Dirt Farmer
Dirt Farmer/Vanguard
Four albums from 1977 to 1982 — that was the extent of Helm’s solo studio output until now. Twenty-five years is a long time, but in the former Band drummer’s case, it was worth the wait.
Tag: blues
Reviews
Nick Moss and the Flip Tops
Play It ’Til Tomorrow
Blue Bella
Not since Taj Mahal put out his “Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home” double LP in 1968 has there been a double blues album with one disc electric, one acoustic. In fact, he and Moss may be the genre’s only two artists to hold that distinction.
Reviews
Seth Walker
Seth Walker
Pacific Blues
Walker’s a fantastic guitar player who also can write a good blues song in any of the genre’s subcategories, including jump, country, delta, R&B and soul.
Reviews
The Paul Thorn Band
So Far So Good
Perpetual Obscurity
Thorn’s a songwriter, not a fighter.
The former pugilist traded in his boxing gloves more than 10 years ago after going so far as to fight Roberto Duran on national TV, opting instead to make music. Hailing from Tupelo, Miss., he has a blues-gospel viewpoint that informs his country-rock-R&B output.
Reviews
William Lee Ellis
God’s Tattoos
Yellow Dog
The godson of Bill Monroe (father Tony Ellis played banjo for the Blue Grass Boys), Ellis is a classically trained guitarist who gave up his job as pop music critic for The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal so he could pursue a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology — and, of course, make new-millennium blues gospel records.
