One of Finland’s brightest musical talents, this is Lyytinen’s boldest, freshest and most varied effort yet. She features a wider range of song styles than ever before. To do this, she enlisted the help of the musicians who know her best – here she is accompanied by her own road band after a pair of CDs she recorded with session players. She mixes hard-edged blues with modern R&B and also showcases her knack for delicate, poppy melodies....
The Genius Sings the Blues is an album by Ray Charles, released in October 1961 on Atlantic Records. The album was his last release for Atlantic, but one of his most memorable, compiling twelve blues songs from various sessions during his tenure for the label. The album showcases Charles’s stylistic development with a combination of piano blues, jazz, and southern R&B. The photo for the album cover was taken by renowned photographer Lee Friedlander. The Genius Sings the Blues was reissued in 2003 by Rhino Entertainment with liner notes by Billy Taylor....
You can’t move an inch without tripping over a superstar on this album of celebrity duets. On DEUCES WILD, B. B. looks beyond the blues world to collaborate with such unlikely folks as Willie Nelson, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, and even rapper Heavy D. On newly recorded versions of classic B.B. numbers such as “The Thrill Is Gone” (with Tracy Chapman) and “Paying The Cost To Be The Boss” (with the Rolling Stones), the legendary blues guitarslinger reinvents his own material to accommodate his famous pals, whose respect for King and enthusiasm for this project are apparent on each track. Most effective are the tunes that find B.B. paired up with veteran blues belters like Joe Cocker (“Dangerous Mood”) and Van Morrison (“If You Love Me”)....
Does the world really need another Elvis Presley compilation? Well, it does, actually. Unlike some of the more haphazard reissues, LOVE, ELVIS is a collection with a focus, bringing together 24 of the King’s best ballads and love songs. It has been done before, but never in such a nice, big, well-chosen chunk. Elvis himself always idolized the cool lounge style of Dean Martin, and while Presley’s menacing, sexually charged early rock & roll hits revolutionized popular music, he could also be a seductive crooner with the best of them. LOVE, ELVIS is a stylish, cohesive package that showcases this softer side of the King to full advantage. While some of the later material from the 1970s is no match for timeless classics like “It’s Now or Never” and “Love Me Tender,” all of the songs fit seamlessly together in an inspired, non-chronological sequence. For a satisfying, romantic Valentine’s Day collection, you can’t beat LOVE, ELVIS....
While Rod Stewart was busy chasing American songbook classics up the charts in Cole Porter drag, 60’s Brit-soul colleague Joe Cocker pursued a more contemporary and compelling set of standards. The material here stretches from the soulful American r&b hits that first inspired the gritty-voiced singer to their modern progeny, emotive ballads like REM’s “Everybody Hurts” and the compelling studio/live takes of U2’s “One” that bookend the album. Cocker revisits old inspirations Lennon (“Jealous Guy” recast as warm, Caribbean-rhythmed r&b) and McCartney (a grand, if less inspired “Maybe I’m Amazed”), but it’s on more vintage material like “Chain of Fools” and Lieber-Stoller’s “I Keep Forgetting” and “I (Who Have Nothing)” that Cocker truly invests his considerable interpretative instincts. Jeff Beck solos with tasteful, typically elastic lyricism on the latter, while fellow ax icon Eric Clapton torches “I Put A Spell On You” with his own bluesy fire. But as brilliant as Cocker and his session cohorts (who also include Steve Lukather and Dean Parks) often are, their efforts sometimes skid on C.J. Vanston’s way-too-slick production; aiming for the middle of the road, Vanston instead drives material like James Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” and Cocker’s otherwise lovely read of “Everybody Hurts” towards a ditch....
Here’s a terrific release, courtesy of Betsie Brown at Blind Raccoon in Memphis, of soulful blues from the San Diego-based Missy Andersen – Detroit-born and raised in Queens, New York – a short, but very sweet, eight tracks of classic soul and blues – mainly covers, but with a couple of original songs, all beautifully sung and the band delivering some great grooves! Influenced by her parents record collection, Missy Andersen grew up listening to the likes of Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers and more, later picking up on O.V. Wright, Bobby Bland, James Carr, Ann Peebles, etc., before finding her own voice – and what an impressive voice it is!...
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Tom Jones
Etta James
Laura Fygi
Marcie Campbell
