Tag Archives: Eric Clapton
TRUE BLUES: The Stones Get Back To The Bedrock
Ultimately, despite (or perhaps because of) being bashed-about and knocked-out off-the-cuff, “Blue & Lonesome” firmly and expansively situates itself in time and place. Like most good albums, it captures and distills a mood and a feeling, a frame of mind, a state of being, and it’s a welcome, if relatively brief (at 42 minutes), escape.
BOBBY KEYS & IAN McLAGAN: Sounds Of Stones Sidemen (and Rock ‘n’ Roll) Silenced
MAC & KEYS: Two years ago this week we lost two titans who helped shape the sound, course, and texture of roughly a half-century of rock music, not to mention that of their frequent collaborators and employers, the Rolling Stones, who benefitted greatly from their skillful, soulful mastery on the horns and keys. I’d like to […]
BEANO’S BLUESBREAKING BEST: When Clapton Really WAS God (And Who Created Him? Why, John Mayall, Of Course!)
To me, this is Clapton at his rawest and fiercest; his bluesiest, purest, and most exciting, channeling his hero Freddie King (and even covering a tune or two) with a bottomless bag of stinging riffs, ferocious solo outbursts, and inventive accents of color and melody.
THE THRILL IS GONE: A Bow To B.B. — King Of The Blues 1925-2015
It’s almost impossible to envision the towering legacy of the Blues without the nearly as monumental legacy of B.B. King. Along with seminal originators like Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, and Muddy Waters, King’s titanic contributions to the genre — his life’s work, really — are all but incalculable. King, who died at home in Las Vegas at the age of 89 last […]
Damn Right, It’s Buddy Guy’s Birthday: Still “Stone Crazy” After All These Years
Buddy Guy’s blues and soul spirit reaches everywhere. Here I was today, working on assembling my Buddy Guy tribute package as a tasty tie-in and preview to his pair of local shows later this week (Aug. 2 at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton; Aug. 3 at the Lowell Summer Music Series in Lowell), and listening to some […]
