Album | Bad Case Of The Blues
(2018)
Blues in both traditional and non-traditional styling featuring lead guitar
12 bar blues is a part of every American guitar player's basic technique. When I was a kid growing up in LA, there was a blues program on TV with many blues players whose names I wasn't familiar with, but one I remembered was BB King, who would become one of the best known Bluesmen in the world. While I've never been a "Blues Guy" per se, I, like most other Rock guitarists, have been heavily influenced by it in my musical lifetime. My favorite Blues guitarists are Hubert Sumlin, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, and Buddy Guy.
I have written some Blues songs over the years, but didn't have enough songs for an album until 2017. The songs on Bad Case of the Blues span over 45 years! "Bad Case of the Blues", "Chilm Blues" and "Close The Door" were originally recorded with my band Sparky in 1971. I wrote "You Used To Love Me" in 1995 for my friend and recording engineer Ashley Brigdale after his bad break-up. "Happy Blues" was written in LA on a fully upholstered Fender Rhodes piano at Susie's cousin's house in the mid-70s. "I've Tried" started out as a song about my estranged brother, turned into a Blues-Love song. "Mr. Rhythm & Blues II" was an out take from my Rhythm Addict album in 1990 that I re-sang/re-mixed recently (We used the Charlie Musselwhite/Linda Imperial version of the song for RA). I wrote "Don't Tell Me I Ain't Got The Blues" while going through a Federal Trial while Watergate was happening. I wrote "Long Time Friend" for my former bandmate and co/producer Jynx Jenkins, who fell on hard times and had burned through his friends and was without options. "City Blues" is a partial rewrite of my friend Rick Miller's song, originally recorded by The Magic Mind as a fake "live" recording. "Sick of You" is a one-size-fits-all song that I originally wrote with one person in mind, but has expanded.
All in all, I am very happy with this album and I'm glad to finally get my Blues songs down. All of the guitar leads are my 1958 Strat that I bought from my friend David West in the late 70s, played straight through a Swart Atomic SpaceTone Jr. The album was engineered by my co-producer Dominic Romano.