Charles "CD" Davis, 24 Hour Blues

The blues goes on. For a while there were folks doing things, and they are still out there, mostly, that had a big blues influence, that were tauted as the new blues sensations. Truthfully, it didn't always hit me as "the blues." Soul, yeah, other things, yeah, but maybe not exactly the blues. And that's cool. Well, OK and there have been some cats there clearly in the blues tradition, doing something right now. Along with the surviving cats (RIP Bobby Bland) who still are very much doing it. I've been covering them here and on the Gapplegate Music Blog. Here's another good one.

I speak of Charles "CD" Davis, with a cranking band, and his CD 24 Hour Blues (Blues House 0300). Charles plays a sizzling blues guitar. He was doing it for years with the Calvin Owens Blues Orchestra. Calvin passed in 2008 and Charles decided to hit out on his own. This is his debut.

Charles holds forth on the guitar and puts in an excellent showing. His axe is joined by four good vocalists here: Jabo, Roberta Donnay, Rue Davis and Trudy Lynn. They all have something going. The tunes are a mix of classics and classic-sounding new things or not-so-known things. It's modern urban soul blues with blazing guitar and it plays real nicely, man, no matter where or when you are. That's what it's about.

Eddie C. Campbell, Spider Eating Preacher

Old-school electric urban blues lives on at Delmark records. Eddie C. Campbell's Spider Eating Preacher (Delmark 819) is one of the latest and it gives you a nice hour of originals, classics and general good doings on this, his second for the label. There's some nice horn section riffing much of the time. Eddie plays a reverb-drenched Fender with the old feel.

It's the soul blues, as seen in things like a bluesy version of "Skin Tight," or the classic "Cut You Loose," and that's where he is coming from.

Eddie has a laid-back vocal style, in his own way, with a deceptively casual delivery that Jimmie Reed and Slim Harpo made such a signature part of their thing. Eddie doesn't sound like them, though. He sounds like himself.

He sounds so much like himself that it took me a few listens to get onto his wave length. After you live with it, it's a wave length to get with.

So, hey, here's a blues cat that's been too little exposed to the blues lovers out there. If you're looking for a new cat to dig that's doing it today, Eddie C. Campbell is a guy to hear.

Roy Gaines and his "Tuxedo Blues"

The blues are not dead! They continue to thrive in the hands of the best of those practicing today. One of them is Roy Gaines, whose Tuxedo Blues (Black Gold 001237) gives you the best of the urban blues right now. A swinging big band, Roy's warmly soulful voice and his compelling blues-meets-jazz guitar solo style are out front and on it. He came out of Texas, dug T-Bone Walker, played in the bands of Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker. . . all that should give you an idea where he is coming from.

He embodies the heritage of the soul-bluesman and he puts in something that is his. The blues feeling is there, solid, right down to the to the lyrics. (He wants to take his baby for a walk but those mosquitoes are too mean!)

Roy Gaines needs to be heard. He needs to be recognized as a happening cat. Buy this CD and you'll keep him out there doing it!