VARIOUS ARTISTS
Seattle's Best Blues (Raw Records)
Reviewed by Eric Steiner

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This impressive collection released by Port Townsend's Raw Records shows that the blues is very much alive and well in the Pacific Northwest. Grunge? Yep, we still got a lot of loud bands that play in their flannel shirts and jeans, a la Nirvana and Tad, but the real deal, for me, is in the blues that you'll hear in the clubs here in the Pacific Northwest. These 15 acts are the same bands you'll see working the clubs from Tacoma to Bellingham and back again on any given night in the upper left-hand corner of the United States. Word on the street is that Seattle's Nick Vigarino really wowed 'em in Memphis at the First Blues guitar contest last month, and that Little Bill's slated to play "Blues Cruises" out of Tacoma for the Songbird Foundation. Nick's "Blacktop Road" and Little Bill's "Ain't No Way" are but the tip of the blues iceberg in the greater Seattle area.

Track List:

Money Talks/Danny Hull With Chris Cain * Lose The Blues/ The Dick Powell Band * The King, The Man, The One/ Mark DuFresne * Sam's Pit/ Too Slim & The Taildraggers * Turnin' Blue/ Tim Turner Band * Everything/ Tim Casey & The Bluescats * Won't Kill Me/ Laurette Langille * Ain't No Way/ Little Bill * Blacktop Road/ Nick Vigarino * Been There Done That/ Brian Butler * Guitar Baby/ Henry Cooper * Don't Touch My Girl/ Smokin' Gun * She's Gone/ The Fat James Band * Don't Make Me Wait/ The Charles White Band * You Brought The Sunshine Inside/ Jude Bowerman

[Pick up this CD at http://www.rawrecords.com/artists/SBBv1/.]

© 2002 - Eric Steiner