Tinsley Ellis releases "Tough Love" his 18th release and receiving fantastic reviews...

Listen To "tough love" CLICK HERE

Review by Thom Jurek -allmusic.com

When it comes to modern electric blues, Tinsley Ellis has always been the exception to the rule. He has always understood that the music's roots are more about feel than chops (though he is rightfully celebrated for them). Musically, he displays that different genre bends -- blues, country, jazz, soul, R&B, and of course rock & roll -- are part of an inseparable American musical heritage. Tough Love is Ellis' third set for his own Heartfixer label. He penned all ten tracks and produced the date with engineering and mixing help from keyboardist Kevin McKendree. Drummer Lynn Williams remains, but bassist Ted Pecchio has been replaced by Steve Mackey. Though Ellis has cut many different kinds of records, this is the first to display his considerable abilities as a singer. Things get off to a choogling start with "Seven Years," a minor-key, midtempo heartbreak groover that contains plenty of stinging lead fills, with McKendree's electric piano and B-3 fueling the rhythm section. It's followed by "Midnight Ride," a dirty-ass, good-time boogie. "Give It Away" is a soulful, Americana blues ballad with Ellis playing an acoustic National Steel. And this is the gift of the album in three tracks: he delivers three variants on the blues, in as many vocal approaches -- all of them excellent. Each song has its merits in craft and execution -- these days he's not writing any substandard ones -- but there are other clear highlights. "All in the Name of Love," another minor-key, midtempo slider, showcases electric piano and B-3 as Ellis' voice evokes the soul-blues. (Think Solomon Burke.) His guitar eventually catches up with ringing, emotive fills. A horn section punctuates the margins and it works so well, it makes one wish he'd used it more than on just this one tune. "Should I Have Lied" is a stone-electric blues ballad that crosses Albert King with T-Bone Walker, all in Ellis' phrasing. Leave Me" is a strutting blues rocker, while "The King Must Die" is a dark, brooding, swampy jam that showcases the band at their intuitive best under his six-string storm. Closer "In from the Cold" (on which McKendree plays a Mellotron) is a steamy, emotionally wrought blues. It rumbles from the depths, its emotion wrenching and desperate; Ellis' playing is lyric and forceful, it bites, snarls, and cuts. While he has issued plenty of fine records, he's never revealed himself as such an axe slinger, singer, and songwriter with this magnitude and abundance. Tough Love is a tough record to beat.

Thank You Thom Jurek for the Great Review

Staff writer Thom Jurek was born in 1958 and grew up in and around Detroit. He has been writing about music since he was 15. His reviews, interviews, and articles have appeared in magazines and journals including Rolling Stone, Creem, Musician, Spin, American Songwriter, Paste, Interview, The Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, and Rock and Rap Confidential. Jurek has also written liner notes for a variety of albums. He is the author of two poetry collections: DUB (In Camera, 1986), and Memory Bags, with French artist Jacques Karamanoukian (Ridgeway, 1995). His fiction has been anthologized in Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook on Cyberpunk and Postmodern Science Fiction (Duke University Press) and elsewhere. Jurek served as senior editor for Detroit's Metro Times from 1990-1996; he has been affiliated with All Music Guide since 1999.

Landslide Records announces Tinsley Ellis's next release "Midnight Blue" January 14, 2014

 Landslide Records is proud and excited to announce its next release: MIDNIGHT BLUE, an all-new set of original blues rock from guitar master, Tinsley Ellis.

Produced by Ellis, the album marks the second release from his recently established label, Heartfixer Music.  A hardworking veteran of numerous U.S. and international tours, Ellis picked up more new fans through his well-received all-instrumental album, GET IT!, plus appearances on 2013’s critically praised BLUES AT THE CROSSROADS 2 tours with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, James Cotton, and Jody Williams.  He boasts countless great reviews, among them a rave from ROLLING STONE which said:   "Feral blues guitar...he achieves pyrotechnics that rival early Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.”  A notable songwriter, Ellis’ compositions include “A Quitter Never Wins,” a version of which by Jonny Lang went multi-platinum.  Featuring some of Ellis’ finest vocal stylings yet, MIDNIGHT BLUE  includes wide ranging material that moves effortlessly from the powerful opening track, “If The River Keeps Rising,”  through the soul laden groove of “Surrender,” the rollicking Louisiana rocker “It’s Not Funny,” and a poignant, Ray Charles influenced slow blues, “See No Harm.”   Additional musicians include Nashville keyboard whiz Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton, Brian Setzer), bassist Ted Pecchio (Tedeschi/Trucks Band), and drummer Lynn Williams (Delbert McClinton).  Beginning in January Ellis will perform a full slate of festival, theater and club bookings nationwide throughout the year. 

Learn about Tinsley Ellis's two rules here:

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Landslide Records Celebrates their 32nd Anninersary

♫ Landslide Records celebrates their 32nd Anniversary with a retrospective playlist featuring Sean Costello, Col. Bruce Hampton, Derek Trucks, Widespread Panic and more - Click on link to subscribe now! Landslide Records 32nd Anniversary


Landslide Records was established in 1981 with the now rare "Outside Looking Out" by The Late Bronze Age, a group led by Atlanta legend Colonel Bruce Hampton. The label released debut albums in the 80's by The Bluesbusters, Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks and Widespread Panic plus critically acclaimed blues by Tinsley Ellis and The Heartfixers and Nappy Brown. Throughout the 1990's to present, Landslide has released a wealth of great Southern roots music, including The Derek Trucks Band's first album, new Webb Wilder sounds on CD and DVD, diverse Americana projects by ex-BR-549 leader Gary Bennett, folk Singer/Songwriter Jan Smith, and Bluegrass hybrids Blueground Undergrass. Newest releases include Toe tapping Blues/Jazz/Soul wonders Scrapomatic, featuring Mike Mattison, and Carolina favorites, Jim Quick & Coastline.

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Landslide Records to release new Sean Costello CD - "At His Best-Live" out November 15th

16-SONG COMPILATION FEATURES ALL PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED LIVE MATERIAL RECORDED IN THE US & EUROPE FROM

2000-2007

ATLANTA, GA – Landslide Records announces a November 15 release date for Sean Costello: At His Best – Live, a special album of live performances recorded by the late blues guitarist/singer, featuring 16 tracks of all previously unreleased live material recorded in the US and Europe from 2000-2007. This first ever completely live album of Sean Costello performances includes 11 songs not on any prior Costello release. At His Best – Live was mastered by acclaimed producer/engineer Rodney Mills (Gregg Allman, Atlanta Rhythm Section) and represents the essence of Sean Costello’s unique artistry and total devotion to the genre.

Landslide Records is distributed nationally in the U.S. by Select-O-Hits. A portion of the royalties from the sale of the album will benefit the Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bi-Polar Research (http://www.seancostellofund.org).

Throughout At His Best – Live, Costello demonstrates why he was tagged as a blues artist of immense talent and potential at the age of 16, and how he continued to deliver on that promise up until his tragic death in April, 2008, just one day shy of his 29^th birthday.

It also documents the strong overall musicianship Sean surrounded himself with throughout his career. In September of 2009, Landslide Records released Sean’s Blues, a 20-track memorial retrospective collection culled from his three commercial album releases from 1996 through 2001, as well as previously unreleased tracks, which garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike.

Now, on At His Best – Live, blues fans who never got to see Costello perform will hear what all the excitement was about; and for those fortunate enough to have experienced a Sean Costello show in-person, the new CD will bring back vivid memories of the energy force that drew audiences from all over the world to this incredibly talented musician.

“This CD release intends to share the incomparable power and magic of Sean Costello’s shows,” writes blues writer Tom Hyslop in the album’s liner notes. “Drawing from clean soundboard recordings and warts-and-all, you-are-there audience tapes alike, it offers a fair representation of Costello’s ever-evolving musical reach, including serious blues, sultry soul and R&B, and rock ’n’ roll.

“When performing songs from his albums, Sean generally hewed closely to the reference versions. We have tried here to present rare performances in which Costello shook off those bonds and took artistic flight. More difficult was selecting the “best” takes of blues that Sean had not recorded, and therefore approached with complete liberty and palpable joy. On these favorites, his improvisations were reliably staggering, displaying his playful sense of humor, impeccable groove, chops, and attitude. It was a rare night that went by without Costello pulling down stars from the sky. Like his hero Johnnie Taylor, he was just doing his own thing. And how.”

At His Best – Live showcases that special gift Sean Costello had to interpret songs and truly make them his own. The track list for the album highlights his mastery of Chicago blues, swing/jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, soul and rock. Highlights abound throughout the CD: witness his amazing take on Freddy King’s “San-Ho-Zay”, Lloyd Glenn’s “Blue Shadows,” Magic Sam’s “All Your Love,” Lowell Fulson’s “Reconsider Baby” and Johnny “Guitar Watson’s “Motor Head Baby” (wherein Sean ascends to interplanetary heights with his guitar work). On songs such as “T-Bone Boogie” and “The Hucklebuck,” Costello exhibits a deft touch within the swing/jazz idiom with some amazing fretwork and interplay with standout keyboard player Matt Wauchope; and on such killer soul/rhythm & blues tracks as “I Get a Feeling,” “Check It Out,” “Can I Change My Mind” and “Doing My Own Thing,” his soulful vocals and guitar work get inside the songs themselves. Closing out the set is Sean’s version of Little Richard’s classic, “Lucille,” which shows that he could also rock out with the best of them.     

Sean Costello: At His Best – Live - Track Listing

1.   Introduction 

2.   San-Ho-Zay

3.   Blue Shadows

4.   T-Bone Boogie

5.   All Your Love

6.   I Get A Feeling

7.   Check It Out

8.   Can I Change My Mind

9.   You’re Killing My Love

10. Reconsider Baby

11. Doing My Own Thing

12. The Hucklebuck

13. Motor Head Baby                       

14. Hold On This Time

15. The Battle Is Over But The War Goes On

16.  Peace Of Mind

17.  Lucille

Sean Costello - The Battle Is Over But The War Goes On by digitalmusicmarketing

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Landslide releases David Earle Johnson, John Abercrombie and Dan Wall digital re-issues

Landslide Records announces the exclusive digital only release of two critically acclaimed Jazz albums which originally appeared on  Landslide vinyl in the early 80's, but are now out of print. Look for both releases at your favorite download store starting September 6, 2011.

Route Two is from a jazz trio led by the late percussionist David Earle Johnson with notable guitarist John Abercrombie and powerful organist Dan Wall. Route Two presents an exciting fusion of Latin rhythms, fluid guitar work, and propulsive Hammond B-3 organ. Johnson was well known for his percussion work with keyboardist Jan Hammer, and he appeared on many recordings by, among others, Billy Cobham, Oregon, and Lenny White. Abercrombie, who contributed three original compositions, is highly regarded for his superb solo outings on numerous ECM records, though Route Two finds his fluid style perfectly meshed within an entirely different setting. The album marks Wall’s first recordings as an organist, and he also wrote two of the tracks included. Other sidemen on Route Two include Jeremy Steig, flute, Gary Campbell, tenor saxophone, Joe Chambers, drums, and Col. Bruce Hampton (aka Hampton B. Coles) who provides inimitable intros over the closing track.


The DMM Roundup - August 31, 2011 by digitalmusicmarketing


Song For The Night by jazz pianist Dan Wall appeared on Landslide vinyl in 1981, was Wall’s initial appearance on record and features stellar sidemen Steve Grossman, soprano sax, Mike Richmond, bass, and Jimmy Madison, drums. Given influences from Thelonious Monk and McCoy Tyner, Wall boasts considerable prowess on keyboards in a lively set which includes all original tracks. Since the album’s initial release, Wall has cultivated a strong reputation as a jazz pianist and organist via his work performing and recording with such artists as guitarist John Abercrombie, drummer Bernard Purdie, bassist Eddie Gomez, and saxophonist Eddie Harris. His compositions have been recorded by, among others, Gomez and Chick Corea. Wall has been a featured artist for countless stories in numerous publications including DOWNBEAT, JAZZ TIMES, and KEYBOARD PLAYER. Currently he maintains an international touring schedule and acts as Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

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WEBB WILDER TO BE INDUCTED INTO MISSISSIPPI MUSICIANS HALL OF FAME!

Roots rocker Webb Wilder will be inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame at an induction ceremony in Jackson on January 18th.

A native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Wilder said of the announcement, "I am very grateful and extremely proud to be a recipient of this honor. I've been doing this a long time so it's always nice when someone notices! When that someone is the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, it's about as special as it gets. I have always seen the state of Mississippi as the "home office" of music...the "source" so to speak, having produced so many icons who are not only my musical heroes but those of the world as well. My family goes back generations there on both sides, so really, I couldn't be more pleased."

Mississippi is indeed considered by many to be the birthplace of blues, country music, and rock and roll. The Musicians Hall of Fame honors artists who have succeeded in the fields of classical, jazz, blues, country, gospel, R&B, contemporary and rock and roll. Webb will be in good company alongside inductees such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Leontyne Price, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, the Staples Singers, Mose Allison, Sam Cooke, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley, to name a few. It's also worth noting that Webb will be joining his uncle and aunt in the Hall - Willard and Lillian McMurry, who founded, owned and operated the legendary Trumpet Records label.

During his illustrious forty year career, Webb Wilder has always been an evangelist for real rock 'n' roll. And as a singer, guitarist, bandleader, filmmaker, and humorist, he may be roots-rock's only true Renaissance man. His music is a potent blend of bedrock roadhouse rockers, rootsy blues, lonesome ballads, and crunchy British Invasion grit, all informed by Wilder's distinctly irreverent attitude and wit. The Associated Press described his stage performance as "a glorious amalgamation of grunge chords, killer grooves, Screamin' Jay Hawkins theatrics, a healthy sense of humor, and great pop melodies."

Wilder's Landslide Records releases include IT CAME FROM NASHVILLE (1029), ABOUT TIME (1030) and a DVD, TOUGH IT OUT! (9001). His most recent studio release is entitled More Like Me, which was preceded by the 2008 release of a live album entitled Born To Be Wilder, from Blind Pig Records.

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Piano Red - The Lost Atlanta Tapes

Blues Blast Magazine – December 9, 2010

Piano Red - The Lost Atlanta Tapes
Landslide Records
18 tracks
Total time: 60:52

Blues piano legend Piano Red was the younger brother by 17 years of another blues piano legend, Speckled Red. Born William Lee “Willie” Perryman in 1911, Piano Red had a musical career that lasted half a century, and which extended from playing for rent parties and fish fries as a teenager to travelling with Blind Willie McTell, playing in the barrelhouses during the Depression years, becoming a vital force in rock ‘n’ roll, and finally being recognized as the artist he was at the end. He played the blues festivals in Europe and the U.S.; had as avid fans blues-rockers Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Bill Wyman; was the subject of a song written by Badfinger’s Pete Ham; performed at the inauguration of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt; recorded two blues classics in 1951 which both went gold; and was even lucky enough to have fairly steady work from the 1950s on, hosting his own radio show on Atlanta’s WOAK from 1953-1967, touring the South as Dr. Feelgood and the Interns in the 1960s, and performing regular gigs at Atlanta’s Muhlenbrink’s Saloon and, later, at the Excelsior Mill. It was at the Excelsior Mill where The Lost Atlanta Tapes was recorded as a live show on October 11, 1984, when Red was 73 years old. Or young (at least vocally, and as a piano player), which is what this exciting, joy-to-listen-to CD certainly demonstrates.

This just-over-an-hour live recording can justifiably claim to be an historical event, capturing as it does not only 18 tracks of scintillating blues performed by one of its major piano artists and vocalists, but also a slice of blues music history in the wide-ranging repertoire of material handled—from such very early blues classics as “St. Louis Blues” (track 13), “C.C. Rider” (track 5) and Leadbelly’s folk staple, “Cotton Fields,” (track 8) through Piano Red’s three (yes, three!) distinctive signature songs from the 1950s and 1960s: “Rockin’ with Red” (his first gold record, track 17), “The Right String (But the Wrong Yo Yo) (his follow-up hit to “Rockin’ with Red,” and also a gold record in 1951; track 10), and the ending track, “Dr. Feelgood” (Red’s radio show gave him a second moniker, Dr. Feelgood, under which he recorded an LP, with this song issued as a smashing rock ‘n’ roll single which I heard as a teenager in Illinois in 1962).

Of the 18 tracks on The Lost Atlanta Tapes, seven are previously unreleased. Nine of the tracks are Piano Red originals: in addition to the three signature songs given above, on the CD are also opening tracks 1 and 2, “She’s Mine” and ‘My Baby’s Gone;” track 4, “Let’s Get It On; “Baby, Please Don’t Go, “track 6 (quite different from the Big Joe Williams classic); “Let’s Have a Good Time Tonight,” track 12; and “Ain’t Gonna Be Your Lowdown Dog No More,” track 14. Piano Red introduces “My Baby’s Gone” with the comment, “I used to live the blues years ago, an’ that’s when I learned to play ‘em,” most apt commentary on the essence of the blues, even when exuberantly played and sung, as they are on The Lost Atlanta Tapes. For always underneath the exuberance, the dialectic of rocking music combined with poignant lyrics, is the reality of Black life that’s expressed in Sonny Boy Williamson I’s line, “Laughin’ just to keep from cryin’,” and which Piano Red notes matter-of-factly as “I used to live the blues….” For The Lost Atlanta Tapes is a happy album, a felicitous and entertaining performance; yet, at bottom, the blues is always more than entertainment, even when it entertains.

Accompanying Piano Red here are James Jackson, drums, and George Miller, stand-up bass, who also sing and shout, both individually and together, in call-and-response chorus and exclamations on several of the songs. Just this minimal accompaniment is all that’s needed, for Piano Red’s strong left hand driving the rhythm, and his right hand filling the spaces with elegant playing of the higher notes, do everything else. Already in the 1930s Red was playing in a rocking, rhythmic, danceable style that made him a natural when the first stirrings of rock ‘n’ roll came along in the mid- to-late-1940s. Indeed, what’s quite noticeable about Piano Red’s playing here on The Lost Atlanta Tapes is his ability to combine older stride, boogie and jump styles with more modern R&B sounds, which is precisely what ranks him among the rock ‘n’ roll pioneers. His vocals partake of modern sounds too, with frequent gospel-like shouts and exclamations, and he spreads an infectious excitement throughout in both his vocals and in his stage patter. Piano Red was known as a showman as well as a great musician; that comes through beautifully on this CD, even though we can’t see him. We know we are at a great show, just by listening.

There are many shades and colors in the music here, with the slower, sadder numbers comfortably rubbing shoulders with up-tempo rockers. There’s even numbers here that could be said to be unvarnished rock ‘n’ roll, such as track 7, “Shake, That’s All Right,” where the left hand drives a churning rock riff throughout, and Red sings and plays the high notes in a style that’s reminiscent of a slightly subdued Jerry Lee Lewis. Indeed, tracks 7-10, “Shake, That’s All Right,” “Cotton Fields,” “Corrina, Corrina” (track 9), and “The Right String (But the Wrong Yo Yo)” can be seen as a rock ‘n’ roll mini-set. Red renders Roosevelt Sykes’s “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone,” track 16, as one minute and 16 seconds of incandescent piano-and-vocal-driven energy.

Slowing the tempo down are two pop ballads that Piano Red has adapted to the blues, track 3’s “That’s My Desire” and track 15’s “Pay It No Mind.” There’s also Robert Lockwood Jr.’s “Blues and Trouble” (track 11), a sad and moody song played with a dialectical exuberance as if to say I’m laughin’ just to keep from cryin’. Thus can The Lost Atlanta Tapes be justly considered a one-CD crash course in the meaning of the blues.

David Fulmer’s excellent accompanying notes are six pages of vital information, and are interspersed with a photo of Piano Red in his later years, a music trade publication excerpt on his success in 1951, and a picture of him with his R&B band, the Interns, from the 1960s. The note jacket cover reproduces a neo-primitive painting by Al Simpson, “Piano Red Rockin’ the Blues.” These notes and graphics thus round out another excellent CD from the justly-noted Southern roots small label, Landslide Records.

Reviewer George "Blues Fin Tuna" Fish hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. He wrote the liner notes for Yank Rachell’s Delmark album, Chicago Style and has written a regular music column for several years.

Hitting The Bricks With Sidewalk Caesars

SCRAPOMATIC tours in support of their new record "Sidewalk Caesars" In Stores June 24th...