Main Blues

By Malcolm Kennedy
When Alice Stuart & the Formerlys were putting things together to go down to the famed Ardent Studio in Memphis to record their new album with multi Grammy winning producer Jim Gaines; they knew from the start that it was an ambitious project. Music's who’s who have utilized Ardent Studios from Led Zeppelin to the Staple Singers, ZZ Top to Bob Dylan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Albert Collins, Coco Montoya, Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan and hundreds more from all genres of music. Just traveling the 2,000 plus miles down to Memphis for the Freedom Sessions with all their gear would take some financing and any artists can tell you that it is easy to pour thousands of dollars into putting out a well produced CD.

Alice came out with an inspired way to put some of the finances together by reaching out to her fan base for support. She came up with a plan of tiered support levels, not unlike those fundraising drives on public radio and TV where there were different perks offered for the various levels of support. Starting with pre-release signed CD’s, to inclusion on the CD liner credits and ultimately a house party. House Party, a two CD plus DVD comb package, is that very same house party record and filmed live in the front room of Glen and Susan Beebe’s home on a warm and sunny August 25th, 2007.

In my review of the previously released two audio CD package featured in the October, 2011 Washington Blues Society Bluesletter I stated, “If you ever get the opportunity to attend a “house party” do not let it slip by.” Well with the release of Alice’s House Party combo pack you can sit in your own living and experience a virtual house party of your own whenever you get the urge.

The video of House Party was recorded by Richard DePartee and the audio by Glen Beebe. The digital transfer and CD mastering was by Mark Miller of Karla Studios in Fremont and the video editing and DVD mastering was performed by Nathan Bosseler of Impact Studio Pro in Issaquah. House Party is not a big budget production with a multiple camera crew where one camera is doing close ups of the players hands, another on their faces, another wide, one low, one looking down and several more panning in and out all edited together, this is a smaller affair with one camera; but that just ads to the intimate feeling of the show and makes viewing it feel more like you were sitting in the audience. Glen informs his guests at the beginning of the show that it is a party not a concert and if they want to get up and get a glass of wine or some food to go ahead and do so. The filming and audio are not 100% glitch free; but the few instances are very minor and not a distraction. The filming has that feel of watching something that that high tech buddy you have, who has all the gear and knows just how to use it made. It does not have that; “oh my, you really posted this to You Tube” feel to it at all and is very enjoyable to watch.

Alice plays both acoustic and electric guitars and is accompanied by Formerlys Steve Flynn on keyboards and vocals and Mark Willett on bass and vocals. They decided to not have a drummer on the show partly due to the intimate room size and the setting.

The set features 19 songs from across Alice’s career with five selections included from her then brand new Freedom release. Four of the selections included on the video are not on the two audio CDs (all of them cover songs) including a pair from Freedom Johnny Cash’s “Train of Love” and Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” which is the opening cut on the DVD with Alice on her acoustic guitar. The other two not on the CD’s are, “Shout For Joy,” an uplifting boogie woogie instrumental showcasing Steve Flynn’s considerable chops on the electric piano originated by one of the three giants of boogie piano, Albert Ammons, and Skip James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor” which Alice performs acoustic, a song the first time I heard Alice perform live prompted me to purchase three or four of her CD’s on the spot. The DVD also includes several in between song breaks where Alice, Steve and Mark interact with the audience which as adds to the feeling of being in the room for the show.
Three of the tunes performed off Freedom were played in a row near the end of the show, including a fabulous version of the title track Alice’s emotive vocals as she sings ‘Son said, Mama, I can’t keep from cryin’. Hold on a little longer, got to know I’m tryin’ so hard just to make it on my own. Your Mama’s tryin’ so hard, you know your Daddy’s gone,’ over Steve’s keyboards and the strings on her Telecaster bending and vibrating under her fingers. “Highway Blues,” which was another of the show standouts and the afore mentioned “Train of Love”. Switching back and forth from acoustic to electric throughout the sets adds another dimension to the variety of sounds. The show ended with the bluesy “Drop Down Daddy,” from Can’t Find No Heaven, with Alice playing some slide guitar. The House Party DVD/CD combo package gives you two ways to enjoy this thoroughly pleasurable experience. For fans of Alice Stuart the combo pack is an essential addition to your collection. If you are not yet a fan this package makes a wonderful starting place.

A Look Back…. is just what it says: a 20 year anniversary look back at the career of one of the Pacific NW region’s finest and most beloved entertainers. The CD features a dozen cuts, including remastered studio originals picked from the bands two studio releases, 1992’s High Livin’ and 1997’s Not Easily Amused, along with some previously unreleased live material. In addition there is a bonus live DVD that is just a hoot, with plenty of memories for those of us who were there in the clubs and at the shows. The DVD is a hand held video of home movie quality. Especially now that Charles has past, this DVD is priceless and a blast to watch. Charles received the Washington Blues Society “Best of the Blues” Award for Entertainer of the Year four times, along with Best Band and induction into the Hall of Fame. It is quite evident why he was so honored.

Along with classics from the studio CDs like Bill Blackstone’s “Pink Champagne” and “Don’t Make Me Wait” are some covers Charles often performed at shows like “Thrill Is Gone,” and Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Add to that a live medley of Jr. Walker’s ”Shotgun” with tastes of “Susie Q,”"Louie Louie,” “Purple Haze,” “Inna Goda Davida” along with the popular James Brown medley, and to quote Charles ‘I said, Lord have mercy!’

Also included are two of my favorite studio cuts, “Paid My Dues”, a slow burner that is on fire and the instrumental “Moonlight” both penned by Scott E. Lind, and you have a CD jam packed with highlights. On Elmore James’ “Can’t Stop Loving My Baby” Scotty struts his stuff on a Duane Allman inspired slide guitar. The 12 tracks on A Look Back…. offer a full hour of good time music. 

Charles was a pure entertainer. Listening to these tracks I can picture him in my mind, dancing, wiggling, bumping, and shimmying. His head doing the bob and weave, dressed sharp, with a hat and open collar so he could breath. Strutting about the stage as founding band members Scott on guitar and Bill on sax leave it all on stage. My only complaint is the lack of information regarding the line-ups of who is playing, dates and places of the live pieces, and although the DVD provides some info it would be nice to have a more fuller picture. 

A Look Back… is a must have for anyone who ever caught this band in action and for those who didn’t this is a great starting place.

By Malcolm Kennedy

An Evening at Lake Trasimeno was filmed at a concert during the European portion of Ana’s Blind For Love tour supporting her 2009 Eclecto Groove release featuring an eight piece band. The performers consist of a rhythm section of bass, drums, keyboards, percussion, a two piece horn section of sax and trumpet, back ground vocals and Ana on vocals and guitar. There are 14 tracks including five from the new CD, six from Eclecto Groove’s 2007 release Still Making History and with one each off Ana’s two Ruf Records CD’s, 2003’s Comfort To The Soul and 2001’s Hush and a previously un-released cover of the Willie Dixon song “Let Me Love You Babe,” Ana came to by way of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s In Step album. There are also bonus features including a pair of acoustic numbers filmed in the afternoon and a full interview.

One of the interesting things the director did was to have scenes periodically either between songs or sometimes fading out of a track with Ana walking around the venue grounds or through the 13th century castle on the site while doing short interview bits rather than just a straight 2 hour concert set. Ana plays tortured slide on the bluesy shuffle “How’d You Learn To Shake It Like That” and does a slow burning blues version of “U Complete Me” both supported by the core band of Ronald Jonker-bass, Andrew “Blaze” Thomas-drums and Michele Papadia-keyboards. This four piece core also performed unassisted on half of the songs including the opening four with the full eight piece outfit joining in on the fifth song and also the last song, The other songs feature configurations with the horns and back-up singer, horns only and six piece with no horns.

Musically Ana covers a lot of ground from gritty blues to bumping funk, blazing blues rock to jazzy acoustic showing as she does on her CD’s that she has many sides to her music. On most of the songs Ana plays her 1964 three tone Sunburst Fender Stratocaster; but on several cuts she switched to her red 1960 Relic, Custom Shop Strat with white pick guard. She comes out dressed in black leather pants, sleeveless top bangles, rings and her signature arm jewelry and almost knee high studded stiletto heel boots. She follows this with “Blind For Love” also acoustic with the addition of the sax and trumpet. On “Recall The Days” from her Comfort To The Soul CD Ana plays blistering solos while Ronald is particularly animated on the bass.

The interview in the bonus feature gives some interesting insight of how Ana balances raising her 2 ½ old year son Luuk with touring and recording. There are also two solo acoustic tracks filmed in the afternoon at various places on location at the castle showing some of the spectacular views at this beautiful site. An Evening at Trasimeno Lake is well filmed and produced; the sound quality, filming angles and edits are all top notch and they provide song titles on screen at the start of each song.