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Cedar County Cobras—Homesick Blues—Independ-
ent, Cedar County Cobras

Iowa’s Cedar County Cobras – Tom Spielbauer (vocals,

guitars, mandolin, percussion) and April Dirks (vocals,
bass, mandolin, percussion) have been together for 9
years but have only just recorded this album after Tom

won a recording session in the 2023 Memphis Interna-
tional Blues Challenge. Their sound is based in acoustic
blues - similar to Idaho’s Hillfolk Noir – although Muddy

Waters’ ‘Trouble No More’ is more electric albeit with an acoustic slide guitar solo
and ‘Country Records’ also features electric rhythm guitar as well as mandolin.
‘Long Time Gone’ features both partners trading vocals and ‘Gimme Lightnin’’ has

driving slide guitar and pounding double bass, while Gus Cannon’s ‘Poor Boy’ is a
beautiful seamless mix of guitar, mandolin and double bass.

‘Walkin’ Blues’’, credited to Son House, features Tom on slide guitar, it starts off

with just unaccompanied guitar until the vocals start, alongside the bass and kick
drum. Another great cover is Jesse Mae Hemphill’s ‘Shake It Right’ with Tom’s
hypnotic hill country guitar supported by the bass and percussion, although the

band’s originals like ‘Voodoo Doll’ and the title track hold their own alongside the
covers. The duo have a well-defined sound that has obviously been honed during
their nine years together, for a duo they have a very full sound and the mandolin

just adds a bit of variety, bringing in folk and country influences.

Graham Harrison

Wayne Nicholson—Gin House—Grindstone Records

Wayne Nicholson has been around the Canadian and US
East Coast blues scene for many years, he has a fine

blues rock voice – think Paul Rogers or Frankie Miller.
We kick off with the old blues song ‘Gin House Blues’ as
done by Bessie Smith, Nina Simone and Andy Fair-
weather Low/Amen Corner in Britain – this is a terrific

high energy version with Wayne barking out the lyrics
and the band thundering along behind. The band are

James Logan (guitar), Kim Dunn (keyboards), Bill
Stephenson (piano), Bruce Dixon (bass) and Neil Robertson (drums). Plus, we also
get guests from the band Monkey Junk - Tony Ditedoro (guitar) and Steve Marriner
(harp), as well as Lisa McDougall (backing vocals). The original ‘Shucking Corn’ is

a chugging tribute to Muddy Waters with great harp from Marriner and ‘She’s Not
My Angel Anymore’ is a powerful slow blues, while ‘When Trust Turns to Dust’ is

a pedal-to-the-metal full tilt rocker.

I really liked the understated version of Jimmy Reed’s ‘Honest I Do’ and ‘The Night
Train Is Coming’ is a jazzy poignant tale of veterans suffering from PTSD. The band