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cases Mayall’s move from his blues roots to a more brass-heavy jazz direction, a move also being
undertaken around the same time by his U.S. contemporary Paul Butterfield. Although this
album is quite interesting I wouldn’t say that it was essential – maybe one for Mayall completists.

Graham Harrison

Bob Corritore—Phoenix Blues Rumble—Southwest Musical
ASIN : B0CJR59Y1K

Another month and another release from harmonica player/club
owner/promoter Bob Corritore, this time again returning to his
‘From the Vaults’ archives for tracks recorded between 1987 and
2017. Here Bob turns the spotlight on the local bluesmen in the
Southwest region near his Phoenix base, including Tommy
Dukes, Chief Schabuttie Gilliame, Big Pete Pearson and recent
Phoenix émigré Sugaray Rayford.

We start with Bob and Chico Chism his chum from Chicago that
he persuaded to move to Phoenix but more successful are the two
tracks by Chief Gilliame. I liked King Karl’s version of Cookie and the Cupcakes’ ‘Mathilda’ and
also George Bowman’s slow blues ‘I Was a Fool’ as well as Tommy Dukes’ rocking ‘Bad Bad Day’.
Sugaray Rayford belts out a song about a 3-legged horse called ‘The Glide’ in fine style and we
finish with a delicious Chicago slow blues ‘I’m Evil’ from Big Pete Pearson. As usual Bob’s harp
playing on all the tracks here is superb, with the local backing musicians also very good but I’m
afraid that compared to Bob’s other albums featuring tracks fronted by Chicago and West Coast
blues stars some of these Phoenix artists didn’t quite cut it as front men.

Graham Harrison

Mitch Grainger—Plug It In—Gent Records

This is a review of two records by Mitch Grainger both called
“Plug It In” and both with the same eleven tracks—the first was
recorded with a band but the second album is acoustic with just

Mitch singing, playing guitar and harmonica. Mitch was born and
brought up in Sydney, Australia but in 2011 he followed in his
blues singing sister Kara’s footsteps and relocated to California.
‘Plug It In’ is a moody starting track that ironically (given the
title) works just as well acoustically, ditto ‘Strong Woman’ where
the acoustic version features prominent harmonica while, the
electric features more Hammond organ.

The electric version was issued first but it would seem logical that the songs were first worked
up on acoustic guitar, although the acoustic version was issued later. I thought that some band
versions were better – ‘Honey Bee’ and ‘That’s Alright’ – because I liked the ensemble playing
with nice lead guitar and organ. The acoustic ‘Mississippi’ features nice slide guitar and I
thought that it worked much better than the band version but I liked both versions of ‘Big City
Blues’ and ‘Shake It Up’. I also liked the closing track ‘Rock the Boat’ which is a weird Johnny
Cash-style loping country song. This is an interesting project and happily both albums work in
their own right and each has something to recommend it.

Graham Harrison