Monday, June 30, 2014

Lisa Mann -- "Move On"

Portland Oregon-based Lisa Mann has a fine release in "Move On." She and the Pretty Good Band have been stalwarts of the blues scene around Portland for several years, and from the first funky notes to the end of the disc, they make music with life, passion and style.

Lisa plays bass and sings. The Pretty Good Band is Jeff Knudson on guitars, Michael Ballash on drums and Brian Harris on keyboards.   

From the website: Lisa is a proud inductee into the Cascade Blues Association’s Hall of Fame after winning the Muddy Waters Award for Bass Player of the Year three times in a row. In Nov of 2012, Lisa took home the Muddy for Bass yet again, and to top that off, she took home Female Vocalist of the Year and her “Really Good Band” won Contemporary Blues Act of the Year.  In 2011, she and her Really Good Band represented the CBA at the International Blues Challenge, where they made it to the semi-finals.  Her latest CD, Satisfied, was the CBA’s choice for the Best Self-Produced CD competition through the Blues Foundation.  Lisa also won the Portland Music Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blues in 2012.

Quite a resume, huh? Lisa wrote nine of the 12 songs here, and the covers are "The Blues Is My Medicine" written by Sonny Hess and Paulette Davis, "Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby" written by Jimmy Reed, and "The Blues Is Alright" written by Milton Campbell.    

And there are some stellar musicians here as guests--a big chunk of them from the Portland blues scene--Sonny Hess plays guitar and sings backing vocals on one song, Mitch Kashmar plays harmonica on two tracks and backing vocals on one, Larhonda Steele & Arietta Ward bring backing vocals to two tracks,  Dave Melvan plays drums on three tracks, Alex Shakeri plays piano on two tracks and organ on one, Rae Gordon does backing vocals on one track, and Richard Arnold brings backing vocals to two tracks. The synopsis is there are some great players and singers on this cd, and pretty good songs too.

And the result is that Lisa Mann is back with a vengeance. After a seriously rough patch which included the death of her mother and losing her voice for six months, this really is a triumphant return for all involved.     

you can buy this cd at http://www.lisamannmusic.com

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