THE BLUES MAGAZINE
16
joe bonamassa ✪ bluesfest ✪ elvin bishop ✪ ruf records ✪ selwyn birchwood ✪ ian siegal ✪ eilidh mckellar
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PRINTED IN THE UK
blues issue 16
October 2014 • Issue 16
features
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Joe Bonamassa
The blues behemoth on taking time off, playing to the great unwashed, and the making of his ‘comeback’ album.
BluesFest
We take you behind the scenes of the UK’s biggest blues festival.
Eilidh McKellar
The Edinburgh-born guitarist on long-awaited album Delta Devil Dreams.
Ruf Records
Twenty years of the German label that’s shaped the modern blues scene.
Ian Siegal
The uniquely gifted Brit on taking the blues into uncharted territory.
Selwyn Birchwood
The blues sensation from Florida reveals the truth about his ‘overnight success’.
34 Joe Bonamassa
Loved! Hated! The most divisive artist on the scene reveals he’s just getting started spreading the word of blues...
getty
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bluesfest
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Jarekus Singleton
The latest Alligator Records signing that everyone is talking about.
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Elvin Bishop
The triumphant return of the great survivor of 60s US white boy blues.
Virgil And The Accelerators
The Brit rockers tell the story of their unique brand of very heavy soul...
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ian siegal
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elvin bishop
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October 2014 • Issue 16
Regulars
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Testify
All the latest news from the thriving world of blues including details on how you can vote for the artist who will represent the UK at next year’s European Blues Challenge in Brussels. You also find interviews with Devon Allman, ex-Black Crowe Marc Ford, Sam Cooke’s brother L.C., Dogs D’Amour frontman Tyla, Sky Valley Mistress and most talked about band of the moment, Royal Blood.
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Call & Response
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Under The Influence
26 Erja Lyytinen
The slide virtuoso, aka ‘The Bonnie Raitt of Finland’, on travelling in the Deep South, hanging with Koko Taylor and her new album The Sky Is Crying – a tribute to her hero Elmore James.
Prog keyboard legend and self-styled grumpy old man Rick Wakeman talks you through the blues and soul records that changed his life. The man knows his way around an amusing anecdote.
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Cuttin’ Heads
One song. Four great versions, in this case by two artists. Which is best? This time it’s Brownie McGhee’s kid brother Sticks battling it out with The Killer aka Jerry Lee Lewis. Veteran journalist, raconteur and bluesman Charles Shaar Murray picks the victor.
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First Time I Met The Blues
The Blues catches up with Zoë Schwarz Blue Commotion founder members Zoë Schwarz (vocals) and Rob Koral (guitar) and takes them back to their roots.
Reviews All the CDs and DVDs you need to feed your blues obsession, reviewed by our team of aficionados.
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reissues
lives
kirk west
albums
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joe bonamassa
Love him or hate him, you simply can’t ignore Joe Bonamassa. The man at the forefront of the modern blues scene is back with a new album of original songs, and it might just be the one that finally wins over those critics. Words: Ed Mitchell Portrait: Christie Goodwin
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inspire. And yes, as it says on the cover of this magazine, he’s just getting started. So, after the cajoling, self-deprecating banter and verbal sparring, here comes the right hook straight from the shoulder of the slugger himself: “I proved there is still an audience for music that people thought was dead. More than the guitar playing, more than the singing. That’s my legacy.”
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Black and white and blues all over: a portrait of the artist.
rob monk
nterviewing Joe Bonamassa feels like trapping a spider under a glass. You might think you have his undivided attention, but relinquish your hold even for a second and he’ll be off, legs barrelling towards the nearest exit. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a gracious host, offering me the run of a comfy settee as he perches on a high-backed chair. It’s just I can’t quite shake the feeling that he’s picked his seat because it’s the one closest to the door. Bonamassa and I have history. I first interviewed him before the release of Dust Bowl back in 2011. Commissioned to tidy
up another writer’s sloppy work, I called him in the US for some fresh quotes. I caught him on speakerphone while he was driving and no sooner had the interview begun than he revealed he had a dental appointment and would have to call me back. Maybe it was novocaine or absent‑mindedness but he didn’t call. When I chased him up the next day, we spoke briefly before he ducked suddenly into a sandwich place to pick up his lunch. After a minute of a receiver filled with the report of a burbling coffee machine and mumbled small talk, the line went dead. The final call was conducted in the time it took him to get from the sandwich joint to his rehearsal studio. Job done. Just. So, you get the picture. You gotta be on your toes with this guy. This time around, I’ve cornered the spider, face to face, and the captivating glass in this instance is John Henry’s, a huge audio supply and rehearsal facility in North London that serves as Bonamassa’s second home whenever he’s in the UK. We’ve been thrown
together to talk about his new album Different Shades Of Blue, which is out now. It’s his first solo studio record in two years and his first with almost (more on that later) all-original material. His sartorial note, as ever, is the definition of smart casual, but it’s immediately obvious that the man himself is not yet firing on all cylinders. He’s exhausted. His exuberance in the opening salvo of this feature took a while to appear. There are distractions to contend with too. Whitesnake legend Bernie Marsden has brought along some of his vintage Gibson guitars to John Henry’s and wants to know if Joe is coming out to play. JB’s friend Joanne Shaw Taylor is due to arrive any minute to hang out for the afternoon. Yeah, Joe Bonamassa needs another media interrogation like he needs a cheap Les Paul copy… “I prefer to do press when I don’t have to sing that day,” he sighs as I press the Record button. Oh yeah, at this point he’s right in the middle of a tour. “I knew this one in particular was going to be 27 days of a beat down. Of those 27 days I’m working 26 of ’em. We did Download yesterday. We’ve been through France, in Strasbourg, and doing press all day. I don’t remember the last day I didn’t do any press, at least when I didn’t have to talk about myself. It’s been a little bit taxing. Today, I didn’t want to wake up.” With that dentist/sandwich shop anecdote in danger of being upgraded to a treasured memory, Bonamassa’s attention drifts to a copy of The Blues magazine resting on his lap. It’s issue 13, the one with his old hard-rockin’ amigo Walter Trout on the cover. He remarks how thrilled he is that Walter is on the mend after refusing to let the Reaper claim his bounty. It’s as good a place as any to bump-start this interview. So how is it that Joe Bonamassa – with his undisputable claim to the title of ‘hardestworking man in blues’ – hasn’t shrivelled into one of life’s punchbags like some of his fellow road warriors? “I don’t lead a puritanical life,” he says, an ever-present bottle of Diet Coke nestling by his ankle. “But I don’t lead a life of abuse. You don’t really know what the price is ultimately going to be 25 years from now.” “When I was in my 20s I’d smoke cigars and drink whisky until I was blue in the face and I could barely walk,” he continues.
joe bonamassa
Philip Sayce: back with a bang in 2014.
The Mutual Admiration Society The king of blues rock knights The Blues!
the road,” he says, and it seems like it’s a responsibility he takes seriously. “I do know everybody’s name,” he reveals. “I know where they’re from. Generally in the first two days of a tour I’ll go around with my production manager and my tour manager and go, ‘Does he work for us? What about him?’ We’ll get a new lighting assistant or a new guy who hangs the PA.” Heavy lies the crown then. “Well, it used to really bug me,” says Bonamassa. “It freaked me out. And I was a germaphobe. Actually, I still am a germaphobe but I’m a little more Zen about it because I just feel it is what it is – the human body tells you when it’s tired and wants to shut down. I think I’ve had to cancel one show in four-and-a-half years. That’s not bad.”
austin hargrave
I proved there is still an audience for music that people thought was dead. That’s my legacy. “The problem is at 37 [even at 37!] I can’t do that any more. It’s really tough. You pay a very heavy price the next day. I don’t like to pay that price.” Most of us have been there. The moment it dawns on you that waking up in some random front garden, half-dressed and covered in your own mess… well, it just isn’t cute any more. For Bonamassa, he knows he’s the one cog in a touring machine that can’t allow itself to get too well oiled. “When we tour, I’m responsible for 28 people on
Above: Joanne Shaw Taylor, Bonamassa’s friend and fellow leading light of modern blues.
efore we get into the cutting of the new record, we have one little pimple to pop. It appears that when Bonamassa finds something that works, he sticks with it. Suits, sunglasses, ’59 Les Paul Standards, his long-time producer Kevin Shirley… “I don’t like upheaval,” he says. “I think bands make a critical mistake when they get some success. They get swooned by another producer. ‘If this producer
There’s no doubt that 2014 has been a bumper year for blues music. Joe Bonamassa is back with one of the strongest records of his career; ditto Joanne Shaw Taylor, Danny Bryant, Elvin Bishop and Philip Sayce, plus countless more. The next generation – Selwyn Birchwood, Jarekus Singleton and Gary Clark Jr. – are already aw-shuckin’ off their respective ‘saviour of the blues’ tags. “The fact that this exists [holds up copy of The Blues] shows how strong the music is today,” says Bonamassa – unsolicited, natch. “Ten years ago, if you’d said there would be a major publication dedicated to the blues, that comes out every month or so, I’d have said, ‘You’re out of your mind. Why do you want to go broke?’” Not everyone is happy that The Blues magazine is on the scene. Feathers were ruffled. Change is feared. “That’s where blues music was 10 years ago,” says Bonamassa. “It was just left dormant to die. The blues that was being made then was stuff that was very much rehashed. There wasn’t a scene to argue over. There wasn’t a Gary Clark Jr. We’re all in a very good place at the moment.”
Gary Clark Jr: the next-gen blues star.
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Words: Charles Shaar Murray Portrait: Paul Natkin
With his debut album for Alligator winning rave reviews, Florida-born Selwyn Birchwood tells Charles Shaar Murray he isn’t the overnight success he may appear to be… elwyn Birchwood! Now there’s a name to conjure with, one that instantly evokes some character from Victorian fiction: a minor player in a Dickens novel, or someone consulting Sherlock Holmes concerning mysterious goings-on at his country estate: “I fancy I hear Mr Selwyn Birchwood’s tread on the stair at this very moment, Watson.”. Still, rapidly TARDIS-ing from the late 19th century to the early 21st, the Selwyn Birchwood whose tread we hear on our particular stair is a very different proposition. This Selwyn B is the 29-year-old Florida bluesman whose rather impressive Alligator album Don’t Call No Ambulance is currently fast-tracking him to frontliner status in the new blue wave. He’s the latest signing by label boss Bruce Iglauer, a legendarily acute talent-spotter who hasn’t put a creative foot wrong since he declined the opportunity to sign Robert Cray. In other words, not since well before Selwyn Birchwood was born. Iglauer’s not exactly reticent about why he fell so heavily for Birchwood: “ …a terrific young blues talent with a huge future,” he raves. “He writes smart, infectious, fresh songs and delivers them with a warm, conversational vocal style… a killer guitarist switching between a regular six-string and a lap steel. Live, he’s a ball of energy…” All the more impressive a testimonial when you consider that Birchwood’s album arrives barely a month after Alligator unleashed the debut outing by Jarekus Singleton, another under-30 African-American serious contender. Evidently, Chicago’s longest-established blues indie is currently on a major roll. “Selwyn,” according to Iglauer, “is destined to be one of the next stars in the blues world.” Well, he certainly looks the part: six-foot-three, with an impressive ’fro, an engaging grin and a nifty taste in shirts. More importantly, he sounds the part: big, bruised voice, richly eloquent guitar, lap-steel chops that put a radically different spin on standard slide-guitar licks, and lyrics that don’t depend on the usual clichés. The album kicks off with the bumpalicious Albert Collins-style funk-blues throwdown Addicted, followed immediately
by the Hookeresque boogie of the title track, and before we reach the electric down-home finale of Hoodoo Stew, Birchwood has sailed elegantly through a whole variety of blues and R&B stylings. He even touches base with Tom Waits along the way in the remorselessly ominous Walking In The Lion’s Den, while The River Turned Red is garnished with a molten, bravura slide cameo from Joe Louis Walker. Altogether, it’s the grandest entry into the arena since Gary Clark Jr’s last year. Anyway, somewhere in the USA, Selwyn Birchwood is ready to answer his phone, so let’s dial up and hear what dude has to tell us… was born and raised in Orlando, Florida,” Birchwood says, “and I live in Tampa, Florida, now.” His musical baptism came via discovering the wonders of the guitar at the age of 13, but then something life-changing happened. He discovered Jimi Hendrix. “I used to just try to pick up songs off the radio and that type of thing – just regular rock and alternative – and at that point I was just happy to be able to play something and have it be recognisable. But I was starting to get bored: it sounded like every song had the same beat, the same chords, the same kinda progressions. “Then a buddy of mine got me a Hendrix CD and I was just blown away by the sounds that I heard on it. It was a mix of some of his different tunes and I thought, ‘Wow, there’s a lot more out there than what I’ve been doing!’ Then I started digging back into his more obscure stuff. I really wanted to find out where he got those ideas from, and once I jumped back into his bio and researched his influences and all the blues guys he listened to, there wasn’t really any going back to what I was listening to before. I knew I’d found the sound that I was looking for. It really turned me on!” Birchwood’s earliest musical memories – like most people’s – are of what he heard at home: his parents’ music. “My dad’s from Trinidad and Tobago and my mom’s from England, so I got kind of a mix of stuff. My dad listened to all different kinds of island music: reggae, soca. And
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