Alabama Blues Machine - Must Be Love

Bitrate:320K/s
Year:2009
Time:29:15 
Size:67,7 MB 
Label:R2 Records 
Styles:Blues/Electric Blues 
Art:Front 

Tracks Listing:
 1. Hindsight - 4:15
 2. Must Be Love - 5:56
 3. Clay\'s Boogie - 2:02
 4. LaQuita - 4:03
 5. Double R Shuffle - 2:31
 6. Black Widow Baby - 4:44
 7. Rockin\' Me Baby - 5:40

What started out as an informal Tuesday night jam in the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, has grown into something none of the musicians ever expected - a full-fledged, award-winning blues band. While almost every player in the Alabama Blues Machine is a veteran of several bands, many of whom were/are quite prominent, no one, down to a man, was expecting this to evolve into what it has become. And that it is an eight-piece band with horns that creates original music drawing on their blues and rhythm & blues upbringing by listening to everybody from B.B. King, Jimmy Reed and Ray Charles to Taj Mahal, Freddie King and the Temptations.
The lynch pin of this amalgam of musicians is Ross Roberts, lead guitarist, producer and engineer. For some 12 years, Roberts headed up one of Alabama's most prominent blues bands, Dick's Hat Band, that toured constantly throughout the South and Midwest, and recorded two albums.
"We disbanded about five years ago and I took a long deserved hiatus from music," says Ross Roberts. "I needed to step away from the group thing and concentrate on building my studio work. After a couple of years went by, I got a little hungry to play again."
Enter singer/harpist Bruce Andrews. The two started jamming every Tuesday night and continued on with a constantly revolving group of musicians for a couple of years. "One thing led to another," continues Roberts, "and as we started writing songs the band leader in me kicked in again."
Bruce Andrews, who also performs in a duo called 2blu, and has been a semi finalist in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis twice and a finalist in the same competition in 2007. "I was really not looking for a band situation," says Andrews, "but I thought it would be cool to play with Ross. I had always known of Ross Roberts and Dick's Hat Band. Around these parts, they were legendary."
Ross and Andrews ran into Lewis Ross, original drummer for Wet Willie, who helped solidify the revolving line up. Lewis lobbied for horns to be added to the Alabama Blues Machine mix, and while Roberts had worked with numerous horns in his previous band, he certainly wasn't opposed to the idea. He contacted Mike Lingo who had played a gig or two with Dick's Hat Band, and the two discussed how the horn section would work within the confines of the new band.
Lingo, who plays trombone, secured the talents of Rick White on trumpet and Jon Remley on saxophone and the horns were complete. Their credits include numerous jazz bands, jazz orchestras, symphony orchestras, touring Broadway shows, the Ringling Brothers circus and Holiday on Ice as well as working with Dennis Edwards and the Temptations, The O'Jay's, The Four Tops and Mary Wilson, among others..
The last two members to join the band are keyboardist Ray Reach and bassist Eric Onimus. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Reach began piano lessons at age 6. Ray is a pianist, singer, guitarist, arranger and composer. His skills span numerous musical and stylistic genre, including classical, jazz, contemporary pop, gospel and country. Onimus is the last member on board. Enlisted in July to join the band, his influences range from the likes of Louis Prima, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan to Betty Carter, NRBQ and the Beatles.

Must Be Love