Blues N Rags

Blues N Rags

 Just like it says.. good ol' southern ragtime and blues with a splash of southern rock n roll. Playlist runs beween the late 1950's & 2020. Many songs from the road, leaving songs, walkin' songs, returning songs... Rags with attitude!

 

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Thank you to Cristen Craven Bernard & Erika Litteral for the cover background artwork

The Blue Rags were a fun, punky ragtime swing group outta North Carolina. Four romping tracks from their 1997 CD. Bluesman Abe Reid was with the band at around that time before putting his solo project, Basicly Dumb (sic) out in '99. I was lucky to catch them both live back then in Asheville on different nights, raucous and memorable (lets not even go into the blue lights haha). Guitarist & blues/ragtime specialist Stefan Grossman is well known in the UK for his 1980's partnership with John Renbourn and his albums for Transatlantic Records. Fun country bluegrass tracks from Wild Willy Barrett's debut solo LP Call of the Wild (1979). Rambling harmoniser Rory McLeod formed the group Have Mercy to make a very bluesy LP in 1992. Another intrepid traveller and street performer Seasick Steve rose to prominance in 2008 when his I Started Out With Nothin and I Still Got Most of it Left debut album left everyone quite speechless, it was that good! A good measure of the blues laced with his native southern rock & roll. The seasick one inspired me to drop a couple of old numbers by fellow southern rockers ZZ Top.. a healthy sound they made too! Blackfoot were a Florida based heavy rock band with First Nations heritage but they dropped the odd other thing, just to show that they could I guess. They do a cool redneck version of 900 Miles here. Dambert Nobacon bemoans that Ol' Devil Gasolene. Two groovin' tracks with Levon Helm, including a live acoustic cut with Rick Danko from 1983. Ben Harper teamed up for two steamy blues albums with singer & harmonica expert Charlie Musselwhite in 2012 & 2018. The Devil Went Down to Georgia was a smash hit for the Charlie Daniels Band and for very good reason, its RED HOT. Two punchy Bonny Raitt songs taken from her debut album way back in 1971. Rory Gallagher was equally at home mountains, plains or delta. Bert Jansch does two traditional numbers on the offbeat. Roy Harper & John Martyn bring a dose of blue otherworldliness somewhere midway through.

Continuous mix 2hrs 30

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