Blues music you will love

Blues

style / mood

Editor's Picks (see more)

KELLY JOE PHELPS: Western Bell
This famed fingerstyle and blues guitarist gets adventurous with 11 improvisatory pieces that are meant to shake things up. Kelly Joe Phelps stretches his technique to just-this-side of the breaking point, utilizing alternate tunings, strange rhythms, odd fingerings, and a general lack of regard for tradition. That being said, though, he also draws from a deep well of skill, experience, and passion when conjuring these experimental creations. Phelps demonstrates that, even for a master, there are always new textures to uncover, new territories to explore. Oh, and he is playing the slide again, too!
CD price: $13.97
KARLI FAIRBANKS: The Breaking of Our Days
Karli’s stellar debut, “Bitter Blue,” was a beautifully sedate affair with hushed vocals drifting over ghostly folk songs. On “The Breaking of Our Days,” she has kept the beauty of her songwriting intact but decided to kick the energy level up a notch with steel-tinged country shuffles, folk-blues burners, and some time-tested grooves from the lonely, indie-Americana songbook. She has also expanded the sonic palette on this record, enlisting a number a great Northwest players who help give this album a cohesive yet evolving sound. Her soulful voice is more present, more assured, as well. All in all, “The Breaking of Our Days” is a step up from what was already an impressive debut.
CD price: $12.97
ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS: What? And Give Up Show Biz?
Anyone with cojones big enough to call themselves “God’s favorite band” had better back up the boldness of such a statement with more than just bravado. Thankfully, The Asylum Street Spankers (from Austin, TX) deliver the goods. Bluegrass barbershop quartet? Junkyard jug band? Gypsy jazz jokesters? Cow-punk pranksters? Whatever they are, these “legendary purveyors of magnificently mellifluous musicianship” have put together a hilarious double live album recorded at New York’s Barrow Street Theatre. The record is a true testament to the kind of magic that can be created by a group of players gathered together in the same room at the same time. It’s a rockin’ retrospective, a revue of the troupe’s 14-year career as troublemaking, traveling troubadours. In the best of bawdy vaudevillian traditions, nothing is sacred, no topic too taboo (sex, drugs, politics, religion). They are peaking under the skirt of proper, polite society to reveal the carnival show behind the curtain. And they’re serving up their satire with a generous dose of adult humor, dirty drunk dancing, stellar songs, and populist theatricality.
CD price: $14.99
JOSIAH ALTSCHULER: Murder Ballads and Love Songs for Cello and Voice
If you’re looking for polished presentation, skin-deep emotion, and well-mannered performances, turn around! Josiah Altschuler’s solo cello and voice pieces are anxious Americana vignettes so sharp they cut through bone and tissue to get to the heart of the music. As a bioinformatics programmer at Harvard by day, you might think his experimental-gothic take on these popular songs would sound scientific or overly academic. Instead, these “Murder Ballads and Love Songs” (smart and precise as they are) peel away the layers of a devastated world to reveal things both disturbing and beautiful beneath the scarred earth. Altschuler’s unorthodox cello technique, more like strumming and fingerpicking a guitar, propels the tunes with percussive pops, pounding, clicks, and finger slaps. His haunting voice, whisper thin and rhaspy, resonates in the darkness, ghostly and distant. Snd yet it feels heavy as a sermon from a fire-and-brimstone preacher just down from the mountaintop. This is a fantastic album of diverse cover songs that find new life and meaning when recontextualized by Josiah’s unique blend of indie-Appalachian influences, Country folk, and Delta blues.
CD price: $7.99 / MP3 price: $6.99
JOE MCGUINNESS: From These Seeds
What is the term for that certain elusive musical quality that encompasses the wisdom of the past while also giving the listener a unique glimpse into the future? Oh, yeah! “Timeless.” Every artist strives for it. Few achieve it. Fewer still achieve it in a genre so well-worn as the Blues. But Joe McGuinness has managed to create a truly timeless blues album. Full of soulfulness and authenticity, “From These Seeds” is a collection of back-porch folk blues made by a man so skilled at deft fingerpicking and agile singing that he can forget about technique altogether and let his heart do the talking. His funky and syncopated acoustic guitar work lands him somewhere between Robert Johnson and Bruce Cockburn. And from his ragged yet acrobatic vocals, you can tell that Joe has been drinking from the same well as Tom Waits and Greg Brown. He mixes the very best elements of old school delta blues, country, pop, and folk to somehow stir up a fresh and magical sound that is neither modern nor antiquated. It’s simply a sound that rings true.
CD price: $14.97 / MP3 price: $10.97

Top Sellers (see more)

MELODY GARDOT: Some Lessons -The Bedroom Sessions
With a quiet fire of Folky-blues, acoustic jazz, this Philadelphia based singer songwriter gently stirs the senses with six stunning songs filled with poignant honesty and inspiring empathy.
RUTHIE FOSTER: Runaway Soul
Rip roaring Soul and blues vocals spilling over a folk goblet.
CD price: $15.00
NUNO MINDELIS: Twelve Hours
"The CD that I have been waiting for ever since we lost SRV... flat out full tilt killer blues."--Bandit Blues Radio; "Explodes with heavy, Hendrix-Vaughan guitar"--Blues Revue; "A classic in modern blues"--Real Blues Magazine
CD price: $11.99 / MP3 price: $9.99
DAVID GRISSOM: Loud Music
Texas blues, rock, steel bending guitar music.
CD price: $12.97 / MP3 price: $9.99
THE DEVIL MAKES THREE: Longjohns, Boots, and a Belt
An all-acoustic trio from Santa Cruz take from many traditional old-time music styles -- bluegrass, ragtime, country, and blues and have produced a very unique sound.
CD price: $13.97 / MP3 price: $9.99
WALTER TROUT POWER TRIO: Hardcore
Guitar Blues
CD price: $18.00 / MP3 price: $18.00
MELANIE MASON: Bendin' the Blues
Debut album from lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Melanie Mason and her band; winner of WAMA's Best Blues Recording award. "10 out of 10." --Blues Matters
CD price: $15.99
GRACE POTTER: Original Soul
Original Soul is a triumph it's one of the finest Vermont releases of the year. Potter sings strong and bold, sounding at times like Bonnie Raitt or even Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes.
CD price: $14.00
BONNIE KOLOC: Timeless
Eclectic, clarion-voiced singer/songwriter influenced by folk, jazz and blues.
CD price: $35.00
ERIC STECKEL BAND: A Few Degrees Warmer
With a feeling and natural ability that can't be explained for someone so young, Eric delivers a blues guitar performance with an intensity and skill that never fails to amaze. OUT OF STOCK-PLEASE LOOK FOR ERIC STECKEL "EARLY PICKIN"

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Blues music you will love

Blues

style / mood

Editor's Picks (see more)

Top Sellers (see more)