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Blues Underground Network |
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Barry Levenson "The Late
Show"
"For A Little Bit of Money, You Get A
Whole Lot of Blues" is one of the lines off of Track 2, "Whole Lotta
Blues", of Barry Levenson's "The Late Show",
and really when it comes to this album, those words couldn't be more
true, for a couple of reasons. First off, "The Late Show", clocks in at
over 70 minutes, yes I said 70 minutes, which in my book is twice as
long as fair number of releases out there and secondly "The Late Show"
features an amazing amount of different styles of Blues, which is sure to
please a wide variety of Blues
fans.
Barry Levenson hails out of
Pittsburgh and started his love affair with the Blues at the young age of
14, after being introduced to the music of Buddy Guy via an older friend.
From then on Barry Levenson began building an amazing musical resume, with
first playing in hometown blues bands, to working as a studio musician,
and then moving to Boston to where he studied "arranging at the
Berklee School of Music". While in Boston he also was the house
guitarist at the Sugar Shack, one of Boston's more popular Rhythm and
Blues clubs. When a warmer climate beckoned, Barry Levenson made the move
to Southern California where he began working with many blues greats, such
as, "Big Mama Thornton, Pee Wee Crayton, Percy Mayfield, Lowell Fulson
and J.D. Nicholson". It was not long after, that Barry landed his
first recording deal with Kent Records with his own group, the Automatics.
By that time Barry was also the House Producer at Kent
Records.
Under his own name he released Heart
to Hand for Storyville Records, an album which received numerous critical
reviews, as well as, being hailed as "one of the most popular
instrumental releases of the decade". Again, as with Kent Records,
Barry was hired on for more then his guitar skills, and that was as a
Producer and A&R man at Storyville, whoms job was to seek out
"undiscovered and overlooked talent, then producing and recording
them". From then on there were more releases, one of which garnered
Barry an "Handy Award nomination for Song of the Year", for
his release Hard Times Won and a couple of Delta Laserlight releases
that including Blues heavyweights, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Mike
Bloomfield, T-Bone Walker, and Bobby Bland, to name just as few. Barry
Levenson, whom still resides in Southern California has probably not
slowed down at all since being introduced to the Blues, and besides still
being in high demand as a Studio Artist, he still finds time to work on
and appear in many movies as well as on television and in commercials and
lets not forget his regular gigs which include playing with the great
band, Canned Heat. Now with his latest release of "The Late Show", for Rip
Cat Records, Barry Levenson has, once again, brought forward his immense
talents and knowledge of the Blues to give us, perhaps, one of the
more impressive Blues releases, so far for
2011.
"The Late Show" consists of 15
amazing Tracks of which Barry Levenson wrote all of them, as well as, did
the producing and arranging. Of the 15 Tracks, 10 are amazingly done
instrumentals, which had no problem reminding me of other fantastic
instrumentally forward musicians, such as Chris Dair and the great Ronnie
Earl. The instrumentals also have a very good length to them, which really
allows you to get caught up and swept away with
them.
Barry Levenson is not credited with
vocals on this album, but for the 5 Tracks which are not instrumentals, he
managed to have 3 amazing vocalists which consisted of Mary Williams
"Whole Lotta Blues", Finis Tasby "Slippin' Down Blues", and Johnny Dyer
"One For Muddy", "Wrong Side Of The Blues", and "Drinkin' Stops Me
Thinkin'", do an absolutely great job on those 5 superbly written songs.
Johnny Dyer also doubled as Harpist on "One For Muddy" and "Wrong Side Of
The Blues, for which he also did an amazing job. Larry "Big House" David
also played fantastic Harp on the instrumental "West Side
Rain".
Other wonderful performers on "The
Late Show" included Blake Watson (Bass), Dave Kida (Drums), Hank Van
Sickle (Bass on "Green Is Blue"), Mike Thompson (Keyboards), Phil Krawzuk
and Chris Jennings (Horns) and Mike Sandberg (Percussion). With that
amazing lineup of talent, "The Late Show" didn't have a chance at being
anything other then a wonderful and inspired journey down Blues
Lane.
With it's amazingly varied styles of
the Blues, it was not easy picking out just a few favorites, but ones that
stood out, with their heads just above the crowd of the others, were Track
1 "Riley's Shuffle / Blue Tears", which was the longest track on this
album and the one that really peaked my interest from the get go, as well
as, Track 2, "Whole Lotta Blues", which I found captivated
me with the singing of Mary Williams, and Track 9 "Steel Life"
which I found had a great Pulp Fiction meets Modern Western movie
type feel to
it.
With "The Late Show", Barry Levenson
had no problem showing me just how much of an immense talent he is.
His music, which of course may sound similar to others, still manages to
have that special spark of uniqueness, which is purely his
own.
For those of you whom love
instrumentally forward albums with varying degrees of great Blues, "The
Late Show" is a must have album and one that I am positive will garner
many accolades and much
acclaim.
Highly Recommended and Thoroughly
Enjoyed. "The Late Show" is a shear musical genius at
work.
Review by John Vermilyea (Blues
Underground Network)
Additional Info
Tracklist
1. Riley's Shuffle / Blue Tears
7:15
2. Whole Lotta Blues 4:00 3. One For Muddy 3:20 4. Meters Runnin' 4:59 5. The Late Show 5:44 6. Turn Up The A.C. 5:33 7. Slippin' Down Blues 5:48 8. Charlie's Ride 3:21 9. Steel Life 5:55 10. Wrong Side Of The Blues 4:36 11. West Side Rain 6:09 12. Down At The Hill 6:10 13. Rush Hour 4:30 14. Drinkin' Stops Me Thinkin' 4:21 15. Green Is Blue 5:32
Listen To Samples Here...
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