Strange Pleasure Review

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(More customer reviews)This CD, and the tour that resulted from it, took me by surprise.
Jimmie Vaughan's band is amazingly tight, his vocals are much better than expected. The songs are from a far better musical era. They are reminiscent of something that came from Memphis in the 60's. He uses no bass player. The organist uses bass pedals to round out the bottom of the sound. Austin guitar legend Denny Freeman plays both rhythm guitar & piano and is equally deft at either instrument. The doo wop singers he brought out on tour (after they blew him away in the studio)were a great compliment to his sound. I loved this CD. A tip for guitar players trying to cop his sound: Many people have written in articles that he has gone to an open tuning, with a capo. I was able to talk with him and found that he tunes conventionally, but uses the capo on the proper fret for the key of the song he is playing. This allows him to pull off the strings from any position to get a note which is in key with the song. It is like playing every song in the key of E. This makes his sliding/pulloff licks work. He was not using an open tuning as many people believe. Anyway, buy the CD and good luck playing his chops. Remember, SRV looked up to him. That is a reccomendation.

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Strange Pleasure -Jimmie Vaughan
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Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Collection Review

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(More customer reviews)Amazon keeps inter-mixing the reviews for the 'Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Collection' album and the similarly named 'Alligator Records 20th Anniversary tour' album. So I will include a review of both here to set the record straight.
The 'Collection' album is by far superior to the 'tour' album. The collection has many artists on show and offers a bit of everything. The best tracks are AC Reed's 'These blues are killing me' with SRV brilliant on guitar, Little Charlie and the Nightcats with 'Rain', Roy Buchanan's classic 'Drowning on dry land', Koko Taylor with 'That's why i'm crying', Katie Webster with 'Pussycat Moan', Son Seal with 'Going back home' and Hound Dog Taylor and the classic 'Give me back my wig'. The album is uneven as you would expect for a label show case but well worth it as a introduction to a variety of blues styles and artists.
The 1993 20th aniversary tour album has only Li' Ed, (the late) Kattie Wester, Elvin Bishop, Lonnie Brooks and Koko Taylor. The album does typify Alligator records music that by my definition is mostly reasonable blues without being great. This live album has plenty of energy and is listenable, but fails to scale the heights I expect of the blues.

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Arc Angels Review

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(More customer reviews)One of the truly great albums of the 1990's. Released during the heyday of grunge, all of those knuckleheads that moved to Seattle should have been paying attention to this instead, because this record blows most of the competition away.
I saw Arc Angels play in Charleston back in 1992, and can only add on to the folklore that continues to surround this band. That concert was one of the best experiences I have EVER had at a live show; these guys were the total package.

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Reform School Girl Review

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(More customer reviews)I would have to agree with the Little Richard,Ramones,and Phil Spector references,but I would also sprinkle a little Screamin Jay Hawkins over it.A beautiful mess.

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Nick Curran describes his music as a cocktail consisting of the sounds of no less than seventeen widely differing musicians blended together with a cup of broken glass. That only begins to characterize the wallop packed by the 98-proof elixir of this singer, songwriter and monster guitarist who effortlessly carries the past with him as he blazes across the musical landscape in perpetual forward motion. Curran began his professional career at age nineteen, leaving Maine to tour with Ronnie Dawson. Although Dawson was primarily a rockabilly musician, many blues and punk fans appreciated his performances. He taught Curran not to get pigeonholed. Curran toured next with Texas rockabilly doyenne Kim Lenz, moving to Dallas to join her backup band the Jaguars for two years, and performing on Lenz's recording, The One And Only. Nick would stay with the Jaguars for two years. He is also featured on Lenz's latest CD, It's All True, and recently toured with her in the summer of 2009.
In 1999 the Texas Jamboree label issued Curran's debut solo recording, Fixin' Your Head. As he would do on all future CDs, Curran used vintage recording equipment to achieve the feel and sound of old 45s and 78s, and the LPs of the 1950s. To support the recording he formed the band, Nick Curran and the Nitelifes, whose performances whipped audiences to frenzied devotion with their wild ride of retro, yet fresh and edgy rock 'n' roll, boogie, r & b, jump blues and a variety of other tasty stylistic devils in the details. A second Texas Jamboree CD, Nitelife Boogie, followed in 2001. When Curran moved to Austin, Jimmie Vaughan, who had heard his CDs, invited him to sit in on a set at Antone's. Vaughan would make a guest appearance on two tracks on Nick's next recording, Dr. Velvet, which garnered the 2004 W.C. Handy Award (now the Blues Music Award) for Best New Artist Debut.
From 2004 to 2007 Curran displayed his talents with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Kim Wilson's legendary band, appearing on their 2005 recording, Painted On. Also during that time, Curran and bassist Ronnie James started the punk band Deguello, saying that it ''sounded as if Little Richard sang with The Ramones.'' After performing a solo show in November, 2008, Nick was inspired to form the rock 'n' roll roots band, The Lowlifes. Reform School Girl is a culmination of Curran's multitude of talents: a throwback to his roots, only amped up to the limit. ''I've written more songs on Reform School Girl than on any other records. I wanted it to have no filler - only good stuff. All my influences are there, from old blues like Lazy Lester and T-Bone Walker to girl groups like the Ronettes and the Shangri-Las, to Guns N Roses.'' The album also features a couple of appearances by some of Nick's close personal friends including a duet on the song Flyin' Blind, co-written with Blasters' frontman Phil Alvin, as well as harmonica ace Jason Ricci on Reel Rock Party. Catch Nick Curran as he shakes, rattles and rolls a head-spinning combination of genres and tunes into a cool, irresistible cocktail that is rough and ready for action.

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In Step Review

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(More customer reviews)"In Step" is often cited by critics as Stevie Ray Vaughan's best studio album. And his playing on this album is actually a bit more economical, maybe even a bit more mannered, than on his earlier releases...whether or not that's a good thing is a matter of taste, I suppose.
The production is a bit more slick than usual as well, the tone of Vaughan's guitar is cleaner, and a keyboard player and occational horns have been added to the mix, but that's not to say that Stevie Ray Vaughan had gotten soft on his final solo album before his tragic death in 1990 - he just turned a little bit more towards rock rather than blues.
"In Step" opens with a blistering rocker, "The House Is Rockin'", followed by the bluesy "Crossfire", which features a superb solo by Vaughan.
"Tightrope" ventures into hard rock territory, but Stevie Ray's cover of Willie Dixon's "Let Me Love You Baby" is genuine blues-rock, and it is followed by a good reading of Buddy Guy's slow, tortured blues "Leave My Girl Alone". Vaughan didn't quite have the pipes to match the intensity of Guy's original, but he does a fine job with what he has, and the guitar playing is superb as usual.
"Travis Walk" is a funky, up-tempo instrumental with some great drumming by Chris Layton (who, incidentally, used to play drums for Buddy Guy and Lightnin' Hopkins). "Wall Of Denial" is pretty well known, but it is perhaps one of the lesser tracks on this album, with some fine guitar playing but not much in the way of either hooks or a real "groove" to grab a hold of the listener.
"Scratch n' Sniff", however, is a fine up-tempo rock song with some excellent boogie piano fills by keyboardist Reese Wynans, and a great solo by Vaughan.
Stevie Ray Vaughan can't quite pull off Howlin' Wolf's "Love Me Darlin' (May I Have A Talk With You)", but if you aren't familiar with the original, this version will actually sound pretty great, I guess. And finally, the original "In Step" album winds down with the excellent nine-minute instrumental "Rivera Paradise", a slow, moody piece.
The five excellent bonus tracks begin with a short interview snippet. The remaining four songs are all live performances: "The House Is Rockin'" and "Let Me Love You Baby" from "In Step", "Texas Flood" from Vaughan's 1983 debut album of the same name, and "Life Without You" from "Soul To Soul".
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a terrific live performer, and it's pure joy to listen to the raw, fiery live versions of the two songs from this album, which to me work better than the originals.
Highly recommended, as are all Vaughan's studio albums (although I don't agree with those who call it his best).
You should also check out Stevie Ray Vaughan's excellent live albums.

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