Ten Top Tracks from . . . Samantha Fish

This one’s gonna be tricky.  Long time Blues Enthused readers (assuming there are some) will have realised a while back that Samantha Fish has become one of my favourite artists.  She’s now racked up seven albums*, plus her Death Wish Blues collaboration with Jesse Dayton, and I’ve enjoyed all of ‘em big time – though funnily enough I don’t think she has yet racked up a perfect 10 score with any of these releases.
Still, that’s a fair number of songs to choose from, and even following the Ten Top Tracks principles that this is not a league table, it’s a personal chronological overview, and I could put together a whole different list on another day, picking out just ten tunes ain’t easy. But I'm also

inclined to venture off the beaten path a bit to make things more interesting. So let’s get the ball rolling – and as ever, watch out for links to the selected tracks on YouTube, and to reviews of some of the albums too.
As with some other artists who have become personal favourites, I first came across Sam Fish in the October 2013 issue of The Blues Magazine, which ran for a few years in Britain until 2016.  There was an interview with her linked to the release of her second album Black Wind Howlin’, which made her sound interesting, and as a taster a track was included on that month’s covermount CD sampler, which was enough to make me get a download of the album.  And at some point during my first few listens to it I had an epiphany during ‘Kick Around’, the second track.
‘Kick Around’ is a relatively simple, sparky boogie, on which her producer Mike Zito also contributes guitar and backing vocals.  Samantha is giving a characterful vocal performance, when two thirds of the way through she reaches the lines “With open arms and an open heart / I’ve been here from the very start / But I won’t go down on your sinking ship no more,” and on those last two words her voice just flies!  “Holy shit,” I thought, “this girl can sing!”  But that wasn’t all, because on the sizzling guitar solo that follows – possibly by Zito, who is credited with lead guitar on the track – she whoops and hollers at regular intervals in a way that transmits innocent, spontaneous joy.  And that’s it, I was hooked.
Sadly I’ve never heard Fish play ‘Kick Around’ live, and indeed she’s very selective about the tracks she plays from her first two albums.  I get the impression she regards them as immature stuff, like she was on a learning curve and they don’t count for much.  Which is a pity, because there are good songs in different styles littered all over them.
Elsewhere on Black Wind Howlin’, for example, you’ll find the tender and rueful rejection song ‘Over You’, on which she delivers a lovely vocal and sensitive guitar work.  Also in a low key vein there’s the slinky solo acoustic outing of ‘Let’s Have Some Fun’, featuring some imaginative

chord work.  On ‘Last September’ she even knocks out some warm, Zydeco-tinged rootsiness, complete with fiddle.  But for my second pick let’s hear Samantha get heavy, with the lurching, grinding, slithering ‘Heartbreaker’ (not to be confused with the Stones' song '(Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo) Heartbreaker', which she's been known to play live now and then).  It may not be a flat-out rocker, but is still a hefty beast that highlights her early adoption of slide guitar – and is the very track that appeared on that Blues Magazine CD.
Naturally enough I soon got hold of Samantha’s debut album Runaway, and again there are several gems among the 10 tracks.  The title is a rattling boogie (though Sam claims to scarcely know the words these days), and ‘Down In The Swamp’ is a tense, atmospheric heavy blues.  I’m tempted by the relaxed but dark storytelling on the twangy blues of ‘Today’s My Day’, and also by the lop-sided groove of the bohemian sounding ‘Otherside Of The Bottle’.  But I’m going to choose a song that’s very unusual in the Samantha Fish canon.  It's true that she’s done lots of slow songs, and stripped back songs, but ‘Feelin’ Alright’ is something else – a breathy, intimate and, yes, seductive performance that’s pretty damn remarkable for a kid who hadn’t quite reached 21 when she wrote and recorded it.  And that’s my general take-away from these first two albums – that whatever Samantha Fish may think of them herself, they’re way more interesting than the run of the mill blues fare you might have expected someone in her youthful shoes to produce.
Her next release, Wild Heart, is a case of what might have been.  Split almost evenly between tough blues-rockers and more sensitive tunes, when it's good it's very very good, but two sub-par tunes - ‘Road Runner’ and ‘Wild Heart’ - let the side down a bit.  To accentuate the positive though, I’m going to highlight both a rocker and a stripped back song.
The upbeat stuff here includes two heavyweight tracks that rarely see the light of her day in her live shows, ‘Turn It Up’ and ‘Show Me’.  The first features a stonkingly tough riff, and a lead guitar turn from producer Luther Dickinson as it accelerates towards its finish.  But I’m going for ‘Show Me’, with its Led-heavy descending riff, and La Fish wailing fit to bust on the clattering chorus, demonstrating that the lady really does know how to put the hammer down.

Fish really spoils us when it comes to more reflective songs on Wild Heart, including the spellbinding ‘Go Home’, with which I’ve seen her reduce an audience to stunned silence in the past, and the haunting, introspective break-up song ‘Lost Myself’.  But my favourite - I think - is the delicious cover of Junior Kimbrough’s ‘I’m In Love With You’ with which she closes the album.  It’s a simple, hypnotic song, but feels relaxed, sun-dappled, and just marvellously contented.
Chills & Fever was a bolt from the blue when it was released in 2017.  A collection of soul/R’n’B covers recorded in Detroit, it’s bursting with dance tracks and torch song covers which Fish delivers with style and swagger, summed up by the sassy title track and the heartache of ‘Never Gonna Cry’.  But for sheer untrammelled fun my pick is the breathless ‘Somebody’s Always Trying’, announced by Sam with a bawled “Yea-ea-eeahhll!” worthy of Lulu on ‘Shout’, and featuring some wonderful, teasing guitar.  (By the by, I’ve never felt that the tough stomper ‘Crow Jane’, while a great song, really fitted in this collection.  Now if it had been on Wild Heart instead of those weaker tracks I mentioned . . . .)
Released later the same year, Belle Of The West was a complete contrast.  It’s a collection of semi-stripped back songs produced by Luther Dickinson once again, and featuring a bundle of his North Mississippi compadres.  Often an elegiac, understated affair, it features offbeat rhythms, back porch harmonising, and weeping violin from Lillie Mae on some tracks.  In that vein I heartily recommend the spooky, edgy ‘Don’t Say You Love Me’ and the vivid storytelling of the title track.  But I can’t resist selecting ‘Gone For Good’, one of my favourite Fish songs and often a rollicking highlight of her live show – and that being the case I’m cheating, and sharing a live, more electrified version from 2021.
After Belle Of The West Fish signed a new record deal with Rounder Records, for whom her first outing was Kill Or Be Kind.  It opens with ‘Bulletproof’, which has become something of a signature song, and other tracks such as the dark and heavy ‘Watch It Die’ and quasi-psychedelic ‘Dream Girl’ have been mainstays of her set for long spells.  The only problem with KOBK, to my mind, is that it tailed off with the closing couple of tracks, ‘Dirty’ and ‘You Got It Bad’, both good songs but not the final exclamation mark that was required.  No matter, I want to draw your attention to two tracks in the middle of the album.  First up there’s ‘Fair-weather’, a sad song revolving around some Beatle-ish twinkling guitar notes and Sam’s vulnerable,

reflective vocal, which is notable for the fact that Fish, normally the Queen of Melisma, here keeps her delivery dead straight throughout.  Oh yeah, and there’s a killer key change as a knockout punch. ‘Love Your Lies’, meanwhile, is a perky, power-poppy slice of rock’n’roll, with a delightful, scratchy little guitar break.  Did it hint at Sam having imbibed some punkish classics somewhere along the way?
Which brings us neatly to her most recent solo album Faster, on which Fish pretty much took a wrecking ball to past expectations of her, from the downright wicked album cover onwards, stirring not just New Wave-ish pop into the mix, complete with safety-pin scrabbling guitar breaks, but also electronic dance grooves and even – nurse, the screens! - a guest turn by rapper Tech N9ne.  It’s terrific fun listening to her pinballing around all these styles, though a couple of songs sag a bit in the middle.  But I’ve only got one pick left, so what’s it to be?  The gritty throb of ‘Faster’ itself?  The groove and gloss of ‘All Ice No Whiskey’?  The rattling punkishness of ‘So-Called Lover’?  All good options, but I’m going for the needling, curled lip earworm of ‘Better Be Lonely’, a tale of lust and jealousy set to pulsing bass and a snapping beat, shot through with razor-like guitar.
No room here for anything from Death Wish Blues, Samantha’s dynamic duo 2023 album with outlaw country rocker Jesse Dayton – but hey, you can’t have everything.  Some of you may also be wondering why I haven’t included her much acclaimed take on ‘I Put A Spell On You’, or other live diversions such as 'War Pigs'.  Well if that’s your fancy then by all means go for it as your own personal encore.
Samantha Fish has got itchy feet, artistically.  I suspect she’s also a canny, ambitious woman who wants to expand her audience^ well beyond the borders of the blues and blues-rock, and is prepared to move fast and break things to do it.  She’s already come a long way from Runaway to Faster –  her next adventure might just see her shoot for the moon.

You can find a playlist containing all ten tracks on the Blues Enthused YouTube channel, here.

*I'm not including her independent album Live Bait, or the Girls With Guitars collaboration for Ruf Records.

^Six years ago Samantha gave a lengthy and interesting interview about her career, and particularly the business side of being a professional musician, which you can find here.

All photographs by Iain Cameron @bluesenthused.com.

Ten Top Tracks from . . . Mike Zito

C’mon everybody take a trip with me, down the Mississippi from St Louis – a clunky rhyme that doesn’t even work if you’re an American, I must admit.  Whatever, we’re going on the latest Ten Top Tracks journey, to celebrate the work of St Louis-born bluesman Mike Zito.  As ever, this isn’t an attempt at some definitive ranking of Zito’s best songs, but a personal guide that could take in a whole different batch of material if I compiled it tomorrow.  And as per usual, look out for the links to the ten selected tracks on YouTube - and there are links to reviews of some of the albums too.

Mike Zito - a blues artist and more

Now, I described Mike Zito as a bluesman in that opening paragraph, and the guy sure can play the blues.  But the thing with Zito is that he’s not purely a blues guy, as he observed to the website Rock & Blues Muse earlier this year:  “I don’t really think I’m completely a blues artist.  I mean, I’m a white guy from South St Louis who listened to rock’n’roll who just loves blues.”  As a listener who appreciates Zito’s ability to not just play the blues, but to journey down other rock’n’roll roads to great effect, I reckon it's a perceptive comment.
Zito’s recording career already went back 15 years when I first came across him with his 2013 album Gone To Texas, recorded with his then band The Wheel.  So yeah, I was pretty late to the party really.  But as belated introductions go, it was good enough to be the start of a lasting relationship, so to speak.  I’m spoilt for choice with tracks to illustrate the quality of Gone To Texas, such as the title track (reflecting positively on the move to Texas that had given him a fresh start in life some years previously), the upbeat ‘Rainbow Bridge’ with its clever everyday imagery, the touring musician’s lament/celebration ‘The Road Never Ends’, or the witty ‘Subtraction Blues’ – and so on and so on.  But I’m going to go with the mellow ‘I Never Knew A Hurricane’, which sports some wonderful, sensitive lyrics, and on which Susan Cowsill is an outstanding vocal foil.
The impact of Gone To Texas was enough to make me explore two of Zito’s earlier albums, 2009’s Pearl River, and 2011’s Greyhound.  The former grabbed me more, with the likes of the fun opener ‘Dirty Blonde’ and the funny, funky ‘Big Mouth’.  But the standout was ‘Pearl River’ itself, a sombre track looking into the dark past of the South that gives a clear nod to Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ – and a worthy winner of the Song Of The Year award at the 2010 Blues Music Awards.

Ready to rip it up

Zito’s next (and last) album with the Wheel was the 2015 release Keep Coming Back – my favourite album of that year, and probably still my favourite Zito record.  Again, there are plenty of candidates for inclusion here, starting with the terrific quintet of songs about addiction and sobriety that open the album – Zito having been a mess of booze and drugs around the millennium until he finally got sober in 2003 with the help of his wife Laura.  But my first pick from the album is ‘Girl From Liberty’, a classic example of Zito spreading his wings to produce an invigorating slice of storytelling rock’n’roll.  You could liken it to early Tom Petty, maybe, but really it’s pure Zito.
I appreciate Keep Coming Back so much though, that I have to share another song, and it’s ‘I Was Drunk’.  Recorded with Anders Osborne, it’s the last of the aforementioned quintet, and a devastating Americana slow burn of self-disgust and regret at the impact of drink and drugs.  I dare say there are other songwriters who could explore the theme with similar results, but by god Zito punches you in the gut with this.
Skipping forward to 2018's First Class Life, Zito provides a lighter note on 'Back Problems', a chunk of drawling funky blues, with a wearily witty lyric about being weighed down with trials and tribulations – a style for which he’d often shown a facility before, not least with ‘Don’t Break A Leg’ on Gone To Texas, and on some of his work with the Royal Southern Brotherhood “supergroup”, such as ‘Sweet Jelly Donut’.  The funkiness is easy and slinky, and our Mike’s way with this kind of tongue-in-cheek lyric is part of his ongoing charm.
The Covid pandemic presented musicians with a host of challenges – in Zito’s case including the sudden abandonment of a European tour.  But you have to admire his response to adversity by putting together an album with his bandmates in a matter of weeks to plug the gap.  But it’s not just the fact they did it that’s impressive – Quarantine Blues is a corker of an album, bristling with spontaneous energy.  Several tracks could illustrate what I'm talking about, but let’s go with ‘Quarantine Blues’ itself – well he is still a guy who loves the blues after all, and this is a grinding, stomping demonstration of his credentials.
Resurrection, perhaps titled to celebrate the emergence from lockdown, showed off more of his range, especially in creating a sense of drama.  ‘When It Rains’ is a classic example, sharing a stomping kick drum with ‘Quarantine Blues’, but going off in an entirely different, subtler and

Here's looking at you, Mike!

more suspenseful direction, featuring smouldering sax from Eric Demmer.
Notwithstanding his songwriting range, the blues remain a cornerstone of Zito’s repertoire, and it’s also worth emphasising that he’s (a) a blisteringly good live performer; and (b) a helluva guitarist.  These three elements come together on his live album Blues For The Southside, recorded in his home town of St Louis.  Here Zito gets down to some serious axe wrangling, such as when he goes toe to toe with Eric Gales on ‘Voodoo Chile’ (not the Slight Return version).  But I can’t resist picking the live version here of a favourite from Gone To Texas, the bright and bopping ‘The Road Never Ends’, which is pepped up by some guitar duelling with Dave Katz.
Zito is rarely far away from a collaboration with someone, and in recent years one of his most significant sparring partners has been Albert Castiglia, another guy capable of both guitar fireworks and songwriting quality.  The pair delivered Castiglia’s album Masterpiece without any help from other musos, and did it so well that for me it was the best album of 2019. Then they got together again for their 2023 Blood Brothers project which, while pretty good, wasn't as explosive as I was expecting.  But damn did they put that right with the dynamite Blood Brothers: Live In Canada outing.  So let’s hear ‘em boogieing hard on ‘My Business’ for starters.  And while you really should hear them getting stuck into ‘Rocking In The Free World’ – a great choice of cover – my other selection is the dramatic ‘In My Soul’, which starts out aching and works itself up into a real lather.* 
And so, to bring us up to date, there’s just Mike Zito’s latest album Life Is Hard, released in February this year.  In case you haven’t heard, it’s essentially a memorial to Zito’s wife Laura, who died of cancer in 2023.  It’s as dark as you would expect in places, though Zito also tries to find relief through some more upbeat songs.  But really, there’s only one track I can pick to signify what the album is all about, and that’s the gut-wrenchingly emotional ‘Forever My Love’.  I’m not going to labour over describing it – just go listen to it to get the drift.
Mike Zito is a down to earth artist who doesn’t give himself any airs and graces, and that’s part of his appeal to me.  But that doesn’t mean he’s just some common or garden musician.  No, Mike Zito is a fine songwriter, a great guitarist, and a characterful singer, and if you’re not familiar with his work you need to put that right.  Soon.

* The links here are to a show in Illinois, rather than from the album itself.

Ten Top Tracks from . . . King King

Welcome back my friends, for the third instalment of Ten Top Tracks, surveying the repertoire of an artist favoured by Blues Enthused, but without any of that ranking nonsense - and bearing in mind that tomorrow I might choose several different tunes!
This time around I’m featuring British blues-rock stalwarts King King, and once again following a roughly chronological path.  Keep your eyes peeled for the links to the tracks on YouTube (or follow the link to a playlist of all ten tracks at the bottom), and when you’re sitting comfortably we’ll begin – not at the beginning, but with something from the band’s second album, Standing In The Shadows.

King King react to being told it's their round

Pic by Graham Milne

The first time I ever heard anything by King King was on a covermount CD that came with the (now defunct) Blues Magazine, offering a selection of the ‘Best of 2013’. I may already have encountered them via an advert in said magazine, featuring a picture of a burly guy giving a guitar some wallop while apparently spraying sweat in umpteen directions – and wearing a kilt. Being a Scot, I was intrigued, even though it’s scarcely our everyday attire.
Actually hearing King King for the first time though, playing ‘A Long History Of Love’, was something else. Up above I tagged them as blues-rock, but this was more blues-soul.  It’s patient and subdued, with gentle strokes of organ and subtle guitar chords, and reflective, emotional lyrics that main man Alan Nimmo delivers like a man who’s spent a whole lot of time listening to Paul Rodgers.  They rouse themselves a bit, then take a breather before Nimmo sets out on a lengthy, spell-binding guitar solo that spins new ideas and directions out of the melody, perfectly weighted and with exquisite use of sustain.  It was a real “Holy Shit!” moment.

When I then got a hold of the album Standing In The Shadows, I discovered that maybe six of the album's ten tracks were in this slow-to-mid tempo soulful vein - a bold thing to do, it seemed to me.  But it worked like a charm, so to underline the impact it had on these ears, here's another of those tracks, 'Taken What's Mine', which rolls along on a hypnotically steady beat, with long restrained organ chords and a subdued guitar figure as the backing for Alan Nimmo's sensitive vocal, plus another guitar solo that's full of feeling, perfectly fitted to the song.
Turning back to the band's debut album Take My Hand then, many long-time fans might expect me to pick the Eric Clapton/Robert Cray cover ‘Old Love’, another soulful epic that was a cornerstone of the King King live show for years.  But no, I’m going for something that justifies the “rock” aspect of

Alan Nimmo - an introspective kind of chap

Pic by Adrian Hextall

the blues-rock label, with ‘Broken Heal’.  Bennett Holland may bring some swing with injections of organ, but it’s the gritty riff and big tense guitar chords that set the real tone, while Alan Nimmo barks out an urgent vocal about a young woman’s street-walking, drug-dependent existence. Oh yeah, and he digs out not one but two scything wah-wah solos, a bit reminiscent of Lizzy’s Brian Robertson, to reinforce the mood.
Both of the above facets of King King continue to be evident on third album Reaching For The Light, with soulfulness on the likes of ‘Lay With Me’, and hard rocking on opening track ‘Hurricane’.  But they also explore a different kind of epic mode on ‘Rush Hour’.  It opens with twinkling guitar and a contemplative vocal from Nimmo in which an introspective sense of being swamped by the busy-ness of everyday life is more arresting than the “You believe in me” emotional rescue provided by a partner.  But it’s also gripping because of the dynamics, as it’s punctuated by pounding drums, surging organ from new boy Bob Fridzema, and charged-up guitar from Nimmo.  A stinging guitar solo releases some pressure, allowing it to ease off again, but soon enough the tense power returns, with a forceful grunt of “Huh!” from Nimmo heralding a climactic section that discharges the batteries fully.
But they also take that epic sensibility, that tension between sensitivity and power, and apply it to a quintessential blues-rock number in ‘Stranger To Love’, which doesn’t half channel Bad Company, with quiet sections giving way to Wayne Proctor whipping up a storm on drums, Fridzema leaning hard into his Hammond organ, and Nimmo letting loose some howling guitar.  The end result was something ripe to be turned into a tour de force in their live set - and it duly was.
It's something of a surprise that to date King King have only released five studio albums.  But that handful is bolstered by a barnstorming live album on which ‘Stranger To Love’ wasn’t the only song deserving of that tour de force label.  King King Live, released back in 2016, also includes an extended version of ‘A Long History Of Love’ that somehow manages to transcend the original, while ‘Rush Hour’ is also given fresh energy and is the focus for an exuberant singalong.  But ‘You’ll Stop The Rain’ undergoes one of the most ear-catching transformations. Already a corker of a track on Reaching For The Light, the song that Alan Nimmo wrote about his brother Stevie suffering cancer becomes a searing, impassioned classic here, peaking with an explosive Nimmo guitar solo.
But another King King quality that’s punched home on . . . Live is less to do with drama and more to do with getting your butt moving.  To wit, the boys could get funky!  Not that this was a revelation, but it’s brilliantly captured here.  Early on they roll out a cover of the Fabulous Thunderbirds ‘Wait On Time’ that’s irresistibly swinging R’n’B.  Then towards the end they retrieve ‘All Your Life’ from their first album, and spend ten minutes getting seriously groovy, with Hammond organ wrangler Bob Fridzema being “turned loose on ya”, as Alan Nimmo puts it, to pump up the hip-shake quotient.
The live album turned out to be the high point for the line-up of Nimmo, Proctor, Fridzema, and bassist Lindsay Coulson. Their following studio album Exile & Grace didn’t quite have the consistency to match the career-spanning . . . Live, and the band were prevented from touring it

The live and dangerous Nimmo brothers

immediately on release – and perhaps bringing the material properly to life – by Alan Nimmo suffering vocal problems that required an operation and prolonged rest.  But there are still numerous bright spots on E&G, especially when they’re cranking it out in a blues-rock vein.  The opening ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’ is bright and box-fresh, serving up the wonderful tongue-in-cheek line “Stone cold devil woman foolin’ around” and a delicious key change.  But my pick for this piece is ‘Long Time Running’ – a Whitesnake-ish good time rocker with gutsy guitar chords, jangling piano from Fridzema in addition to waves of organ, and a gotta-join-in hook of a chorus.
Which brings us to the most recent King King album, Maverick, featuring a new line-up with Zander Greenshields on bass and Andrew Scott on drums. And just as I thought the slow tempo soulful blues emphasis of Standing In The Shadows was a bold move, they set another brave course on a couple of tracks here.  ‘Whatever It Takes To Survive’ may be a blues-tinged power ballad, but ‘By Your Side’ and ‘When My Winter Comes’ are piano-led, less bluesy, and more subtle.  ‘By Your Side’ features a passionate, piercing guitar solo, but my pick from the pair is the stunningly unadorned ‘When My Winter Comes’.  Originally written for a proposed film, it relies on just Jonny Dyke’s piano, Alan Nimmo’s lead vocal – and some sumptuous harmonies thanks to a cameo appearance from brother Stevie, who joined the band after the album’s release.

In these songs there’s something of a tilt away from a blues focus to a broader melodic rock style. It’s not a definitive shift, but it’s discernible in other tracks on Maverick.  For my last selection though, I’m going with the opening track, ‘Never Give In’, a tough and gritty blast of blues-rock that confirms the blues is still in the KK boys’ DNA – though perhaps a bit more glossy than in the past.  It’s an apt note to close on lyrically too, because King King have had to be resilient in the face of a few vicissitudes down the years, from Alan Nimmo’s vocal issues, to regrouping around new line-ups, and management changes.
It's now over three years since Maverick was released.  Surely the time has come for King King to bring us their next musical chapter, and deliver a rocking new album!

You can find a YouTube playlist of all ten tracks here.

Ten Top Tracks from . . . Ian Siegal

Roll up, roll up, for the second edition of Ten Top Tracks, a non-definitive, non-ranked overview of tunes by a Blues Enthused favourite – on this occasion the estimable roots troubadour Ian Siegal.
Ordinarily I might go for a vaguely chronological selection of an artist’s material.  But that ain’t so easy with Siegal, because you won’t find all of his output available on YouTube, my channel of choice for these here things.  So we’re going to be ducking and diving a bit, alighting on

Ian Siegal - sharp dressed man and guitar

renditions of certain tracks whenever happens to be convenient.  Watch out for the links to the various tracks on YouTube (or find the link to a playlist of all 10 at the bottom), and we’ll make a start with the first Ian Siegal album to cross my path – 2007’s Swagger.
 
‘Curses’ is a classic example of Ian Siegal’s love of word play – and his penchant for black humour.  It trundles along like a cart on a backwoods track, with flutterings of piano  and pluckings of banjo, fired up by sparks of slide guitar.  Meanwhile Siegal delivers a spoken, basso profundo character assassination of some fella, that evolves into a wish list of inventive curses to be brought down on him. "May he dig up his own father by moonlight, and make soup from his bones,” he suggests before drily concluding “I just don’t like that guy”.   There are several great songs I could have picked from Swagger, but ‘Curses’ demonstrates very nicely that Ian Siegal ain’t just a “my baby done left me” lyricist.
 
‘Sugar Rush’, from 2005’s Meat And Potatoes, finds Siegal getting down to business on a traditional brand of swingin’ R’n’B.  There’s nothing complicated about it, but Siegal and his buddies Matt Schofield on guitar, Jonny Henderson on organ, Andy Graham on bass and Nikolaj Bjerre on drums, inhabit the rhythmic groove brilliantly, while his vocal delivery and phrasing is as expressive as you could wish for.  Little wonder maybe, that he then assembled the same gang to record Swagger.
 
Siegal likes to get around though, and at some point touched down in North Mississippi, which produced a series of collaborations starting with the 2011 album The Skinny, under the moniker of Ian Siegal and The Youngest Sons.  The sons in question were the Dickinson brothers, Luther and Cody, of the North Mississippi Allstars, plus other North Mississippi Hill Country scions Garry Burnside and Robert Kimbrough.  And ‘The Skinny’ itself does hint at the deeper, more hypnotic grooves typical of the hill country - without becoming derivative - while Siegal stirs some serpentine slide guitar into the mix.
 
Siegal sometimes likes to stir up a dollop of funk though, of which ‘Hard Pressed’ is a prime example.  It first popped up on his 2009 album Broadside, surfaced again on his collaborative outing Candy Store Kid with the Mississippi Mudbloods, and has been a mainstay of his full band

repertoire over the years.  Here’s the classic version that was available as a bonus download with his live album One Night In Amsterdam, recorded with his long-time band (who perform on their own account as The Rhythm Chiefs).
 
‘Hard Times (Come Again No More)’ represents a different side of Siegal’s repertoire.  He’s a regular “curator” of other people’s songs, of which this is a very old example, written by American folk composer Stephen Foster in 1855.  Musically it may not be a blues song, but it’s absolutely one in spirit.  Siegal often includes this in his solo acoustic shows, just “man and guitar” as one of his album titles has it.  But this version is my favourite, from the acoustic album The Picnic Sessions that he recorded with the Dickinsons, Jimbo Mathus, and Alvin Youngblood Hart, and which I picked up when it was originally available at gigs in Britain on a tour he did as a duo with Mathus.
 
As much as Siegal is a bluesman – and now and then he’s prone to deny it – he also has a soft spot for Americana, or country music if you prefer.  ‘Sweet Souvenir’ was co-written with Jimbo Mathus, and eventually cropped up on his 2018 full band album All The Rage.  But it’s well suited to a solo acoustic treatment, and here he is giving it just that in a 2019 performance.
 
All The Rage also found Siegal curling his lip at the state of the world on several tracks, and on the album cover too as if to underline the point.  ‘Ain’t You Great’ is a patient tune, with some Hispanic leanings and guitarist Dusty Cigaar digging out some big twanging.  But Siegal’s brooding vocal goes well with lines like “The asylum doors are open and we’re downupon our knees / They’ve found the biggest lunatics and handed them the keys”.  Released in 2018, mid-Trump presidency and in the face of post-Brexit vote wheeling and dealing, there was plenty going on to encourage Siegal’s acidic wordsmithing.
 
Faced with the lack of live work created by the Covid pandemic and associated lockdown, Siegal combined with a bundle of other musicians under the quirky banner Birdmens, remotely

Life is too short to smoke bad cigars.

recording a one-off album titled Lockdown Loaded to try and keep the home fires burning, as it were. Given the circumstances, it’s a remarkably creative album, but one of the highlights is the back-to-basics blues stomp ‘Cat Drugged Up’, with Siegal digging out his patented Howlin’ Wolf-esque growl.

 
On his most recent album, Stone By Stone, Siegal got together with Robin Davey and Greta Valenti of Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse, and managed to shake things up again, getting into a gospel/spiritual/work song groove on several tracks, interspersed with some seriously dark and downbeat Americana outings. But as an example of how to make roots music sound fresh I’d submit that the opening track, ‘Working On A Building’, is a masterclass. A work song sorta thing, given a loose and rhythmic treatment that sounds like a bunch of beer buddies having a good time, it’s irresistible.  
 
Siegal loves a good story, methinks. So for the final slot in this selection I’m going for ‘Gallo Del Cielo’, an atmospheric Mexicano-flavoured tale of a fighting rooster and his owner written by American songsmith Tom Russell. Siegal has been carting this pair of tragic heroes around in his set for years, whether he’s doing an acoustic set or playing with a band. Once again, it shows Siegal exploring a different vibe in evocative fashion.
 
Ian Siegal ain’t a predictable artist, trotting out the same sound year after year.  He’s a great songwriter in his own right, but also a terrific interpreter of other people’s songs.  And whether he’s serving up originals or covers, live or on record, you can bet he’ll deliver a characterful performance.

You can find a playlist of all 10 of the above tracks on the Blues Enthused YouTube channel, here.

Check out the Gimme 5 feature with Ian Siegal, in which he shares some of his inspirations with Blues Enthused, here.

Ten Top Tracks from . . . The Black Keys

Welcome to the first outing of a new Blues Enthused feature.  Note the wording in the title though.  This ain't no ‘Top 10’, ‘Best Of’, or league table of tunes.  It’s a vaguely chronological overview, a gateway to the Black Keys’ canon if you like, and if I were to compile it next week I might well choose 10 different tracks.  And the first subjects for the Ten Top Tracks series are The Black

The happy-go-lucky Black Keys

Keys because they are, as I’ve suggested before, pretty much where my rediscovery of blues music began.  All clear?  Then pay attention to the links below if you want to listen to a particular track, and let’s rock!
 
‘I’ll Be Your Man’ from The Big Come Up (2002):  I remember reading an interview in which drummer Pat Carney said that when they got together all his buddy Dan Auerbach really listened to was “fucked up blues”, and this original track epitomises the raw, crackling, don’t-give-a-shit quality of their debut album – that last quality underlined by the very, er, quirky closing “song” ‘240 Years Before Your Time’.  The Akron drums’n’guitar duo throw a few impressive covers into the mix, including a pretty heavy take on the old blues classic ‘Leavin’ Trunk’, but their originals announce their arrival with a sackful of personality. 
 
‘have love, will travel’ from thickfreakness (2003):  Auerbach and Carney eschewed capitals for the song titles on their second album, but if anything it should be titled THICKFREAKNESS to reflect the mountainous sound the duo generated.  It’s one of my favourite Black Keys albums, partly because of that sound, and also because it’s stuffed with so many good tunes.  But from the various potential picks I’ve gone for this belting cover of a garage rock classic previously best known for the 1965 version by The Sonics.  Worth knowing though, that it was written by
one Richard Berry, who also penned ‘Louie Louie’, and though both these classics were popularised by white kids (The Kingsmen in the latter case), Berry was a black doo-wop and R’n’B artist.
 
‘Just Couldn’t Tie Me Down’ from Rubber Factory (2004):  The Black Keys continued to mine their productive early seam of punk-ish blues on their third album, which was recorded in – guess what? – a disused rubber factory.  This irresistible original epitomises the strengths in their early sound, with walloping drums from Carney, a humdinger of a choppy riff and ear-

curdling slide guitar from Auerbach, and a seriously catchy melody.  Shake those hips people – you know you want to!
 
‘Psychotic Girl’ from Attack & Release (2008):  A&R shows the first clear signs of the Keys spreading their sonic wings with the aid of new producer Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton), who would go on to be half of Gnarls Barkley and here introduces a raft of different instrumentation.  Songs like ‘I Got Mine’ and ‘Strange Times’ still pack a punch and a hook, but when ‘Psychotic Girl’ arrives it’s with a dreamy, psychedelic vibe, accentuated by crooning backing vocals from Carla Monday and a delicate, plinking piano motif from the Mouse fella.
 
‘Howlin’ For You’ from Brothers (2010):  Brothers seems to me something of a transitional album, coming in the wake of a hiatus in which Auerbach and Carney barely spoke to each other, to the point where Auerbach didn’t even tell his bandmate he was releasing a solo album, while for his part Carney’s marriage was falling apart.  But it’s also the point at which the Keys became a seriously big deal, winning Grammys, registering hit singles, and the album eventually going platinum.  ‘Howlin’ For You’ is one of those gold disc singles, its glam-rock stomping vibe pointing forward to what would come next.
 
‘Little Black Submarines’ from El Camino (2011):  When I first heard El Camino, I remarked to a friend that it was like Jimmy Page and John Bonham had stumbled across a T.Rex recording session, and Jimmy had drawled, “Nah, that’s not how it’s done Marc.  This is how it’s done!”  That thumping glam-rock vibe produced a couple of mammoth hits in ‘Lonely Boy’ and ‘Gold On The Ceiling’, and it still tickles me that there’s a riff on ‘Run Right Back’ which carries echoes of Mud’s ‘Tigerfeet’.  (Did the Keys ever “really love your tigerfeet”?  Somehow I doubt it.)  But ‘Little Black Submarines’ actually is even more Zeppelin-esque, with a couple of wistful, acoustic verses before ripsnorting chords and crashing drums demonstrate just how heavy they can get, a shout of “Hey!” heralding a lipsmacking Auerbach lead guitar salvo.
 
‘Weight Of Love’ from Turn Blue (2014):  If ‘Psychotic Girl’ had a quasi-psychedelic feel, the near seven minutes of the opening track of Turn Blue sounds like Pink Floyd having a bash at a soul ballad.  The intro is patient and elegiac, and after the sweetly sad verses (stacked with high harmonies from the wonderful McCrary sisters) the song culminates in a sweeping, soaring,

layered guitar workout from Auerbach.  Turn Blue isn’t the most accessible of Black Keys albums, but ‘Weight Of Love’ is still a statement track.
 
‘Sit Around And Miss You’ from ‘Let’s Rock’ (2019):  If Turn Blue wasn’t entirely radio friendly, ‘Let’s Rock’ is very much the opposite – carefree and hit-heavy.  I could probably have picked from half a dozen tracks across the album’s breezy 39 minutes, among them the terrifically catchy ‘Lo/Hi’ and ‘Get Yourself Together’, but I’m going for the delightfully woozy ‘Sit Around And Miss You’, which sounds like our boys have been giving Stealer’s Wheel a damn good listening to.
 
‘Sad Days, Lonely Nights’ from Delta Kreme (2021):  Having produced an album of face-slappingly upbeat spontaneity, Auerbach and Carney then slammed on the brakes and headed back to some of their seminal influences, recording a bundle of covers typified by the deep grooves of North Mississippi hill country big cats Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside, collaborating with veterans of their bands.  The mood is low-down, slow-down, and ‘Sad Days, Lonely Nights’ is a perfect example of its loping, hypnotic sound.
 
‘For The Love Of Money’ from Dropout Boogie (2022):  The most recent album from the Akron boys is a bit of an uneven affair, with a few songs that probably won’t do much to turn your head.  Even ‘Your Team Is Looking Good’, which has a killer hook, is a bit of a one-trick pony.  But I’ve fished out ‘For The Love Of Money’ for the way it welds a typically bluesy riff to a late period Beatle-ish melody and rock’n’roll sensibility, with Auerbach channelling John Lennon on his vocals at times.  And frankly ‘Burn The Damn Thing Down’ is even more brazenly Fab Four-esque.  The pair had covered ‘She Said, She Said’ way back on The Big Come Up all of 20 years before, so it seems what goes around comes around.
 
It's in the nature of this beast that I’ve skipped a couple of recordings along the way, notably the album Magic Potion and the six track tribute Chulahoma: The Songs Of Junior Kimbrough, both from 2006, though there are a few more curiosities out there if you’re minded to look for them.  But hopefully this is a good enough Bluffer’s Guide to Akron’s finest – and will tee you up to make the most of their next album Ohio Players, due for release on 5 April.  Turn it up, folks!

A playlist of all ten tracks discussed above is now available on the Blues Enthused YouTube channel, here.
 
You can pre-order the new Black Keys album Ohio Players here.