Marcia Ball - Roadside Attractions - 2011.

Review:

Marcia Ball, born on the Texas/Louisiana border, has long been a superb performer, delivering her swampy blend of zydeco, blues, and gritty R&B with all the force of a Saturday night locomotive, and through 12 albums, she has never let that energy go. Roadside Attractions, her fifth release for Alligator Records, is no exception -- it cooks and rattles and rocks with Ball's typical joyous energy and powerful piano. None of her many fans will be disappointed by this outing, but it is a little different for Ball in one respect -- for the first time on one of her albums she has either written or co-written every song on it, and all of them draw on her thousands of hours on the road bringing her infectious brand of swampy boogie to the world. Song after song here roars by in a lightning-soaked tumble of piano-driven words until it feels like her own personal diary of America tumbling past the tour bus window -- and it isn’t all barbecues, picnics, and big concert stages, either. Love is found, lost, and found again out on the road, and Ball captures the kinetic feel of all of that here, and she’s arguably never sung better, her voice full of the smoke of life on the road. You can tell she loves singing these songs. The opening track, “That’s How It Goes,” stomps with joy right out of the gate, and song after song builds things forward, with Ball's singing and lyrics on cuts like “Between Here and Kingdom Come” and “Believing in Love” in constant motion. The whole album is full of motion and life, and it’s easily Ball's best and most personal statement to date. But don’t worry -- she still knows that all paths lead to the dancefloor, and once there, as she sings on the album-closing “The Party’s Still Going On,” you better be ready to dance. This wonderful album will insist on it.

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rukusjuice
mp3 320 kbps - 96 Mb

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ca88820/n/mbra.rar

Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues - 2011.

Review


Given his place in the pantheon of American rock music, Gregg Allman's solo career away from the Allman Brothers Band has been generally disappointing. Perhaps that's why it took nearly a decade between his previous album, 1997's Searching for Simplicity (its title alone indicates his frustrations) and 1988's over-produced yet underwhelming Just Before the Bullets Fly. A whopping 14 years later, Allman joins forces with roots producer to the stars T-Bone Burnett, hoping that some of the latter's mojo can rub off on a singer who is one of the great white soul and blues vocalists in rock music. For the most part it does, as the duo choose 11 relatively obscure covers from classic artists such as Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Wells, and B.B. King that have clearly influenced Allman's musical approach. The backing is organic but far from stripped-down with horns, multiple guitars, and even background vocalists supporting the singer's patented crusty growl. From the opening raw thump of the ominous Sleepy John Estes' "Floating Bridge" to a peppy yet intense take on Muddy Waters' "I Can't be Satisfied" and a fiery reworking of Magic Sam's "My Love Is Your Love," Allman sounds invested and inspired by this material and his musical surroundings. Veterans such as Dr. John (credited here with his real name, Mac Rebennack), Doyle Bramhall II, and Burnett's often used rhythm section of drummer Jay Bellerose and Dennis Crouch on bass keep a taut yet easygoing lock on the groove. That's particularly evident on the predominantly acoustic version of Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman." The horns that appear on five tunes never overpower the sound yet help propel Allman's soul-searing performance of Bland's "Blind Man." Ditto for Otis Rush's slow blues "Checking on My Baby," which brings the vocalist back to his "Stormy Monday"-styled beginnings. One original co-written with Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes, "Just Another Rider," while not a terrible song, pales in comparison with the rest of the material and could have been saved for the next Brothers album, where it might make a better fit. Allman is credited with B-3 on the majority of the tunes, but his contributions are generally mixed so low as to be nearly inaudible. His organ can be heard on a low-down run-through of Amos Milburn's "Tears, Tears, Tears" that captures a sweet, jazzy noir West Coast blues. It adds up to Allman's best and surely most focused and cohesive solo release, and one where the template can hopefully be repeated in less time than it took this to appear.

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mississippimoan
mp3, 320 kbps - 84 Mb
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b4hh1g6/n/gslcb.rar

Buddy Guy.

Buddy Guy - Living Proof - 2011.

Review

Living Proof was designed partially as an aural autobiography from the legendary Buddy Guy, opening up with the stark summation “74 Years Young,” then running through songs that often address some aspect of a working musician's life. It’s not a concept that’s followed through completely -- it’s thrown off track somewhat by duets with B.B. King and Carlos Santana, with the latter’s soft groove sticking out tonally as well -- but it’s enough of a narrative to give the record a definitive shape that some latter-day Guy albums are lacking. Still, the selling point of Living Proof remains Guy’s guitar, an instrument that improbably gets louder, nastier, and gnarlier with each passing year. Like Skin Deep before it, Living Proof is distinguished by these bold, clenched blasts of sonic fury, but here the production has just enough grit to make the entire enterprise feel feral, and that’s a greater testament to Guy's enduring vitality than any one song could ever be.

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mississippimoan
FLAC - 331 Mb
http://www.filefactory.com/file/caabe49/n/bglp.rar

Ron Wood.

Ron Wood I Feel Like Playing - 2011.

Review

Ron Wood had a rough couple years following the publication of his 2007 autobiography, splitting with his wife of over 20 years and entering rehab for yet another time, but you never would be able to tell this based on his 2010 album I Feel Like Playing. Like his previous six solo albums, it has nothing more on its mind than a good time, a studio party where everybody is invited. This time around, Slash, Billy Gibbons, Bobby Womack and Flea all drop by to have a little fun on a collection rockers, reggae, blues and boogie, the sounds that have been Woody’s stock in trade since 1974’s I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Everybody involved is a little bit older and straighter than the crew in ’74, so the tempos don’t push as hard, the guitars aren’t quite as loud and the vocals are quite a bit more gravelly, but otherwise I Feel Like Playing is of a piece with what Woody has done before. And this is not a bad thing at all -- in fact, it’s kind of remarkable that Wood has weathered as much as he has and is still capable as knocking out a record as relaxed and nonchalant as this. It’s no dark night of the soul, it’s just another good all-star jam but one where it doesn’t sound like Wood is over-staying his welcome. 

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mississippimoan

FLAC - 396 Mb

http://www.filefactory.com/file/caac51e/n/rwiflp.rar

Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl - 2011.

Review

Joe Bonamassa is set to release his 12th full-length solo album, DUST BOWL in the UK on March 21st and in the USA on March 22nd. The album will be promoted on Bonamassa’s forthcoming 2011 Dust Bowl World Tour that will take in America, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. DUST BOWL combines the gritty, blues-based tones of Bonamassa’s first albums with the fluid, genre-defying sounds he’s mastered in the years since, plus a dose of Nashville in duets with legends John Hiatt and Vince Gill.

Password and Link:
mississippimoan
mp3 320 kbps - 142 Mb
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ca18899/n/jbdb.rar