Artist: Carolina Chocolate Drops

FANTASTIC, 2010-03-05
fantastic ,great musicians,Rhiannon has a terrific voice,heard them in Glasgow,at Celtic Connections,then bought the c.d.

Artist: Seasick Steve

Back on track, 2010-03-04
Thankfully Steve has got back to what I enjoyed in his first two cd's, raw music. His last offering wasn't to my liking and I was a tad concerned the big record company signing had taken away his unique sound. This is one to buy, sadly 'I started out with nothing' is one to miss. Keep it raw Steve don't let the big-wigs change you.

Artist: Seasick Steve

The most unlikely of stars, sixty-something Seasick Steve Wold might have started out with nothin', but these days he can headline the Royal Albert Hall. The second solo album from the much travelled bluesman (and, let's not forget, studio owner--he didn't suddenly step off a boxcar with a demo tape in hand--refines the sound that made 2006's Dog House Music so instantly appealing. Guests include Ruby Turner, KT Tunstall (playing rather than singing) and Nick Cave and Grinderman--Cave and Steve duet on their collaboration "Just Like a King". The title track, "Started out With Nothin'", is as catchy as it is wise, "One True" laments Steve's late dog ("my one true friend", of course) and the catchy full-band "Happy Man", featuring Turner and Tunstall is as near as Seasick gets to offering a single. Without the visual impact of seeing an elderly man tell travel stories in between torturing a three string guitar while kicking a wooden box, I Started out With Nothin' and I Still Got Most of It Left can only offer a simulacrum of his live show, but his crude appeal remains obvious even as his sound gets smoother. --Steve Jelbert
Finest Kind, 2010-02-18
Authentic, original and entertaining. Great blues sounds and lyrics, love the different effects from his variety of "guitars".

Artist: Fleetwood Mac

I woke up this morning..., 2010-02-18
A brilliant overview of the bands pre-70's stardom with the mercurial Peter Green. Some awesome tracks on here, only marred by the inclusion of a pointless contemporary remix of 'Albatross' and perhaps it misses a couple out like 'Rambling Pony' but these are mere quibbles...

Sound quality is also superb and at a mid-price you can't whack it!

Artist: Eric Clapton

Guitar Genius!, 2010-03-07

Eric dear Eric..how to make a Black Beauty sound better..Okay we had The Yardbirds,then the psychedelic 'Cream' offerings..to 'Derek and the Dominoes' and 'Layla' to just straight 'Eric Clapton' born 'Eric Clapp' in Ripley ,Surrey...got on with the 'Beatles'..George Harrison especially..Patti Boyd included..but here is a man that can make the guitar really talk..Okay 'Jimmy Page' with his violin bow bonus amazing!..Hendrix burning his guitar ay Monterrray and smashing his guitar through the speakers..and setting it on fire!...Eric seemed to to get through all of this without being a 'Show Off'.. Eric shruggs it off saying quote 'I'm Not the Best by Far!'....'Peter Green is by far better'...and in a way,i agree...but when Eric is on form,none of them can touch him!..Jimi Fans no dis-respect...the best lead guitarist in the world is none other than this man!

Artist: Joe Bonamassa

Notes from a review copy, 2010-03-04
I know amazonistas don't like reviews done prior to an album's release but I just have to share this one with you. THIS IS GREAT! Album of the year material already.
I must admit I thought that Joe's prolific career so far may have hit the buffers by now but no chance. Apparently Joe went to Greece to record most of this and there are a couple of tracks which could have been cheesily "ethnic" but they survive with flying colours. There's no attempt to go all Buena Vista Social Club on this album, any Greek influences are firmly placed within a blues context.
On the whole this album is very much in the regular Bonamassa blues rock vein but with those extra touches we have an enervating and exciting new experience.
One track that doesn't (surprisingly?) work for me is the workout with BB King which in my view is another of the great man's duets by numbers (U2, Clapton etc). I know these guys go back a long way and on any other day this would perhaps be a great track but on this album, somehow, it just doesn't fit in.
There's the famous cheese shop sketch on Monty Python where John Cleese proclaims "Shut that bloody bazouki up!"
Well he wouldn't be saying that on listening to this album

Artist: Seasick Steve

For Valentine's Day, 2010-03-09
Seasick Steve is getting better and better. These songs come straight from his heart and you can see his love and high regard for his wife, Elisabeth.

Artist: Joe Bonamassa

Notes from a review copy, 2010-03-04
I know amazonistas don't like reviews done prior to an album's release but I just have to share this one with you. THIS IS GREAT! Album of the year material already.
I must admit I thought that Joe's prolific career so far may have hit the buffers by now but no chance. Apparently Joe went to Greece to record most of this and there are a couple of tracks which could have been cheesily "ethnic" but they survive with flying colours. There's no attempt to go all Buena Vista Social Club on this album, any Greek influences are firmly placed within a blues context.
On the whole this album is very much in the regular Bonamassa blues rock vein but with those extra touches we have an enervating and exciting new experience.
One track that doesn't (surprisingly?) work for me is the workout with BB King which in my view is another of the great man's duets by numbers (U2, Clapton etc). I know these guys go back a long way and on any other day this would perhaps be a great track but on this album, somehow, it just doesn't fit in.
There's the famous cheese shop sketch on Monty Python where John Cleese proclaims "Shut that bloody bazouki up!"
Well he wouldn't be saying that on listening to this album

Artist: Eric Bibb

eric bibb back to his stripped down best, 2010-02-17
I have other eric bibbs albums and love his music. This is a great listen and not disappointing at all- its really chilled blues listening and not over produced, I saw him live and loved it as I am sometimes disappointed with over produced albums and prefer acoustic sets and not too much going on. Well this album is exactly that great fingerpicking, good melody and lyrics, and with Erics soulful voice it is a definate! the harmonica on it is awesome and when you play it loud its haunting a compliment to the music. Great Album and personally I like the tracks the latter end of the album so keep playing.

Artist: Seasick Steve

Seasick Steve is Steve Wold, a moustachioed American bluesman who, on Dog House Music, plays American roots music with the tight-belt economy and authentic spirit of the genre's originators (there's a lineage here, too – Steve was taught his first chords by Delta bluesman KC Douglas). A long-term street-dweller, Wold's instrumentation is simplistic in the extreme: a three-stringed trance guitar, a slide instrument known as 'the one-stringed diddy-bo', and the Mississippi Drum Machine, a wooden box that provides the most rudimentary percussion. In the true blues spirit, Seasick Steve sings his life. For an autobiography of sorts, head for 'Dog House Boogie', a phlegmatic timeline that commences at the age of four with his parent's divorce, and rambles off through several decades of vagrant living and downhome manners. 'Hobo Low' is perhaps the sharpest, best distilled take on Steve's drifter philosophy, his voice raising to quivering, booming peaks over sparse stabs of blues guitar. 'Save Me', meanwhile, sees the diddy-bo make an appearance – a taut, trembling twang that resembles an amplified rubber band. If this review makes Dog House Music sound bare-bones, well...
Dog House Music by Seasick Steve, 2010-01-04
Amazingly quick delivery, surprise present for husband who was highly delighted so will be looking to add some more Seasick Steve's to his collection.