BOR

Live at the Greek Theatre continues Bonamassa's tradition of honoring incredible concert venues like the Royal Albert Hall, the Vienna Opera House, Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and the Beacon Theater. As with all Bonamassa DVD shoots, the performance at the Greek offered a unique presentation of this historical music. <br/><br/>Songs ranged from blues standards to deep cuts, including "Born Under A Bad Sign," "Lonesome Whistle Blues," "Hummingbird," "Let The Good Times Roll," and, of course, B.B. King's famed "The Thrill Is Gone" as the evening closer. For Bonamassa, the tour's importance deepened significantly when B.B., his friend and mentor, passed away two months before it began. "My only regret is that B.B. was not alive to see it," said Bonamassa.<br/><br/>The eleven-piece band included Anton Fig (drums), Kirk Fletcher (guitar), Michael Rhodes (bass), Reese Wynans (piano, Hammond organ), Lee Thornburg (trumpet, horn arrangements), Paulie Cerra (saxophone), Nick Lane (trombone), and a trio of backup singers including Mahalia Barnes, Jade MacRae, and Juanita Tippins.<br/><br/>This tour was a continuation of the celebration of our blues heritage, which began with the 2014 production of Joe Bonamassa - Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks, a tribute to the music of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Both tours gave a portion of proceeds to presenting partner Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation, a non-profit Bonamassa founded in 2011 that promotes the heritage of the blues to the next generation, funds music scholarships, and supplements the loss of music education in public schools.

Hill Judith: Letters From A Black Widow [CD]

It's 2017, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd is reaching unstoppable momentum - the proof is all over his eighth solo album, Lay It On Down. As a renowned hot-rodder, it's apt that Shepherd's musical career has no reverse gear. Awards, acclaim and platinum album sales flash by in a blur, vanishing in the rear-view mirror. For this questing musician, the focus is always the horizon, the next challenge, the new songs, the crowd out front stamping their feet. "We're still breaking new ground, not just repeating ourselves," notes the standard-bearer for modern blues. "Every album is representative of the things that are going on with me right now. Every album is another page in the book."<br/><br/>True to the brief, Lay It On Down is a tracklisting that runs the musical gamut, with songs that will be embraced by Shepherd's long-standing fans, alongside moments that strike out in fresh directions. "There's certain songs on this album that I think have balls and rock pretty hard," he nods. "Like Baby Got Gone, Ride Of Your Life and Down For Love. Those songs have what a lot of people will expect to hear from me and my band. Blazing guitar, rocking grooves, aggressive playing and stuff. But I wanted there to be a variety of textures and grooves and feelings and emotions conveyed through this record. So Nothing But The Night, I don't know what you'd compare that to. It doesn't sound like any other song we've ever recorded. It's a smoky, vibey kind of song."

'A Day In Nashville' is a welcome throwback of an album. Robben Ford's latest release stands out as a true old school project for a variety of reasons. The sly vocalist-guitarist recorded the entire album in just a day, which is the anomaly by today's recording standards. <br/>"It just doesn't happen today," Ford said. "Nine songs in one day, all new music. That normally takes some time. But I credit the musicians I worked with. I sent demos to them with me singing and playing on acoustic guitar. I sat down and thought if I can pull this off, wouldn't that be something." Ford pulled it off courtesy of the work he put in and due to an exceptional bunch of musicians. Guitarist Audley Freed (Black Crowes), keyboardist Ricky Peterson (David Sanborn), bassist Brian Allen (Jason Isbell), drummer Wes Little (Sting) and trombonist Barry Green (Tony Bennett) helped make 'A Day In Nashville' a reality. You can't pigeonhole 'A Day In Nashville' which is a blues/R&B hybrid, with a tinge of jazz tossed into the sonic potpourri for good measure.<br/><br/>'A Day In Nashville' is the perfect follow-up to 'Bringing It Back Home.' Although there is a similar sonic presence, this time out Ford, pens seven of the nine cuts. "I had the chance to write some new music and so I did it," Ford said. "I enjoy recording versions of other people's songs but I like to write music too." Ford nails it whether delivering a pair of instrumental tunes or the seven gems, which range from the compelling ('Midnight Comes Too Soon') to the humorous ('Ain't Drinkin' Beer No More'). The former, which includes a number of searing bluesy guitar licks and a film noirish story, is not set to a rhyme scheme. "It was a worthwhile exercise to break away from rhyming in songwriting," Ford said. "Rhyme does make a song more powerful but singing words that don't rhyme can work really well. The entire bridge doesn't rhyme at all. You can't put this song into a box."

Michael Weston King: Nothing Can Hurt Me Anymore [CD]

Vito, Rick: Soulshaker [CD]

Second Line Stomp [CD]