Were a King." --Frank-John Hadley

Roots Of Our Nature

Bill Grady - Nothing Runs Free

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2018
Time: 48:04
Size: 110,2 MB
Label: Self Released
Styles: Ckuntry Blues
Art: Front

Tracls Listing:
 1. Don't Pray for Me - 2:26
 2. Feet Don't Fail Me Now - 3:41
 3. The Wanderer - 3:17
 4. Train Came Right on Time - 4:34
 5. Weed, Wine, & Women - 3:59
 6. Ain't Lookin' Back - 5:53
 7. Automatic Weapon - 3:35
 8. Hop on the Bus - 4:22
 9. Annie's Waltz - 3:08
10. Gypsy Girl - 4:20
11. French Quarter Mile - 4:09
12. Where I Belong - 4:34

Soul-Singing and Slide guitar come together for this legendary 12-track Americana opera.
Nothing Runs Free is a twelve-track concept album that tells the story of The Wanderer, a broken soul from Louisiana looking to find the courage to confront his past and journey back home. Each track on the record draws influences from a different flavor of acoustic music, including the bluegrass-tinged rhythms of "Feet Don't Fail Me Now," the beautiful classical melody of "Annie's Waltz," the low-down bluesy swagger of "Train Came Right on Time," or the New Orleans flavor of "French Quarter Mile." Musicians on the record include Grammy-winning violinist for the Infamous Stringdusters Jeremy Garrett, Grammy-nominated harmonica player Billy Branch, banjoist Wavy Dave of Cornmeal, as well as the amazing musicians that comprise nationally renowned Grateful Dead cover band Terrapin Flyer.

Nothing Runs Free

In Layman Terms - Strong Roots

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2018
Time: 38:46
Size: 89,0 MB
Label: Endless Blues Productions
Styles: Blues/Rockin' Blues
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Strong Roots - 4:17
 2. I'm Somebody - 5:00
 3. Make Me Yours - 4:36
 4. Ain't Gonna Fake It No More - 6:13
 5. Heartbroken - 5:14
 6. Fever - 3:52
 7. Notice Me - 4:36
 8. Way Too Far - 4:53

Soulful and gritty rocking blues, with hints of R&B, funk, and jazz.
Cole and Logan Layman have grown up making music together. In 2015 they met Hamed Barbarji, and this would be the beginning of an amazing friendship and a passionate collaboration! Nick Davidson joined the band in 2017 to complete this solid foursome. The band members are multi-instrumentalists and write original music. Their unique and diverse sound ranges from gritty, foot-stomping acoustic work, to that of an electrified big-band. There are Americana undertones and a hint of modern flair in their music. They are very excited to release this sophomore album, "Strong Roots.” In Layman Terms’ Debut album "Tangled," released in 2016, received rave reviews and has been played on radio stations all over the country and internationally.
The band may be young, but they are experienced and they are not strangers to accolades. The siblings have performed Nationally as a duo, and Hamed is an International performer. Nick has played up and down the East Coast. Logan was named Veer Magazine's Emerging Artist of the Year in 2015. She was the Sea Level Singer/Songwriter’s Emerging Artist of the year in 2014. In 2013, she was named "Blues Kid of the Year." Logan endorses Ernie Ball Music Man basses, and was featured in Bass Player magazine in 2016. Cole endorses Steve Clayton custom guitar pics. Cole and Logan both endorse Farmer Foot Drums. Cole and Logan are proud inductees into The Brotherhood of the Guitar, an elite group of young guitarists from all over the world. They appeared together in the August, 2014 issue of Guitar Player Magazine.
Cole completed two years at Berklee College of Music while majoring in Music Therapy. He is continuing his education in Virginia. Cole gives private guitar lessons and performs live music weekly at Studio South. Cole also assists with the family business, Rhythmic Bliss, which facilitates community music-making through events like drum circles. Logan is a freshman at Indiana University where she is studying at both the School of Psychology and Jacob's School of Music, to earn a degree in Music Therapy. Logan performs in an acapella group called Crimson Cadence. Hamed is a junior Trumpet Performance major at Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2017, Hamed was a soloist with the Virginia Commonwealth University Symphony Orchestra, competed as a semi-finalist in the National Trumpet Competition in Denver, Colorado, performed at the Altria Theater in Richmond, Virginia, the Teatro Adolfo Mejia in Cartagena, Columbia, the MontreauxJazz Festival in Switzerland, and the Ponte Vecchio, Arno River, and the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy. He was a soloist with the Universidad De Cartagena at the Teatro Pepe Vibes Campo in Santa Marta, Colombia. Hamed is the leader of the “Hamed Barbarji Quartet,” a jazz combo that plays regularly in the Richmond and Hampton Roads area and is a frequent sub with professional orchestras in Virginia, including the Williamsburg Symphony and the Richmond Symphony. Nick is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Jazz Studies. A drum set player, he has played throughout the east coast playing almost every genre of music. Nick works at RBH drums where he and Bruce Hagwood make some of the best drums in the world. He teaches drumline at Princess Anne High School and other Virginia Beach City Public Schools and is currently playing in groups such as Grace Street Seven (20’s traditional jazz) and Hamed Barbarji Quartet (Jazz Funk). Nick endorses and is an artist of RBH Drums.

“With its NOLA flavored funk and soulful rocking blues ‘Strong Roots’ by In Layman Terms is strong medicine for the soul indeed. Logan Layman’s vocals belie her tender years, and Cole Layman’s guitar lines add passion and intensity with every note. Hamed Barbarji’s trumpet lifts the music up. Nick Davidson on drums joins Logan on bass to form a groove engine that is tight and tenacious. ‘Strong Roots’ is definitely a contender for Album of the Year.”
- Barry Kerzner, Music Journalist

“This young woman is a serious bassist with immense blues sensibility, along with a sultry retro-flavored voice with a hint of sandpaper that is irresistible. On top of that, creative songwriting and production, groove-heavy rhythm section work and fantastic performances from the whole ensemble establish In Layman’s Terms as one of the coolest music projects in modern blues.”
-Polly O' Keary Recording Artist/Bassist/Singer

“As the full of grace suspended step of the stork, Cole & Logan Layman (In Layman Terms) give a sound as gritty, traditional with modern twists - this music comes straight from their souls! A melting point of blues, jazz, funk, R&B with feeling coming from all over decades. The fresh beauty of faces, mind and soul reflected in music. We're really lucky, because the music world nowadays has Cole & Logan, I hope and wish to one day the band inspire more people to make a difference in the Blues world. I'm optimist again..."
-Michael Limnios Journalist, Europe - Mexico - USA

"It’s been a real personal treat to see the Layman siblings blossom and evolve musically through the years, but the addition of Hamed Barbarji (2015) and Nick Davidson (2017) to In Layman Terms was brilliant. With their combined talents, this tightly grooved team has put out one of this year’s most unique and refreshing CDs. STRONG ROOTS is not your typical blues CD. There are 7 original songs and a powerful cover of “Fever”, with the majority of tracks written by Logan Layman, with assistance from other band members. Every song is “radio ready”, providing a real challenge to radio programmers to select a single tune to highlight! This CD treats the listener with lots of blues, blues rock, jazz, and infused funk that proves this band is a musical force to be reckoned with… and continually listened to!"
-Dave “BluzNdaBlood” Harrison, The BluzNdaBlood Show

Strong Roots

Super Black Blues - T-Bone Walker - Big Joe Turner - Otis Spann

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1969
Time: 37:05
Size: 85,2 MB
Label: RCA/BMG
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. Paris Blues - 14:03
 2. Here Am I Broken Hearted -  3:47
 3. Jot's Blues -  8:15
 4. Blues Jam - 10:59

Musicians:
Joe Turner - vocal;
T-Bone Walker - vocal & guitar;
Otis Span - vocal & piano$
George "Harmonica" Smith - harmonica$
Ron Brown - bass;
Arthur Right - guitar;
Ernie Watts - tenor sax;
Paul Humphrey - drums.

Bob Thiele, the former head of blues at ABC Records who founded the Flying Dutchman imprint BluesTime in the late '60s, designed the 1969 album Super Black Blues as a way to showcase the label's three recently signed blues legends, T-Bone Walker, Joe Turner, and Otis Spann. That this LP happened to follow the format of Blue Horizon's recent hit Blues Jam in Chicago -- a record that featured plenty of Chicago stalwarts, including Spann, backed by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac -- is not incidental. Super Black Blues was a way to bring these '40s stars to the attention of '60s audiences and perhaps entice a couple of old fans to listen as well. The record was just four tracks, with the long jams "Paris Blues" and "Blues Jam" anchoring the A and B sides and balanced by "Here I Am Broken Hearted" and "Jot's Blues." The emphasis on improvisation and long grooves certainly made Super Black Blues different than the original '40s and '50s sides by Walker, Turner, and Spann -- those were restricted by technology and taste -- and it's fun to hear them stretch out with George "Harmonica" Smith, Arthur Wright, Ernie Watts, Ron Brown, and Paul Humphrey in tow. If the record isn't necessarily energetic and sometimes flirts with formlessness, chalk that up to the aftermath of psychedelia, where jams were prized over energy. This does mean Super Black Blues is a bit dated and a bit of an anomaly in the catalogs of Walker, Spann, and Turner, but time has turned this into an amiable detour: not the first record to hear by any of these three by any means, but it's fun to hear the giants find common ground.

Super Black Blues

Ken Tucker - Juke Joint Serenade

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2010
Time: 44:31
Size: 102,9 MB
Label: Benevolent Blues
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. Brother Whiskey - 3:56
 2. One Stop Mind - 2:48
 3. Let it Slide - 2:47
 4. Desperately Need - 4:36
 5. Sunny - 3:28
 6. Street Walking Woman - 3:29
 7. Coal Shed - 3:48
 8. Highway 61 - 6:03
 9. Eliza - 2:31
10. Island of Lost Souls - 3:43
11. Killer's Mind - 4:27
12. Worst I Ever Felt - 2:48

Ken's music is heard worldwide on radio stations from California to Spain to Australia, he's played twice at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival, winning the emerging artist award from Muzak (sponsor of the festival). His previous album spent over 40 weeks on Roots Music Report's top 40 blues charts and gained Ken a Blues Breaker Artist of the Week feature on the syndicated radio show House of Blues Radio Hour with Elwood Blues (Dan Akroyd). This new far superior set, Juke Joint Serenade, contains hard rockin' blues of the 'take-no-prisoners' variety. He mixes this thunder with some radio-friendly roots rock and rootsy, acoustic folk blues. In addition to Delbert McClinton-like rockers like Desperately Need and Brother Whiskey this album sports Stevie Ray Vaughan like blues-rockers Street Walking Woman and Let It Slide. To top it off Ken reaches emotional, storytelling heights with Killer's Mind and Worst I Ever Felt.

Juke Joint Serenade

Big Boy Bloater - That Ain't My Name

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2008
Time: 36:20
Size: 83,4 MB
Label: Azan Records
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. Matchbox - 2:54
 2. Please Don't Leave Me - 2:48
 3. That Ain't My Name - 3:55
 4. No Good Lover - 3:09
 5. Give Me What You've Got - 2:53
 6. Whammy! - 2:33
 7. I Ain't Done Nothing Wrong - 2:44
 8. Gangster Of Love - 3:05
 9. Man Or Monkey - 2:33
10. I Went Down To The River - 3:49
11. Unlock The Door - 2:39
12. Hey Little Girl - 3:12

Fabulous Rockin' and Jumpin' Rhythm and Blues with a true 1950s feel.
That Ain't My Name rocks hard, with Big Boy Bloater's powerful vocal leading over honking sax, pounding piano, rockin' guitar and express-train rhythms.  One of the greatest rockin' Rhythm & Blues bands ever to come out of the UK.
This is the acclaimed release that led to a Mark Lamarr produced single and three BBC Radio 2 sessions.

That Ain't My Name

Get The Cat - The Way to My Heart

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2018
Time: 62:10
Size: 142,6 MB
Label: Timezone
Styles: Blues/Modern Electric Blues
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. My Old Pair of Boots - 6:39
 2. The Way to My Heart - 5:37
 3. When My Ship Comes In - 5:13
 4. If I Ain't Got You - 4:50
 5. I've Got a Plan - 3:32
 6. Prove Me Wrong - 5:04
 7. I Lost a Dollar In Your Kitchen - 7:20
 8. It's Not Enough - 3:58
 9. I Just Wanna Dance - 3:59
10. Walk the Extra Mile - 4:01
11. God's Got a Big Umbrella - 7:20
12. Brother's Keeper - 4:31

The Way To My Heart, so heisst das neue Album und Program von “Get the Cat”. Mit bluesiger Stimme, virtuosen Gitarrenspiel und erdigen Grooves trifft die Band direkt ins Herz. “Get the Cat” ist eine Bluesband des 21. Jahrhunderts, die viele Einflusse verarbeitet und aufgreift. Inspirationen von Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt bis zu KebMo klingen durch und werden zu einem ganz eigenen Get the Cat - Sound verarbeitet.
Pragend ist dabei die warme Stimme von Melanie Bartsch, deren Charme sich niemand entziehen kann. Getragen und begleitet, gefuhrt und geleitet wird sie von Jens Filsers magischem Gitarrenspiel. Sowohl als Begleiter als auch als Solist besticht er durch Virtuositat und Geschmack. Der Ausnahmegitarrist der deutschen Bluesszene entfaltet in dieser Band sein ganzes Konnen. Bassist Till Brandt und Schlagzeuger Bernd Oppel steuern ein solides, grooviges Fundament bei.
Die Band aus dem Rheinland spielt ein Programm das zu 100% aus Eigenkompositionen des Bassisten Till Brandt besteht. So entsteht Uberraschendes, wenn “Get The Cat” die Verwandtschaft aus Soul und Rock&Roll, unter Vorsitz von Stammvater Blues, an einem Tisch versammelt. Die Band prasentiert sich modern und gleichzeitig traditionell, voll Uberraschungen und doch auf vertraute Weise spielt sich direkt ins Herz des Liebhabers der blauen Tone.
Fur den Weg zum Herz gibt es keine Landkarte! Just get on the road and see where it takes you! Das ist die einzige Antwort, die die Band geben kann. Darum ist jedes Konzert von “Get the Cat” eine Reise. Mit Freude an der Improvisation, Virtuositat, Geschmack und viel Gefuhl erobern sie die Herzen ihrer Zuhorer.
Mit ihrem Gast Gero Korner an der Hammond B3 und dem Fender Rhodes haben sie die perfekte Erganzung gefunden. Der in Koln lebende Musiker versteht es, sich in die Musik einzufuhlen und glanzt mit eigenen Soloeinlagen. Mit seinen Sounds vervollstandigt er den wunderbaren, authentisch bluesigen Klang der Band.

The Way To My Heart

Tinsley Ellis - Smith's Olde Bar– Live

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2001
Time: 77:07 + 81:29
Size: 177,4 MB + 186,6 MB
Label: Self Released
Styles: Blues/Blues Rock
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
CD1
 1. Diggin' My Own Grave -  4:16
 2. Cut You Loose -  7:37
 3. Heart Fixing Business -  7:26
 4. The Next Miss Wrong -  4:42
 5. I'll Be Loving You -  7:45
 6. Hell Or High Water -  5:03
 7. Feel So Bad -  7:20
 8. To The Devil For A Dime -  4:12
 9. A Quitter Never Wins -  7:23
10. Come Morning -  4:08
11. Double-Eyed Whammy - 10:05
12. I've Got To Use My Imagination -  7:06

CD2
 1. Panhead -  3:31
 2. Up On Cripple Creek -  3:19
 3. One Kind Favor - 11:04
 4. My Restless Heart - 11:07
 5. I Wish You Would -  8:11
 6. Real Bad Way -  6:43
 7. Leaving Here -  3:53
 8. Pawnbroker -  9:09
 9. Mystery To Me -  6:09
10. Killing Floor - 13:43
11. Johnny B. Goode -  4:40

Tinsley Ellis (born June 4, 1957) is an American blues and rock musician, who grew up in southern Florida.

Smith's Olde Bar–Live

Smiley Lewis - New Orleans Guitar

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2006
Time: 64:26
Size: 150,1 MB
Label: Classics
Styles: Blues/Rhythm & Blues
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Turn On Your Volume, Baby - 2:42
 2. Here Comes Smiley - 2:35
 3. Tee-Nah-Nah - 2:14
 4. Lowdown - 2:45
 5. Slide Me Down - 2:53
 6. Growing Old - 2:24
 7. If You Ever Loved A Woman - 2:22
 8. Dirty People - 2:20
 9. Where Were You - 2:28
10. My Baby - 2:20
11. Sad Life - 2:27
12. Bee's Boogie - 2:47
13. Don't Jive Me - 2:22
14. My Baby Was Right - 2:42
15. The Bells Are Ringing - 2:27
16. Lillie Mae - 2:16
17. You're Gonna Miss Me - 2:29
18. Gypsy Blues - 2:33
19. You're Not The One - 2:30
20. Gumbo Blues - 2:27
21. Ain't Gonna Do It - 2:17
22. It's So Peaceful - 2:26
23. Caldonia's Party - 2:12
24. Lonesome Highway - 2:17
25. Standing On The Corner - 2:37
26. Oh Baby - 2:21

Overton Amos Lemons (July 5, 1913 – October 7, 1966), known as Smiley Lewis, was an American New Orleans rhythm and blues singer and guitarist. The music journalist Tony Russell wrote that "Lewis was the unluckiest man in New Orleans." He hit on a formula for slow-rocking, small-band numbers like 'The Bells Are Ringing' and 'I Hear You Knocking' only to have Fats Domino come up behind him with similar music with a more ingratiating delivery. Lewis was practically drowned in Domino's backwash."

New Orleans Guitar 

Mickey Baker - The Blues in Me

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1974
Time: 52:09
Size: 119,6 MB
Label: Black & Blue
Styles: East Coast Blues
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. She's Dynamite - 3:18
 2. Don't Try To Play Me For Your Clown - 4:11
 3. My Playhouse - 3:00
 4. Drucilla - 3:50
 5. Hey Little Girl - 2:12
 6. Blues After Hours - 3:06
 7. My Dog - 2:29
 8. Didn't We Baby [take 1] - 2:49
 9. Battle Of The Guitars - 5:00
10. Every Day I Have The Blues - 3:06
11. Sweetie Cat - 3:47
12. Kansas City - 5:23
13. In The Evening - 5:18
14. Sweetie Cat (take 2) - 4:33

Of all the guitarists who helped transform rhythm & blues into rock & roll, Mickey Baker was one of the very most important, ranking almost on the level of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. The reason he wasn't nearly as well known as those legends is that a great deal of his work wasn't issued under his own name, but as a backing guitarist for many R&B and rock & roll musicians. Baker originally aspired to be a jazz musician, but turned to calypso, mambo, and then R&B, where the most work could be found.
In the early and mid-'50s, he did countless sessions for Atlantic, King, RCA, Decca, and OKeh, playing on such classics as the Drifters' "Money Honey" and "Such a Night," Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle & Roll," Ruth Brown's "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean," and Big Maybelle's "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On." He also released a few singles under his own name, and made a Latin jazz-tinged solo album, Guitar Mambo.
Baker's best work, though, was recorded as half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia. Their hit "Love Is Strange," as well as several other unknown but nearly equally strong tracks, featured Baker's keening, bluesy guitar riffs, which were gutsier and more piercing than most anything else around in the late '50s. Mickey & Sylvia split in the late '50s (though they recorded off and on until the middle of the next decade), and Baker recorded his best solo album, the all-instrumental The Wildest Guitar. In 1961, he took the male spoken part (usually assumed to be Ike Turner) on Ike & Tina Turner's first hit, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine." Shortly afterwards he moved to France, making a few hard-to-find solo records and working with a lot of French pop and rock performers, including Ronnie Bird, the best '60s French rock singer. He recorded only sporadically after the mid-'60s. Mickey Baker died at his home in Montastruc-la-Conseillere, France on November 27, 2012, at the age of 87. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

The Blues in Me

Tim Williams - So Low

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2015
Time: 32:19
Size: 74,4 MB
Label: Lowden Proud Records
Styles: Blues/Acoustic Blues
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. If You Live - 3:34
 2. More Pepper In Your Chili - 2:30
 3. My Big Money - 3:28
 4. Anywhere C/O The Blues - 3:00
 5. Pistol Snapper - 3:16
 6. The Witching Hour - 4:05
 7. The Grizzly Bear - 3:29
 8. Big River - 2:37
 9. Midnight After Midnight - 3:00
10. Lightnin' - 3:15

An excellent ten track album of traditional acoustic blues from Canada, Tim Williams simply has to be one of the finest pickers on the planet these days. A former double award winner at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, this release highlights his captivating style and talent to full effect.
Both of Williams’ previous recent releases, ‘Blue Highway’ and ‘Evenings Among Friends’ – a re-release of an earlier effort – were wonderful bits of striking resonator and acoustic guitar-led blues work. With ‘So Low’ Williams confirms his clearly well-deserved place at the hi-end of the acoustic blues-tree.
Tracks covered include the jazz-inspired If You Live from Mose Allison; Broonzy’s My Big Money – a lesser-known gem; Blind Boy Fuller’s Pistol Slapper, here titled Pistol Snapper, with Williams’ own take on it as part of the ever-evolving folk-process; Johnny Cash’s Big River; and Tampa Red’s classic The Witching Hour. Many tracks are self-penned and showcase the guy’s deep absorption in and understanding of the music and traditional blues in general.
Closing with his own composition, Lightnin‘, a clear homage to his own personal hero, Texan Lightnin’ Hopkins, this album is a genuine revelation, filled with neat guitar chops and intricate picking in styles that range through Delta to Piedmont, Texas to Chicago and most of the USA’s notable blues-posts in between. A positive delight.

So Low

Johnson Luther - lonesome in my Bedroom

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1975
Time: 49:27
Size: 114,6 MB
Label: Evidence (1992)
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. Lonesome in my Bedroom - 6:27
 2. Honey Bee - 6:16
 3. Long Distance Call - 6:26
 4. Rock Me Slow and Easy - 4:19
 5. Hush, Hush - 4:20
 6. Little Queenie - 4:11
 7. Jammin' with Willie - 4:10
 8. Please Don't Take My Baby Nowhere - 3:30
 9. She's My Babe - 3:06
10. They Call Me The Popcorn Man - 3:54
11. Please Give Me That Love - 2:43

Luther Johnson is one more of the great blues artists who recorded albums in Europe in the 1970s. This album, made in France in 1975, one year before his death, is a very good example of “guitar blues”.
Side A of the vinyl presents a kind of slow blues, similar to the work of masters as Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Dawkins and Otis Rush (these two last mentioned also released albums on same label that issued Lonesome in My Bedroom). This side of the record brings two classics written by Muddy Waters, whose backing band counted with Johnson for years, and they are some of his best here.
The other side is more rocking (a typical "blues rock"), including an interesting version of Chuck Berry’s “little Queenie”, and two songs by Johnson himself that prove he’s a great composer too.
It’s really sad to think about the fact of good albums by Americans like this only exist because passionate Europeans dedicated to release it. The same happened (and still happens) with talented Brazilian artists: some of them just got issue their best albums abroad, in Europe or, principally, in the United States (“a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country”; or in a good Portuguese, “santo de casa nao faz milagre!”)

Lonesome in my Bedroom

Charles Bradley - Black Velvet

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2018
Time: 37:36
Size: 86,3 MB
Label: Daptone Records
Styles: Soul/R&B/Funk
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Can't Fight the Feeling - 2:48
 2. Luv Jones - 3:51
 3. I Feel a Change - 4:26
 4. Slip Away - 3:32
 5. Black Velvet - 3:29
 6. Stay Away - 3:13
 7. Heart of Gold - 3:03
 8. (I Hope You Find) The Good Life - 5:11
 9. Fly Little Girl - 3:19
10. Victim Of Love - 4:39

Black Velvet is the fourth and final studio album by American funk/soul artist Charles Bradley, released on 9 November 2018. The album release was preceded by two singles, "Can't Fight the Feeling" and "I Feel a Change".The name of the album comes from Bradley's stage name during his time as a James Brown impersonator. The album consists of songs originally recorded for Bradley's three previous studio albums, and was compiled by producer Thomas Brenneck after Bradley's death from cancer in September 2017. Included are covers of "Stay Away" by Nirvana and "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young.
Soul and R&B singer Charles Bradley definitely didn't arrive as a recording artist by taking the easy route. Born in Gainesville, Florida in 1948, but raised in Brooklyn, New York, Bradley spent a good part of his childhood living on the streets. A transformational moment came when his sister took him to see James Brown at the Apollo in 1962. Bradley was struck by Brown's energy and stage manner, and began practicing microphone tricks with a broom at home, dreaming of being a star on his own stage, and it was a dream he would never abandon in spite of all sorts of mishaps, misdirects, and general hard times.
Bradley escaped Brooklyn by joining the federal Job Corps program, which took him to Bar Harbor, Maine, where he learned to cook, a profession he was to fall back on time and time again. He also put together a band in Maine and began playing local gigs. The band didn't last long, though, and when most of its members were drafted, and with the Vietnam War hanging in the air, Bradley moved to Wassaic, New York, where he worked as a cook at a hospital for the mentally ill. Nine years later, he left that position and hitchhiked west, ending up in Alaska for a time before moving to California, again taking a job as a chef, and for the next 20 years he performed music on the side, playing whatever gigs he could find. When he was laid off from his position, though, he began to doubt his decision to live so far from where he grew up.
Bradley eventually relocated back to Brooklyn, this time working at odd jobs instead of returning to being a chef. He never let go of his musical dreams, and he began performing his James Brown-inspired routines in such local clubs as Black Velvet, attracting a loyal following and eventually capturing the attention of Gabriel Roth from Daptone Records. Roth immediately brought the fiery singer into label sessions, releasing a single, "Take It as It Comes," that showed what Bradley had to offer as a vocalist. Roth also introduced Bradley to Thomas Brenneck, then a guitarist, songwriter, and home producer for Dirt Rifle & the Bullets. The pair had an affinity for each other musically, and together they released two singles on Daptone as Charles Bradley & the Bullets before the actual group by that name disbanded (most of the members went in an Afro-beat direction with the Budos Band).
Brenneck and Bradley continued to work together, and after Bradley told him about waking up in his home one morning to discover his nephew had shot and killed his brother, Brenneck suggested they tell the story in music as a catharsis and as a cautionary tale. The result, tracked with the Menahan Street Band, was a pair of impassioned singles, "The World (Is Going Up in Flames)" and "Heartaches and Pain," which Brenneck released on his Daptone sublabel Dunham Records. These weren't songs drawn from Bradley's Black Velvet act, but were instead highly personal and striking outings that put his own emerging voice as a singer and songwriter at the center of things. A full album for Dunham, No Time for Dreaming, appeared early in 2011. Bradley received global acclaim for the album, and toured relentlessly to support it. His follow-up, Victim of Love, was released in the spring of 2013. In 2015, Bradley released a single through Daptone that featured a powerful, soul-charged reworking of the Black Sabbath number "Changes." The single and its accompanying music video became underground hits, and the song became the cornerstone of Bradley's next Dunham/Daptone album, 2016's Changes. Sadly, Bradley received a cancer diagnosis in the fall of that year, and succumbed to liver cancer in September 2017 at the age of 68. However, he remained thankful for his relatively brief time in the spotlight late in life, and was quoted as saying "I love all of you out there that made my dreams come true." ~ Steve Leggett

Black Velvet