live from bluesville xm - february 25, 2005
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With all the doom and gloom about the nightclub business, lack of places to play, smoking bans supposedly putting nightclubs out of business for good and so forth, there seems to be a break in the clouds and as we approach spring some interesting gigs and developments are on the horizon for my group.
First, let's review the past month or so: I had a great time doing a special recording session at the world-class recording facility at XM Radio headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland on February 11th. XM is the satellite station which is the pioneer of this new vital form of radio.
a special recording session at the world-class recording facility at XM Radio headquarters in Baltimore - for Bill Wax's Bluesville
We were invited to XM by Bill Wax, the host and program director of XM's blues programming. Bill runs a wonderfully eclectic blues show called Bluesville on XM, spinning about 400 blues songs a day. He told me that he currently has 12,900 songs in his rotation to choose from. Bill Wax is one of the most serious, knowledgeable and inspired DJ's on the scene anywhere in the world of blues; a true champion of blues music.
I performed and recorded at XM with the Severn Records All-Star band: brilliant keyboardist Benjie Porecki, guitar sensation Jon Moeller, Steve Gomes on bass, Rob Stupka on drums and a horn section consisting of legendary baritone player Willie Henderson along with David Finell on trumpet and Junior Brice on tenor sax. Steve Cyphers added percussion. Alex Schultz would have been in attendance but he was on a month long tour of Australia promoting his new disc on Severn. Alex was joined by, among others, Linwood Slim on vocals.
For the XM recording I performed new versions of three tunes that I co-wrote with lyricist John Beanrt from my record, Did You Ever Wonder? Included were, "My Love is Real", "Dying From The Blues" and "Pockets Full of Nothing". The songs will be put into rotation on Bluesville for a while getting some serious airplay thanks to Bill Wax.
On this trip I was joined in the studio by the great singer and songwriter Lou Pride. Meeting and singing with Lou was one of the highlights of the trip and of my recent career. Lou Pride is a true soul treasure. He is busily cutting a new disc for Severn Records which I had the pleasure of pre-hearing when I was at Severn studio in Maryland. The disc knocked me out.
Lou Pride - a true soul treasure...an American original
Severn and Lou together have really raised the bar in terms of standards for a modern soul album with this new project. The thing I noticed about Lou's performance (we did a gig together on Feb. 12 for the Baltimore Blues Society as well) is that he is so genuine. Besides being an intuitive and monster soul singer, writer and interpreter of brilliantly chosen tunes, Lou is an American original. He is the same cat on or off stage, it is the Lou Pride continuum: you sit down and talk with Lou and hear his stories of touring in the 1960s, recording with the Hi Rhythm section, the Memphis horns, hanging with Willie Mitchell, Al Green, his early experiences being a young black man in racist Texas towns of the '60s, his memories of the thrill of finding love with beautiful women or the chill of making war while soldiering in Viet Nam, then he gets up, walks on stage and continues the dialogue in musical form with the audience; just as natural as a casual conversation between friends. And he wins the audience over completely!
And his message is always uplifting. His finest songs and moments on stage are often about heartbreak or about the jubilation of finding love, and in the finest tradition of great soul singers his wisdom is the result of a heart so full, that he has the capacity to teach us about the truth of love and loss. Lou's words have echoes of the street but also the countryside and they grapple with life's bittersweet meanings and sometimes lack of meaning.
I hope to work with Lou again soon. And I am begging him to give me a song next time I see him; he's a great arranger, writer and groove-finder. Everything he sings is danceable to the nth degree! Lou and I also recorded at XM a duet of the classic Little Milton tune, "We're Gonna Make It". Benjie added a harmony vocal with me at the end of the songs to enable Lou to ad-lib during the vamp section as the songs fades out. Benjie can sing too!
In the coming months some exciting gigs are planned including a stop at Indianapolis' Jazz Kitchen for a gig with horn section. Festivals include Detroit's Festival of the Arts, Indy's Zoobilation, Westmont, Illinois' Muddy Waters Festival (Muddy settled in Westmont at the end of his life), Toronto's Party Gras and others. Check my gigs page for details.
Coming soon -- live at Lucerne, 2004
One last thing: look in the coming months for a release of a live CD that I recorded at the Lucerne Blues Festival back in November of '04. For folks who dug , Did You Ever Wonder? here is a chance to hear a live setting, and a bit of a more raw approach to the material on Wonder. This live CD will be released in the U.S. by my label Severn Records, and in Europe on the German label Crosscut. More new soon, see you soon.
peace,
TR
