Album of the month

February 1980! Among the shelves of the warehouse at Van Dam Hospital in Rotterdam, my day job at the time, I heard… or so I thought for a moment, Little Walter blaring from the radio! No!!!…. that can’t be… Little Walter? On the radio!!?? With a short sprint, I was just in time to hear the announcement, memorising the name the Fabulous Thunderbirds! I also heard “Saturday the 28th at Exit”! There, they completely surprised, astonished and overwhelmed every die-hard Blues fan in attendance. As far as I (and many others) were concerned, it was the beginning of a new Blues boom that would last well into the 1990s. “Girls Go Wild”, copy 1, was then played to death (it almost cost me my relationship! Lol!) and was followed within a few months by copy no. 2!! So why is this record so good?! Apart from the instrumental mastery and profound stylistic knowledge of the main players, the fantastic Old School sound (Bob Sullivan), the idiosyncratic choice of repertoire and the quality of the original songs are, in my opinion, completely at odds with everything that had been produced by (white) blues musicians before. In particular, the so-called harp-driven blues (think Little Walter, etc.) had rarely been heard before! Obscure (old school). “Louisiana Swamp Pop” and “Texas Blues”, all played “with an attitude”, made this record a blueprint for a new generation of blues musicians, who mainly went back to the originators for their inspiration! After roughly half a century, it is still a wonderful record, for me in the list of classics such as “Live at the Regal”, “Hoodoo Man Blues”, etc., which has more than stood the test of time.

My favourite blues record of the month is Hoodoo Man Blues from 1965 by Junior Wells with Buddy Guy on guitar. My favourite track on it is “Ships on the Ocean”. I think it’s such an atmospheric song. The title track is also cool. The only song I’ve been playing live from the album for years is “Snatch It Back”. Junior plays with his voice and blues harp in beautiful harmony with Buddy Guy. I met Junior Wells in 1995 when Mc Anthony’s blues gang from Roosendaal was the support act at the Roode Leeuw on 9 May. It was a really cool and energetic performance and Junior Wells was super relaxed, friendly and good fun. He signed my old grandad Janus’s shirt with “Junior Wells 9-5” in huge letters and the drummer Willy Hayes signed the back. I also kept his empty packet of Kool Menthol cigarettes. Junior Wells said that he had smoked a joint once in his life but immediately fell down the stairs. That was enough for him, so he stayed away from them after that. Junior Wells also played with Buddy Guy as band members in the Muddy Waters Blues Band. These men always push me in the right direction musically and emotionally with their beautiful, powerful, cheerful and energetic blues.

The first time I came in contact with Blues was through my older brother’s LP collection. Among other things, he had John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton. At the time I was about 9 years old. I eventually started playing guitar at 17, with my good friend Klaas van Kuilenburg. There was no Youtube and Spotify yet where you can find everything now if you want to learn to play guitar. I bought the instruction book by Ted Oberg (Livin’ Blues). The barré F chord was a big obstacle. It took weeks before that one succeeded and we could at least play “House Of The Rising Sun.  The next step was figuring out solos. One of the first was the Eric Clapton version of Freddie King’s ‘Hideaway’ that was on the Bluesbreakers LP. Each time the needle of the pickup was reset completely ruined the LP, of course. Later I bought a pickup with a 16-rpm function. Then the solo sounded a lot slower and it was easier to hear what was happening. This way I picked out dozens of solos and licks. One of the first blues LPs I bought myself was “Natural Boogie” by Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers. Not nearly as virtuosic as Clapton, but the rawness and energy of the music came in like a sledgehammer blow! There was no bass player there, just drums and 2 guitars. I especially loved the song “Sadie. It had a kind of hypnotic vibe that really appealed to me. I later found that in the music of Howlin’Wolf, R.L Burnside and Fred McDowell, among others. Often songs with 1 chord that have that same hypnotic, trance-like feel.  I’ve had periods over the years where I listened to or played a certain kind of music, but I always come back to these heroes. Somehow it never sounds dated. Bands of today like Black Keys and My Baby also base themselves on this down-home Blues and prove they can appeal to a large audience. My current Blues duo Richville with Jody van Ooijen on drums is a direct result of my love for this “primal music.

I find it hard to choose, because there are so many masterful albums, but I have special memories of this album, which is why I chose it. First of all, this album was the first album I bought when I studied in America for a year. The album had just come out and I went to Tower records and bought it for about $12 I thought. I still have it and it has since been turned gray for as far as that can go with a CD. Secondly, it has brought me a lot musically and opened my ears, so to speak, in terms of different styles coming together. Robben grew up with blues music, but also toured with Miles Davis in his early years. The beauty on this album, then, is that you hear an authentic blues lick one minute and a fat jazz phrase the next.  The songs are also very diverse and go from soul pop to rock to funk and of course back to blues. Being a guitarist is also a treat, as the guitar sounds on this album are sublime. Robben is known for using his now priceless guitar amp built by Alexander Dumble. You can hear a thick sparkling clean sound, but his signature unctuous drive sound is also abundant. All in all, this album is still an inspiration and always will be for me. Partly because of the special memories of course, but mostly because of the quality of music making.

To choose a favorite LP when you are alone is already very difficult. To do it with 2 people seemed even more difficult at first, but in our case it actually wasn’t too bad. ‘Recorded Live’ by Ten Years After we both had in our record collection when we were youngsters. Although we are both a little less into blues rock now, this album made a big impression at the time. Especially for me (Frank) as a guitarist. Alvin Lee was (and still is) a hero to me. With “I’m Going Home” being the absolute highlight on this album, we both definitely think back to the song “Help Me” with a smile. So soft and fragile in the beginning, but then, like thunderclap that harsh accent in the 2nd verse that had us scaring like scared dogs. Especially when we had headphones on late at night and almost fell asleep. The dynamics Ten Years After applies in many songs is still unprecedented and an inspiration to us. In the early years when Joep and I were in a band together (beginning in 1978), we didn’t play blues. We tried to make our own songs and that was more towards (symphonic) rock. Well, a moderate infusion of that. In retrospect, we both actually don’t understand why we didn’t make Blues at the beginning of our musical journey. We thought Blues music was really cool, but didn’t actually know it was Blues. Only much later did we realize that the songs we both used to like best were actually Blues songs. For a long time we were in a band together, but we also went our separate ways musically. However, we always visited each other as friends. We talked more and more about Blues together and finally in 2007 we got back together musically and started our first blues band (Mojo Hand) and quit the other bands we were in. Now we go to America every few years to dive deep into Blues history and now we have 3 blues bands together (Mojo Hand, Ramblin’ Dog and Reemers & de Greef), which allows us to express our musical passions. In all the bands we play a mix of our own songs and existing songs that we edit ourselves.

In this case, a double-LP even. Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland. My brother Jean-Pol was 8 years older than me and arrived with this album in the winter of ’68-’69 (the double-LP came out in October 1968). I could hear in the bedroom next to me from the green Philips pickup (with matching boxes), sounds you didn’t hear on the radio. This definitely did not sound like top-40 music. He thought it was funny that his 10 (!) year old brother was fascinated by this ‘underground’ music. ‘And The Gods Made Love,’ immediately followed by ‘Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland,’ (certainly one of the very best Hendrix pieces at all). I had never heard of the word psychedelic before but understood at once what it meant, right after that ‘Crosstown Traffic’, what a sound, what an atmosphere, what a feeling this music unleashed in me. That voice, that guitar sound. Bloody hell. I’m not going to review the whole album here, but who doesn’t know the Hendrix version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’? Imagine you are 10 years old, living somewhere deep in South Limburg and you hear this song for the first time in your life. Margraten briefly became New York or London or Woodstock, which is how this music took me. Special mention for a song that still gives me goosebumps every time now (a song that may not ring a bell with most); ‘1983 – A Merman I Should Turn to Be’. Thirteen and a half minutes. When I put this on in the car I really have to stand by the side and listen until it’s over. Softly singing along (I know the poetic not everyday lyrics by heart after a thousand listens) and realizing that these were the first Hendrix sounds I ever heard, something happened then in my (now deceased) brother’s bedroom that will stay with me all my life. Later (2002) I had the immense good fortune to play once again with Noel Redding, the right hand of God, so to speak. He told me about his time with Jimi and ‘the Experience’ and I really had to squeeze my arm that this was really true what I experienced. Later it became clear what influence Hendrix had on guitarists and modern music as a whole. To this day, I think it does. Hendrix also made me appreciate the blues, because although he was not a ‘pur sang’ blues musician, his music was certainly deeply intertwined with it. ‘He took the blues to another level’ Steve Lukather once said to me. Luke is also big Hendrix fanatic and from him also the unsung statement ‘Jimi could make a broomstick sing’. Although I spent hours and hours, weeks, months, yes years trying to master guitar playing, I never succeeded to my satisfaction, so I started singing. Short anecdote: in 2001 I managed to get a nice group of musicians together in the studio, including Richard van Bergen (Rainy Day, what a sound Ries…), Roel Spanjers, Marcus Weijmaere, Marcel Aeby, Jules Peters and the current mayor of Valkenburg, Daan Prevoo, plus about ten others. The CD release party of ‘The Hendrix Files’ took place in April 2002 with, among others, Noel Redding, Jan Akkerman and aforementioned men. Sweet memories.

My father had a big record collection and when I started playing guitar when I was 12 he came up with Rory Gallagher’s ‘Calling Card’ album. He said, “Listen to this, on this album there are all the different styles that will be useful to you later.” And so in a few days I had become a big fan of Rory that has not left me, not knowing that I later went on to play with Rory’s original band members for 9 years, namely Gerry McAvoy, Ted McKenna and Brandan O’Neil. On this record there are Jazz, Country Blues, Blue Grass and Rock influences that let you hear the freedom you would love to feel that way as a musician, but more importantly I think: it never gets boring as I stand and play the songs night after night, ‘Do You Read Me’, a wonderful groovy song or the rocky ‘Moonchild’ is an experience, but it all started for me anyway with the song ‘Calling Card’. Listen to this album!!!

As a young boy, I was obsessed with rock & roll music of the 1950s (Bill Haley, Little Richard, Gene Vincent). Thereby, the taste was complemented from my parents’ collection, who had a penchant for Jazz and New Orleans rhythm & blues (Fats Domino). In my teenage years, my tastes went a bit more in other directions, but always with the blues as a base; Status Quo and ZZ Top were big favorites. But the “real” blues kept itching and on Thursday nights I always listened to a blues program on the radio (Blues Highway with Harro de Jonge). In it, authentic blues music was played with almost exclusively Afro American artists. Mind you, these kinds of programs were actually essential, because in those days you couldn’t hear music anywhere else on the radio and record stores didn’t sell this music either. And the Internet would not appear until 25 years later. When one night Willie Dixons’ 29 Ways, performed by John Littlejohn was played, this was a turning point for me, this was the “real deal” after all! Therefore, the album this song is on (Highway Is My Home) should really be the album this story is ultimately about, but it’s not. Because there is an album that has been even more important in the development of my taste in music and as a musician. I fell more and more under the spell of black American blues music and less and less under the spell of white blues. This was because I found out that this music came directly from gospel and many Afro American musicians effortlessly mixed all the other resulting styles like funk and soul with their blues.  My big hero in that became Joe Louis Walker; from acoustic Delta blues to Memphis soul to Bay Area funk and back again. He already had a few great records to his name, but when Blues Survivor came out in 1993 it became my all-time favorite blues (by the way) album, and still is after 30 years. An album that is full of beautiful arrangements, great vocals and guitar, and very diverse. But what makes the album extra special for me is that it has left me with warm friendships; Henry Oden, the bassist and songwriter on this album, was and is a regular guest at Huize van Dorth, including when we toured with that other giant; the late Preston Shannon. He also plays on our album “ Hard Loving Man”. And Joe himself; have shared the stage with him countless times by now. As rhythm guitarist with his own band, or that the Fuzzy Licks (my band) got to accompany him. I should not have dared to dream that at the time Blues Survivor came out.

This album is what sealed the deal for me! To capture my dad’s live stage performance raw and natural. From the first song you hear the clarity of his Gibson 335, then the power and emotions of his voice bring chills to your skin. To hear him channeling his idols Otis Rush & BB King throughout the evening, only to put his own spin and personality in this set. Great list that shows his dedication and respect for genre. Giving everything that he has to the audience & listeners. I knew I had to learn this approach to even attempt to get in the business. So for me this album is Luther Allison at his finest! Leave Your Ego, PlayThe Music, LoveThe People, The Allison Way!

In the 1980s, the decade in which I was in my adolescent years (I’m from ’69), I sometimes stayed with my cousin in Santpoort-Zuid, who was a little older than me, just like in my childhood. I myself was, partly because of him, enormously ‘into Elvis’ and from there I came to the others, like Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash and Little Richard. Week in, week out I went digging through the Vara-guide at home in search of the rare broadcasts of and about that music; in the week of August 16, the date Elvis died in 1977, everything had to give way to everything that was often broadcast on television in that week about, with and about Elvis; often moved to tears I let myself be sucked into the countless docu’s, films, that were still being broadcasted by the station bosses at that time. From my love for this, even then, “old shit” arose my total lack of musical connection with my peers. Where almost everyone walked around with Doe Maar buttons, I walked around with Elvis buttons on my jeans jacket. At disco parties, the most hip thing I requested was Shakin’ Stevens or the band RaceyDuring one of the sleepovers at my great nephew’s house, during which we played games, exchanged (not so) cool stories and listened to his cassette tapes of the aforementioned for us ‘usual suspects’ in the background, ‘something’ came along that immediately caught my attention. A rather slow song came along, with something in between that I couldn’t pinpoint at the time. Someone was playing something in between the vocal lines, of which I thought and especially felt ‘how can you play so many different tones/notes as filler so beautifully and still keep coming out before the other person starts singing again?’ What was that? And especially, who was that?No, the Internet was nowhere near then and the music was on a cassette tape compiled by someone. So no cover, no name, no expert, no idea…. (I myself only played recorder at a pretty high level and by now only owned a guitar) I can’t quite remember how I found out about it at the time. Perhaps cousin-love knew his sources. Maybe he recorded it from the radio, or had someone around him who recorded the tapes for him? In any case, I found out pretty quickly anyway that the musician of that song was named Muddy Waters. But then again, who was it that crammed those “dings” so perfectly timed between the vocal lines? It turned out to be piano, so from the pianist, and in that recording that was a musician named Otis Spann. In retrospect, I think I went into the Heemsteedse library’s record collection armed with the name Muddy Waters and found out on a record cover that one of Muddy’s pianists was Otis Spann. In that library, in my memory, they had quite a large collection of records. You could rent a record for three weeks for 50 cents or 1 guilder (double-LP). At home you would transfer the record to a cassette tape. And during homework there was always time for that…. And the best part was that you could compile your own ‘collectors’.Indeed, Muddy Waters with his Otis Spann was the starting point of my interest in blues music. Thinking back to the gems I rented from the library back then, quite a nice list of musicians and LPs come to mind, all of which I would like to discuss here, including my first vocal inspiration Luke “Longgone Miles. But fair=fair, my crossover from country and Rock ‘n roll to the blues, was at that time, that song, on that cassette tape at my cousin’s house. The Muddy Waters Blues Band featuring Otis Spann. I rented the LP “Portraits in Blues” by Otis Spann. Now, retroactively, there are a few key moments in my life for me that, coincidentally or not, have a link to this, who died in 1970 (age 41), Otis Spann. Indeed, I heard on this LP that Otis Spann was truly a master on the piano. Boogie Woogie was familiar to me (‘Boogie Woogie, Rob Hoeke), but blues piano is really something else then. What a timing, what a sound, what a voice. The first song on this LP by Spann is “Goodmornin’ Mr. Blues.” (Goodmornin’ Mr. Blues, blues how do you do?…)I make a small leap in time: it is now the late 80s (87 or 88?); in the illustrious Haarlem Jazz Club there is a jam session on Sunday, led by, among others, pianist Ed Comaita (with whom I formed my first serious band ‘A Crossroads Deal’ in 1993). It was a hot summer day and I had resolved, since it would probably be fairly quiet because of the heat and vacation season, to consider speaking to the session leader and perhaps daring to ask him to sing a song. Terrified, I thought, but I wanted it so badly. Before the session started at 3 p.m., I was inside the cluttered but oh so atmospheric jazz club. “Sir, could I maybe sing a song later?”; I had asked …, I had just done it. Point of no return….pffff. But as scary as I thought it was all, I was prepared to the teeth. I was going to do two songs: the first was a song I knew by now from the Muddy Waters Blues Band, “Everything’s gonna be alright.” The great thing about this song was, and still is, that halfway through it is vocally taken over by guitarist/singer Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson (with this Luther I almost did a tour in Europe over 30 years later…). I have continued to do this song in about 95% of my performances ever since, as a kind of tribute to this first moment on stage.So the second song was the wonderful “Goodmornin’ Mr. Blues” by Otis Spann. I had done it; I had sung two songs at THE Haarlem