Blues Underground Network

John Campbelljohn "Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg"

 
 
 
 John Campbelljohn is quite familiar with the Cape Breton saying, "if you want to make a success of yourself, you have to do it away", but he chose for the most part to stay put and find success his own way, which for John was leaning less on Cape Breton's Celtic Heritage and more on his interpretation of the Blues. Focusing his efforts on the Blues has certainly paid off for John Campbelljohn with him gaining national and international attention and accolades. John's 2006 album "Weight Of The World" was awarded "Blues Recording Of The Year" at the East Coast Music Awards. He has also won 5 Real Blues Awards including Blues Artist of the Year, Guitarist of the Year, and Slide Guitarist of the Year. With his amazing new release called "Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg", John Campbelljohn shows us all the reasons why he is such an acclaimed Singer, Songwriter, and Musician.
 
As the name implies, "Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg" was recorded in Germany, a country John Campbelljohn has been touring in for several years, to the point where he even has a record deal there. "Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg" consists of 16 Tracks of which John Campbelljohn wrote or co-wrote 11 of them. Co-writers on several of the Tracks included Kenneth Larocque (Track 5 "Excuse My Behavior" & Track 16 "Autobahn John"), Stan Carew (Track 7 "Knocked Down"), Joe Foumier (Track 10 "Light At The End Of The Tunnel"), Lennart Krogoll (Track 10 "Light At The End Of The Tunnel").
 
For the covers on "Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg", John Campbelljohn chose an interesting mix of songs from great artists, such as, Mountain "Mississippi Queen", Rory Gallagher "Going To My Hometown", Robert Johnson "Steady Rolling Man", Willie Dixon "Little Red Rooster", and Chuck Berry ("Don't You Lie To Me"). It was very interesting to hear John Campbelljohn's version of the above classic covers, for which he did more than justice, not in the form of mimicking the song, but in the form of drawing the essence of the song more to the front line, ala single instrument version. Perhaps the most amazing example of that was his version of "Mississippi Queen", which you feel like at any second is going to break out into full on band mode, but in the end you are glad it is just John and his single Slide Guitar doing all the magic.
 
"Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg" was a solo stage performance and consisted of John Campbelljohn doing Vocals, Guitars, and Mandolin. The Guitars he used on this album were a Laracey Lap Guitar, Tonehound Guitar, and Regal & Flinthill Resonator Guitars.
 
As far as favorites were concerned, I found quite a few of them on this album, first and foremost being the covers "Mississippi Queen", "Little Red Rooster", and "Don't You Lie To Me". "Don't You Lie To Me" was a song originally written by Tampa Red and reinterpreted by Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.   
 
As far as the originals were concerned, I really liked them all, as they all either told a great story with words, or as in the case of the 3 instrumentals had a great feeling with just music. Two of the instrumentals are actually Part 1 and Part 2 of the title track. Both of those instrumentals are painted with a nice Celtic feel, to the point where you can almost close your eyes and see a few young Celtic dancers doing their magic. The other of the 3 instrumentals, was one of the more entertaining Tracks on this album, not only for me, but for the live audience, as well, and was Track 6 "Sunny Sky Slide". "Sunny Sky Slide", as you might guess is done via Slide Guitar, but the real fun part comes when he starts whistling at the half way mark and then invites the audience to join in, which the happily do, and for which he humorously exclaims, "Ahhh Just Like Woodstock".
 
One of my favorites songs was the original "Track 5 "Excuse My Behavior" and was about a poor guy whose woman left him and took his old blue Cadillac with her. He does tell her to please take care of it, "In Case She Dies And He Gets It Back".
 
For me John Campbelljohn's "Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg" proved to be a masterful introduction to his music, and I can't for the life of me come up with an excuse for not listening to this brilliant artist sooner.
 
"Celtic Blues - Live In Hamburg" is one hell of a good album for those that like their Blues lean, mean, and to the point. John Campbelljohn's is an amazing Canadian artist.
 
Review by John Vermilyea (Blues Underground Network)
 
 
Listen To Samples Here...