Long John Baldry (1941-2012) was one of the key figures in the early British blues movement and thus a connector in the development of British rock and roll. He was a contemporary of early blues artists Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies and heavily influenced such artists as The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. During the mid-1960s he played in bands with Rod Stewart (Steampacket) and Elton John (Bluesology).<\/p>\n
He moved to Canada in 1978 and in 1991 formed a relationship with the Stony Plain Label. The label has now established a new compilation series titled The Best Of The Stony Plain Years. \u00a0<\/i>Baldry is one of the first artists to have a CD release in the series as tracks from his albums for the label have been combined with two previously unreleased tracks.<\/p>\n
The album begins with a creative version of \u201cGood Morning Blues.\u201d There is a 30-second snippet of his 1958 recording of the song before sliding into the version he recorded in 2001. The modernization of the song presents a much smoother sound and the instrumental backing is full, yet his roots are very apparent. <\/p>\n
While the blues are painful at times, \u201cI\u2019m Shakin,\u2019\u201d \u201cEasy Street,\u201d and \u201cMidnight Special,\u201d which are presented in a row, form a joyous romp through the modern day blues. Baldry\u2019s voice has gained strength as the years have passed and has developed into a strong instrument.<\/p>\n
His take on \u201cGallows Pole\u201d is very different from the famous version by Led Zeppelin. It is a rollicking and boisterous interpretation that comes close to a traditional Americana sound.<\/p>\n
Kathi McDonald toured with Baldry for close to two decades and she duets with him on the ominous \u201cInsane Asylum\u201d and the hitherto promo-only release \u201cBlack Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
The album ends on a high note; \u201cTime\u2019s Getting\u2019 Tougher Than Tough\u201d contains a duet with blues legend Jimmy Witherspoon with backing by the Duke Robillard Band. It all adds up to an excellent example of a modern-day fusion of rock and blues. <\/p>\n
The Best Of The Stony Plain Years <\/i>presents a nice taste of the last part of Baldry\u2019s career. The music may not be as influential or important as his early work, but it is very listenable and shows the end product of his evolutionary process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":31999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9422],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43735","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-long-john-baldry","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43735"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}