News in from World Music Network : After Afrobeat and Klezmer, World Music Network are hoping for another revival. This time its the Blues with Robben Ford, Irma Thomas, Eugene Hideaway Bridges, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Shemekia Copeland, Eric Bibb, Savoy Feat Kim Simmonds, Doyle Bramhall, Deborah Coleman, CC Adcock, Kelly Jo Phelps, JJ Grey & Moffro and Samba Touré.
Irma Thomas is the undisputed queen of New Orleans’ unique blues-funk hybrid. Born in 1941, she’s been singing the blues for a long time but she’s still in the vanguard of keeping the music vibrant and alive. This track comes from After The Rain which won her a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2007. Inhabiting that delicious area where gospel, blues and soul intersect with spiritual fervour and earthy passion, The Blind Boys of Alabama may just be the longest-established group in the world. Formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939, last year they toured with Taj Mahal.
Over the years, the blues, jazz and rock guitarist Robben Eord seems to have backed everyone from George Harrison and Joni Mitchell to Miles Davis and Jimmy Witherspoon. The son of a Louisiana blues guitarist and related to Tina Turner, Eugene Hideaway Bridges has played guitar for such gospel outfits as the Mighty Clouds of Joy in the 1980s and was the lead guitarist with Big Joe Turner’s Memphis Blues Caravan. The daughter of the late, great blues singer Johnny Copeland, Shemekia Copeland was born in Harlem, New York, in 1979. From the age of 16 she toured with her father and since his death in 1997 she has released a string of records. Born in 1955, Deborah Coleman began playing the guitar at the age of 8 and she recorded her first solo album Takin’A Stand in 1994.
Born in Washington in 1959, Kelly Joe Phelps plays his guitar by laying the instrument flat across his knees and fretting it with a heavy steel bar. His 1995 debut album Lead Me On was a masterful blend of his own songs and traditional folk-blues numbers sung and played solo in a starkly intense style. Since then he’s expanded his horizons and now plays both solo and accompanied by a sympathetic band. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, the six-piece Moifro — fronted by the charismatic singer, guitarist and harmonica player ii Grey — play blues flavoured with a twist of southern-fried funk-rock. The band’s debut album Blackwatcr appeared in 2001 and it was clear from the get-go that the impassioned vocals and fine song writing of JJ Grey were the driving force behind their hip-shaking grooves.
Malian bluesman Samba Touré is a former student of the legendary Ali Farka Touré. He played in local bands for many years, before getting the chance to join Ali Farka Touré’s band in 1997. Inspired by this experience Samba Touré has created a unique genre of Sonral Blues with his own group Fondo and the profound influence of his mentor lives on through his music. This album also contains a bonus CD by Samba Touré.
Buy a copy of the Rough Guide to Blues Revival
Other blues compilations in the Rough Guide Series.
The Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues
The Rough Guide to Delta Blues: Sounds from the Cottonfields of the Deep South
The Rough Guide to Chicago Blues
The Rough Guide to African Blues
