Vernon Reid

Hoodoo Telemetry

(Artone / The Players Club)

As was vividly paraded by Vernon's contributions to Living Colour - impossibly alacritous fretboard fingerings that fused notes into kalaidescopic configurations and left jaws hanging - within the man pulsed vision and prowess beyond that of rank and file axemen. But "the past is prologue," as Willy Shakes quilled. Hoodoo Telemetry portrays Vernon's phenomenal bent in far advanced stage, finding breath-stopping animation in unmapped Jazz, Rock, and Funk mileaus. (Edgar Winter's "Dying to Live" and Cream's "Politician" are reanimated with due regard.) Occasional vocals by Vernon and guests are well-turned and wreath movements with body-and-soul essence. A host of hues, textures, tempos, and startling declarations cascade down and around. One is 18 kinds of happy about getting drenched.

(A personal favorite of this author's is the jagged smokestack lightning Reid added to the Ramones' "Cabbies on Crack," from 1992's Mondo Bizarro.)

Recommended: "Freedom Jazz Masque," "The Haunting," "Bronx Paradox," "Or Knot," "Dying to Live" (feat. vocalist Miche Fambro), "Politician" (feat. vocalist Bruce Mack), "Black Fathom Five," "Meditation on the Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames," "In Effigy" (vocals by Vernon)

Videos: "Freedom Jaz Dance"   "Politician"   "Meditation on the Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames"

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Claude Engel

Swingy

(Self-issued)

When marquee personages like Herbie Hancock, Serge Gainsbourg, and Sir Reginald Dwight have desired particular lustre be cast upon works, they rang up Monsieur Claude. Herein lie movements evocative. He employs numerous guitar brands to summon cultured Jazz, Swing, '50s Rock'n'Roll, and Blues stylings, ones at home in the most sophisticated Parisian cabarets. (Taken up are an Epiphone 335, '59 Strat, '64 Tele, Guild X-175, '53 Telecaster w/humbucker, acoustic Gibson L-00, and Gretsch G6118T Players Edition Anniversary guitar.) Strictly a groove session. No squares allowed. Slapping outstretched palms with skins and doghouse are Hammond B3 and Irish Bouzouki. These cats are the most ut. They even share a smoke back in the alley.

One danger presents itself: Upon listening, fledgling guitarists may hurl away picks.

Recommended: "Bb Boogie," "Mastodonte," "Bistouri Bop," "Nouba à Nianing," "Blues de Jazz," "Wahini," "The Black < C > Rag," "Opus Market," "Poste Restante," "Irish Stew," "Rockaboogie"

Videos: "Rockaboogie"   live 2018 (4:14)

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The Mopar Cams

Munchin'

(Self-issued)

Surf-Punk stylin' Rockabilly chrome. The instrumental line-up is a traditional, rock-ribbed one led by assertive guitar, and fluctuation ensures appreciators remain agog; adventurousness inspires mercurial song advance.

Recommended: "Oak Noir," "Salsa Verde," "Thumper," "Rage Against the Sex Machine," "Ole Mole," "1955"

Videos: "Salsa Verde"   "Ole Mole"

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Joe Flip

Home Sweet Home

(New Folk Records)

Many are those of the pick who have studied venerable Blues masters and can not only replicate their gestures, but do so with spiritual fraternity. Know that slide-artisan Joe ranks among them. But he is no soulless emulator; whether plugged in and loosing passion's flames or hefting a gut-box to touch off silken passages with deft digits, he laces each outing with distinctiveness. 

A $10 package (reduced from $25) includes the Home Sweet Home CD, autographed album art, digital download, and sticker. It can be ordered directly. See below.

Recommended: "Home Sweet Home," "Just Friends," "Mississippi Country Road," "Jimi Swing," "Toxic" (feat. Swanny Rose), "Anna Lee," "Mess Around," "Whipping Post," "4th Street Alley," "Lenny" (live), "Invictus"

Videos: "Home Sweet Home"   "Whipping Post"

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Rick Larson: Greatness at the margin

A guitar is buried in Marshalltown, Iowa. This is why:

A flash point is possible in live music. An organic, vital moment in which emotional and sensory phenomena coalesce in a connected soloist's muse articulation. The spark surges through the crowd, electrifying the atmosphere and leaving listeners viscerally touched.

Skin crawls. Grins erupt. Shouts ring out. And all is right with the world -- at least for that moment.

Marshalltown, Iowa's Rick Larson found his way into that magical moment of greatness -- more than once, if truth be told -- as had so many unsung beat champions before him.

My brother, he knew his life's purpose from an early age. He got his first guitar when 12 and devoted himself to single-minded pursuit of earthly calling.

Stevie Ray Vaughn, Keith Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Guy, Joe Strummer, Pete Townsend - these were his influences. He played the music that spoke to him, and it became important to his audiences.

No prisoner of stylistic convention, he was as likely to rock the house as finesse a melody. He made all the right stops, from red-hot jumpin' to cool-blue orating. His intoxicating soloing interpreted heartache, passion, and kick-out-the-jams exuberance. Lesser players were made conscious of their limitations.

The demands of post-teen life typically compel young players to eventually pursue day jobs, relegating live music to weekend hobby status, if even that. 

But Rick never stopped. Because he and music were of a piece. And to him, no other pursuits mattered.

He never cut an album, shot a video or graced a magazine cover. What he did was infinitely more important. A veteran of America's bar-band culture, he helped keep Blues and Rock'n'Roll alive before average people every night.

For them, plagued by trials throughout the work week, the release and revelry offered by live bands is salvational. A person can be put down by a boss during the day, but be ten feet tall on the midnight dance floor.

Songs to which grassroots blue-collar crowds today shout and thrill have roots in America's rich cultural mosaic and wonderfully diverse heritage. Tempos, melodic inclinations, and engaging rhythms from a score of shores met here and became new and as one.

American songs derive from the Appalachian Mountain country and humming streets of Chicago. They hail from the highways that crisscross the nation and from the farmlands. From the cities, swamps, and suburbs. And they are born from common experiences, telling of human struggles, aspirations, pains, and triumphs.

It is through the efforts of anonymous players that folk stories and voices survive from generation to generation. A country's music serves as both popular record and expression of national character.

Rick was professionally active in central Iowa from the seventies through the mid-nineties. Indeed, the area live-music circuit was richer for his indefatigable participation.

He co-founded numerous central Iowa groups: Amo, Armed and Dangerous, Party House, Ice Age, the Vipers, Commotion. And too many more to mention. Singer/harp player Mark Goodman and drummer Frank McDowell were usually in the mix. Accompanying players included keyboardist Doc Lawson and guitarist/vocalist Dave Taylor.

Sometimes, formal band names or line-ups were not even needed. If a sudden gig opened up or a last-minute party jam presented itself, Rick would be there. Guitar in hand, amplifier on.

He had something crucial to worthwhile musicianship: an absolute and unfeigned direct line between his heart and his art. He believed in each note he touched.

True, a few of the better chart songs sometimes crept into the late- night sets. But only the better ones. For Rick, ignoring his instincts and selling out his musical integrity were simply not options. The gold ring mattered less than the music. The moment.

Devoted rank-and-file bar musicians like Rick who keep music alive -- who realize that all-important moment -- are infinitely more significant to real world listeners than is the trendy WRIT LARGE corporate music-product industry that takes listeners for granted.

For every transient and fabricated chart sensation, there are innumerable unsung authentics. And greatness belongs to them, too. Probably most of all.

For it is indeed possible to reach greatness in isolation from the "big picture," without the whole world's being aware.

Rick did.

His guitar fell silent in 1998. We laid to earth with him the cherry wood-grain, Gibson SG Standard that had been his earliest performing guitar. It was only right that they remain together into perpetuity. Together, they had realized the moment.

That is how I know that greatness can flourish at the margin.

And that is why a guitar is buried in Marshalltown, Iowa.

The foregoing essay was excerpted from my 2017 book, Flesh Made Music (Retro Riff).

Rick and longtime singer Mark Goodman.

Pontus J. Back

"Be en bön för mig" "Saliga visshet"

(Talking Music)

Finnish 'Rock Pastor' Pontus occupies an especial category, that of indefatigable guitar-rocker with eyes focused only on Eternal reward. While all of his efforts merit attention, these tracks work particular wonders in easily rolling vintage manners. The attractive melody of "Saliga visshet" may seem familiar; know that it is a brisk retelling of 1873 hymn "Blessed Assurance." There is crooning, there is bopping, and there is praise - one gets the whole package.

Videos: "Be en bön för mig"   "Saliga visshet"

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