Damon Fowler -- "Sounds Of Home"

Damon Fowler's new "Sounds Of Home" is a smorgasbord of great guitar work and fine singing and songwriting. Recorded at Tab Benoit's studio in Louisiana--and with Tab's typically understated production work--this is Damon's sixth cd and his third for for Blind Pig Records. It is also his best.  Fresh from a year touring with the Southern Blues-Rock Royal Southern Brotherhood, Damon has raised his game in every direction---and he has been pretty doggone good for several years already.

Nine of the songs here are Damon originals, sometimes with the help of writing partner Ed Wright and Tab; and there are two covers: Johnny Winter's "TV Mama" and Elvis Costello's "Alison." The album closes with the traditional "I Shall Not Be Moved."

Damon's voice is country-ish, clear with an agreeable roughness on some songs, and his writing shows plenty of pop-music smarts. But my favorite part of this set is Damon's guitar--he gives the entire fretboard a good workout with an endless supply of razor sharp hooks.

Favorites? The centerpiece of the cd is "Old Fools, Bar Stools, and Me," which sounds like it should have been written by John Hiatt or Willie Nelson. One of the best songs of the year, for sure."Thought I Had It All" is an excellent song, as is the title track. "Trouble" has a tasteful solo around lyrics about being addicted to a lover. "Spark" is an energetic rock song--back in the good old days of real radio, every song here would be on a playlist somewhere. This is a Top Ten cd of the year candidate.

You can buy this cd at http://www.blindpigrecords.com



     

Mud Morganfield & Kim Wilson -- "For Pops"

Those of us who have been connected to the blues for a long time will hear all they need to know when I say that this cd is a tribute to the 100th birthday of Muddy Waters by his son Mud Morganfield & Kim Wilson backed by an all-star band of Chicago blues players.

But those of you whose love for the blues may have developed rather recently--like maybe beginning in 1995--may need some more encouragement. This is a cd of really great old school songs and music. Like twenty years older than The Black Keys. Older than the Blues Brothers movie.

But not old like a museum exhibit. This music is not stodgy or creaky or stiff. This music roars out of the gate and burns from beginning to end. Part of that is Kim Wilson's doing--his Little Walter styled harp work here very nearly raises the dead--and part of it is that Mud Morganfield is one of the better singers out there, especially when singing Muddy's songs. And a huge part of it is the band that brings these songs to full, uproarious life: Rusty Zinn and Billy Flynn on guitar, Barrelhouse Chuck on piano, Steve Gomes on bass and Robb Stupka on drums. The album was produced by David Earl and Steve Gomes and recorded in four days at Severn Sound Studios in Annapolis, Maryland. 

Everybody plays together with the same sense of balance and taste that you hear in those great Muddy Waters bands from back in the 50s. Every note of every song is blues perfection. Nothing extraneous, nothing out of place, no showing off. Love it.

You can get this cd at http://www.severnrecords.com/