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Blues

New Arrivals

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Katie Knipp

Violent in Here

Soulful Original Rock, the kind of voice that hits your bone marrow.

Blues: Blues Vocals

Barry Metcalf

EMP Electro Magnetic Pulse

If you like Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, Stevie Vaughn, Eric Clapton, Creme, The Doors, or Led Zeppelin....you will probably dig this CD.

Blues: Blues-Rock

Al Basile

Soul Blue 7

Blues meets Jazz on the way to Soul

Blues: Soul-Blues

Christian Fabian

Keys In Ascension

"Most of the music here is composed and arranged by Christian, and his talent shines through in both areas, not to mention his bass playing” Don Friedman "This is America's jazz at it's best, 5 Stars!" John Gilbert, Jazz News

Blues: Jazzy Blues

Matt Scott

One Foot Forward

Acoustic-driven, pop-folk, with a warm dash of blues and soul; these honest lyrics and soulful melodies will soon be stuck in your head.

Blues: Folk-Blues

Southlands

The Morning Sky

Good rock-blues-pop songs. Vocals and choirs on powerful background. Great EGtrs solos. English lyrics. Originals by Southlands.

Blues: Rockin' Blues

Sonia Moree

Love Is The Reason

Recommended if you like old school and soul music

Blues: Soul-Blues

Johnny Fitz

Miles Away

An eclectic mix of hard rocking guitar, Native American Flutes, violin, and some horns thrown in for a little spice. This mostly instrumental offering will make you move and make you think.

Blues: Blues-Rock

Laura Ridgeway

Laura and the Livewires

This light-hearted jazz/swing CD features seriously fine musicians who are sure to make you shake a leg.

Blues: Jazzy Blues

The Shivering Denizens

The Shivering Denizen's debut album is a jolt of Outlaw Country and Honky Tonk Blues. In the vein of Hank III and Wayne Hancock.

Blues: Juke Joint Blues

Top Albums

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Art Pepper

The Art History Project

Soulful bop, blues, and lovesongs, inside, outside, wild, and sweet.

Please see the link on the left for reviews. CD Baby is obviously struggling with the site revision and has made it impossible for people to read or add reviews. The New York Times, among others, have praised this album, READ ALL ABOUT IT. This three disc set, volume IV of the Unreleased Art Pepper series, sums up the intensity of feeling, the wit, rage, sensuality and daring, the moans of pain and shouts of celebration of the life Art shared with us -- in his book, "Straight Life, and always in his music. Coda: Widow's Taste is "nearly impeccable," and Art's playing on previous releases "rhapsodic, heartfelt, almost demonic, exhaustive." --Jack Chambers New York Times, in a feature article: Widow's Taste "captures the artist at a mesmerizing peak." --Fred Kaplan Audiophile Audition: "I have loved each of the Unreleased series, but I have to say that Vol. 3 is my favorite. Its combination of funky swinging blues combined with Art's lay-it-on-the-line blowing knocks me out. The sound is surprisingly good and kudos should go to Wayne Peet for a brilliant remastering job." --Jeff Krow In keeping with the goals of the Widow's Taste Unreleased Art series, two-thirds of the music here has never been released before. The program begins in 1950 (Art Pepper with Stan Kenton) and concludes with tracks from a previously unreleased New York gig, featuring Stanley Cowell, George Mraz, and Ben Riley, played just a couple of months before Pepper's June 1982 death, at age 56. Art Pepper played the most autobiographical instrumental music in the world. The 17 selections on the forthcoming Widow's Taste release, The Art History Project, describe the emotional and musical evolution of an artist as he reacted, always intensely, to the events of his own life and to the events of the music world in general. The 3-CD set, lovingly compiled by the alto saxophonist's widow, Laurie Pepper, and set for release on June 23, includes a 20-page booklet filled with previously unpublished photographs as well as anecdotes, impressions, and information from her life with Art and from the book they wrote together, Straight Life. But the musical emphasis throughout is more on Art than on history. No track has been included purely for its historical value. Each performance is of good-to-excellent audio quality, all have been remastered by the truly masterly Wayne Peet, and together they embody the heights and depths Art felt and was able to convey. Disc 1. Pure Art is a story told by the young fellow who placed second only to Charlie Parker in the Down Beat polls, and who, by his own account, "musically, at least, had the world by the tail." That "at least" is typical Art Pepper. Nothing was ever was quite perfect enough. Nothing was ever quite right. He began to use drugs during this period, in an effort to escape the universal lack that prodded and plagued him. This disc is mostly "West Coast Jazz" with all its contrapuntal cleverness and loveliness -- though Art always gave it his own bright little edge of adrenaline so it never was lightweight. Many of the tunes are his originals. Sidemen here include Warne Marsh, Jack Sheldon, and Shorty Rogers "This music is sublime and really timeless," says Laurie. Disc 2. Hard Art consists of mostly unreleased material from a rehearsal recorded at Contemporary Studios in 1964 a few weeks after Art's first release from San Quentin. It reveals his love for Coltrane and for the new sound of jazz. Art's songs still swing and have moments of lyricism, but he uses the license given him by freer musical conventions to express the grief, anger, and alienation he felt in the midst of serving what seemed like an only-occasionally-interrupted life sentence -- doing time in jails and prisons just for using drugs. Disc 3. Consummate Art is just that. This is a narrative of reconciliation. In this music, most of which has never been released, Art embraces his past and his pain in music that is delicate, lively, and touching, and, at the same time, free: It rages and celebrates. The edge of desperation is still there, but Art has found a way to use it. He is again at the top of the jazz polls, respected and even adored, playing all over the world. He is "a knowing athlete, trained and poised" (Gary Giddins, Village Voice), who brought from deep inside the beauty of his own passion angst and glee and connected so unerringly with ours. He was "an architect of emotion" (John Litweiler, Chicago Sun-Times) who "played with controlled intensity, clean articulation, and a command of his instrument that make his virtuosity seem almost casual and easy" (John S. Wilson, New York Times). The new set is an ideal companion piece to Art's book Straight Life and, like the other volumes in the Unreleased Art series, it is an instant collector's item. Each volume has been compiled by the partner who knew Art most completely, and in irreverent anecdotes she gives him to us whole, his music reverentially reproduced and packaged. Laurie Pepper's Widow's Taste label was launched in 2006 in order to introduce Art to a generation who may not know how soulful jazz can be and to satisfy the blessedly insatiable desires of his knowledgeable fans. That this small record company remains in the black is thanks to those fans and to the overwhelming praise heaped on it:

Blues: Soul-Blues