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The new CD features a special guest appearance by Rory’s long-time friend John Sebastian, who contributes harmonica on three tracks.

Rory Block was a 15-year old guitar prodigy when she first met the legendary Son House in 1965 backstage at a well-known Greenwich Village club. “Son House virtually radiated a golden light,” Block remembers of that first meeting. “I learned a deep lesson about the power of the music which became an inseparable part of me. Later, I had a chance to play for him. I will never forget his amazement as I played Willie’s Brown’s ‘Future Blues.’ He was asking people, ‘Where did she learn to play like this?’”

That meeting helped set a teenaged Rory Block on the blues path that has brought her international recognition as (Guitar Extra proclaimed) “one of the world's most important preservers of the roots of American music...a natio nal treasure in the form of an uncompromising mature blues artist.” The New York Times summed up a Rory Block performance by stating: “Her playing is perfect, her singing otherworldly, as she wrestles with ghosts, shadows and legends.”

In addition to the critical plaudits she’s received over her extensive career, Rory has won five W.C. Handy Awards (now known simply as Blues Music Awards) from the Blues Foundation: two for “Best Traditional Blues Female Artist” and three for “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year,” the most recent being last year. She also tours constantly all over North America and throughout Europe.

On Blues Walkin’ Like a Man, Rory Block interprets 13 of Son House’s most powerful blues songs, including “Preachin’ Blues,” “Death Letter,” “Grinnin’ in Your Face” and Jinx Blues,” imbuing them with the visceral quality of the master, himself, channeling that energy through both her vocals and searing guitar playing.

For more information visit Rory's site

Josh Boyd and the VIP Band
(Self-titled)


A long-time devotee of Albert Collins, Toledo, Ohio, guitar virtuoso Josh Boyd confesses that you can hear the master's licks in his playing. And you can. But you hear a whole lot more as well - and it's all good.

Only in his twenties, Boyd's mastery of the guitar belies his age. While his playing may seem derivative at first listen, you soon realize that this is the sound of a serious guitarist coming into his own, paying tribute to the forebears who inspired him, but20making his own way in the world.
This is not strictly a blues album, a fact that Boyd freely admits. "Few need 90 minutes of straight blues, so we push the envelope...(with a) fusion of styles, funk and rock..." he is quoted about the bands live sets in his press kit.

That said, this is still a great album for fans of the guitar. Backed by Toledo-area sidemen Junior Springs (vocals/bass), and Charles Gaston (drums), Josh kicks into the first of the CD's ten cuts, "Free," with a display of craftsmanship which, although more rock than blues, showcases his virtuosity.

The next cut, "Can't Stop Your Love," is one of my favorites. I know how artists hate to be compared to other artists, but indulge me if I say it is sort of Santana-ish. Not that it sounds like Santana, exactly. It's just sort of -ish. And maybe it's my bent for a particular kind of music, but I could definitely see this cut and the soulful, "I Don't Wanta Think About It," getting airplay in a variety of radio formats.

A lot of artists have covered, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," but unlike artists like Kenny Rankin, Boyd doesn't treat the song with jazz-oriented kid gloves. Instead, he delivers a harder-edged interpretation that plays tribute to the original but treats it rough. I wasn't sure I cared for it on my first time through, but once I got rid of my pre-conceived notions about how it should sound , the quality of the work won me over.

Perhaps the most personal song on the disc is Boyd's autobiographical, "Down On The East Side." A musical chronicle of Josh's musical milestones from the time he first picked up a guitar at age 3, to his blues epiphany at a BB King/Koko Taylor concert when he was 12, etc., the song is great musically, and something every music lover - player or not - can identify with.

If you like the guitar (and who doesn't), and you don't mind your blues mixed (skilfully), with other genres, you should give Josh Boyd and the VIP Band a listen. It's the sound of somebody on his way up.


Pat Jennings

Alberta Adams
Detroit is my Home
Eastlawn-017


Alberta Adams is the Matriarch of Detroit blues. She has been recording for over 60 years. She got a recording contract with Chess Records and recorded alongside Red Saunders for the label. Adams found herself touring with the likes of Duke Ellington, Eddie Vinson and Louis Jordan. Her solo career did not lift off until the 1990s, when she landed a contract with the now defunct Cannonball Records and recorded two albums for them, 1999's Born with the Blues and 2000's Say Baby Say. She is back with a new CD on Eastlawn records, “Detroit is my Home.” This is blues at it purist. Down and dirty. You are back on some bar in a side street, late at night, smoke filled, and you’re feeling a little drunk and the singer comes on the stage and holds you in your hand. You know you have found the place you need to be. The horns are just in the right place, the drumming steady and true to beat; the guitar player knows how to bring in the notes at the right place. The piano players are exactly where you want them; by the way Saffire’s Ann Rabson is along for the ride, along with Mark Lincoln Braun. This disc well deserves to be on your turntable. Put it there.

Randy Crump