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This week you will get to hear Charlie Musselwhite talk about his new CD The Well as will as songs from the CD.

Charlie Musselwhite just may be the best known living blues harmonica player around today.  His first record. Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite’s Southside Band, came out in 1967.  Many consider this a classic record but, after more than two dozen records and more years than he’d probably like to remember, The Well shows Charlie is only getting better.  His voice sounds more mature and fuller, the harp playing is great, and Charlie can really tell a story.

“Cadillac Women” is about growing up and learning you should stay out of trouble. “Cook County Blues” is a well written song about being locked up in jail. “Sad And Beautiful World” is an up tempo duet with Mavis Staples. “Clarksdale Getaway” and “Sonny Payne Special” are two great instrumentals that really let you hear why people think so highly of Charlie’s playing.  Then there is the title track “The Well” about a little girl who fell down in a well in Texas that gave Charlie the inspiration to quit drinking.  I know this doesn’t give you much information about the new Charlie Musselwhite CD The Well on Alligator Records but if you just push the play button you will quickly realize that Charlie’s well is overflowing with wonderful music.

2010 Blues Hall of Fame Inductee
7-Time GRAMMY Nominee
24-Time Blues Music AwardWinner
8-Time Living Blues Award Winner

Charlie Musselwhite’s Website

Buy The Well from Charlie Musselwhite’s Website

Buy The Well from Alligator Records

Don’t forget to check out all the new releases at Alligator Records like JJ Grey & Mofro, Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Anders Osborne, The Holmes Brothers & Guitar Shorty.

Thanks to Charlie Musselwhite for taking time out from his tour to talk with me.
Thanks to Bruce Iglauer for setting everything up.

NOTE:

I’m going to be doing some new things with the show in the weeks to come.  Some shows will be about an hour long with one artist, others will have two artists one each half hour.  As you know the shows have been coming out every other week lately, this will be changing too.  I’m going to be shooting for three shows a month with some shows having two artists.  One of my big goals to be able to give you more opportunity to hear from more artists.  The one down side is the articles here at the website will end.  You will still be able to listen to the new show or any of the past shows.  There will be links every week to the artists website and where to buy the CD, just no article. Thank you for listening to this show wether it is on KCOR Kansas City Online Radio, the podcast. or here at the website.  We are going to keep the blues alive.

Mark Wade
A1Blues.Com

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Bob Corritore is our guest this week he’ll be talking about his new CD Harmonica Blues.

Talking to Bob reminds me of talking to Bob Koester at Delmark Records or Bruce Iglauer at Alligator Records because he has such a vast knowledge of the blues. He’s met or played with most everyone.  Like the other two men Bob works very hard to help other blues artists whenever possible as well as recording some great blues himself.

Bob Corritore has played harmonica on over 35 releases to date. He hung around great harp players such as Big Walter Horton, Little Mack Simmons, Louis Myers, Junior Wells, Big John Wrencher, and Carey Bell, receiving harmonica tips and encouragement from many of them. He would regularly see the Aces, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Billy Boy Arnold, John Brim, Sunnyland Slim, Smokey Smothers, Eddie Taylor, and in many cases became personal friends with these blues veterans. Corritore worked with Tail Dragger, Big Moose Walker, Willie Buck, Louis and Dave Myers, and Eddie Taylor in the late 70s and early 80s (this paragraph was taken from his website).

Harmonica Blues is a wonderful CD with a real who’s who of the blues world.  Since Bob never sings, he has brought guest artists in to do the singing like Little Milton, Honeyboy Edwards, Nappy Brown, Eddy Clearwater, Big Pete Pearson, Koko Taylor and Dave Riley. If you think these names are impressive wait till you hear the music, it’s even better.  This is a must have CD, you will love every track, and why wait till it wins a bunch of blues awards. Get Harmonica Blues today (see links below).

Songs played on this week’s show:
“1815 West Roosevelt” with Eddie Shaw
“That’s All Right” with Robert Lockwood Jr.
“Sundown San Diego” with Tomcat Courtney
“Big Fat Mama” with Pinetop Perkins
“Things Have Changed” with Henry Gray
“Tell Me ‘Bout It” with Louisiana Red
“I Need To Be Be’d With” with Carol Fran

If you’re a real blues fan you should get on Bob’s mailing list for his news letter, it’s really good, and it’s free. See his website to sign up.

Bob Corritore’s Website

Bob Corritore MySpace

Get Bob Corritore’s CD Harmonica Blues at Delta Groove Productions

Get Bob Corritore’s CD Harmonica Blues at Amazon.Com

Thanks to Frank Roszak for setting everything up and of course to Bob for a very interesting interview. I hope to have Bob back many more times.

Blues Music and Interviews

A1Blues.Com

by A1 Mark

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Hear Albert Castiglia [pronounced ka-steel-ya] talk about his new CD Keepin On that came out this week.

Albert Castiglia’s song “Bad Year Blues” was nominated in 2009 for “Blues Song of the Year” by the Blues Foundation.  I still say “Godfather Of The Blues” about Albert’s former boss Junior Wells is every bit as good or better of a song than “Bad Year Blues”.  Both songs were from the 2008 CD These Are The Days.  You can check this out for yourself after this week’s show by going to the first interview I did with Albert were we talked about his then new CD These Are The Days.

Keepin On is exactly what you want to do with Albert Castiglia new cd Keepin On because you want to keep on hearing more of his diverse guitar playing.  From the powerful guitar intro and tuff vocals on the first song “Cadillac Assembly Line” (killer guitar solo) through “My Baby Is Now On My Mind”, a slow kind of Latin shuffle (ditto on the guitar solo), to the last song “Closing Time” where Albert gives a passionate vocal and guitar performance.  Throughout the CD it is evident that he is able to change styles of playing without ever dropping his standers.

Keepin On also has Nicole Hart on some backup vocals and our old friend Sandy Mack doing some great harp work.  Even before I know it was Sandy I was really getting into what he was doing.   Hear the show on Sandy Mack.

Albert Castiglia has done it again with a great CD full of tight blues songs, some covers, and some he’s written are all worth owning.  Hopefully this time around people will realize what a great talents Albert has with both the guitar and his voice.

Don’t forget to get out this year to see Albert Castiglia in concert because he puts on a really good show.  I’ve seen him a few times and I always enjoy it.

Buy Albert Castiglia’s Keepin On at Amazon.Com

Albert Castiglia’s Keepin On is also available at iTunes, Barns & Noble, Napster & Rhapsody.Com

Albert Castiglia Website

Albert Castiglia MySpace

To book Albert in your town contact JoAnn Freda.

Thanks Albert Castiglia for doing the interview.

Thanks also to Rick Lusher, Mark Pucci and Blues Leaf Records.
.

Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
by A1 Mark

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This week hear Chris Bell talk about his brand new CD Devil, My Guitar & Me.

If you’ve been listening to this show for awhile you know about the last show I did with Chris on his CD Real Bluesman.  This time around Chris goes from blues to more blues rock and it works good for him.  All but one of the 14 songs are Chris Bell originals.  The exception is an old Allman Brothers song “It’s Not My Cross To Bear” which Chris does a nice job on.  Songs like “Sweet Josephine”, “Devil, My Guitar & Me”, and many others are good blues-rockers.  The song “My Jimi Hendrix Stuff” stands out with its cool lyrics.  Chris took the titles of a bunch of Hendrix songs to make the lyrics for this song.   It’s fun to listen to and pick out the song titles while still following the present story line.

Chris is also a huge John Lee Hooker fan.  He tells us about the time he got to meet John Lee Hooker which is the inspiration for Chris’ song titled “John Lee Hooker (Told Me So)”.  The last track, “Don’t Wake Me Up”, breaks out a sax player that gives a nice change of sound.  Chris Bell is the lead vocalist and plays electric, acoustic, slide, dobro and any other guitar as well as bass guitar on six tracks.  Chuck England is the bass guitarist and Bill Nuti plays drums.

Chris Bell & 100% Blues will be on tour all this summer so be sure to check their MySpace page for tour dates.  There are some great photos of Chris with other blues artists at his MySpace page too.  You really should check it out.

Chris Bell MySpace

Chris Bell Website

Buy Chris Bell & 100% Blues – The Devil, My Guitar & Me at Amazon.Com

Buy Chris Bell & 100% Blues – The Devil, My Guitar & Me at CD Baby

Hear Chris talk about his last CD Real Bluesman, it has a lot of great music too.

Thanks to Chris Bell for taking time away from his tour to talk about his new CD.

Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
by A1 Mark

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This week hear both Chris James & Patrick Rynn talk about their new cd Gonna Boogie Anyway.

Chris James & Patrick Rynn were on this show back in 2008 talking about their last cd Stop and Think About It. Chris talks this time about how both cd’s are Chicago Blues but, this time around there is a change to Gonna Boogie Anyway.  It’s a little more stripped down including three real nice acoustic numbers with Patrick playing upright bass and Chris doing guitar and vocals.  One of them, “Heading Out West”, really comes off as sounding like there are more musicians playing than there really are. Then they add our old friend David Maxwell on piano for another acoustic number “You Can’t Trust Nobody”.

I was really pleased to hear David Maxwell on four of the numbers then Henry Gray shows up to play piano on four more songs.  Sam Lay even plays on a couple of songs which is very  appropriate because it’s the old blues artists like these that have drawn Chris James & Patrick Rynn to this kind of music.

Most of the songs are by the team of Chris James, Patrick Rynn and Rob Stone with four covers including one by Jimmy Reed and one by Robert Lockwood Jr.  Rob Stone also plays harp and some guitar on both their cd’s.  Be on the lookout for a new cd by Rob Stone called Back Around Here that just came out.

Like their last cd Stop and Think About It the new one Gonna Boogie Anyway is a great Chicago blues cd.  That will be winning a lot of awards because this is some of best Chicago Blues you will hear anywhere.   Chris James & Patrick Rynn are two blues artists we will be hearing a lot more from and that’s a good thing.

Songs in this week’s show:
You Can Trust Nobody  (with David Maxwell)
The Tables Have  Turned   (with David Maxwell)
Headed Out West
Money Don’t Like Me        (with David Maxwell & Sam Lay)
Gonna Boogie Anyway      (with Henry Gray)

Chris James & Patrick Rynn’s Website

Chris James & Patrick Rynn’s MySpace

Buy Chris James & Patrick Rynn’s new cd from Amazon.Com

Thanks guys, it was real fun talking with you again and get to St. Louis sometime.