Six Pack of Essential Blues

I'm going to run this by you. Displayed below are six essential blues albums I have listened to for years and never get tired of them. Time is the big test for me when it comes to the blues. Now this is personal preference and you may have six others that come to mind, but you can't go wrong with: Albert King: Born Under A Bad Sign, Freddie King: King Of The Blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble: Texas Flood, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters: Peace Of Mind, Tab Benoit; Standing On The Band  and The Son Seals Blues Band; (same name). Music to your ears!

Classic Black & White Blues

Black & White Photographs & the Blues are like two peas in the pod. They seem to compliment each other. Blues is this rustic, raw kind of music genre and the same sepia tone look reflects that. Blues is a throw back to old Road Houses in the Delta Area in the south. Black & White shots capture it well.Thought I would give you a few examples.

Joanne Shaw Taylor

From across the pond comes a young lady with the licks, credentials  and the savvy to play and sing the blues with the big boys.. I first listened to Joanne Shaw Taylor's debut release: "White Sugar", and was very impressed with what my ears told me. When I heard she was touring and was headed straight towards my Florida location, I made my mind up to go to the show. So a few months back I caught up to her at McWell's here south of downtown Orlando. I had my doubts about this blonde, petite young lady, I must admit. However, with the first few blistering notes of the set I was convinced. She covered the material from the first album and added a few covers and new material to boot. Joanne is extremely talented with her vintage telecaster and hit all the notes, even busting a string or two along the way. The verdict is in: This Lady can play the blues!.

Albert Castiglia

It was icing on the cake when I happened quite by accident to find out that Albert Castiglia was appearing at the House Of Blues at the Downtown Disney Complex back in 2008. I grabbed my trusty Nikon and headed out to the show. Castiglia of Cuban descent and from Miami got right down to business and delivered a two set show that the small crowd could not get enough of. "A Stone's Throw" had been released a couple of years before and was getting lots of notoriety, so he primarily covered that set with a few standard blues renditions thrown it as well. The riffs & runs on his black Strat were full of emotion and fire. Catch Albert at a show near you or download his new album: "Keepin' On".