Tag: Robert Johnson

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Chief Ghoul Releases a Menacing Stoner Blues Anthem

Louisville-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Les Miles is the creative mastermind behind the JOVM mainstay act Chief Ghoul. Sonically Miles’ work meshes old school Kentucky folk with Mississippi Delta Blues and Chicago Blues –in particular the work of the likes Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters‘ acoustic blues and John Lee Hooker paired with poetic lyricism rooted in an overall belief in music as therapy.

Miles’ sixth Chief Ghoul album, These Lycanthropic Blues is slated for a June, 2021 release, and the album reportedly finds the Louisville-based JOVM mainstay tracing a sepia finger chronologically through Miles’ musical journey and influences — but while also revealing where he’s heading in the future. Along with that, the forthcoming album is the second album of his expanding output since 1892 that finds Miles producing his own work, after getting tired of the creative restraints of more commercial studios. But while 1892 was deeply connected to its lo-fi and hauntingly stark predecessors, These Lycanthropic Blues reportedly is centered around a much more three-dimensional yet earthy sound — with additions to the sonic palette, like piano, dirty bass, percussion and occasional cavernous sounding drums. Throughout it all, the autonomy of self-producing has allowed miles to make his work as personal, vulnerable and true to his old-soul.

Interestingly, These Lycanthropic Blues’ latest single, album closer “The Blackest of Souls” reveals Miles’ new sonic direction — stoner rock tinged, dive bar blues, centered around grungy and sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, Miles’ bluesy baritone wail and a rousingly anthemic hook. It may be the most primal, forceful song of his career while remaining as menacing as ever.

Directed, filmed and edited by Aaron Tyler, the recently released video employs the use of shadows in a trippy fashion — first with seductively dancing woman, stripping and tantalizing the viewer; but the video takes turn for the dark, as monsters and mayhem lurking about.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: France’s No Money Kids Release a Brooding New Single

No Money Kids — Félix Matschulat (vocals, guitar) and JM Pelatan (bass, synths, programming) — is a rising Paris-based blues rock act that quickly established a unique take on blues rock, which incorporates vintage gear with electronics and modern production. With their first live shows, the duo set themselves apart from their cohorts, but when Matschulat suffered a violent epileptic seizure and a broken shoulder while in the studio, his music career and the band’s future was in jeopardy: hospitalized for six months, there was the very real danger that Matschulat would never be able to play guitar.

After Matschulat finished a long and difficult rehabilitation, the members of No Money Kids felt an urgency desire to return to writing and recording music, as well as to playing live. The duo went on to furiously write their full-length debut, 2015’s I don’t trust you, a raw and spontaneous album, recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered in entirely DIY fashion by the band’s JM Pelatan — and released by Roy Music/Alter-K.

Matschulat went through a long and very difficult rehabilitation but once he was well, the duo felt an urgency to return to the stage. They went on to furiously write their debut album, 2015’s I don’t trust you, which was a raw, spontaneous album, recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by the band’s JM Pelatan. Centered around characters on the fingers, the album touched upon beauty in pain, shadow in light and other related themes. Interestingly, around the same the band developed chiaroscuro imagery that went on to catch the attention the fashion word — in particular Schwarzkopf, Stylist, Glamour, Modzik — and led to the band working with international directors on music videos.

In 2016, the duo caught the attention of the high-end, ready to wear, “designated discovery” group of the Cotélac brand, who released a special-run 15,000 copy, free promotional EP distributed to over 110 stores in France and abroad. Adding to a growing platform, the band started playing shows internationally and won over music supervisors here in the States with their music making prominent appearances in a number of TV series including Banshee, Night Shift, Veep, Killjoys, Goliath, Dollar, Legacies, Servant and Shameless, as well as major motion pictures like Misconduct, Get The Girl and Baby, Baby, Baby.

After playing more than 100 shows, they wrote and recorded their sophomore album, 2017’s Hear the Silence and 2018’s Trouble, both of which were released to praise from Les Inrockuptibles, Rolling Stone, Le Monde, France Inter, France TV, FIP, Sourdoreille. With even more growing attention of them, the duo made the rounds of the national festival circuit with sets at Rock en Seine, Solidays and Art Rock.

Of course, much like countless acts across the globe, the band’s plans were put on hold as a result of the pandemic. And as a result of pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions the duo, who for most of their history wrote their material while on the road wore forced to change their creative process. The end result, the band’s third album Factory, which is slated for release later this year was written and recorded in the isolated atmosphere of an abandoned factory-turned recording studio. Thematically, the album is influenced by the overall sense of anxiety, uncertainty and doom of our current moment.

Factory’s latest single “Crossroad” is a brooding, late night blues stomp centered around skittering beats, slashing rhythm guitar, wailing, whiskey-fueled guitar work, industrial clang and clatter and Matschulat’s sultry cooing. Thanks to some healthy reverb, the instrumentation seems to sound as though it were bouncing off massive walls and ceilings in a way that recalls Chicago’s My Gold Mask while drawing some fair comparisons to a growing number of blues rock duos.

Interestingly, as the duo explain, the song’s title is derived from the mythical story of Robert Johnson meeting the Devil on the Crossroad, and selling his soul to the Devil, so that he could be the world’s best guitarist. And as the song points out, humanity itself is at a crossroad, and the decisions we make right now can impact us and future generations. What will we do? Will we do the things we need to protect our planet? We will see.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Follow Rising British Singer-Songwriter Jack Broadbent Across Route 66 in Visuals for “If”

Jack Broadbent is a rapidly rising Lincolnshire, UK-born singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer. Influenced by a diverse array of influences, including Radiohead, Robert Johnson, Joni Mitchell and Davey Graham among others, Broadbent has cited that listening and learning from such a wide array of artists has helped him create a unique style and sound that frequently features and meshes elements from a different genres and styles. Interestingly, over the past few years, the Lincolnshire-born, has been hailed as “the new master of the slide guitar” by the Montreux Jazz Festival and “the real thang” by Bootsy Collins. 

Broadbent has opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Hallyday, Robben Ford and Tony Joe White — and he’s headlined sold-out shows across the world. And building upon a growing profile, the Lincolnshire-born singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer has amassed over 110,000 monthly listeners and over 10 million Spotify streams. Last year’s Bruce Cameron and Broadbent co-produced full-length album Moonshine Blue was released to widespread critical praise. And since the release of the album, the rapidly rising British has been busy on an extensive headlining tour, including opening for Peter Frampton during his upcoming farewell tour in the UK. 

But in the meantime, “If,” Moonshine Blue’s latest single further establishes his critically applauded sound — a warm, radio friendly country-tinged New Orleans-like blues with a soulful and shimmering solo that seems like a synthesis of old-timey blues, Eric Clapton and Dr. John. And while being a perfect road trip jam, the song describes a restless character, who’s out on the road searching for something — primarily himself. 

The recently released video for “If” follow Broadbent was he travels across the States on the historic Route 66. And as he goes from coast to coast, we see the rising British singer/songwriter stopping in a number of locations both big and small, new and worn; but interestingly enough, the video captures the British singer/songwriter observing the country with the awe, joy and bemusement. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jack Broadbent is a British singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer whose work has largely been inspired by a diverse array of influences including Radiohead, Robert Johnson, Joni Mitchell and Davey Graham among others. Broadbent has cited that listening and learning from such a wide array of artists helped him to create a unique style and sound, which also meshes elements from different genres and styles.

Over the past handful of years, the British singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer has built up a national and international profile: hailed as “the new master of the slide guitar” by the Montreux Jazz Festival and “the real thang” by Bootsy Collins, Broadbent has opened for the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Hallyday, Robben Ford and Tony Joe White. He’s also headlined sold out shows across the world.

Written and produced by Broadbent, alongside Bruce Cameron, “Wishing Well” is the first bit of new material from the British singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer in over 3 years — and interestingly enough, it’s the first official single off Moonshine Blue, his forthcoming album slated for a November 15, 2019 release.  Drawing from folk and Mississippi Delta blues, “Wishing Well” is centered by shuffling acoustic guitar and drumming, Broadbent’s bluesy vocal delivery, an infectious hook and a blistering, boozy solo — but what makes the song interesting to me is that Broadbent does this in a soulful fashion, avoiding mimicry and cliched homage.

 

 

 

 

 

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

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Alt country/folk-rock/blues-rock artist Lee Miles, best known Chief Ghoul has quickly become a JOVM mainstay artist for a sound that channels and owes a major debt to the Delta Blues — in particular, the blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters‘ acoustic blues and John Lee Hooker as Miles’ work had a tendency to be sparse, most self-accompanied and concerned itself with some prototypical blues themes and motifs. Seeking to expand the project’s sound, Miles recruited Chase Coryell (bass) and Justin Brown (drums) to flesh out the project’s sound, expanding the project to a full-time trio.

Damned is Miles’ fourth Chief Ghoul album, and the album’s latest single “Let Me In” is a twangy ballad that sonically draws from outlaw country and the blues — and that shouldn’t be surprising as the song’s narrator sings ruefully about a lover with whom he had a conflicting and confusing relationship; in typical blues fashion, the narrator recognizes that the love interest is dangerous to him and yet he can’t pull himself away.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Over the last few years, Daptone Records has released a series of albums documenting the gospel and church-based music from the Mississippi River Delta region — in particular Como, Mississippi.  The third album in the series, Panola County Spirit is the debut effort from The Walker Family Singers, who were originally discovered and featured on the Daptone Records compilation, The Voices of Panola County: Como Now.

Comprised of Raymond and Joella Walker, three of their four daughters, Alberta, Patricia and Delouse, and their two songs Robert and Bobby, the gospel quintet is well known throughout their hometown: the Walkers have a long history of preaching the gospel as the Walker men have been preachers for many generations and the entire family continues a long and proud musical tradition that goes back quite some time. In fact, this should tell you well regarded the Walkers are in Mississippi Delta region — back in the day, Raymond Walker was once recruited by Fred McDowell and the legendary Sam Cooke to back them on tour for what would have been a rather significant amount of money. And as the story goes, the Walker patriarch refused unless McDowell and Cooke did gospel instead of the blues. McDowell vehemently refused and the rest is pretty much history.

Although the deeply religious would consider the blues as the devil’s music, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that the gospel and the blues from the region share so much deeply in common sonically, spiritually and aesthetically, and when you hear “Jesus Gave Me Water,” the first single off the album slated for a March 18 release, you’ll immediately feel as though you were taken back in time; perhaps to the days of Alan Lomax running around making field recordings of the blues musicians and gospel singers, who would become some of the towering and most influential names of contemporary music — in particular, think of Robert Johnson (who was murdered three weeks before Lomax arrived to record him), Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and countless others. Much like those classic and dusty recordings, the song possesses deceptive simplicity — led by Raymond Walker, the song features the vocalists singing acapella in a gorgeous and layered call and response harmony in a song that describes finding Jesus in a profound yet very simple fashion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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