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Mark Hummel Wayback Machine Electro-Fi Records
ASIN: B07ZW98NMP

This new album from harmonica ace Mark Hummel was recorded at Kid
Andersen’s Greaseland Studios in San Jose so you know that it is going
to sound fabulous, with the sound being early Chicago blues - 30s and
40s - Bluebird Records rather than the later Chess Records, heavy on
piano - Aaron Hammerman - with songs from the likes of Tampa Red,
Sonny Boy Williamson (no.1), Jazz Gillum and Robert Nighthawk. On
guitars are Billy Flynn and Rusty Zinn, with RW Grigsby and Andersen
on bass, Alex Petersen on drums, with the final three tracks featuring
Mississippi blues singer and guitarist Joe Beard. However, most of the
tracks are built around The Deep Basement Shakers - Hammerman on piano and Dave Eagle on washboard
and percussion - for a real knockabout hokum sound.

Mark isn't the greatest vocalist but he can hold his own on songs like Williamson's "Cut That Out" and Tampa
Red's "Play With Your Poodle" but listen to his harp playing on the instrumental "Breathtaking Blues" - it
certainly took my breath away when I heard it, with its Jazz Gillum-style harp playing that relates more to
Southern 'country' playing rather than what we normally think of as Chicago-style harmonica. This is Mark
playing acoustically without a microphone or amplifier for a really authentic early Chicago sound. We lose
the hokum sound and things turn darker and more intense when Joe Beard stands up, he takes Eddie Boyd's
classic Chicago blues "Five Long Years" back down South, "Say You Will" is a Hummel original (that he doesn't
actually play on) and finally we have Arthur Crudup's “Mean Old Frisco". I did like this album which shows
Mark showcasing his early Chicago blues harmonica technique but it’s not just an academic exercise in
demonstrating harp expertise, it’s a genuinely entertaining album that lets us hear the original Chicago blues
before the much more widely heard and imitated later Chess-style blues that we are all more familiar with.
And just for a bit of variety the final three tracks are a starker more intimate blues that would have preceded
the music's move up to Chicago.

Graham Harrison

The Phantom Blues Band Still Cookin’ Vizztone Label
ASIN: B082PP9Y6F

The Phantom Blues Band are a bunch of session musicians who were
originally assembled to back up Taj Mahal but then decided to stay
together as a unit, in between doing sessions for other artists including
Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray etc. The band are Joe Sublett (sax), Les Lovitt
(trumpet), Tony Braunagel (drums), Mike Finnigan (keyboards), Johnny
Lee Schell (guitar) and Larry Fulcher (bass), with the last three all
contributing vocals (and Maxayn Lewis adding her vocals to the final
track “I Was Blind”).

The majority of the songs here are band originals but they cover two songs by David Egan - the jazzy “Blues
How They Linger” and the funky “Fess On Up" - the opener “Don’t Fight It” is by Steve Cropper and Wilson
Pickett and “I’m Just Your Fool” is the old Little Walter song recently covered by The Stones. Elsewhere
“Wingin’ My Way” is dedicated to the late Paul Barrere and has a definite Little Feat feel, with Schell’s excellent
slide guitar as well as percussion by Lenny Castro, and “Just in Case” is a Mike Finnigan R&B song, with him
singing and playing piano and organ. “Shine On” is a reggae-flavoured number by Fulcher with lovely riffing
brass and “Tequila Con Yerba” by Fulcher and Sublett is a Latin Santana-style song, Sublett and Schell penned