Homemade Jamz Blues Band, pay me no mind (Northern Blues, 2008)
Watermelon Slim and the Workers, No Paid Holidays (lNorthern Blues, 2008)
Pinetop Perkins, ...and Friends (Telarc, 2008)

The blues continues to go from strength to strength. A few years ago, one might have wondered if there was a future for three chords and 12 bars, but every month new blues releases are sent to GMR by a variety of blues labels, including the two represented here. Northern Blues is a Canadian company and Telarc is American, but the music they release is blues through and through. These three new releases feature blues artists at extreme ends of the age spectrum. If you add up the ages of all the members of the Homemade Jamz Blues Band you get 37 years! 37 years! If you multiply it by three, you're only 16 years over the age of Pinetop Perkins! That's right, on July 7, 2008, Pinetop turned 95 years old. And Watermelon Slim? Well, he's somewhere in between. But although their ages are all over the map, chronologically speaking, musically, they are all siblings: brothers and sisters in the blues.

Homemade Jamz Band have been profiled on CBS Sunday Morning News, and National Public Radio, they're touring the major blues festivals this summer, and stars like BB King and Elvin Bishop are quoted on their CD cover praising them. "These young kids have energy, talent and do the blues proud with their own flavor," BB said. And as BB's own energy is diminishing, the blues is going to need some fresh blood. The songs on pay me no mind are all originals by Renaud Perry (who adds harmonica to a handful of tracks) but the band -- Ryan Perry on vocals and lead guitar (15 years old), brother Kyle on bass and their 9-year-old sister on drums claim ownership of the tunes well enough! Oh, there's also a cover of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." These kids rock out, sounding far beyond their years. There is vitality in Ryan's vocals, but he manages to convey experience too. And his guitar parts sizzle. You'll be amazed at the time-keeping skills of little sister Taya. Kyle's no slouch, either. With the addition of Miles Wilkinson on rhythm guitar on four tracks, the band's sound is full and loud. This is a great introduction to a group with a future.

I saw Watermelon Slim and his band The Workers at a small club and they rocked the joint. In more ways than one. They were remarkable in their energy and as loud as I've ever heard a band. Steve Strongman (a local blues guitarist who opened the show) had to move away to rescue his own ears! They have poured all the same ingredients into this, their newest CD just out. No Paid Holidays is a collection of 14 new tracks, nine originals and a clutch of covers all given the Watermelon Slim treatment.

And what is that treatment? Well, it's full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes blues. Take no prisoners. Slim is a slicing and dicing bottleneck guitarist, who uses a variety of slides to fret with. He plays a mean harmonica, and his voice channels the ghost of Howlin' Wolf. So how can you go wrong? He's a political animal, too. His lyrics cover societal ills, life as a workingman, the road, and everything else, right through to "Max the Baseball Clown." He has great taste in cover tunes too, doing a respectable job on Fred McDowell's "Everybody's Down on Me" and a bang-up "And When I Die" (the Laura Nyro classic). And his band is good. Cliff Belcher (bass), Michael Newbury (drums), Ronnie 'Mack' McMullen (guitars), are the Workers, who are joined by guests David Maxwell on piano and Lee Roy Parnell who drops in to add slide guitar on "Bubba's Blues." Don't miss these guys. And watch for them to play in your town...that's a show you definitely want to see.

An apprentice band's first effort, a journeyman offering from mid-career and that brings us to the old master. Pinetop Perkins is probably best-known as the piano player for Muddy Waters' band during the years 1969-1980. He replaced Otis Spann in Muddy's band, and if you don't think those were big shoes to fill, you need to do a bit more blues homework. Before Muddy, Pinetop had worked with BB King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Earl Hooker and others. Since going solo circa 1992 he released 15 albums in as many years. Pinetop Perkins and Friends finds him doing a set of classic blues tunes with a group of special friends including Eric Clapton, BB King, Jimmie Vaughan and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, to name just a few.

"Take It Easy Baby" finds Pinetop joined with Vaughan on a shuffle to kick things off. Then Eric Sardinas slips into the lead guitar slot on Muddy's signature tune "Got My Mojo Working." BB King takes over for "Down in Mississippi" and Eric Clapton plays lead behind the vocals of Nora Jean Brusco for a medley of "How Long Blues / Come Back Baby." But it's still Pinetop's show. His tickling of the ivories is a highlight, however big the name of the guest star. This is classic blues, done in classic style. Even with Perkin's reedy vocals, this guy's mojo is still working.

Three new blues albums from new to old with stops all along the way to show us all that however simple the formula, 12 bars plus three chords add up to lots of excitement!

[David Kidney]

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