Tom Clarke

Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia Blood Brothers Live in Canada Gulf Coast Records Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia’s Blood Brothers Live in Canada feaqtures ten of the eleven songs on their award-winning Blood Brothers studio album released earlier this year. But in no way is this a superfluous move. Zito and Castiglia’s sweltering blues/rock performances […]

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Larkin Poe An Acoustic Companion Tricki-Woo Records       When sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell lead the roots and blues rockers Larkin Poe, they inject their Southern Gothic-bred songs with high octane-addictive, modern pop gas. But around the time of the pandemic, the sisters flooded social media with videos of themselves as an acoustic duo in […]

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Joe Bonamassa Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 J&R Adventures Joe Bonamassa cannot possibly have an off switch, only one that adjusts the mode. If he’s not out promoting an album onstage somewhere in the world, he’s likely in a studio working on the next one. Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 marks his 51st in 23 years, considering […]

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Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind Behind the Veil Gulf Coast Records      Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind. What a suitable, vivacious name for this bunch, given all the ins and outs and ups and downs crisscrossing Ricci’s story. Ricci’s traits include being an on again off again drug abuser, and a spiritual, openly […]

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Joyann Parker Roots Hopeless Romantics Records  Too often an artist that takes on this amount of variety in style for one project ends up presenting a flat experience. Not Joyann Parker with Roots. Not by a country mile and a half. Few shift so fluidly between rock, country, blues, hard and smooth soul, and even […]

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Coco Montoya Writing on the Wall Alligator As Coco Montoya shouts ‘Baby, baby,’ at the outset of “I was Wrong,” his guttural voice rings a Warren Haynes kind of bell. But it quickly becomes clear by his molten tears of regret and exquisite stabs at his guitar that this is Montoya’s own church of soul-baring […]

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Willie J. Campbell Be Cool Blue Heart Records        Sadly, the celebrated blues bassist Willie J. Campbell passed away last December from ALS while making this album, ultimately titled Be Cool for the phrase the affable musician often used and lived by. Recorded at Dockside Studio in Louisiana, the recordings were completed by the core […]

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Duane Betts Wild & Precious Life Royal Potato Family “My mother she married a ramblin’ man,” Duane Betts sings in “Taking Time,” the snappy little tune that kicks off his 2018 debut EP, Sketches of American Music. The heritage that pours out of Betts in reference to his father, Dickey Betts of the original Allman […]

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Monster Mike Welch Nothing But Time Gulf Coast Records With Nothing But Time, Mike Welch cements the legitimacy of the Monster moniker that comedian and “Blues Brother” Dan Aykroyd dubbed him with when Welch was a 13-year-old blues guitar prodigy. Welch had recently come off a tough year and a half of long Covid when […]

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Tracy Nelson Life Don’t Miss Nobody BMG      Ms. “Mother Earth” may have taken a long break, but she sure hasn’t missed a beat. Tracy Nelson celebrates her calling with Life Don’t Miss Nobody, her first new album since 2011’s Victim of the Blues. Nelson began recording acoustic blues in 1965 in her hometown Madison, […]

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Fenton Robinson Somebody Loan Me a Dime Alligator Records      Fenton Robinson first recorded his now-classic blues “Somebody Loan Me a Dime” in 1967, releasing it on one of the dozen or so singles he began cutting ten years earlier. Two years later, Boz Scaggs recorded the song for his self-titled debut album. Scaggs’ version […]

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Lil’ Jimmy Reed with Ben Levin Back to Baton Rouge NOLA Blue Pianist Ben Levin cut his fifth album last year while still attending his hometown University of Cincinnati. Guests on Take Your Time included Chicago blues luminaries Lil’ Ed Williams, Bob Stroger, and Rockin’ Johnny Burgin. Lil’ Jimmy Reed, one of the elder statesmen […]

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