An Interview with album producer, Ian Brennan Mississippi State Penitentiary is a men’s maximum-security prison in the Mississippi Delta region. It’s the state’s oldest prison and its history is notorious for violence and a range of appalling abuses. In 1996, historian David Oshinsky said that the prison was “synonymous with punishment and brutality…the closest thing to slavery that survived the Civil War.” In the past, the prison was often associated with blues music, with artist like Bukka White, Son House and R.L. Burnside all serving time there. John and  ..read more

The spirituals, the blues and gospel music underpin most of American roots and popular music. There follows a brief introduction to each with some listening suggestions. The QR codes at the very bottom give you an extended 20-song playlist containing songs from each genre. Enjoy! The Blues Blues music began to emerge in the early years of the twentieth century. These were the years of the Jim Crow laws, where black communities were disenfranchised and discriminated against; where there were so-called sundown towns where a black person was not permitted to be on the street after dark; where men ..read more

Ronnie Greer has been a much loved and appreciated figure at the heart of the music scene in Northern Ireland for more than fifty years. Something of a legend, really. He’s a top-notch blues and jazz guitarist, who plays with real feeling and soul and has graced stages along the way with Dr. John, Van Morrison, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Lowell Fulson and a range of top Chicago blues artists. For many years he held down a full-time job as a director in a steel company as well as performing with the renowned Jim Daly Blues Band and others. Over recent years he’s been delighting audiences ..read more

Fabrizio Poggi is one of Europe’s premier blues musicians. An accomplished harmonica player, Fabrizio is a Grammy Awards nominee, has been twice nominated for Blues Music Awards, and has received the Hohner Lifetime Award. During a long career he has recorded twenty-two albums and has performed in the US and Europe with a who’s who of blues royalty, including the likes of the Blind Boys of Alabama, Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, Ronnie Earl, John P. Hammond, Marcia Ball, Guy Davis, and Eric Bibb,  He has a new album out called Basement Bl ..read more

The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan, Simon & Schuster I’ve been a Dylan fan for over fifty years, have seen him in concert on numerous occasions, including that memorable night in London’s Earl Court in 1981. I enjoyed his Chronicles Volume 1 and hoped against hope we’d see volume 2 sometime. So I was delighted when my daughter bought me The Philosophy of Modern Song for my birthday. The book is sumptuously presented, in large size hardback format, with a glossy dust cover and beautifully weighted pages. It’s jam-packed with lovely illustrations and photographs, all in a matt finish ..read more

Acclaimed “father of the blues,” song-writer and band-leader W.C. Handy was born this day 149 years ago. He’s an important figure in the history of the blues – the first real superstar, through his sheet music compositions, his 1914 St. Louis Blues, and his claim to recognizing the “world famous blues note.” And, whatdayaknow, I share a birthday with W.C. Handy! Handy, of course, is credited with recognizing the blues for the first time in the plaintive slide playing by a man on his guitar at a station in Tutweiler, has a statue in a park named after him in Memphis, and his compositions are p ..read more

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” Albert Schweitzer I recently read David Brooks’s excellent The Second Mountain and it prompted me to think about songs that celebrate loyalty, friendship and supporting one another. Brooks’s analysis of what ails our modern life is masterful – he highlights the ills of lack of purpose, loneliness, distrust and tribalism. And goes on to lay the blame of much of this on the hyper-individualism ..read more

No shortage of terrific blues albums this year thus far. We’ve chosen 15 of the best, including albums of traditional blues, blues rock, and bluesy Americana. We’ve maybe been a bit light on acoustic blues albums so far, but let’s see what the rest of the year brings. In the meantime, go check out each of these outstanding albums Elles Bailey, Shining in the Half Light UK Blues Award winner’s Bailey’s third studio album of soulful and passionate blues. She’s a remarkable talent, and here delivers ten songs that highlight just how good her powerful, but beautifully controlled voice is. If you ..read more

There are no shortage of cover albums – call them tribute albums – of Bob Dylan songs. Over the last 20 years or so, in particular, there have been a slew of them. These have included both well-known artists paying homage with a complete album of Dylan songs, and a number of compilation albums of various artists performing Dylan songs. Three of these I particularly like are the 1993 The 30th Anniversary  Concert Celebration, 2001’s A Nod to Bob and 2003’s Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. But it’s the single artist albums we want to highlight here, and in particular tho ..read more