The new Blues Doctors album is out and available for preview and sale. We recorded most of it back in January, although four of the 11 tracks, including "Tequila" and three live tracks, were recorded earlier.
I played drums on every track except one, and of course I banged on them more softly this time because jinx was in my ear the whole time growling "Irritating!" I played acoustic harp on one track, "Magic," but other than that I used a Kay 701 and a Masco MU-5 along with my regular Shure PE-5H mic. Nothing fancy in the studio. Alan played a cigar-box guitar of his own manufacture on the second track. I'm particularly happy with that track, because it had a slide/harp sound that isn't really like anything we've done before.
Zaire Love, on "Magic," is a fantastic singer and we're lucky to have her. That track is an arrangement of Olivia Newton-John's hit from 1980. I found the D maj / D7b5 vamp haunting and wanted to do something with it. If you listen to the original, which is easy to find, you'll hear that "arrangement" is too mild a word; I've basically shredded the song and then woven a few of the pieces back together into an AABA form.
I'll paste a player (so you can sample) here, followed by the liner notes and a link to the dedicated page on this website. I'm happy to answer any questions about gear, technique, etc.
And no: the album is not available for free streaming, on Spotify or elsewhere--except for the YouTube video below and one additional track that I'll put out that way. I don't play the "take my music for free" game. Nor do I ask folks the share the expense of making the album. I believe in paying my own way and supporting the music I like with a dollar or two. Other musicians make other choices. (If you're somebody who thinks nothing of paying $3.59 at Starbucks every morning for a cup of foamed-up coffee but who bridles at spending 99 cents for a song you like by an artist you like--well, you've told me what your priorities are, and I thank you for that.)
The previews are all 30 seconds or so, except for the seventh song, "Blues For Hank," which plays all the way through.
Adam Gussow and Alan Gross, a.k.a. The Blues Doctors, are Mississippi-based blues veterans who play a mix of Delta standards and urban grooves from the Texas-to-Chicago axis with some New Orleans funk thrown in. They're a two-man band with a big, bold sound: Gussow on harmonica and drumset, Gross on guitar, with both men sharing vocals. Their debut, Roosters Happy Hour (2013), spent several months at #1 on Amazon's "Hot New Releases in Acoustic Blues" chart and hit #10 on the Living Blues national radio airplay chart.
Same Old Blues Again is their second album. Recorded at the Hill Country Recording Service in Water Valley, Mississippi, it swings, struts, and grooves hard, beginning with a bluesed-up remake of "Tequila" that features Gussow's squealing high notes. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" introduces a new sound for the duo: cigar-box guitar, handmade by Gross, with slide and harp paired Delta-style. The title track, driven by a loping New Orleans beat, sings of a young man betrayed by love, drinking heavily and drifting downward towards despair.
Classic compositions by Mississippi masters Elmore James ("Cry For Me, Baby") and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup ("That's All Right") anchor the album, which ends with a three-track live set recorded at the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic and powered by Jimmy Reed ("You Don't Have to Go"), Muddy Waters ("Take You Downtown"), and Robert Johnson ("Crossroads Blues"). The bittersweet sounds of soul-jazz show up in "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and Gussow's minor-key original, "Blues For Hank," both of which feature jazz bassist Bill Harrison, a Chicago veteran.
The big surprise on Same Old Blues Again is "Magic," Olivia Newton John's 1980 pop hit, arranged as a quiet but urgent blues-pop incantation. Memphis-based R&B vocalist Zaire Love shadows and dances around Gussow's voice and harmonica, creating a haunting sonic tapestry, casting a spell.
Lonely hearts and endless grooves. Same Old Blues Again.
Actually, here's the original of "Magic" followed by our version. I'm not much of a crooner, but Ms. Love came up with some extraordinary filigrees that steal the show.
Jinx, I trust that you'll absolutely HATE this cut! Anything less than a full-on sneer will disappoint me.
I look forward to getting this and adding it to my other Gussow goodies. On this, though, I have to say that while I admire your harmonica tone and the sultry soul of Zaire Love's vocals, I have never liked this song. Prejudiced, perhaps, because it was a prime example of Top 40 gone rancid, and that Olivia Newton John thin voice pierced my ears in cars, trains, stores and rest rooms too many times to reconsider the actual merits of the tune. In any case, I don't hear a groove getting under way here, and the vocals through out don't make this a conversion experience. My hat's off to you for trying, Adam, but this doesn't move the needle. Again, I look forward to hearing the rest of the release . ---------- www.ted-burke.com
To my ears, it sounded very much like a tune played in the style of something you would hear on "Sesame Street" .......I am sure Jinx will be more specific in the details :) lol
Last Edited by CarlA on May 13, 2018 1:37 PM
CarlA: You're probably more of an expert on Sesame Street than I am; in 1969, when it premiered, I was 11 years old and in sixth grade. So I just missed it.
But I'm honored by the reference, since several of my favorite musicians made notable cameos on the show.
Thanks, hooktool. Yes, the Blues Doctors will be performing at 8 PM on Friday night at HCH, and we'll certainly have lots of (new) CDs on hand. That performance is basically our album release party.
"Magic," in case I haven't made this clear enough, is unlike anything else on the album. The rest of the album consists of groove-heavy traditional blues of one sort or another (8 tracks) and a pair of soul-jazz tunes (2 tracks). "Magic" is the only track that doesn't have drums.
I hear Shakespeare in it, actually--the "double, double toil and trouble" of the witches in "Macbeth"--in Zaire Love's final cadenza. I love that she intuited the need for that sort of incantory magic.
