
Various Artists
Crawling Up A Hill - A Journey Through The British Blues Boom 1966-71
Grapefruit Records
This is an extensive look at the British Blues scene beginning with the release of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and pushing through…

Anni Piper
Blow Up Doll
Sugar Daddy Records
“Blow Up Doll” is Anni Piper’s first recording since relocating to Oregon several years ago. Produced at Jimi Bott’s Roseleaf Recording, Piper brought together an impressive collection of some of the…

Tom Gilberts
Old School
Polymerase Records
Review by Greg Johnson
On his sophomore release, Old School, guitarist Tom Gilberts continues to display his full-tone sound and tasteful string work. He hits the notes just as they’re supposed to be—with meaning…

Tinsley Ellis
Ice Cream in Hell
Alligator Records
Review by Randy Murphy
One could quite quickly exhaust a long list of adjectives trying to describe Tinsley Ellis’s new album, Ice Cream in Hell. “Searing? Sure. “Gutsy?” You bet. “Combustable?”…

Richard Ray Farrell
Three Pints Of Gin
Blue Beet Records
Review by Greg Johnson
There are those artists that, when you hear they have a new recording, you just can’t wait to get your hands on it and give it a spin. Richard Ray Farrell is exactly that type of…

LaRhonda Steele & Karen Haberman Trusty
Spirit Of Freedom
Self Release
Review by Greg Johnson
This is a stunning work documenting the Civil Rights movement from first-hand recollection in spoken word by Karen Haberman Trusty alternating with song presentation by the incredible LaRhonda…

Ben Rice & RB Stone
Out Of The Box
Middle Mountain Music
By Greg Johnson
As the old adage goes, what’s more fun than a barrel full of monkeys? Why two barrels of course. And so what can be more fun on an album than a cigar guitar player. Well, you know where…

Watermelon Slim
Traveling Man
Northernblues Music
By Greg Johnson
Sometimes to truly capture a musician’s talent you need to witness them in their most vulnerable setting — on a stage, bare-bone solo, with nothing to back them but their voice and instrument.…

Gary Moore – Live From London
Live From London
Mascot Label Group / Provogue Records
By Greg Johnson
This recording comes from a December, 2009 show in London’s Islington Academy, a smaller theater that makes the performance truly an intimate setting. Sadly, it was…

The Prime Movers Blues Band
The Prime Movers Blues Band
Modern Harmonic
Review by Greg Johnson
Much like their contemporaries The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Ann Arbor Michigan’s The Prime Movers Blues Band took a grasp on the classic sounds of Chicago and…