Joe Bonamassa "The Ballad of John Henry"

I remember when the group Bloodline came out in 2000 with the Krieger, Oakley, Davis kids. JB didn't have the musical "bloodline" of his band mates, but he's the one that has persevered. I lumped him in with the other young guns of his age group, Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. I always liked Lang's vocals but not so much his fret work. KWS was smart enough to hire singers, and he was the best guitarist by far. I pulled out an old VH1 tape from 1997 and watched it a few weeks ago. What's happened to him anyway? Come back, come back KWS...

I tried to like JB's solo work after leaving Bloodline but it just never clicked for me. Then, one evening when the wifey was out of the house, I had the satellite tuned to one of the channels not approved for her ears, and this live track comes on with smokin' guitar and splices of ZZ Top and Zeppelin mixed in. It was from JB's "Live From Nowhere." So live was what did it for me. I alerted Bob Kilts to it and he subsequently purchased "...John Henry" and said it was outstanding. I still had my reservations, but finally picked it up seven months after its street date. This is without a doubt his finest work to date. I'm glad he goes to #1 on Blues charts, but this isn't really blues, or blues-rock, it's rock-blues if anything. JB is a fan of UK axemen such as Clapton, Rory Gallagher, and God love him for this one, Paul Kossoff. If you're a fan of Warren Haynes/Gov't Mule, you will enjoy "Ballad..." immensely.

Wilco (The Album)

If Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers are in the R&R Hall of Fame, then I nominate Jeff Tweedy and Wilco. The parallels are too many to mention here. And if you're a fan of the first ten years of TP and the boys, then you should love this record. I don't care what your age is...
you 50-somethings think there's no good music out there for you. Wrong! It's there, it's just a lot of work to find. That's what I'm here for, to suggest something for your musical palate. Those of you who know the Mad Rocker completely understand.

Cat Stevens Video

Rented the Majikat tour video from 1976 that was released from the vault in 2004. Just a joy to watch someone so obviously passionate about his music. I'm playing the Numbers CD now while I write this. This was the album the tour was supporting and it's the last one of his releases I truly enjoyed. The final two records came out while I was in college, where I became the Mad Rocker, and although I still have them, I haven't been moved to revisit. Maybe now I'll dig up the cassette of Izitso.

The DVD featured a conversation with Yusef about his past. It was enlightening, but nothing earth shattering...we all know the history. Wow, Majik of Majiks just played with that killer sax solo from David Sanborn. I'm sorry, but I keep breaking into singing along and not typing. Thank goodness you can't hear it! The disc also featured a couple of BBC live tracks and the original Teaser & the Firecat animation. What a trip down memory lane... My wife couldn't believe I was such a fan. Cat and Elton were two of my very favorites of my early teen years. To this day I still love piano in my rock/pop music, and certainly passion!

Tinsley Ellis Concert and Album

Finally made it down to the BB King Blues Club on I-Drive for this show Sunday night. I had only poked my head in once to check out the room after seeing a movie at the Pointe. It's an unusual setup as there is very little room directly in front of the stage. There is a small upstairs section that looks down from the front, and I wish I had investigated, but maybe another day...and there will be another day. Our foursome sat at a reserved table off to one side. Plenty of room, reasonable sight lines, and happy that the volume wasn't explosive! It's too bad that few locals know about the BB King Club. My regret is that there are very few national acts ever booked to play. After experiencing a night there, I guess I understand. We paid a paltry $5 cover (best five bucks one could have possibly spent in Orlando that night) and were joined by maybe 150 others. That's not a big payout for a blues veteran such as Mr. Ellis. I hope he got a % of the bar! I will say that the food we ordered was quite tasty, on par with, or even better than the kitchen at HOB. I hope BB Kings does well with their house bands, one of which we saw briefly at the downtown concert a few months ago opening for Joe Cocker. The tourists should eat this up!

I came away with the new CD that streets today, actually. Of course, you pay a little more for it at the show, but you get it a couple of days before everyone else and you get a chance to talk with Mr. Ellis while he signs it for you. I laughed at one of his concert comments about doing some of the new material that would be available, theoretically, in music stores everywhere today. I mentioned to him why I found it hysterical in our brief conversation in light of my retail background, and next thing you know we are talking about Cat's, Peaches, and NARM events in town over the years.

So let me quickly give an overview of both the show and the record. I've spun it once and realize he performed about half the tracks for us that night. Over the years I've helped sell many of his records but never ended up with one in my vault. I now realize that one should witness a live show to better appreciate the recorded versions. He's not a flashy, in-your-face performer, but he coaxes so many sounds from the guitars. Once you witness the effortless ability, the recorded music is much more meaningful. He's not the vocal presence of other notable blues artists, but that's not to say he's incapable. One of the later tracks on the record had me harking back to a pre-Steve Perry Journey sound that featured a young Greg Rolie on vocals. In concert the bass was a bit muddy, but on record it is crisper. Drums were sturdy and strong, and yet subtle in other ways. The drummer was the most showy on stage, but that's a relative term as it was the music that was the highlight of the evening.

Porcupine Tree "The Incident"



As I mentioned in the previous post, PT is probably one of my favorite discoveries of this decade. Now that I've given this record the requisite three spins, I'll say what I can for now so you can decide for yourself if you want to try it. This is prog rock for the 21st century. A concept album (wow, there's a lot of those recently... that's a good thing!) that encompasses the entire first CD. I've read comparisons to Rush "Hemispheres", but I get Pink Floyd's "Animals". Either way, that's pretty good  company. "Incident" isn't as tuneful as Rush and by that I mean sing-a-long stuff. This is more meat and muscle where Rush is flash and technique. Don't get me wrong, this is a good album, but now I'm looking forward to sitting down for a listen with the headphones on, uninterrupted. These types of albums are what I've called "20th century classical music", and now 21st century. The band has been playing the entire work in concert and they have a statement read at the beginning asking the crowd for quiet during the softer passages. And apparently, "Incident" is striking a cord with new listeners as I've read where it has debuted on sales charts all over Europe higher than ever before and here in the US at 25. There are four tracks on the second CD which are more typical of recent PT work if you have to get that fix. Prolific as Mr. Wilson is, I'm sure we'll hear something else soon from PT or his side projects.