What ever happened to things getting quiet over the summer?

This year there have been some very good quality blues CD’s and DVD’s released, two great blues guitar greats I wanted to point out here…can’t see anyone being disappointed in either of these great pieces of work.

1. Everybody’s Talkin – Tedeschi Trucks Band Live:

I recently caught the husband and wife Blues giants Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi at Ottawa’s Blues Festival where they impressed me with new material that was tight, well thought out, matched very well with respective talents of Tedeschi and Trucks and showed an evolution of their band into many different areas always coming back to the blues as their foundation.  As terrific as the Ottawa show was, the material caught live on Everybody’s Talkin is even better.

It kicks off with “Everybody’s Talkin” featuring a special binding of Tedeschi’s soulful voice and Truck’s rock solid “Motownish” guitar riff’s…the greatness builds.

“Midnight in Harlem” hits you right between the eyes with an astounding evolution of Trucks guitar playing toward the Santana Latin + Blues tradition – you will get caught up in this one.

“Learn How To Love” shows us Tedeschi and Trucks roots in hard rock (a’ la’ Joe Bonamassa) on this track

Next we get into a couple of core blues guitar tunes “Bound For Glory” and the “Rollin & Tumblin’  – a traditional blues number that (in its current incarnation) is most often attributed to Muddy Waters and was covered by everyone with perhaps most famously, the Rolling Stones.

There’s also some slow, sweaty blues with “That Did It” and “Wade In The Water”  and another Motown Soul number “Uptight” – a delightful crowd pleasure when it was played near the end of their set in Ottawa.

This is a CD that you will not soon get tired of, and even with all of this fabulous music you still are left wondering what they will come out with next.

2. “Driving Towards Daylight” – Joe Bonamassa

I’m a huge fan of the talent Joe Bonamassa brings to the guitar, his mastery of the instrument reminds me allot of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Hendrix even though his style is quite different.

Joe has been pumping out material at quite a pace over the last few years, some of the works have not been 100% solid, I would argue the same of this one, but it is near the 90% range and because of that, I would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone.

The CD starts off with “Dislocated Boy” – a Bonamassa standard rock ballad in the same style as “The Ballad of John Henry” from his 2009 CD of the same name

Next comes a version of “Stones In My Passway” that first appeared on Robert Johnson’s great “King of the Delta Blues Singers” CD back in the late 1930’s.  I have to admit, this is the number I like least on this CD, to me it strays too far from the original and sounds over-produced.  You may think differently, I’ve talked with others that quite like it.

Joe knows how to drive a shuffle and there’s a good one on this CD in “I Got All You Need” where he gets the groove going very well and the CD begins to really heat up.

“A New Coat of Paint” gives us a high-powered, slow blues from Bonamassa that melds his wonderful vocals with high-octane blues guitar.

The CD finishes out with one of the stronger numbers…a slide guitar rocker “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go” and a soul/slow blues “Too Much Ain’t Enough” with an exceptional vocal by Jimmy Barnes (Australian singer ex Cold Chisel) that just works.

Some really interesting collaborations and some very good shuffle and slow blues numbers make this one of the best Joe Bonamassa CD’s since John Henry in 2009 – well worth the pick up for sure.