34th Annual Blues Music Award Winners Last Night the 34th annual Blues Music Award winners were announced at a ceremony at  Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee. We have the nominees and winners listed below. —————————————————————————————————————————————– Acoustic Album **Not Alone – Ann Rabson w/ Bob Margolin** -** winners listed first** Billy Boy Arnold Sings Big Bill Broonzy – Billy Boy Arnold Blues on Solid Ground – John Primer Deeper In The Well – Eric Bibb Talking Guitar – Paul Rishell Acoustic Artist **Eric Bibb** Carolina Chocolate Drops Doug MacLeod Harrison Kennedy Paul Rishell Album of the Year **Show of Strength – Michael Burks** And Still I Rise – Heritage Blues Orchestra Double Dynamite – The Mannish Boys Son of...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Walkin’ The Dog” by Grateful Dead/Record Store Day Recap I’m a dyed in the wool, straight up record collector. I’ve been collecting records for more than 40 years and my thirst for music is pretty much insatiable. Today, I got totally played on by “the man.” I’m talking about “the man” who presses the records I buy. The man that I help keep relevant by going back to the tap and sipping in new music in all different formats. It gives me pleasure and enjoyment. By now, record labels fully how to push record collector buttons to get me back into the record store. They’ve turned record buying into a holiday,...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#846 in the Series) is Devon Allman, Turquoise The first thing that hits you between the ears with a critical listen to “When I Left Home,” the opening track of Devon Allman’s fine new album Turquoise, a song that takes you through an autobiographical narrative that touches only sparingly on his rock royalty pedigree as the son of Gregg Allman and the Nephew of the late Duane Allman, is that Devon‘s musical path was not a gold and glitter strewn road that was pre-paved for success, but rather an ongoing journey that may have blessed him with some heavy-duty pixie dusting of artistic genes, but certainly did not come with a GPS...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#836 in the Series) is Paul Barrere & Roger Cole, Riding the Nova Train   Paul Barrere’s latest project is finally available; a collection of eclectic tunes reminiscent of the early days of Little Feat, recorded with old friend Roger Cole, Riding The Nova Train has a sample of influences through Paul’s long career. After the band plays at Feat Fan XI in Jamaica in March, Paul will be taking a year off to deal with treatment for Hep C. Below are some notes from Paul about the project and a link to hear a sample and order the CD….here’s a bit of the history of the album. An album, by...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#830 in the Series) is Ten Years After,  A Space In Time When you are three pints in, and the conversation as it inevitably does, turns to the greatest guitar players of all time, and the usual suspects Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and the rest are shouted out from around the bar, the name Alvin Lee is largely and criminally ignored.  As one of the early pioneers of Blues Rock, Lee and his band Ten Years After were mostly known for their spacey psychedelic blues jams that were groovy enough to grab the ears of concert promoter Bill Graham, who brought the band to San Francisco for a series of...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#817 in the Series) is the Hindu Love Gods. There’s something cool about two of your favorite acts coming together on side projects.  That’s exactly what we have here in the Hindu Love Gods.  Who are they? (REM-Michael Stipe) + Warren Zevon = Hindu Love Gods. For those of you that hated Algebra, this would mean… take REM but leave Michael Stipe home, now add Warren Zevon on vocals and you got the idea. OK, now which tunes should they do you “ax?”  Well, they really did hang together enough to do much writing, so like many quickie, one-off side projects, they resort to covering many songs that they just happened to like....

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#807 in the Series) is Arc Angels If there is such a thing as a one-hit wonder record, The Arc Angels self-titled debut album, released in 1992, would probably rank at the top of the heap.  The Parker Lee of rock bands, comprised of the Stevie Ray Vaughan rhythm section Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton along with Austin guitar legends Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall II, the band that was named after their practice facilities at the Austin Rehearsal Center, was ready and seemingly able to take the Stevie Ray torch and become the preeminent power blues band in the world, or so it seemed. Charlie Sexton, guitar prodigy extraordinaire, returned...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#796 in the Series) is The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South. Idlewild South was the second and last of the two  ”true” Allman Brothers Band albums. They’ve had many, many great albums, but the first two are always considered the only “true” Allman Brothers, meaning, Duane and Gregg were both included. I’ve also read more than one review that has called this the best studio album that band ever produced.   As mentioned, this was the last full studio album that included the great Duane Allman. He would lose his life in a motorcycle accident while recording the follow up, Eat a Peach.  Of course it didn’t end there either. Original...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#771 in the Series) is Ry Cooder, Election Special (Nonesuch) Ry Cooder’s on a roll! After an extended 18 year break from solo work, during which he was extremely busy on soundtracks and collaborations of course, he made a remarkable return to the fray with Chavez Ravine in 2005, a well-received release which was followed fairly quickly by My Name Is Buddy and then I, Flathead, completing what he dubbed his “Southern California” trilogy. Just last year he was at it again when he released the wonderful Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down, making four great albums in six years, a tremendous work rate in this day and age really. At...

  Today’s Cool album of the day(#770 in the Series) is the new self-titled release by The World Famous Headliners. (Big Yellow Dog Publishing) Out of the blue comes an album that I think will be in so many top 10 lists at the end of the year and no one even saw it coming. I think most reviews are going to start with who are these guys? That’s a good question and it’s a great answer but I wanted to start with what really matters, the music. The album’s 15 tracks slip effortlessly from rock and roll to funk, with bits of power pop, country, and 60’s style rock thrown into the mix. It’s a fun from the...