Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado - House Of Sticks

If you’re looking for a band to serve up some modern, imaginative, but still rootsy blues music, Denmark's Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado make for a very good bet, as their ninth studio album House Of Sticks reaffirms.
There’s a whole spectrum of blues and roots sounds on the menu here, tied together by Risager’s smoky vocals and ear-catching lyrics, with the opening ‘House Of Sticks’ serving as a persuasive taster for the original sounds the Tornado can conjure up.  It starts out as primitive, scratchy blues, Risager singing of being “stuck in a house of sticks and a storm is blowing”, before folding in an eerie, drawn out keyboard note and clunking percussion, until a quirky, martial fanfare kinda horn riff pipes up.  There are trilling, jazzy piano runs, and spooky low-slung horn notes before it draws to a close, having sparked the imagination.

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado - eight men in search of a groove

Pic by Christoffer Askman

They may have a reputation for blues-rocking, but the only time they really rock out here is on the following ‘Already Gone’, which swaggers in with an insistent, nagging riff, over a heavy beat, that could be the foundation for the kind of futuristic boogie on which Muse might offer their usual dystopian observations.  Back on planet Earth though, the focus switches to a couple of scorching guitar solos, the second of which is especially wiry and jagged.
They get good and funky more than once though.  ‘Long Time Ago’ rides an upbeat groove reinforced by wood block clacking from drummer Martin Seidelin, and enhanced by subtle horns, as the basis for some evocative storytelling about a man stuck on the road “looking for something he lost, a long time ago”, and with a steely guitar solo to inject extra urgency.  ‘Inner Light’ sports a loping, Stevie Wonder-like clavinet groove over buzzing bass funkiness, while Risager reflects that there’s “so much hate in this world we’re living in,” but insists that “I know I’m stronger than the darkness / And I’ll hold on till the summer comes around” energised by squawking sax and grooving piano and horns.  And ‘Climbed A Mountain’ is a bopping, behind the beat shuffle with pulsing synth sounds in the background, mingling with toots of horns to create a propulsive vibe, leading to a confident, assertive, harmony-boosted chorus.  There’s a stinging, ringing guitar motif too, and some squealing sax commentary too for good measure.
There’s an autumnal kind of spirit threaded through the album, a sense of time passing, but also of the resilience needed to cope with it.  So ‘Light Of Your Love’ foregrounds gentle electric piano and a laid back, tripping rhythm as the foundation for Risager’s atmospheric vocal about being “Here in the dark, here in the midnight hour”, before a ribbon gets tied around the tune with the simple but effective, mellow chorus.  Meanwhile ‘We’ll Get By’ is a slowie that revolves around weeping slide guitar over acoustic strumming, before getting positive with another simple, uplifting chorus:  “It’s alright, I feel good, I’m gonna hold my head up high”.  And ‘Out Of The Rain’ is mid-paced but dreamy, with its backdrop of moaning horns and squiggling keys, until it’s roused by fuzzy, strident injections of guitar.
They close the album beautifully, with ‘Fine Summer Night’, its restrained slide guitar twirling and unfurling over more acoustic strumming, to create an easy-going vibe like laying back on a veranda with a margarita, scanning the sunset and daydreaming about “catching a fish to fry”.
House Of Sticks isn’t an explosive album, though it does have its punchy moments.  It’s more an earworm of a creature, the Black Tornado burrowing their subtle way into your brain and captivating with their grooves.  My advice is to tune in, turn on, and chill out.
 
House Of Sticks is released by Provogue Records on 31 January, and can be ordered here.

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado - Navigation Blues

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado certainly know how to rock the blues, as their 2015 live album Songs From The Road amply demonstrated.  But there have always been more sides to Risager’s songwriting than simple boogie, and the seven-piece Black Tornado have plenty tools in their bag to pursue different musical options.
Several tracks on Navigation Blues are built on a foundation of acoustic rhythm guitar, as was the case on 2020’s Come On In, but that’s merely the starting point for a variety of song styles and textures.  ‘Navigation Blues’ itself kicks off as a primitive blues stomp in a measured tempo, with percussive strumming, a basic drumbeat, and a hypnotic electric guitar motif that turns over and over before ultimately breaking out into a spiky, steely solo that complements the song in purposeful fashion.  But a couple of tracks later ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ is a more soulful

Red carpet treatment for the Black Tornado

Pic by Christoffer Askman

affair, redolent of Canadian master of stripped back soul Matt Andersen. ‘Blue Lullaby’, meanwhile, comes over like Risager has been listening to some Jimmy Webb, starting with just his voice and acoustic guitar to the fore, but gradually painting some subtle shading into the background, including both viola and glockenspiel courtesy of guitarist Joachim Svensmark to become lush and romantic.  And the slow and steady ‘Something To Hold On To’, leaning entirely on simple acoustic strumming and Risager’s emotive vocal, suggests Kris Kristofferson.
‘Hoodoo Lover’ dials up a ‘Lay Down Sally’-type JJ Cale vibe, with a shuffling, butt-wiggling rhythm from drummer Martin Seidelin, bright, twanging guitars, and tweaks and twinks from the horns, leading up to some Albert Lee-like guitar soloing, mixed in with rippling piano.  But if it’s real rocking you’re after then ‘Headed For The Stars’ is the pick of the bunch.  With its thumping metronomic beat and throbbing bass, and some smartly harmonised guitar breaks, its chunkiness surfaces the influences on Risager of ZZ Top – even more so, in fact, than ‘Fire Inside’, which is apparently a tribute to the late Dusty Hill but with its ringing riff and snapping backbeat, enlivened by some wah-guitar notes and chiming piano, leading into a wiry guitar solo.
There’s more besides, such as ‘Watch The Sun Go Down’, again with acoustic guitar overlaid with a slide riff and backed by a crisply swinging beat and lurching bass, and with some rhythmic changes on the third verse to keep your ears peeled.  And the jaunty, bobbing and weaving ‘Taking The Good With The Bad’ is good, upbeat fun, with warm Fender Rhodes piano and chirruping female backing vocals
These stylistic variations are held together by Thorbjørn Risager’s resonant bass voice, which also glides effortlessly over the top of the clacking, horn-tootling blueings of ‘Whatever Price’ with a sweetly catchy melody, and also evokes sadness and emotional burdens on the closing, low key ‘Heart Crash’, set to a twinkling guitar refrain and some spooky viola playing, and with an intriguing semi-classical bridge led by goodness knows what instrument.
The comparative namechecks I’ve offered above will say plenty about the range of the material served up here.  But what’s just as impressive, as ever with the Black Tornado, is that the execution is not only on the money, but sounds effortless.  Navigation Blues will undoubtedly be one of the most interesting albums of the year, confirming that Risager and his gang are among the smartest, most imaginative blues’n’roots outfits out there.
 
Navigation Blues is released by Provogue Records on 30 September, and can be ordered here.

Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2020 - Part 1

Oh, the irony!  2020 has been a disastrous year for any professional musician not insulated by superstardom, with live music ravaged and with it the opportunity for many CD and merchandise sales.  But at the same time it’s been an astonishingly good year for new studio albums – possibly the best I can remember over the six years I’ve been writing this stuff.

So with that in mind, Part 1 of this year’s Christmas Stocking review is given over to reminders of ten of the best examples - and look out for the links to the original album reviews.  This ain’t a chart, and it’s not an exhaustive list, so you may well have favourites that don’t appear.  But that probably just underlines the strength in depth that 2020 brought us.

First up then, are Denmark’s finest, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, who lit up January with their latest album Come On In.  Apart from his distinctive bass voice, Risager is a songwriter with an acute sense of his blues inspirations but who also finds fresh angles.  And on Come On In that leads to material making refreshing use of acoustic guitar in addition to the Black Tornado’s usual big band sound, plus intriguing rhythms courtesy of drummer Martin Seidelin.  Here’s an early live take of the title track, dating back to 2018.

Of course, coronavirus lockdowns themselves became the stimulus for new work.  Two of the best results, for me, were Mike Zito’s Quarantine Blues, and on this side of the Atlantic the Birdmens collaboration that resulted in the album Lockdown Loaded.
Zito was first out of the blocks, evidently driven by frustration and financial concern after he was forced to abandon a lengthy European tour that had barely started.  Knocked out in just two weeks, Quarantine Blues crackled with creative energy, and did what Zito is best at, getting beyond pure blues into broader terrain.  As I said in my review, it’s a goddamn rock’n’roll rekkud!  Here he is with the Petty-esque 'Looking Out This Window', from a rare live excursion in June this year.

The Birdmens gang, inspired by a bundle of drum loops from producer and guitarist Dave Doherty, and featuring the likes of Ian Siegal, Jon Amor, Bob Fridzema and Jonny Henderson, rocked up at the end of May with Lockdown Loaded, an eclectic batch of barnstormers ranging from Delta stomp to Zepped-up funk to keening Americana.  Have a gander at this video of ‘Cover It Up’, which sounds a bit like it’s escaped from the theme to ancient TV show A Man In A Suitcase!

Some new names made a mark for me this year too, starting off with Norfoll-based Little Red Kings.  Their second album, The Magic Show Part One, was a cattleprod-jolt of rootsy rock, with a clutch of curveballs thrown in to keep you on your musical toes.  Here’s the unusual lyric video for one of those curveballs, the subtle and moody ‘Magic Show’ itself.

Canada’s Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are a more straightforward proposition: scorching Sixties-style soul music, with a singer in young Samantha who sounds like she could tear your playhouse down.  Their album The Reckless One is swinging, torch-carrying, love-in-vain R’n’B fare, and mostly originals to boot.  Get yourself in the groove with this video of them in upbeat, 'Nowhere To Run' mode, with ‘Don’t Have To Be’.

But the new name that made the biggest impression was When Rivers Meet, aka married British musos Grace and Aaron Bond, who have stormed into the rock consciousness with the unorthodox bluesiness of their debut album We Fly Free.  Why unorthodox?  Because they’re flying free of the guitar solo-ing norms of blues-rock, and foregrounding their voices – especially the eye-popping singing of Grace as she sweeps from delicate hush to adrenalin rush.  Guitar does feature, but largely as a rhythm and slide engine, with embellishments provided by Mamzelle Bond via injections of fiddle and – wait for it – resonator mandolin slide playing.  Anyhoo, check ‘em out on this video of ‘Tomorrow’, from one of their 2019 EPs!

Regular readers will know that I get a bit sniffy about some of the ‘Southern rock’ that gets paraded around as having a blues/blues-rock appeal.  But that’s an argument for another day, because there was one Southern rock album this year that brooked no argument.  Last Light On The Highway by Robert Jon & The Wreck was a hook-laden belter.  Maybe it’s because they’re not good ol’ boys from the Deep South, but from California, but Robert Jon & The Wreck mostly avoided getting sucked into latter-day Southern rock stereotypes.  Still, if you like an Allman Brothers guitar sound, you should enjoy them on 'Do You Remember'.

Which just leaves us with three more familiar names to conjure with - Walter Trout, Jim Kirkpatrick, and King King.

Now, Walter Trout may be regarded by many as yer archetypal, guitar-flaying blues-rocker.  But to my mind there’s more to the fella than that – to wit, he’s a damn good songwriter who isn’t a slave to the 12-bar format.  And his latest album Ordinary Madness proves my point, with tracks ranging across various styles.  Get a load of ‘Heartland’, for example, as a classy example of rootsy rock.

Jim Kirkpatrick may not have a host of solo albums behind him - just one, in fact, before this year.  But he's still a known quantity by virtue of his work with FM, the Chris Bevington Organisation and more besides.  And he deserves a bigger following on the back of his new solo outing, Ballad Of The Prodigal Son, he really does.  It’s not full-on guitar overload from start to finish, but our Jim doesn’t half let rip at times.  Whether it’s blues, boogie, glossy instrumental or throw-in-the-kitchen-sink, the songs impress – bar one, and I’ll forgive him that – the delivery is great, and the guitar playing runs wild.  Check out the video for the monumental ‘Brave New World’, and tell me if I’m wrong.

And then there's King King.  Alan Nimmo has recast the King King line-up, and completed their metamorphosis from modern British blues heralds to fully-fledged Adult Orientated Rockers.  With a leading role for newly-liberated secret weapon Jonny Dyke on keyboards, new album Maverick finds the KK boys switching from glossy hard rock to gob-smacking power ballad and back again with consummate ease.  Check out the video for the mountainous 'Never Give In' for starters.

So there we have the first instalment of goodies for your edification and delight.  Merry Christmas one and all - go easy on the cake and mince pies, and we'll get together for Part 2 next week!

You can find Part 1 of the 2020 Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking here.

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado - Come On In

“Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination,” said Vincent van Gogh.  “Do not become the slave of your model.”

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado have probably never come across old Vincent’s advice, but I reckon they’ve observed the sentiment anyway with the creation of Come On In.  Because this is an album that respects their blues roots and inspirations, but dares to deliver songs and arrangements that are mouth-wateringly fresh.  And in doing so it sets a dizzyingly high standard for new blues releases in 2020.

"Oi - Thorbjørn! Stop posing and get your round in!"

Pic by Christoffer Askman

The opening title track sets the tone.  The lyrics may give a nod and a wink to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘The House Is Rocking’, but the delivery takes a different tack.  A pulsing drum beat sets things in motion, locked into a subdued guitar riff, generating a near motorik feel that’s then augmented by some boinging bass and occasional twangs of ghostly guitar.  “There’s a jukebox over in the corner playin’,” sings Thorbjørn Risager in that rumbling bass voice. “Won’t you come on in?”  Hell yes, that’s what I say!

Acoustic guitar figures heavily in some of the songs, notably the elegiac ‘Two Lovers’, which opens with some simple acoustic strumming, which is then joined by spare, haunted slide guitar notes from Joachim Svensmark and a slow, sombre beat.  More textures are added by hints of wood block, deep bass, and smatterings of horns and organ, creating the kind of noir-ish cinematic experience they’ve previously mastered with their cover of the Fifties film theme ‘China Gate’.  And they summon up a reflective romantic mood with ‘On And On’, all halting guitar, plangent horns and sparse chimes of piano.

The opening verse of ‘Never Givin’ In’ also leans on nothing more than an acoustic guitar motif and Risager’s expressive voice, before Martin Seidelin’s percussion – bongos, perhaps? – brings a quickening rhythm.  It nags at you like an itch you can’t scratch, and is embellished by a moody bridge, with low moaning horns and more spooky guitar that has the feel of a plaintive harp.  ‘Sin City’ has more old-time sensibilities, with acoustic picking and a simple, muffled beat supporting an archetypal blues melody, before an outro that centres on a repeated phrase from Peter Kehl’s muted trumpet.  The closing ‘I’ll Be Gone’ is in a similar vein, all acoustic strumming and picking of a classic blues riff, with squeaks of electric guitar for emphasis.

The Black Tornado can still whip up a storm though.  ‘Last Train’ may start off with chugs of acoustic guitar over handclap-like percussion, but it lifts off when the drums kick in, with guitar hitting stinging chord sequences and notes as the horns offer support in the background.  ‘Over The Hill’ goes back to Risager’s early influences, swinging like BB King with its walking bass, glittering guitar fills and bursts of horns, and what once upon a time they might have called a ‘hot’ sax solo.  “Good times comin’ my way,” sings Thorbjørn, and he ain’t kidding.  Best of all in this vein, there’s ‘Love So Fine’, with its urgent, crunching guitar riff over the propulsive rhythm section of Seidelin and bassist Søren Bøjgaard.  It could almost be ZZ Top with added horns, not least because of Risager’s voice as he drawls away like Billy Gibbons, while Svensmark adds a cracking guitar solo as the cherry on the cake.

They even have room to get vaguely Latin with ‘Nobody But The Moon’, with a Hispanic-leaning descending guitar riff over what sounds to these untutored ears like a salsa rhythm conjured up by the bubbling bass and drums, leading to an aching chorus.

Risager has said that some of the songs reflect some uncertainty about where he is in his life, but also an assertive and defiant response, and those themes are certainly apparent on the likes of ‘Never Givin’ In’ and ‘Sin City’.  Me, I have no doubts.  With Come On In Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado have reaffirmed their status as torchbearers of modern blues.

Come On In is released by Ruf Records on 31 January 2020.

The Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2018 - Part 2

So was Santa good to you all then?  Finished all the turkey and ready for a bit more reflection on 2018 with Blues Enthused?

One of the highlights of the second half of the year was a first visit to the Carlisle Blues Rock Festival back in September, for two out of its three days.   A brilliantly organised affair, it was blessed with a cracking bill, the Saturday night topped off by a set from Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado that was a hit from the minute their guitars starting cranking out the riff to ‘If You Wanna Leave’.

Thorbjorn Risager rocks the flat cap look

Carlisle also offered a first chance for me to see the Chris Bevington Organisation, who offered up one of the most straight ahead, good-time albums of the year, with the rocked up blues outing Cut And Run.  A 9-piece outfit featuring horns, keys, backing singers, and the kitchen sink, they pulled together great songs, quality musicianship and a great sound, in an album that crackled with enthusiasm from start to finish on tracks like 'It Ain't Easy'. 

Worth noting for their willingness to do something a bit different in the album stakes were Big Boy Bloater, with Pills, and Jawbone, with their self-titled debut album.  The Bloat fella’s album may not be solid gold – there are a couple of misfires, for my money – but with his rough-edged rock’n’roll, rougher-edged voice, funny lyrics and penchant for B-Movie tales, as well a neat line in Nick Lowe-ish country fare, he’s still a breath of fresh air - see what you make of 'Friday Night's Alright For Drinking'.  And Jawbone are similarly refreshing, as they take a late Sixties Big Pink vibe and transplant it to 21^stCentury Britain, with a heap of strong songs, contrasting lead vocals from Marcus Bonfanti and Paddy Milner, and a readiness to let Milner’s piano set the tone as much as Bonfanti’s guitar.  They also have a nice way with a lyric, as '2 Billion Heartbeats' demonstrates.

Right now there are a host of great female roots music artists out there in both Britain and America, and one of the standout albums of the year came at the hands of one of them – Kansas City’s Danielle Nicole, who released her second solo album Cry No More back in March - and picked up a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the tail end of the year.  No sign of her coming to Europe for live dates in the near future though – unlike Shemekia Copeland, Ana Popovic and Samantha Fish, who are all going to be within hailing distance for me in the same week in May!  Never mind, here's Ms Nicole casting a 'Hot Spell'.

A new find for me on the female singer front this year was Tierinii Jackson, of Memphis-based soul-blues outfit Southern Avenue, who delivered a crackling performance at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival in the summer.  If Vintage Trouble are your kind of band, then you may well enjoy Southern Avenue, although they also stir a spoonful of gospel into the mix.  Here they are getting funky on ‘Rock Steady’, with Tierinii Jackson in typical Little Miss Dynamite form.

Danielle Nicole has a quiet evening in

On the book front, this year I’ve been working my way through Stuart Cosgrove’s ‘Soul Trilogy’, comprising Detroit 67, Memphis 68, and Harlem 69.  The books cover a lot of ground, such as the development of Motown and Stax, and key events in black culture like the Detroit riots, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the emergence of the Black Panthers.  But much of the pleasure is to be found in the characters Cosgrove turns up, many of whom are unfamiliar.

In the latest book it’s interesting to come across someone like Betty Mabry, who was married to Miles Davis for a time, was a friend of Jimi Hendrix, and by the sound of it was an all-round cross-cultural phenomenon.  A catwalk model, club owner, songwriter and singer, Cosgrove paints her as a forceful, networking catalyst in the emergence of jazz-rock and fusion.

Or there’s King Curtis, a workaholic sax player, band leader, arranger, musical director and talent scout, who I must confess I’d never heard of before, but whose mid-Sixties band The Kingpins at one time or another included famed drummer Bernard Purdie, and the still developing Hendrix.  Here they are cooking up a 'Memphis Soul Stew'.  It says something about Curtis’s status that for a while the Kingpins were apparently Aretha Franklin’s preferred backing band.

And with the death of Aretha earlier this year, that seems like a good point at which to close the lid on 2018.  So here is the Queen of Soul, doubtless an inspiration for some of those singers listed above, showing how it’s done on ‘I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You’.

You can find Part 1 of the Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking here.

Saturday Night at the Carlisle Blues Rock Festival, 29 September 2018

Saturday night at the Crown & Mitre Hotel, and it’s time for action again at the Carlisle Blues Rock Festival.

John Bowie and Phil Saunders return to get the ball rolling with a more electrified set than in the afternoon, with a half-hour segue-way of rolling, pulsing blues including ‘Just In Time’ and ‘Roadhouse Blues’.  Bowie is on electric guitar this time, serving up some delicious warm tones, while Saunders lays down a percussive groove, weaves in more guitar, and injects occasional harp to boot.  Then they pick up the pace towards the end, revving

Northsyde - plenty to smile about

everyone up for the rest of the evening.

Northsyde follow, fronted by husband and wife duo Jules and Lorna Fothergill on guitar and vocals and respectively.  It’s the first time I’ve come across them, and the immediate impression generated by Lorna Fothergill’s singing is, basically, holy cow!  The woman has a resonant, rhythmic voice with buckets of oomph to spare.  “Tina Turner”, it says in my notes – which is bizarre, given that we’re talking about a woman whose look is tall, blonde, sinuous and slinky.  Whatever, she puts it out there with style and conviction, while the rest of the band cook up a funky groove, and husband Jules weighs in with a spot-on solo.

They follow that up with ‘Who’s Been Talking?’, on which Fothergill’s vocal gets fathoms-deep – though it soon becomes clear that she can go both low and high with equal facility. The arc of their reading goes from a quiet opening, through some jazzy and smoky moments, towards a well honed dying ending.

They get funky again on ‘Cherry Picking’, lock tight, punctuating the arrangement stylishly, and playing with smiles on their faces – Lorna, is visibly intoit, while Jules watches her moves with a grin on his face and a glint in his eye.  ‘Tuesday’s Flowers’ is a new song with a deeply Stevie Wonder-like bass line, and a solo from Jules that recalls Steely Dan.

Lorna Fothergill - yoga, d'you reckon?

Apparently Northsyde have a penchant for bending and twisting covers, and tonight’s selection is ‘In The Air Tonight’ – yep, the Phil Collins song.  They take it a bit more uptempo, with a ton of reverb on the vocal.  It’s less tense/intense than the original, but still cleverly done, and La Fothergill carries it off in the mode of an old-fashioned rock chick in a smart black dress.  This is nothing though, compared to the following ‘Travelling Shoes’, which starts with a spartan beat over which Fothergill delivers a bravura, gospel-style vocal – growling, soaring, with skilful melisma, the woman is stupendous. Not to be outdone, Jules produces a great solo, buzzing, halting, diving and dashing, as a prelude to another beautifully controlled quiet ending.  

That’s the highlight of a set that then shifts through a version of ‘Today I Sing The Blues’ that could be a bit more down to earth, with a less jazzy guitar solo, to the Allman Brothers’ ‘Whipping Post’ on which they deliver an all out instrumental section, and finally a mash-up of ‘Smokestack Lightning’ and ‘Spoonful’ on which they give it large.  Northsyde may not quite have a stand-out, signature sound of their own, but they’re not run of the mill either, and in Lorna Fothergill they sure have a knock-your-socks-off singer.

Thorbjørn Risager - suited and bunneted

Having seen Mike Vernon and the Mighty Combo at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, we decide to retire to the bar for a while, because in my book they ain’t really that mighty.  Which gives us the chance to regroup in readiness for the night’s headliners, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado.

And their headline status is justified, because Denmark's finest are a very good band. I mean, really good.  From the first bars of ‘If You Wanna Leave’, with its crunking, Quo-like, two-guitar riff, the space between the stage and the front row of seats is immediately filled with dancing punters, and by the time Hans Nybo rips out a wild sax solo the blue touch paper is well and truly lit.  They follow that up with the stomping, Stonesy groove of ‘Maybe It’s Alright’, with its big soulful melody, swirling keys, and sizzling solo from Peter Skjerning.

You know what?  A few years ago I was in a pub when a covers band started knocking out hits by the Stones, the Who, Bad Company et al, and the clientele, of a similar vintage to me, couldn’t help but get up and dance.  Thorbjørn and chums have exactly that effect – and with fresh, original material that absolutely stands comparison with those classics.

As they go on to prove by knocking out the funkier ‘Paradise’, before cooling things off with ‘I Used To Love You’, a beautifully constructed song that’s restrained but has all the right parts in place, and features a lovely solo from Risager as the icing on the cake. And these songs slot into their

Maybe It's Alright?  Hell yeah.

set alongside cyclonic (geddit?) reworkings of blues standards like ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ and ‘Let The Good Times Roll’.

An injection of piano boogie from Emil Balsgaard gradually leads into the rock’n’roll of ‘The Straight And Narrow Line’, with more honking sax from Nybo, before they find room for a new song in the form of ‘Over The Hill’, which does absolutely nothing to diminish the appetite for dancing down the front, and has room for a singalong that succeeds at the first time of hearing.

They slow things down again with the cinematic ‘China Gate’ – well, it does come from an old film, after all – which again underlines their ability to deliver something different.  But from there on it’s pretty much party time, with the likes of the aforesaid covers, ‘Train’ with its imaginative percussion from Martin Seidelin, the growling ‘All I Want’ with Risager’s gravelly voice to the fore and its teasing false ending, and the suitably titled ‘Rock’n’Roll Ride’.

You think I was taking copious notes amidst all these fun and games?  To hell with that.  I was up dancing with my other half, having a ball like the rest of the Carlisle audience.  Which sums up the irresistible charms of Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado.  When this lot are onstage the good times do indeed roll.

You can find a review of the Friday night session here.
The Saturday afternoon session is reviewed here.

Scandinavian Night - Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado live and in conversation, 23 February 2018

Copenhagen may be wonderful wonderful, as the song puts it, but in February it’s cold, damned cold, even coming from Scotland.  Bugger that though, we’re on a mission to see European Blues Award winners Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado on their home turf.
The first challenge though, is finding the gig.  You see, we thought Taastrup was the name of the venue, like Barrowlands or Empire.  But after consulting with the ever helpful front desk in the Bertrams Guldsmoden Hotel, we discover that Taastrup is actually the location of the Teater and Musikhus – and it’s about ten miles from the city centre.  So armed with directions we head off into the Baltic temperatures for some early grub, and then on to catch an S-Tog train to the ‘burbs.

Thorbjorn Risager - cool on a bar stool

Out in the sticks, we find we’re not the only ones making a special excursion.  There are Danes too who are visiting Taastrup for the first time, so we tag along as one of them navigates with the aid of Google Maps, crossing a bridge over an icy lake to the Musikhus.  It’s a modern venue, seated and raked, which could be a bit sterile.  It is, however, full.
Thorbjorn Risager and pals stroll onstage promptly at 8pm, the man himself perching his lanky frame against a bar stool, and they immediately launch into the kind of rousing R’n'B that’s their stock in trade.  And there’s plenty of it to come on belters like ‘Maybe It’s Alright’, the chugging ‘If You Wanna Leave’, and ‘All I Want’.  With two guitars in the hands of Risager and Peter Skjerning, plus horns and keyboards, when The Black Tornado dig in, the sound they produce is heavyweight and gutsy, like a locomotive irresistibly powering you along.  It’s an interesting experience attending a gig where you don’t understand a word of the between songs chat – Danish not being one of my languages, you’ll be shocked to hear – but the groove of this band is a universal lingo.
This isn’t heads down, no nonsense, mindless boogie though.  And however polished the band may be as a whole, however strong Risager’s songs, a fair amount of credit has to go to drummer Martin Seidelin.  Sporting a red bowler hat that could come from a clown troupe, Seidelin effortlessly varies the rhythms underpinning the songs, and comes up with percussive twists that give them additional character, even if it’s something as simple as a fresh way of conveying the clacking on the rails of ‘Train’.
And there’s variety in more ways than one.  If the funk of ‘Change My Game’ is just a hop and a skip away from the blues – raising whoops of delight and dancing from one well-oiled lady at the front - Risager is also happy to explore different horizons.  The sparse and mournful ‘China Gate’ is taken from a 1957 film set in French Indo-China, directed by B-Movie great Sam Fuller.  Which isn’t, you know, your typical ‘My baby done left me’ territory.  It’s indicative of the literacy, both musical and verbal, that Risager and co bring to songs like

Taastrup - venue for a tasty show

 'Long Forgotten Track' with its dreamy 'Riders In The Sky' mood, and ‘Drowning’, which sounds as if it originated in a Parisian jazz cellar rather than New Orleans.  And there’s their neat reworking of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ too, close enough to be familiar, different enough to be – well, different.
Risager hops up from his stool now and then to groove along to a sax solo from Hans Nybo or some bar-room piano from Emil Baalsgard, but also to contribute the occasional solo himself.  Which leads to one of the highlights of an all round excellent show in the form of ‘All My Love’, on which he conjures up the spirit of BB King beautifully on guitar, while the band similarly nail the kind of big sound that BB brought to the blues.
They close out with ‘Let The Good Times Roll’, and an audience that clapped, swayed and sang enthusiastically in their seats is evidence that they did just that.
Afterwards I was able to catch up with Thorbjorn Risager, and ask him the obligatory question about how he’d been drawn to the blues.
“It was through my neighbours,” he says.  “Not so much my parents because they were into classical music.  But I’d go over to my neighbours’ house, and they’d be playing Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, and rock’n’roll.  I was about 10 years old, and I’d take my little tape recorder over there and record their music.  Of course I didn’t know it was blues – it was just music I liked.  And then a few years later I started going to a music school, and somebody played me Stevie Ray Vaughan, and then I began to understand that this was blues music.”
It’s interesting that Stevie Ray Vaughan played a key role, I suggest, because he’s a classic example of the strain in blues music that’s heavily inclined towards big guitar solos – which isn’t really Risager’s approach at all.  He nods.
“I tend to think of myself as a singer rather than a guitarist.  One of my favourite artists is Ray Charles, which isn’t about the guitar.  So I started off singing, and then after a while I thought it would be good to play along with the guitar, which I started to play when I was about twelve.”

Martin Seidelin hits his rhythm sticks as Hans Nybo blows that horn

I mention that I’d intended to ask him what had encouraged him to form a big band with horns, but that hearing them play the BB King inspired ‘All I Want’ again tonight seemed to provide an answer to that question.  Risager agrees right away.
“BB King was the inspiration for this band,” he says.  “It was when I heard one of his albums, the Kent Singles collection, that I thought ‘This is what the blues should sound like’.  So I wanted to try that.”
En route to another question, I mention in passing that the Black Tornado’s sound often conjures up a Stones-like muscular R’n’B sound, and it’s evidently an observation he’s heard before, but one that doesn’t resonate with him.
“People talk about the Stones, but I don’t really hear it.  For me ZZ Top were an inspiration, more of a soul-blues-rock thing than 12 bars.  Billy Gibbons is a great guitar player of course, but I liked the way he tried to make his guitar sing.”  Which is an amusing musical loop, I reckon – a three-piece being an influence on the sound of a seven-strong band.  Although listening to the vocal whoops and very Keef-like ringing guitar on the likes of Gibbons and co’s ‘Francene’, you could say that the Stones influence goes around to come around.
There’s also a distinctly European side to Thorbjorn’s writing though, I venture.  ‘Drowning’ may be swinging jazz, but it has a European flavour to it, while the likes of ‘I Used To Love You’ and ‘Lay My Burden Down’ could be drawing on traditions like chanson and lieder.
“Well ‘Drowning’ is actually influenced by East European gypsy folk music,” says Risager, acknowledging the breadth of influences.  “I love that kind of stuff – if I wasn’t playing the blues that’s what I’d want to do, be a clarinet player in an East European gypsy folk group,” he laughs.
“It always been important to have variety,” he goes on, “although it’s not always on purpose.”  As Martin Seidelin wanders past we touch on how drummers like him, who bring flexibility to the party, increase the range of options available.
“Yes,” says Risager, “Sometimes I’ll work out the beginnings of a song myself, with my guitar, and then I bring it to the band at rehearsals, and different things happen with it.  But I tend not to write many 12 bar blues songs anyway.  It’s not easy to write a 12 bar blues – it’s harder to write within that simple formula.  Much of it is just three chords, and if you use more chords it’s easier.”
As a final topic for discussion, there’s Risager’s voice, which is a gravelly phenomenon. Are there other singers he’s listened to in order to work out how to get the best out of it, I wonder?
“Well, most blues singers are tenors,” he says, “and I’m a bass.  So sometimes I have to take advantage of that, and make use of it.  I’d say the big influences on my singing are really Ray Charles and BB King, that soulful kind of voice.”
Talking to Thorbjorn Risager, it’s easy to discern a real musical intelligence at work behind the Black Tornado.  This is a guy who knows his onions, as they probably never say in Denmark, and he’s put together a band and a repertoire that bring something distinctive to the European blues scene.  Go get their latest album Change My Game, or their live album Songs From The Road, and find out for yourself.

The Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2017 - Part 2

So here it is, Merry Christmas.  Everybody having fun?

Part 1 of the Christmas Stocking shared some goodies from names who were new to me in 2017 - including Ash Wilson and the Starlite Campbell Band, who were responsible for two of the best albums of the year.  So who else lit up the year for Blues Enthused?

Toronzo Cannon, the most famous blues playing bus driver in Chicago, paid a flying visit to

Toronto Cannon plays tartan blues

Britain for a few dates in January and delivered a cracking show based on original material

rather than old standards.  Drawing heavily on his most recent album The Chicago Way, he demonstrated his talent for contemporary lyrics, both serious and funny, to go with his top quality guitar playing – and top quality band.  But for me the highlight of his set was the wild rendition of ‘John The Conquer Root’, from his 2013 album of the same name.

The brothers Nimmo had a traumatic year, to say the least.  Alan Nimmo suffered repeated vocal problems, causing King King to cancel several dates earlier in the year, and then take three months off from touring in the autumn.  Elder brother Stevie Nimmo, meanwhile, was in fine form as he and his Trio toured in the early part of the year.  But then he went and broke his arm in a cycling accident in the late summer.

The show must go on though, and Blues Enthused interviewed Alan Nimmo in the run-up to the release of King King’s latest album. Exile & Grace continued the band's steady rise, though for me it fell a tad shy of their best.  Irresistible rockers like ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’’ and ‘Long Time Running’, and emotional epics like ‘Broken’ and ‘Betrayed Me’, certainly hit the motherlode.  But ‘Find Your Way Home’ strayed a mite too close to REO Speedwagon ballad territory for me, and closer ‘I Don’t Want To Lie’ felt lightweight.  But hey, the King King boys are back on the road now, and new songs will undoubtedly catch fire in a live setting.

Meanwhile it was great to catch up with Stevie Nimmo for a chat back in March, and see

Not The Nimmo Brothers, honest

him continue to perform live in the autumn, broken arm and all. This gave fans the chance to see a unique line-up of the 'StevieNimmo Trio + 1' – the +1 being brother Alan, who took over on guitar for the tour while being hors de combat himself on the vocal front.  Stevie’s injury will delay the recording of a new album, but to hell with that – that bike crash was a sore one.

On a more positive note, the European Blues Award for Best Band went to Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, and for my money the Danish outfit are well worth it.  Their latest album Change My Game has strong songs, light and shade, and some big fat riffs, while Risager himself has a great rumble of a blues voice.  They delivered on the live front too, though I still think they could hit top gear a bit more often.  Still, I’m looking forward to a jaunt to see them on home turf in Copenhagen in February.  And in the meantime, here they are with the stonking ‘Maybe It’s Alright’.

US guitar honcho Eric Gales only has a top gear, and a turbo-boosted top gear at that.  His new album Middle Of The Road was good, but live he was something else altogether.  In my old age I’m less invested in guitar veneration, but it has to be said that Gales was total catnip to the guitar nuts who had assembled from near and far – and entertainingly so.  Here he is at the Dallas Guitar Show, with a mash-up of ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ and ‘All Along The Watchtower’.  Get your air guitar out!

If you want a real rock’n’roll thrill though, you need to go to a master like Steve Van Zandt.  His Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul show in Glasgow was one of the absolute highlights of my year, a riotous bouillabaisse of soul and R’n’B and rock’n’roll from a guy who’s imbibed and digested enough popular music to be a walking radio station.  Van Zandt

Samantha Fish - the Queen of '17

may be incongruously bashful with his between songs patter, fidgeting with his rings and his bandana, but when they count in the next song he and his band are a genre-busting, straight from the heart, Technicolor delight.  Here they are from that Glasgow gig, with ‘I Don’t Want To Go Home’.  They got that right.

And so to the Queen of 2017.  People, I give you Samantha Fish.  Two albums from her this year, of very different hues, and there are some who baulk at them because neither was the heavy duty electric blues they wanted.  Nuts to that.  Chills And Fever is one of my favourite albums of the year – a concept album, but not as prog rockers know it, Captain.  Dusting off a heap of rhythm’n’bluesy soul and pop tunes from the vaults, Sam Fish added stinging guitar and her own inimitable voice to create something that went way beyond a covers album.  “That’s the human condition,” she said in an interview.  “Love, desire, heartache . . . .”  I think Miami Steve would approve.

Then she released a semi-acoustic album, Belle Of The West, that got into songwriting, Americana style, painting pictures and creating moods with some deliciously subtle arrangements.  While your average blues rocker sticks to their knitting, here’s someone pushing boundaries.

And to top it all off, on her European tour young Samantha managed to blend all this with material from her previous album Wild Heart and rock everybody’s socks off onstage.  She’s hard-working, she’s fun, and she knows her own mind.  There’s more to come from Sam Fish.  As the lady herself put it, apropos of something else, “I guara-damn-tee it!”  So let’s give it up for her oil can guitar version of ‘Gone For Good’, in this video lovingly assembled by a fan.

That was the year that was.  Roll on 2018!

You can find Part 1 of the 2017 Christmas Stocking here.