| Blues hope the Millennium spaces are made for them | | Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 2:55:32 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Cardiff Blues may have recorded their first Heineken Cup victory on French soil last week after 11 abortive attempts, but their head coach David Young believes a repeat performance will condemn them to defeat against Leicester at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow. The Blues absorbed considerable pressure during their 13-5 success at Bourgoin and Young appreciates that Leicester, who need to win to retain a realistic chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage after their opening round defeat at home to Munster, will not be as profligate as the French side when in possession. .... | |
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| | | Dangerously in Love | | Posted Saturday, September 09, 2006 2:12:12 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | The perfect timing of Beyonce Knowles' career moves continues with the release of her debut solo album. Dangerously in Love's best music is wildly up-to-date, craftily designed for both maximum street acceptance and positioning as some of the most cutting-edge stuff on current radio. The brash first single, "Crazy in Love," melds Jay-Z with an unstoppable Chi-Lites horn sample, shape-shifting into something brand new. Collaborations with Outkast's Big Boi and Sean Paul also prick up the ears, while changes of pace like "Be with You" and "Speechless" achieve their aim with credibility. The disc becomes far too ballad heavy in its second half, but the key stuff is the noise she brings. --Rickey Wright... | |
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| | | Led Zeppelin III | | Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2006 2:11:43 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | After plundering the Yardbirds' legacy and Willie Dixon (among others) for their blues-riff-heavy first two albums, Jimmy Page and company surprised many listeners with the strong acoustic/folk sensibility displayed on III. Page aficionados shouldn't have been caught off guard; the guitarist had toyed with similar sensibilities and modalities during his brief tenure with the Yardbirds (most notably "White Summer" from the Little Games album). Ever the creative thieves, Zep kick off the album by nicking the riff from "Bali Ha'i" no less, with Robert Plant wailing it to punctuate the thundering FM warhorse "Immigrant Song." Even other electric rockers like "Celebration Day" and "Out on the Tiles" have an inventive, offbeat musicality to them that suggest the band was already wary of stereotyping. But it's the decidedly mellower acoustic groove of the album's latter half that's the news here, from the graceful beauty of "That's the Way" and "Tangerine" to the raw, folksy charm of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp," "Hats Off (to Roy Harper)," and the traditional "Gallows Pole." --Jerry McCulley... | |
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| | | BLUES SIGN GUNNERS DUO | | Posted Friday, July 28, 2006 1:16:06 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Birmingham have agreed a deal to take young Arsenal duo Fabrice Muamba and Sebastian Larsson to St Andrews on season-long loans. England youth international Muamba, 18, and Swede Larsson, 21, will give Steve Bruce added options in his midfield engine room this season, but the Blues boss has also said he is not finished in the transfer market yet. He told the Birmingham Mail: "You can't have a big enough squad and as things stand at the minute, we're a little bit thin. "I'm still trying to bring in two or three players on top of the Arsenal lads. It's no secret we're after a striker." Click here to send us your sporting feedback .... | |
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| | | The River In Reverse [CD/DVD Combo] | | Posted Friday, July 21, 2006 10:12:00 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Some inspired music has arrived in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (mainly on New Orleans-themed benefit albums), but nothing as audaciously ambitious as this cross-generational collaboration between Crescent City mainstay Allen Toussaint and former British upstart turned adventurously eclectic veteran Elvis Costello. As a songwriter, producer, and arranger, Toussaint has been responsible for hits from artists ranging from Irma Thomas, Ernie K-Doe, and Lee Dorsey to the Pointer Sisters and Labelle. Costello, long a huge fan of Toussaint's music, sings relatively familiar fare such as "On Your Way Down" and "Freedom for the Stallion" from Toussaint's extensive songbook along with obscurities mainly recorded by Dorsey. Toussaint supplies his distinctive piano and horn arrangements--as well as lead vocals on "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"--with Costello's Imposters serving as the rhythm section. Yet the real revelation comes from the new material, including the title track (a searing Costello composition in the Toussaint soul-spiritual mode) and five new Costello/Toussaint compositions that spotlight Toussaint's signature sound without diminishing Costello's creative contributions. What could have been a curiosity is instead a hallmark in the catalog of each artist. --Don McLeese... | |
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| | | Snake Farm | | Posted Tuesday, July 18, 2006 10:11:59 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | To listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard's Snake Farm is to enter an eerie netherworld populated by dark and fascinating characters, some of whom are creepy enough to give you the shivers. The sandpaper-voiced Hubbard, a Texas songwriting legend, works a primal, greasy groove with these bluesy portraits, starting with Ramona, the dancing, tattooed reptile-house worker of the unforgettable title track. "Snake Farm" hypnotically mixes slithering images of sex, fear, revulsion, and humor, especially when Hubbard lets out a shimmering and menacing shudder of disgust. ("Snake farm / It just sounds nasty / Snake farm / Purty much is.") Guitar gunslinger Seth James sharpens the fine point on the stiletto that helps make these songs so lethal, but throughout, Hubbard strives for a tone of decadent elegance, whether evoking polecat love or the sideshow thievery of "Rabbit" ("There's two kinds of people in the world / The day people and the night people / It's the night people's job / To get the day people's money"). Produced by the masterful Gurf Morlix, who keeps things lean, foreboding, and roadhouse rough, the album sounds as if it were recorded in a room lit only by a naked 90-watt bulb--the perfect atmosphere in which to conjure songs of sin, deceit, and subterranean shenanigans. By record's end, redemption appears in a gonzo-ized telling of the Christ tale ("Resurrection"). But the Devil holds center stage until then, particularly on "The Way of the Fallen," inspired by Dante's Inferno, and on the Joseph Campbell mythology of "Wild Gods of Mexico," which involves a graphic canine sacrifice. Like Reservoir Dogs, the Quentin Tarantino classic Hubbard references in another humorous--if complex--example of women, sex, and revulsion, Snake Farm is not for the faint of heart. But fans of lowlife chic and exemplary Texas songwriting should lap this up quicker than cold longnecks and hot chicken-fried steak. --Alanna Nash... | |
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| | | Acoustic Soul | | Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006 10:11:47 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | India Arie's Acoustic Soul is just as advertised: grooving soul music with an acoustic bent. Arie herself plays guitar, supplemented by strings (instead of synthesizers) and drums (instead of drum machines). The first single, "Video," is a calm, confident ode to self-love, comparing the dreadlocked, petite Arie to the average girl in a video. Arie is indeed anything but average: her debut marks the auspicious return of the black female singer-songwriter, in the vein of Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Tracy Chapman, and Dionne Farris. If you like their music, with thoughtful lyrics and layers of instrumentation, you'll love this album. "Video" is fabulous, but other high points include "Ready for Love," a lament that smolders before slowly building to a crescendo, with tinkling piano, guitar, and cello swelling beneath the vocal. "Strength, Courage, and Wisdom" is an optimistic anthem that'll have you clapping your hands and swaying from side to side, and the best track on the album, "Simple," is a straightforward love song with a pulsating beat. Acoustic Soul may not be full of radio-friendly tracks, but every track is strong, and the disc improves each time you press play. --Courtney Kemp... | |
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| | | After the Rain | | Posted Thursday, July 13, 2006 10:11:53 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Irma Thomas has long been hailed as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans," an accolade that's accurate but seems a little limited. (Imagine calling Elvis Presley the "King of Memphis Rock & Roll.") As her first album of new recordings in six years attests, Thomas can sing just about anything better than just about anyone from just about anywhere. Though the liner notes indicate that most of the material was selected before Hurricane Katrina, there's a bittersweet resonance that extends from Arthur Alexander's lament about a once happy home "In the Middle of It All" and the soul classic "I Count the Tears" to the funeral dirge of the traditional "Another Man Done Gone" and the Blind Willie Johnson blues standard "Soul of a Man." There's an inspirational quality as well, in the gospel "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and the stirring closer, Stevie Wonder's "Shelter in the Rain," with only David Torkanowsky's piano backing Thomas's transcendent voice. Other Louisiana instrumental seasonings come from Sonny Landreth's slide guitar and Dirk Powell's fiddle. Most singers who have been recording as long as Thomas resort to tricks, mannerisms, and show-off displays, but she remains the anti-diva, a stylist of exquisite understatement whose every note rings true and hits home. --Don McLeese... | |
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| | | DJ tunes in for Blues captaincy | | Posted Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:12:28 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Damien Johnson has been appointed Birmingham captain for the new season, following the departure of Kenny Cunningham.The forthcoming season will be Johnson's fifth for Blues and boss Steve Bruce is confident he has picked the right man. "Damien was shocked, but honoured," Bruce told the club's official website. "I thought because of the way he is - a quiet type - he might decline. But he's accepted the responsibility of it. .... | |
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| | | Full Circle | | Posted Thursday, July 06, 2006 8:11:37 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | With the release of FULL CIRCLE, Walter Trout has realized a long held dream – to invite musician friends from his 35+ year career together to compose and play together. His first new studio release in five years, FULL CIRCLE reflects Walter Trout’s remarkable story, from his humble beginnings as a sideman in many a blues legends’ band through his rising solo star, arriving as one of blues music’s beloved interpreters. The project is a full circle in time and place, a journey through the range of styles that represent the blues music genre – a celebration of where the blues world is, where it has been and where it’s going. Among the 25 musicians appearing are John Mayall, Coco Montoya, Bernard Allison, Jeff Healey, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Sardinas, Guitar Shorty, Finis Tasby, Junior Watson, James Harman and Deacon Jones. FULL CIRCLE is the most accomplished and satisfying release of Walter Trout’s discography, and demonstrates his passion for music is just as great today as it was when he started playing as a teenager more than 35 years ago. He considers the new album a tribute to the people and the times that have helped shape his musical appreciation, demonstrating how the many styles within the blues genre can co-exist and mutually enhance each other without fight for rank or authenticity.... | |
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