Blues & Rhythm
Launched in 1984 and edited since 1986 by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, the Gospel Truth is published from the UK 10 times a year. Blues & Rhythm publishes research, articles, discographies, (including updates/revisions to The Blues Discography 1945-1970 3rd edition) label listings, interviews, rare records, obituaries, letters, news and reviews and comment as well as unique photo features on pre-war and post war blues, R&B, vocal groups, vintage soul and gospel music as well as supporting contemporary Afro-American blues talent, and covering other roots music including western swing, bluegrass, hillbilly, rockabilly, vintage country music, Tex-Mex, and Ska.
Blues & Rhythm reviews CDs, vinyl albums and 45s, books, DVDs and downloads. Regular contributors, writers, reviewers, photographers and collectors include Mike Atherton, Chris Bentley, John Broven, Norman Darwen, Dave Penny, Dan Kochakian, Opal Louis Nations, Fred Rothwell, Howard Rye, Robert Pruter, the late Paul Harris, Steve Propes, Neil Slaven, Brian Smith, Chris Smith, Ray Templeton and Billy Vera as well as editorial board members Tony Burke, Tony Watson, Phil Wight, Byron Foulger and Mike Stephenson.
39 articles
List of articles in the library
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, January 1987
LEE DORSEY, who died on December 1st, 1986, after a long and brave struggle against cancer and emphysema, will be best remembered in the UK ...
Memphis Slim: Obituary: Memphis Slim
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, May 1988
FOLLOWING RECENT reports of his serious illness, it came as little surprise to many blues fans that Memphis Slim sadly passed on of February 24th ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, August 1988
EDDIE "CLEANHEAD" Vinson, who died on July 2nd at the California Hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a coronary and cancer of the throat and ...
Robert Cray: Young Bob's Blues
Interview by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, February 1989
ON OCTOBER 24th, 1988, Robert Cray played a sell out gig at the Manchester Apollo. He was riding high and on this extensive UK tour ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, August 1990
BIG NICKEL PUBLICATIONS continue their unsurpassed service of providing a mine of information to R&B record collectors with another addition to its catalogue of books, ...
Champion Jack Dupree: The Joe Davis Sessions 1945-1946
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 1990
IT IS PERHAPS fitting that the last CD of the Month for 1990 features a bluesman who began his recording career half a century ago ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, February 1993
YOU'VE HEARD the records, maybe even bought the recent Bear Family nine-CD box set (The Complete Decca Recordings) – now read the biography. ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, September 1994
BLUES PIANIST and singer Eddie Boyd died on July 13th in Helsinki aged 79 on July 13th, in Helsinki, Finland, a city in which he'd ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 1999
ELLA MAE MORSE, whose 1942 hit 'Cow-Cow Boogie' became the first million selling disc for Capitol Records, died on October 16th at the Western Arizona ...
B.B. King: Behind the B.B. King Box
Essay by John Broven, Blues & Rhythm, March 2001
The Ace Records 4-CD B.B. King box set The Vintage Years was released in June 2002. This is the story behind the production of this ...
Yank Rachell: Richard Congress: The Blues Mandolin Man – The Life And Music of Yank Rachell
Book Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, November 2001
PREVIOUS (AUTO)BIOGRAPHIES of Honeyboy Edwards and Henry Townsend have established the format followed by this one and like the editors of the above works, Richard ...
Charley Patton: Paramount Records and the Blues Twilight Zone
Report by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 2003
DISCOVERIES MAGAZINE in the USA has called it "the single most significant blues music related discovery – ever. It is so deep and vast there ...
Desperate Man Blues – Discovering The Roots of American Music
Film/DVD/TV Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2007
JOE BUSSARD, "King Of Record Collectors", would be an excellent contributor to the UK television series 'Grumpy Old Men'. ...
David Stubbs: Ace Records – Labels Unlimited
Book Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, March 2007
HOW MANY MATURE Blues & Rhythm readers own between fifty and a hundred Ace records, vinyl or CD? ...
Obituary by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, Winter 2007
BLUES & RHYTHM readers will know the photographs if they aren't as familiar with the name. ...
Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, March 2008
IN 1984, THE Italian Albatross label released four albums of Tennessee field recordings and one of Mississippi Delta and South Tennessee Blues made by Lucio ...
Bo Diddley: Bo Meets The Maker
Obituary by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, August 2008
Neil Slaven turns up the volume as his hero refuses to go quietly into the night. ...
Elizabeth Pepin & Lewis Watts: Harlem Of The West, The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era
Book Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, August 2008
I PICKED UP this little item a few weeks ago at my local FOPP, one of the stores that survived the chain going bust, and ...
Jimmy McCracklin: The Mercury Recordings
Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, September 2008
WHEN CHRIS BENTLEY reviewed this set's first appearance in Blues & Rhythm fifteen years ago, his enthusiasm for one of his favourite artists was tempered ...
Various Artists: Lost & Found – The Blues Legacy Volumes 1, 2, 3
Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, September 2008
THE WEIGHT OF history compensates for the incidental failings some of these recordings contain. ...
Bo Diddley: Road Runner – The Chess Masters, 1959-1960
Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, October 2008
YOU KNOW THE stuff that pigs are happy to be in? Well, here I am, up to my armpits in slurry, slapping the surface with ...
Washboard Sam: She Belongs To The Devil
Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, November 2008
IF YOU WANTED the complete Washboard Sam, you'd be looking at seven CDs (DOCD-5171-7) but they wouldn't tell you any more about the artist than ...
Ernest Stoneman: Ernest R Stoneman: The Unsung Father Of Country Music 1925-1934
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2009
JIMMIE RODGERS is normally identified as the "father of country music". However, in the booklet notes to this two-CD, 46-track set, Hank Sapoznick argues a ...
Various Artists: Take Me To The River – A Southern Soul Story 1961-1977
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2009
"WHILE MOTOWN targeted its super-slick beat at teenagers, the much tougher Southern soul issued on labels such as Stax, Hi and Goldwax from Memphis; Fame ...
Book Review by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, September 2009
TWO NEW additions to Nostalgia Corner, neither expensive, one a personal reminiscence from the early years of blues appreciation, the other an informal history of ...
Various Artists: Gastonia Gallop – Cotton Mill Songs & Hillbilly Blues
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2010
Piedmont Textile Workers On Record, Gaston County, North Carolina 1927–1931 ...
Roben Jones: Memphis Boys – The Story of American Studios (University Press Of Mississippi)
Book Review by Mike Atherton, Blues & Rhythm, 2011
"THOSE SEVEN MUSICIANS, the American rhythm section, are the most creative and innovative studio musicians I know," said Memphis promotion man Marty Lacker, who, having ...
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, May 2011
ONE HUNDRED years ago, on 8th May, 1911, Robert Johnson was born – so expect to read a lot about Po' Bob, especially in the ...
Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings – The Centennial Collection
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2011
THIS IS THE complete Robert Johnson on one double CD – the lot, all 42 Robert Johnson recordings – including all thirteen alternate takes plus ...
Bill Sykes: Sit Down, Listen To This! – The Roger Eagle Story/Pat Long: The History Of The NME
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2012
THE LATE Roger Eagle was an enigma. Born in Oxford into a middle class family during the Second World War, like many others of his ...
Norman Jopling: Shake It Up Baby – Notes From A Pop Music Reporter, 1961-1972 (Rock History Ltd.)
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, May 2015
IN THE EARLY 1960s the U.K.'s music press was dominated by a small group of weekly papers, notably the New Musical Express, (aka NME), the ...
Richard Carlin: Godfather of the Music Business – Morris Levy (University of Mississippi Press)
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2016
MORRIS LEVY WAS born in 1927 and rose through the ranks of the U.S. music business starting by running a hatcheck concession in New York ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 2017
BACK IN THE mid-1960s, Wilson Pickett was one of my main men. A series of great singles waxed for Atlantic, including 'In The Midnight Hour', covers of ...
Lazy Lester, Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo: Randy Fox: Shake Your Hips – The Excello Records Story
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2019
FOR MANY UK blues fans, Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon Records opened the door to Excello Records. ...
Various Artists: Texas Hillbillies – 1922-1937 Restored and Remastered
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, April 2019
NINETY-THREE sides of vintage and rare old-time music from the Lone Star state (mostly instrumentals) on a four CD set – culled from the record ...
John and Colin Mansfield: As You Were – The True Adventures Of The Ricky Tick Club
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, February 2020
THE RICKY TICK Club has a permanent place in the development of British rhythm and blues and rock music. I can't recall any decent history ...
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2020
WAY BACK IN Blues & Rhythm 85 (published in January 1994), Tony Watson – in a special feature on the original Fats Domino Bear Family ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, April 2020
THE GREAT DEEP soul singer Doris Duke passed away on 21st March, 2019. The only mention I could find about her death is a reference on ...
Various Artists: Barrelhousin' Around Chicago – The Legendary George Paulus 1970s Blues Recordings
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2020
BACK IN THE early 1980s John Stedman purchased a number of recordings made by George Paulus and released many of them on his JSP label. ...
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