Clarksdale

Would you pardon the Cricket for shamelessly plugging his friends’ band in this Chirp? You wouldn’t, would you? Clarksdale is the new blues rock sensation in Beat City The Hague, Holland. Guitarist Sander Kaatee formed Clarksdale late last year with drummer Rob Kramer after they both split from a previous formation. Sander has been playing guitar since he was eleven and from the age of seventeen has been performing with various bands, including Breathtaking Angels. Rob has been marching to the beat of his own drum for over thirty years, playing in various jazz formations and accompanying almost every Dutch artist on record or on stage for television or radio broadcasts. Sander invited Hans Kühbauch to take up bass duty in Clarksdale. Hans was already making waves with his bass at an early age, enjoying local success with The Davies and The Groovy’s in the 70s and 80s. Singer/songwriter Kevin Burns was soon added to Clarksdale, and he brought along his blues harps, and acoustic/electric guitars. As Sander is playing in Boris van der Lek’s Breathtaking Angels, it seemed only natural that Boris would return the favor and join Sander’s band. Boris is a renowned tenor saxophonist in his own right, who was played with greats such as Herman Brood & His Wild Romance, Golden Earring, Hans Dulfer, Frits Kaatee (Sander’s father), and Laura Fygi, and has made sixteen appearances at North Sea Jazz festival.

Currently, Clarksdale are working hard rehearsing for their first performances, with a try-out show this Saturday. In line with the city that inspired their name – Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the blues – they are influenced by blues legends such as Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Elmore James and Muddy Waters. They add a deep appreciation for the Allman Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, the J. Geils Band, the Black Crowes, Lester Butler, Tom Waits and Willy DeVille. Songs on their setlist presently include “Cross Road Blues,” “Got My Mojo Working,” “Not Fade Away,” “Statesboro Blues” and “Cruisin’ for Love.” The other day I was witness to a magical moment when Kevin started playing one of his own three-chord compositions. It sounded like a cross between acoustic country and psychedelic pop. Tentatively the other guys joined in and soon we were on J.J. Cale’s veranda watching the sun go down. Then unexpectedly, miraculously the whole thing turned into a free jazz rocker fusing Coltrane, McLaughlin and – one of Sander’s greatest influences – Derek Trucks. And bear in mind that no one in the band had ever heard Kevin’s song before! That’s the kind of exciting music you may expect from Clarksdale – blues as blues can get, but with a beautiful twist. Check them out, friend-request them on Facebook, visit their website, and come taste the band when they stop by your neck of the woods!

Robert Plant – Band of Joy

Robert Plant’s latest album Band of Joy (2010) won’t grab you with hard-rocking riffs, won’t blow you away with heavy blues stomps, won’t wow you with pyrotechnic guitar solos. The music on this album is more subtle than that. Plant has had quite the successful solo career since Led Zeppelin, moving from hard rock via new-wave AOR to folk rock at the turn of the millennium. Last year his bluegrass collaboration with Alison Krauss even won him a Grammy for Album of the Year. Here we get an album filled with mandolin and banjo, wistful harmonies, and delectable percussion, where English folk and country & western meet, where rock and roll rubs shoulders with rhythm and blues, where spiritual and secular, where the sacred and the profane come together musing on love and life and the hereafter.

The album’s opening track is the swinging “Angel Dance,” originally by Los Lobos, which they give an electric bluegrass rocking treatment. The song encourages us to ease our worries, let the children dance, and after a good night sleep all will be better tomorrow. But Plant’s delivery hints at a more celestial, more angelic better day. His refelctions on the End of Time continue when we dive straight into “House of Cards,” by Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention), where they shake things up in a loose folk rocker that could just as well be Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, with some Jackson Brown and CSNY thrown in for good measure. Plant’s sole original composition, “Central Two-O-Nine,” is reminiscent of the country blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins and Leadbelly.

On “You Can’t Buy Me Love,” originally by R&B singer Barbara Lynn (1965), Band of Joy sounds like The Beatles with a little gumption from The Kinks. (Don’t let the rockin’ ‘n’ reeling trick you, this is no ode to love.) They turn Jimmie Rodger’s country & western tune, “I’m Falling in Love Again” into 1950s country soul, with a Sam Cooke feel and Nashville slides. Milton Mapes’ “The Only Sound That Matters” becomes a forgotten Rolling Stones out-take from the late 70s. I’m not particularly partial to the Appalachian traditional that goes by various names, “Get Along Home, Cindy,” “Cindy, I’ll Marry You Some Day.”

For this Cricket the real high points come with the distorted feedback of Low’s “Silver Rider” (already nominated for a Grammy) and “Monkey,” which Band of Joy perform like dirges with Plant well-nigh whispering and Patti Griffin sighing in mourning. Another beautiful meditation on mortality comes with the cover of Townes Van Zandt’s last song “Harm’s Swift Way.” The album ends with two more contemplations on the passing of time. First, the arrangement by Plant and co-producer Buddy Miller of the traditional spiritual “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” is as gloomy and ghostly as it is menacing, with a subtle interplay between banjo and electric guitar. Lastly, Band of Joy remake 19th-century abolitionist Theodore Tilton’s “Even This Shall Pass Away” into a rollicking stomper with a grinding, buzzing bass, and screeching guitars from the Book of Fripp and Eno.

Fans of Led Zeppelin may look for clues all they want as to what a Led Zep come back may sound like. They won’t find it here. And may I remind them of Walking to Clarksdale? Case in point. It speaks volumes for Plant that he resists hopping on the reunion bandwagon to milk that cow for what it’s worth and bring home the fat bacon (to mix a few rustic metaphors). Plant’s voice is obviously unmistakable, but don’t be fooled by reviews talking about “misty mountains” and “battles of evermore” and “houses of the holy.” Referencing over a century of musical history, Band of Joy is as timeless as it is fresh. With Pro Tools easily setting sessions in Abbey Road, Carnegie Hall, the Athenian Acropolis, or a Tennessee barn, Miller decidedly evades an overtly slick production in favor of a crisp and clear sound that’s loose and intimate, and entirely in the here-and-now. Let’s be grateful Plant continues refusing to wallow in the nostalgia of his gloriously excessive yesteryears! Get the album now! (It’s downloadable for only $1.99)

Bob Seger

If you know his music at all, you probably know Bob Seger from his signature song “Old Time Rock & Roll.” Perhaps you are also familiar with mid-to-late-‘70s songs like “Betty Lou’s Getting’ Out Tonight,” “Night Moves,” “Nine Tonight,” “Turn the Page,” or his rendition of “Nutbush City Limits.” Let’s begin with the basics: Bob Seger is a hard rocking roots rocker hailing from Detroit who started his career in the Sixties. His debut album, Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man (1968), combines rock ‘n’ roll, r&b, and hard rock with hints of experimental psychedelia (witness “White Hall”). I particularly like the stomping blues rock of “Black Eyed Girl.” The album also includes one of the earliest protest songs against the Vietnam War, the marvelous “2+2=?” (released as a single in Feb. ’68). There are also some dull acoustic ballads and country rock duds that I don’t much care for, though.

Most of Seger’s earliest albums are not available on CD, apparently because he is displeased with the result. So, it’s ironic that it’s exactly those albums I prefer... His sophomore effort, Noah (1969), still reveals some remnants of psychedelia, showcases a great title track, some supercharged stomps (“Innervenus Eyes”) and blues rockers (“Lonely Man”). There are a few nice tracks on Mongrel (1970), in the vein of Credence Clearwater Revival (like “Highway Child,” “Lucifer,” and “Teachin’ Blues”). The all-acoustic Brand New Morning (1971) leaves me cold. But then we come to the excellent Smokin’ O.P.’s, an album consisting mostly of covers (hence the pun, “smoking other people’s” cigarettes/tunes). Bo Diddley, Stephen Stills, Tim Harding, Leon Russel, Chuck Berry. Everyone who likes roots rock & roll should listen to this album!

Later, starting with Back in ’72 (1973), Seger recorded with the Alabama Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Who? The all-white session musicians who’ve worked with Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Wilson Picket, Johnnie Taylor, the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Leon Russell, J.J. Cale, and the list goes on. J.J. Cale can also be heard on Back in ’72 (another album that has never been reissued on CD) that includes covers of “Midnight Rider” (Allman Brothers), and “I’ve been Workin’” (Van Morrison), plus the well-known originals “Rosalie” (itself covered by Thin Lizzy) and “Turn the Page.” Perhaps the most pleasant surprise in my recent acquaintance with Bob Seger’s early music was a bootleg recording I found of a radio broadcast of his live concert at Ebbet's Field in Denver, Colorado, on July 8, 1974. His next studio album, Seven (1974), still has a few good moments, but when he begins recording with the Silver Bullet Band my interest wanes. It gets too radio-friendly mainstream for me... Well, that’s what the Music Cricket thinks anyway.

ZZ Top

I know, I know, when I say “ZZ Top,” you’re thinking about dudes in matching suits and beards and sunglasses, you’re thinking about cheesy video clips with fast cars and loose women, you’re thinking “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Legs” and “Viva Las Vegas” and maybe “Tush”... But before the commercial success of their radio friendly hard rock, ZZ Top were accomplished Texas blues rockers, in league with fellow Southerners Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshal Trucker Band. If you like your blues hard with a Spanish tinge, their first three albums are sure worth your money.

I only recently became aware I’m actually quite partial to Rio Grande Mud (1972) and Tres Hombres (1973). They may not be Southern blues jammers like The Allman Brothers Band, but then who is? “Just Got Back from Baby’s” and “Backdoor Love Affair” are hard rockin’ Southern blues tunes from their First Album (1971). “Francine” could almost have been a lick by the Stones of the Mick Taylor era. In my book, “Just Got Paid” and “Waitin’ for the Bus” are the kind of rockin’ stomps that earn ZZ Top a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with great slide guitar and blues harp respectively. “Jesus Just Left Chicago” is a true tribute to the electric blues of Muddy Waters. Even by the time of Degüello (1979) they could still come up with gems like “A Fool for Your Stockings,” with its hard thumbing bass line and razor sharp licks. Let’s not forget “La Grange,” of course, the one-chord “How howhow how” blues tune ripped straight off John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen.” And then there’s the rowdy “Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers,” which Motörhead covered so well early in their career. Check ‘em out!