Blues Review 2016

Another year has gone, this time one of the harshest. Wars, many influential celeb deaths, and Pokemon Go.

This year was a turning point for me, as I was signed to a record label and my album is coming early next year, as well having some great gigs and played in Bahrain for the first time with my rock side-project The Watertowers.

My album, coming soon in 2017

Blog wise I was not that active this year, mainly because my life and music commitments too a lot of my blog slice of the pie; hopefully you stuck around with me and I hope to bring you more blues next year. Have a good one everybody.

Oh, and in case you missed it, here's my latest Youtube upload of my band performing Dust My Broom at the DAI Fall Festival last month:

Christmas Blues Playlist

How bluesmen celebrate Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! This time of year is always great for the blues, because you spend all your money on gifts, might spend it away from family and friends, cold weather, and all that.

So to celebrate the Christmas blues, here's a few tunes for the season:


BB King - 'Back Door Santa'

Sonny Boy Williamson - 'Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues'

Freddie King - Christmas Tears

The Drifters - Santa Claus Got the Blues

John Lee Hooker - Blues for Christmas

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Christmas

Blues Nominees for the 2017 Grammy Awards

The official Grammy website has announced their nominations for next year's event. Of course, we don't give a crap about anythin' but the blues, so here are your nominees this year:


BEST TRADITIONAL BLUES ALBUM


Can't Shake This Feeling
Lurrie Bell

Live At The Greek Theatre
Joe Bonamassa

Blues & Ballads (A Folksinger's Songbook: Volumes I & II)
Luther Dickinson

The Soul Of Jimmie Rodgers
Vasti Jackson

Porcupine Meat
Bobby Rush

BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES ALBUM

The Last Days Of Oakland

Fantastic Negrito

Love Wins Again

Janiva Magness

Bloodline

Kenny Neal

Give It Back To You

The Record Company

Everybody Wants A Piece

Joe Louis Walker

--

Not a bad list, but obviously there's a bit of genre cross-leaping; some are not 'blues' per se, but we gotta work with what we got. 

My picks for winners are Lurrie Bell for Traditional and Fantastic Negrito for Contemporary. 

See you on February 12!

Fender Drops American Standard, Renamed American Professional Series

Fender announced that their American Standard series of guitars & basses will be rebranded as the American Professional Series.

It adds some new improvements to their existing line, most notably the pickups will be all replaced by V-Mod pickups designed by Time Shaw, new neck profiles (more vintage-like), taller frets, new hardshell case, and other minor changes. Here's a full comparison:

See the new set below; I like the changes but the color choices are very limited and I'm sad they dropped the turtleshell pickguards off the basses. They look very bland now.

Stratocaster

Stratocaster HSS

Stratocaster HH

Telecaster

Jazzmaster 

Jaguar

Precision Bass (5 String also available)

Jazz Bass (5 String and Fretless also available)

Another Year Without Jazz at Dubai Jazz Fest

Oh look! It's that time of year where I bash the Dubai Jazz Festival again.

It's not even been one year since my last post about this goddammed festival, but hey if it wasn't for beating on dead horses it wouldn't be the blues.

This year ladies and gents, without even announcing the full lineup, we get this for the 2017 edition:

Dear god they done fucked it up again. And get this: the cheapest ticket (per night of course, since Mariah and Enrique are playing on different days) is $90!

For comparison, at the Winter Jazz Festival in New York in January, you can buy an all-out pass for 5 full days with over 50 JAZZ artists for only $160 :

I don't wanna be too unfair about ticket prices, because hey, it's Dubai right? I mean... you can't compare it to New York fuckin' City right? (hint: sarcasm)

I still propose an anti-Dubai Jazz Fest be launched at the same day as the true anti-thesis of that watered-down, commercialized festival will be. But I digress, we know that won't happen.

So for a story 3 years running, this has been your grumpy neighborhood bluesman signing off. 

Blues Summit: SRV, Albert King, BB King, and Paul Butterfield Share the Stage

The Sky Is Crying, captured live at the Ebony Showcase Theater, Los Angeles, California on April 15, 1987.

And the sky did cry, seeing all these legendary bluesmen share the stage for an epic show.