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new single David Philips

Today we released the first single from an upcoming David Philips album

B&T 961 – David Philips – Home

November 2016 to March 2017 David Philips locked himself in his studio and spent the winter months writing and recording new material. Harking back to the  full band sound of his debut album, but with more grit, more electric guitar, more to say and a clearer idea of how to say it. Very much the studio loner David recorded and produced the whole record himself, playing all instruments and also designing the artwork. “Home” is the upbeat new single from this collection of recordings entitled simply “Winter” due out April 10 !

The single is available on all streaming and download platforms.

 

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review Boo Boo Davis on STL Blues Reviews

OLD SKOOL – By Boo Boo Davis

James ‘Boo Boo” Davis truly is one of a kind. Born and bred in Drew, Mississippi, he’s spent the past 60- plus years dripping nothing but the blues. His father, Sylvester Davis, was a cotton farmer who played multiple instruments. Musically gifted, he performed with legends such as John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and Robert Pete Williams. The younger Boo just soaked it all in. By five he was playing harp and singing in church with his mother. At 13 he was strumming guitar. And by the age of 18, he was working gigs across the Delta with his dad and older brothers. But the early 60’s brought a new twist. Trekking north with his brothers, they settled right into the vibrant St. Louis blues scene. Albert King, Ike & Tina Turner, Little Milton, Oliver Sain, Fontella Bass, Chuck Berry and Johnnie Johnson — the names were all here. But it was The Davis Brothers Blues Band who held court at Tubby’s Red Room every weekend in East St. Louis. Their residency would not only last 18 years, but kindle many fond memories. The year 1998 though was Boo’s true breakthrough. Perhaps DAVE was intervening. Or maybe it was Boo Boo’s ability to sing and play several instruments. Either way, he was playing drums for local and national harp legend, Arthur Williams, when opportunity finally knocked. Touring Europe as part of Arthur’s crack St. Louis band, Boo Boo was approached about recording his own CD. His 1999 Black & Tan label debut, EAST ST. LOUIS was the first step towards a blues legacy that just keeps growing. OLD SKOOL itself is about as stripped-down and powerful as you can get. Featuring Jon Mittendorp on electric guitar, and John Gerritse on drums, the European duo truly pull Boo’s deep Delta essence out. Yet, in so doing, they add a 21st century funk that simply resonates. Much akin to R.L. Burnside’s later years at Fat Possum Records, ‘Old Skool Delta’ rolls anew with Boo Boo’s Black & Tan recordings. This pulsing, trance-inducing sound has been catchy enough to score Boo Boo international acclaim. In fact, ‘ 5-Hour Energy Drink’ used snippets of his 2008 song ‘I’m Tired’ for their radio ads to boost their sales. Imagine that. Seventy-plus year old Boo Boo Davis selling an energy revival! But in the end, it all makes sense. The trio on this CD has not only toured Europe extensively, but they’ve played over 300 shows in 20 countries the past two years. Tight and cohesive, all 11 tracks were recorded in single takes. From the clash of harp and drums on the opener, ‘Hold Your Head Up’, through such notables as the catchy-quick ‘Boo Boo Fool’, the slow, open-ended ‘Boy Blues’, to the driving train-like ‘Call Me A Clown’, the band rocks a 43 minute jam session that embodies Boo Boo’s spirited live shows. It’s amazing how Boo Boo Davis continues to age like fine wine. Hopefully, if you’re a reader out there, you’ll take the opportunity to catch the ever stylish Boo live downtown. Though he’s currently on a brief sabbatical from his European duo, he’s back home performing some weekend gigs with Bob Kamoske, Mike Graham and Kevin O’Conner at BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups. What you’ll find is one of the last great “old-skoolers” pumping out downhome blues as only a true great can. As the liner notes claim, ‘this music really is COOL.’ About the only other thing this reviewer can add is “Thank you DAVE!!” And oh, even if you do catch Boo Boo live, get the CD. It’s killer…… ENJOY!!

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review Doug MacLeod in Living Blues

Live in Europe sounds really impressive, unless you are in Europe, where “Live in the USA” sounds more impressive. By now an elder statesman of the acoustic blues, singer-songwriter Doug MacLeod, known as “Dubb,” took his National resonator guitar named “Spook” and headed over to Holland back in 2006. This is a reissue of a DVD originally recorded back then, when MacLeod was signed to Black & Tan Records. He recollects that he had a fever that day and he had only 50 percent of his voice. This is the raw recording of MacLeod, Spook and his stomping foot. “No overdubs, no pitch control, no do-overs. It was one night when one of our best and finest acoustic performers today wasn’t feeling too good but went on stage anyway.” If that weren’t written here you would never know it. MacLeod is such a consummate professional, a superlative singer-songwriter and guitarist, a storyteller and performer, that the only thing you will notice is that this is a seasoned pro, a man who cut his teeth playing guitar for George “Harmonica” Smith. He’s played with Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Lowell Fulson and Big Mama Thornton. For three decades or so he has been an internationally successful touring musician, and if you don’t know him as a player, maybe you know him as host of Nothin’ But the Blues on Long Beach / Los Angeles’ KLON-KKJZ. Top that with winning the 2016 Blues Music Award for best acoustic blues artist. On this album he is a bit more gentle than normal, delivering nine tunes. He starts off with one of his signature songs I Want You, with his classic pick-up line by now so often copied by lesser men, “I want you / don’t you know I want you / every word is true / this man wants you.” He does a 14-minute-long version of Bukka White’s train song The New Panama Limited. He also delivers smooth versions of his standards Home Cooking, Cold Rain, Long Time Road, Turkey Leg Woman and Master Plan. Bad Magic is an homage to one of his early mentors, Ernest Banks of Toano, Virginia, a one-eyed bluesman who taught MacLeod, “Never play a note you don’t believe.” MacLeod surely took this advice to heart. As a performer and singer, MacLeod is simply unmatched. He interacts with the audience with plain talk, humor and natural “we’re all neighbors and friends” dialogue. He plays a pounding, percussive heartbeat on the guitar, singing with his rich and vibrant voice. Another thing he learned from Ernest Banks is to play his National resonator guitars with such rhythmic force that his audience can’t keep their feet still for wanting to dance. MacLeod remembers. “Ernest said, ‘You have got to make them dance.’ Because he said if they weren’t dancing they weren’t drinking, and if they weren’t dancing and drinking, he wasn’t going to get paid. So, you got to make them dance. The old bluesmen like Ernest Banks and Son House used to do that. Ernest said, ‘You ain’t shit unless you can make them dance.’” If there is one guy on the scene today who keeps the blues vibrant, fresh and new while keeping to the tradition and adding fiery and intensive original news songs, it’s Doug MacLeod.

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review Rivherside in Causette Magazine (France)

RIVHERSIDE – BLUES IN CLERMONT

Non, le blues n’est pas mort, car il bande encore ! Qu’on pardonne cette grivoiserie qui n’a d’autre but que de traduire un enthousiasme sincère pour une musique aux pieds solidement ancrés dans le delta du Mississippi, la tête dans le Cloud. Renaud Villet est informaticien à l’Université Clermont-Auvergne, mais c’est bien le virus du blues qu’il a contracté. À l’instar d’un Muddy Waters du XXIe siècle, armé d’une guitare et du logiciel Ableton Live, il écrit en anglais, compose, interprète et produit seul des chansons d’une authenticité folle. On est frappé d’entrée par les couleurs chaudes des guitares électriques, allant du Chicago blues au rock sans qu’on n’ait jamais l’impression d’un ersatz ni d’une redite. Puis vient la voix, traitée à l’ancienne avec l’écho en slapback, qui ajoute à la pertinence du son. Enfin, la boîte à rythmes, quelques scratchs et synthés çà et là qui donnent à l’ensemble une touche hip-hop électro subtile mais efficace. En 1974, Coluche faisait rire en accolant dans une chanson «blues» et «Clermont-Ferrand», Rivherside change la donne. Du grand art.

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review BLu ACiD on KMS musicblog

That moment when handmade music makes you groove on the spot, then all of a sudden makes you feel like dancing. The not-so-new track of Mischa den Haring and Jan Mittendorp, better known as BLu ACiD, gets right into your bloodstream. The two dutch musicians released an album called “HCN” recently which features many of their released singles from 2015 and 2016. Although one of the keyphrases I used for this review is “New tracks”, the track “Money” from BLu ACiD is in fact over a year old, but since I discovered it just today, I thought for all of you reading this the sound IS new.Being a drummer in a krautrock band, I just have a thing for handmade music. Using electronic elements in tracks creates that signature sound which stucks to your head instantly, and that’s one of the things the guys of BLu ACiD do all day long. While “Money” as an example hasn’t that much electro elements in it, it still has that distinctive groovy style coming along with the sound. The electro elements in the other tracks on their album is just the icing on the cake, so to speak. “Money” showcases that the two musicians are able to transmit a certain feel with their music. You just can hear that they are living what they are doing there. Groovy slightly distorted guitar tracks combined with deep bass lines and that unique vocals keep you caught in the music for those four and a half minutes. The track itself is mixed a bit too flat for my taste, but this could be a wanted effect, serving the retro feel of the track. There’s that “fattening” missing where other producers tend to double or triple tracks. Still, I’m not sure if keeping the track slim was intentional or not. Besides this, everything is placed where it should be. The voice isn’t too centered to give room for the guitar and backing vocal tracks. And most importantly: the feeling is real – you can’t mix that in. Most of what BLu ACiD is giving me, I’m feeling it. Whether it makes you move, sing along or thinking “how the hell did they DO that?”, it works to keep you entertained, interested and listening. I strongly recommend listening to the whole album, musicians might learn a thing or two from den Haring and Mittendorp, and the avid listener will just groove along.

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review David Philips in BluesDoodles

Back on his rooftop in Barcelona for the second album of  Roof Top recording, repeating the style of his 2011 Rooftops his first record on Black & Tan Records. On this album, David Phillips delivers eighteen tracks exploring his guitar, lyrics and warm vocals. On a rooftop, the recording process is simple, stripped back, only the essentials joining David in making this album. His guitar and voice are captured with just two microphones and all the doors and windows wide open. Adding some variation in guitar tone his Resonator and Cigar Box guitars make their appearances but nothing else to complicate the process of sharing his music.  What we get is an artist who is at one with the whole process concentrating on delivering the twelve songs. The last six numbers are instrumentals providing a bonus EP to complete the rooftop stripped back vibe. This is music that relaxes from the opening track Making It Up through to the last fading notes of the instrumental Long Flight Home. Here It Is we hear in fleeting a Spanish neighbour then into an upbeat number, with this percussive number David captures your attention. Listen out through the album for when the outside makes a guest appearance including Swifts and House Martins, perfectly reflected in instrumentals Migration and Dance of The Swallows. Beat Box opening and we Are Flying High with the soulful vocals of David Phillips. An acoustic, stripped back album. The making may have been simple, the result is an album full of shadows and moody mystery. The album captures that live, spontaneous feel as the bird song and a few unwitting neighbours captured when David Philips records the songs we want to hear. The Rooftop Recordings 2 is a must for lovers of acoustic simplicity, the power of lyrics, blues and soul to add to the collection of chill out tunes. The Cigar box adds a ripping it up-country blues tone to Tied Up Gagged and Bound the track is a foot tapping extravaganza. Counting himself in gives the feel of an intimate bar setting of a live acoustic session as he opens on Old Red Haze. A lyric about anger and is gentle as his guitar curls around the lyrics as he gets angry and blind. Country fueled with blues as we swing on the veranda and listen to the music flow. The finale is a bluesy number Long Flight Home with birdsong getting the tune underway. Only one solution is to listen again!

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Rivherside on Rock-N-Blog

Seit längerer Zeit mal wieder was aus Frankreich. RIVHERSIDE aka Renaud Villet macht ElectroBlues der nicht groß herumeiert, sondern direkt auf die Zwölf geht. Nicht alle Songs gehen ganz so offensiv voran wie “Need to Speed”, aber Blues zum Abhängen findet man auf “Electraw Blues Album” nur wenig. Villet spielte in zahlreichen Bluesbands, ehe er sich  entschloß das Zepter selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Sein 2012 erschienenes Debütalbum “Something on my Mind” war noch echter RootsBlues, aber dann setzte er seinen Blues unter Strom und lies Elemente aus dem HipHop einfließen.

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review new Boo Boo Davis by Barnowlblues (Holland)

Boo Boo Davis, geboren in 1943 in Drew, Mississippi, is een regelmatig bezoeker van ons land en een graag geziene gast. Dit laatste vanwege zijn connectie met Black and Tan Records en zijn Nederlandse begeleiders John Gerritse (drums) en Jan Mittendorp (gitaar), die niet geheel toevallig ook iets met genoemde platenmaatschappij van doen heeft. Davis, die zingt en gitaar, harmonica en drums speelt, heeft over de hele wereld getoerd en een behoorlijke catalogus aan cd’s uitgebracht. Op 30 oktober jl. traden David met Gerritse en Mittendorp op in het welbekende Café de Amer in het Drentse Amen. Van dit optreden zijn tien nummers uitgebracht als “Live And Almost Unplugged”. Tien nummers, zoals we ze van Boo Boo Davis kennen. Gebracht met veel plezier voor zowel de muzikanten als het publiek. Heel simpel en basic met slechts een stereomicrofoon in het midden van de ruimte. Niet gepolijst of geschaafd, gewoon muziek zoals het die avond klonk. Dit komt alleen maar de puurheid en eerlijkheid ten goede. Een mooi document van een van de weinige nog originele Mississippi bluesartiesten. Aanrader.