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West Coast Blues

Saturday night over many beers with friends solving the problems of the world, I listened to several artists in the "West Coast blues" category. West Coast Blues tends to have an upbeat swing rhythm as compared to Chicago blues or the Delta blues.I have enjoyed the following:
Sugar Ray Norcia and the Bluetones-My Life... is best
Roomful of Blues- especially the cd's where Sugar Ray is on vocals
William Clark- all of them
Mitch Kashmar- his Live at Labatt's is great
Michelle Willson- great torch singer
Duke Roubillard
Lynwood Slim
2000 LBS of Blues- fun L.A. based blues
Kirk Fletcher- really gifted guitar player
Clarence Gatemouth Brown- some of his big band cd's have this swing with a little Texas twist.

Anyone else like this style of blues?
maxnewid
qdrone
1,039 posts
 
The late Robert Lucas who hailed from Long Beach gets a nod. Late in his career he ended up fronting Canned Heat.
bongofury
1,160 posts
 
Second the Marcia Ball. My favorite blues players include Dave Alvin, and, some of the selected tracks done by Los Lobos.
maxnewid OP
449 posts
 
Thanks for the suggestions. One of the things I like about this genre is that there is a wide variety of artists to explore. Marty, I agree with you about Danny Gatton, one of my favorites, and Clarence Gatemouth being more of a Tx/LA. style. I brought up Gatemouth because we listened to Live From the New Orleans Jazzfest cd I got from the Jazzfest website. It was recorded right before he died and is good fun. Taj Mahal is in a class by himself. His back up band,the Phantom Blues Band, has a couple of great releases. I think Ronnie Earl is one of the best guitar players performing today. If you like Ronnie, you will enjoy Kirk Fletcher's latest. Kirk has played with Roomful of Blues and 2000 Lb's of Blues. Kim Wilson, another former Roomful of Blues frontman, has some decent solo material as well.Stay thirsty my friends.
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