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Jonah Tolchin—Dockside—Clover Music Group
(www.jonahtolchin.com)

Jonah Tolchin may be a new name to many readers (well, he
was to me anyway) but he is certainly very well-known on the
Americana circuit. His father used to own a record shop in the
Delta, so in some ways he grew up with the blues. He returns to

it here, on his own label.

Listening to the re-working of Little Walter’s ‘Blues With A
Feeling’, with its almost psychedelic blues guitar work and raw
power, it comes as no surprise to learn that Luther Dickinson of The North Mississippi Allstars
fame co-produced this album. Several tracks do have a strong hill country feel, and ‘Endless
Highway’ is a very traditional sounding piece – and Jonah plays some fine down-home blues
harp on this one too. The closing “bonus” track ‘Lucille’ is a fine down-tempo electric guitar
blues instrumental, running to nearly five and a half minutes.

Others, like ‘Save Me (From Myself)’ and ‘Vermillion River’ have a swampy feel, appropriately
enough given that this was recorded in Louisiana. Some, such as ‘Trust Someone’ have a gospel
feel, and some, like ‘Can’t Close My Eyes’, are pretty much unclassifiable other than falling into
a “bluesy” category. There is the moody, slow, ever so slightly jazz-tinged soul of ‘Too Far
Down’, sung by Chavonne Stewart, and Luther Dickinson himself takes the vocal on ‘Suffering
Well’.

All in all, an enjoyable and thoughtful blues release, well worth taking the trouble to track

down. I enjoyed this a lot.

Norman Darwen

Big D & Captain Keys—Tales of Friendship—Naked NP078
(www.bigdandcaptainkeys.com)

Big D is singer Nico De Cock; Captain Keys is pianist and singer
Edwin Risbourg, and both men work with top Belgian outfit The
BluesBones, putting out some excellent blues and blues-rock.
This release is a little different.

Many airports, railways stations and hotels these days have a
piano, available for anyone who wants to play. On their way to
several “European Blues Challenges”, this gave the two men the
idea of a stripped down release, and Tales Of Friendship is the result – just two men and a piano
(and a little bit of percussion by Nico). The songs are a mix of venerable blues standards –
numbers like ‘Every Day I Have The Blues’, ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out’,

‘St. James Infirmary’, and Robert Johnson’s ‘Crossroads’, soul tunes by Otis Redding and Sam
Cooke, three from Tom Waits, one from John Hiatt, and some originals, including ‘Demon
Blues’, ‘Broken Tears’, and ‘Seesaw Blues’ from The BluesBones.