Alligator Prepares Final Release from Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women

Alligator Records has set a January 27 release date for Havin’ the Last Word, the new (and final) release from the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed acoustic blues trio, Saffire­ – The Uppity Blues Women. With their music, Ann Rabson, Gaye Adegbalola and Andra Faye reestablish and update the long tradition of uppity women blues singers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace and Memphis Minnie. Mixing first-rate musicianship with equal parts of sass, soul and humor, Saffire unleashes unforgettable originals, composed with humor and poignancy, alongside definitive versions of classic blues songs.

Over the course of six critically acclaimed studio albums, one live album and thousands of shows, the band has gone from virtual obscurity to become one of the most successful acoustic blues groups today. They will embark on their farewell tour starting in February to say goodbye to their long-time fans. In conjunction with the final album and tour, a new documentary film on Saffire’s incredible story, Hot Flash, will be available on iTunes beginning in early 2009.

During the course of their 25-year career, words like ‘fearless,’ ‘inspiring,’ ‘witty,’ ‘joyful’ and ‘powerful’ have been used to describe Saffire’s smart, sassy, and deeply emotional blues. Havin’ The Last Word will be their final declaration together as Saffire–The Uppity Blues Women; the group has decided it’s time to move on so they can pursue their own individual interests. But pianist/guitarist/ vocalist Ann Rabson, guitarist/harmonicist/vocalist Gaye Adegbalola and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Andra Faye have plenty to say with Havin’ The Last Word.

Saffire–The Uppity Blues Women burst onto the national music scene in 1990 with the release of their self-titled debut album, after six years of playing locally and regionally. With their brazen, no-holds-barred acoustic blues, Saffire took the music world by storm.

Submitted by Alligator Records

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Red House to Release New Records from Jorma Kaukonen & Guy Davis

ST. PAUL, MN — Red House Records is proud to announce the February 10, 2009 release of two new blues/roots classics from rock legend Jorma Kaukonen and his good friend and award-winning bluesman Guy Davis.

Jorma Kaukonen’s River of Time has a funky, organic feel that grew out of an ensemble recording he did at producer Larry Campbell’s studio in Woodstock, New York. Joining him were longtime friends and collaborators Barry Mitterhoff (mandolin, tenor banjo, tenor guitar and octave mandolin) and Myron Heart (vocals, upright bass) as well as Grammy winner Levon Helm (drums), Lincoln Schleifer (bass) and Teresa Campbell (vocals). Exploring his musical roots in rock and blues, this up-tempo album mixes original tunes with blues and country covers, all packaged in an accessible, radio-friendly manner that will appeal to folk, Americana and blues fans.

Guy Davis’ Sweetheart Like You is a classic mix of acoustic blues and soulful originals. Starting off with his unique take on the Bob Dylan classic, Guy takes you back to his home with songs about his family and about the hard paths life takes you down. Featuring a guest appearance by his son Martial, the album is alternately humorous and heartbreaking and shows why Mojo says that “no one puts together a tangier salad from the mixed greens of African American music quite like Guy Davis.”

Submitted by Red House Records

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30th Annual Blues Music Awards Confirmed for May 7 in Memphis, TN

MANNISH BOYS TOP NOMINATIONS WITH SIX; OTHERS NOMINATED INCLUDE BUDDY GUY, B.B. KING, ELVIN BISHOP, MAGIC SLIM

For a complete list of the 30th Blues Music Awards Nominees, click here: http://www.blues.org/bluesmusicawards/nominees.php4

WHAT: The Blues Music Awards
WHEN: Thursday, May 7, 2009
WHERE: Cook Convention Center, 255 N. Main, Memphis, TN
TICKETS: $125, available December 16, 2008 via http://www.blues.org or 901.527.2583 x10. (Tables of 10 are $1200.)

The Blues Foundation has confirmed the thirtieth annual Blues Music Awards, a seven-plus hour throw-down featuring dozens of incredible musicians and honoring the best of the blues world. Blues Foundation members will be able to vote starting today, through March 1, with the results determining the winners.

West coast-based group The Mannish Boys lead the pack this year with six nominations, including band, traditional album and album of the year in addition to individual nominations for band members Richard Innes (drums), Kid Ramos (guitar), and Larry Taylor (bass).  Tied with four nominations each are slide guitar legend Elvin Bishop, pianist Eden Brent, songstress Janiva Magness, soul man Curtis Salgado, and former truck driver Watermelon Slim. Buddy Guy is nominated for three awards and B.B. King for two.

The Mississippi-based Homemade Jamz Blues Band are the youngest nominees at 9, 14, and 16 years of age. Sadly, Sean Costello received two posthumous nominations while Jeff Healey received one. Chicago elder statesman and torch bearer Magic Slim earned three nods. Lurrie Bell earned two nominations for an album he made while grieving the loss of his wife and his father, harp man Carrie Bell.

The Blues Foundation has added a Rock Blues category for the first time in 2009, with nominations going to Gary Moore, Jeff Healey, Michael Burks, Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Sonny Landreth, and Walter Trout.

Performers have not yet been confirmed for the 2009 show but all nominees are invited to take the stage, showing a broad range of blues styles from solo resonator fingerpicking to soul-blues shouters. For the blues fan, it’s the only way to see a lineup like this and it annually threatens to rage well into the night.

The awards ceremony and concert will be broadcast live by Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s B.B. King’s Bluesville channel. The Blues Music Awards will be shot in HD for a DVD to be released by October, 2009.

The Blues Foundation has 3,000 individual dues-paying members around the world and 160 affiliated grassroots, member-based local blues societies in a dozen countries.

The Blues Music Awards are produced by The Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization established to preserve Blues history, celebrate Blues excellence, support Blues education and ensure the future of this uniquely American art form. In addition to the Blues Music Awards, the Foundation also produces the Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, the International Blues Challenge and the Keeping the Blues Alive Awards. It fosters education through its Blues in the Schools programming and supports the medical needs of Blues musicians with its HART Fund.  Throughout the year, the Foundation staff serves the worldwide Blues community with answers, contact information and news.   For more information or to join The Blues Foundation, log onto www.blues.org

Major category nominees:

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Derek Trucks Band to Release 6th Studio Album

THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND SET TO RELEASE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SIXTH STUDIO ALBUM

ALREADY FREE

IN STORES JANUARY 13, 2009

“Three things worth knowing about Derek Trucks: He is young, he is a veteran, and he is the most awe-inspiring electric slide guitar player performing today.”
-Ashley Kahn, Wall Street Journal

“One of the best guitar players out there.” -Willie Nelson

“Trucks just might be this generation’s greatest rock guitarist, a player of distinct tastefulness and ravenous music appetite.”­Brian Mansfield, USA Today

“The spiritual poise and uncanny vocal fire of Trucks’ solos and slide flourishes are rooted in his deep studies of not just blues but jazz and Indian music.”
-David Fricke, Rolling Stone

Derek Trucks Band

(October 15, 2008) – One of the most critically acclaimed guitarists and the youngest musician to be named in Rolling Stone‘s list of the Top Hundred Guitarists of All Time, Derek Trucks has completed his much anticipated sixth studio album with The Derek Trucks Band, Already Free, available January 13, 2009. As well, the album’s first single, a stirring cover of Bob Dylan and The Band’s  “Down in the Flood” from the album The Basement Tapes, is set for release November 4^th.

The album was self-produced by Trucks and recorded in his Jacksonville, Florida home studio. Nearly a year in the making and brimming with a newfound focus on creating original material, Already Free is the band’s natural evolution as they move forward integrating influences that span a variety of musical genres. Known for their blues roots, the group takes this album well beyond blues to incorporate the larger sounds of rock & soul.

Over the course of several albums, various bands and countless tours, Trucks has explored an exciting array of musical styles. On Already Free, Trucks has written original songs and reinvigorated old ones, introducing a profound new vision. One hears blues, soul, jazz, flourishes of world music from afro-beat to qawwali, even the advanced tonalities of the modern European masters.

“This album was completely organic. We had no expectations. We just came down and started writing. Then one thing led to the next. I had all this time off so I just started calling up friends. And once the process started rolling and once we realized that we were onto something, we were writing tunes and all the sounds we were getting were amazing and it was starting to feel great. It felt like something was happening and we wanted to keep throwing musicians on the fire,” said Trucks of making the album.

The band, which consists of Derek Trucks on guitar, bassist Todd Smallie, percussionist Count M’Butu, drummer Yonrico Scott, keyboardist Kofi Burbridge and singer Mike Mattison, was joined by their famous friends­ pals like Doyle Bramhall II, Oteil Burbridge and Trucks’ wife Susan Tedeschi can all be heard on the album.

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Odetta, an American Voice, dies

Odetta, photo by Diana Davies

Odetta, December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008

We have posted the full text of “Odetta, An American Voice” from Dirty Linen #87 April/May 2000.

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