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Buddy Whittington and Jim Suhler—Texas Scratch—Quarto
Valley Records

Mr Whittington is a world class guitar player; he sings pretty
well too! Buddy was for fifteen years guitarist with John Mayall
standing in the shoes of quite a few world class people. Jim
Suhler is great axeman too and has a stellar reputation after
working with George Thorogood and with his own band for

many years. Both of course come from Texas, Buddy from Fort
Worth and Jim from just down I30, in Dallas.

This CD has a strange history. Made thirteen (13) years ago in
New Jersey, the band (called Texas Scratch) brought together the driving drum beat of Jeff
Simon (George Thorogood and the Destroyers) and enlisted the help of Texas guitarist Vince
Converse, drummer Roger Earl (Foghat/Savoy Brown)and bassists Nathaniel Peterson and
Kirk Yano. Recorded in just a few days by Ben Elliott at his Showplace Studios in Dover, NJ.,
the band put together nine original songs, eight of which were written by its band members.

At the time of recording both the songs penned by Buddy were un-recorded. ‘Texas Trios ‘(here
called ‘Texas Trio’ in the singular) and ‘Ain't Got The Scratch’ were later remade by Buddy for
his album “Six String Svengali”—their first publication. (The blurb from the record company
says, that “Texas scratch is a style of guitar picking (also known as the "Carter Scratch") said
to have originated by Mother Maybelle Carter back in 1927.” Buddy says that he has never
heard of that. For him, ‘scratch’ means money.)

Jim Suhler’s contribution to the album is ‘I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good’ co-written with the
ubiquitous Tom Hambridge, ‘Trip Hammer’ , ‘Showdown’ and the fabulous ‘Purple Mountain
Flask’ all of which come with some outstanding guitar work and great, great vocals.

The band chose to include the slightly gruesome ‘Louisiana Cock Fight’ written by Fort Worth

songwriter John Nitzinger (which is actually a kind of cultural folk song) and two songs ‘What
The Devil Loves’ and ‘Evil (Do Right by You)’ written by Vince Converse originally from
Houston, TX., now working out of Denver, Colorado.

For the time being, available as a download only, this album is a stunner. A bunch of outstand-
ing musicians having fun, some fabulous songs and great, great production by Mike Carden
and Arnie Goodman. If you have a penchant for contemporary guitar virtuosos and outstand-
ing songs this one is for you.

Ian K. McKenzie

Micke Bjorklof and Blue Strip—Colors of Jealousy—
Hokahey! Music Productions

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—It must be something in the
water, or perhaps, Finns have a penchant for the blues because
of the interminable length of winter darkness. What ever is the
case, Mr Bjorklof is at the top of the blues tree in that part of the
world.

Bjorklof is an award winning blues artist, multi-instrumentalist
and bandleader from Finland. After a few changes at the very