BBC News (Free subscription) | 23/08/2008
The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival is under way in Colne with thousands of music lovers attending the four-day event.
BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues) (Free subscription) | 08/08/2008
Personnel: Billy Boy Arnold (harmonica); Tony McPhee (guitar); Alan Fish (bass guitar); Wilgar Campbell (drums). Recording information: Pathway Studios, London, England (1977). This long-buried treasure, ... Full Descriptionfeaturing a recording session from 1977 available on disc for the first time, reveals two like-minded hard-blues gods getting on like a house afire. Both Billy Boy Arnold and the...
nongseynyo (Free subscription) | 02/07/2008
Over half a decade away from the studio didn't hinder Billy Boy Arnold one bit on this 1963 session. His still-youthful vocals, strong harp, and imaginative songs are very effectively spotlighted, backed by a mean little Chicago combo anchored by guitarist Mighty Joe Young and pianist Lafayette Leake. The CD reissue adds a previously unreleased instrumental, "Playing with the Blues." ---by Bill Dahl...
BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues) (Free subscription) | 21/06/2008
A rollicking vocalist and gifted harmonica player, Syl Johnson has forged a career in both blues and soul. The brother of bassist Mac Thompson and guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Johnson, Syl Johnson sang and played with blues artists Magic Sam, Billy Boy Arnold, and Junior Wells in the '50s before recording with Jimmy Reed for Vee-Jay in 1959. He made his solo debut that same year with Federal. Johnson toured...
Popdose (Free subscription) | 03/06/2008
All you rappers in the top 10, as Humpty-Hump once said, please allow me to bump thee. Because you ain’t got nothin’ over the original boastful rapper, Bo Diddley, who passed away Monday at 79. His name was Ellas (Bates) McDaniel, taking on the name of his adoptive parents. “Bo Diddley” came about, as his harmonica [...]
The Allmusic Blog (Free subscription) | 21/05/2008
After a well-deserved nap, the Decoder Ring is back in action, uncovering some of the best and most interesting tracks from this week’s new releases and reissues. Kicking things off is Amon Düül II’s deeply trippy “I Can't Wait, Pts. 1-2/Mirror,” which our review describes as “the first boogie rock cut in rock & roll [...]
Popdose (Free subscription) | 24/04/2008
This is a “just listen” day. In other words, if you really are interested in the backstory on this cat, open a new window and google it. I’m just providing you with sonic wallpaper for your quest. For some reason, harmonica giant Billy Boy Arnold's best tune, the original single version of “Rockinitis,” is available only [...]
The Hype Machine (Free subscription) | 24/04/2008
in post Mojo’s Cold Shot: Billy Boy Arnold, “Rockinitis” from Popdose .
nongseynyo (Free subscription) | 03/04/2008
Bo's best album in maybe 20 years, a rousing, spirited rock & roll workout on which the man is joined by Keith Richards, the Shirelles, Ron Wood, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Billy Boy Arnold, and Richie Sambora. This record moves like nothing Bo has recorded since his best days at Chess (which lasted a little longer than most people think), and it shows Bo off to good advantage, doing Chicago blues-type...
Zero G Sound (Free subscription) | 18/11/2007
. A rollicking vocalist and gifted harmonica player, Syl Johnson has forged a career in both blues and soul. The brother of bassist Mac Thompson and guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Johnson, Syl Johnson sang and played with blues artists Magic Sam, Billy Boy Arnold, and Junior Wells in the '50s before recording with Jimmy Reed for Vee-Jay in 1959. He made his solo debut that same year with Federal. Johnson...
ClickPress (Free subscription) | 12/11/2007
Electro-Fi Records celebrates it's tenth anniversary (1997-2007) with Maximum Mojo, a specially priced, 32 track-2 CD Blues extravaganza featuring the music of Blues legends: Snooky Pryor, Mel Brown (the artist Rolling Stone calls "Funky, Primeval and Perfect"), West Coast harp ace Mark Hummel, Billy Boy Arnold, Pinetop Perkins, Finis Tasby, acoustic Blues troubadour Fruteland Jackson, Harmonica Shah,...
BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues) (Free subscription) | 27/10/2007
Known by some as the "Boss of the Boogie", pianoman/vocalist ROB RIO plays the boogie-woogie and jump blues of the 40's and 50's with a virtuosity and elan that has excited audiences around the world for more than 20 years. RIO has performed with many of the original blues greats, such as Muddy Waters, Willy Dixon, Charles Brown, Joe Cocker and many more, and has recorded with Mick Jagger, Canned...
BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues) (Free subscription) | 14/10/2007
(born William Arnold, September 16,1935, Chicago, Ill.)A disciple of JOHN LEE ''SONNY BOY'' WILLIAMSON, Billy Boy Arnold is a journeyman harp player and vocalist whose best recordings were made for Vee-Jay Records in the mid-1950s. As a youth, Arnold copiously initated Williamson's harp style. Later, however, after also being influenced by LITTLE WALTER and JUNIOR WELLS, Arnold developed more of an...
nongseynyo (Free subscription) | 16/09/2007
Chicago guitarist Jimmy Dawkins would just as soon leave his longtime nickname "Fast Fingers" behind. It was always something of a stylistic misnomer anyway; Dawkins's West Side-styled guitar slashes and surges, but seldom burns with incendiary speed. Dawkins's blues are generally of the brooding, introspective variety — he doesn't engage in flashy pyrotechnics or outrageous showmanship. It took a...
Blogcritics.org (Free subscription) | 31/08/2007
Seminal Chicago blues label gets comprehensive treatment Before Motown and Sam Cooke's SAR Records, Chicago's Vee-Jay Records defined the artistic and commercial possibilities for an African American-owned record label. Founded in 1953 in Gary, Indiana by spouses Vivian Carter ("Vee") and James Bracken ("Jay"), Vee-Jay soon moved to Chicago and, over the next 13 years,...
