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Johnny Iguana—At Delmark—Delmark

As the French would say, if they spoke English, “the
more things change, the more they stay the same”.
One of the first blues albums I bought, more years
ago than I care to remember, was Speckled Red’s “The

Dirty Dozens” on Delmark, a solo piano set in a
wonderfully thick cardboard sleeve; here I am now,

reviewing a set of solo piano tracks (albeit all these
are instrumentals) by Johnny Iguana, or Brian
Berkowitz as his family knows him, released on CD,
LP, downloads and streams. I don’t know how thick

this LP sleeve is, but this was still recorded in one take onto analogue tape, and sounds
great…

Johnny’s own introduction to Chicago’s legendary Delmark label came via albums by

Junior Wells and Magic Sam, so it is no surprise to hear him reworking Junior’s ‘Messin’
With The Kid’ and Sam’s funky ‘You Belong To Me’ very successfully. Of course, Johnny

first came to blues prominence through his work with Junior Wells in the 90s, so this
is a tasty tribute.

Some tracks are (kind of) mood pieces with very accurately descriptive titles, as for

example, ‘Stormy Night At A Moroccan Blues Bar’. Other songs come from more of
Johnny’s influences, such as Little Brother Montgomery and ‘Bass Key Boogie’, Jay
McShann with ‘Roll ‘Em’, Chuck Berry via an excellent rendition of ‘You Never Can Tell’.

And, er, AC/DC and Neil Young, both well bluesified. Everything here is definitely well
worth a listen.

Norman Darwen

Sunny Bleau and the Moons—Passion & Regrets
—Endless Blues Smebr102025

Take a listen to ‘Two Glasses Of Whiskey On Ice’, the

opening track of this set, and I’ll bet you’ll be
impressed. Kelly “Sunny Bleau” Brock’s sultry vocal,
Nicholas A. Cocco’s excellent, complementary lead

guitar work, and a crack rhythm section work
beautifully together on a memorable song. These
guys then follow it up with the tale of a cheating man

as told from the woman’s point of view and set to a
grinding beat – equally memorable and with some
fine harmonica from Kiersi Joli and a nice lyrical twist.

The eagle-eyed might have realised that Endless Blues is the now Michigan-based Mick
Kolassa’s label, and in fact some of his associates turn up here too. Jeff Jensen guests