What do ya think

[shokhead]

Ever heard of Tommy Castro,Gov't Mule,Magic Slim & the teardrops? Any of them anygood? Blues/Rock style?

[DarrenH]

Big Gov't Mule fan here. I can't say enough good things about them boys. Warren Haynes is by far the best darn blues rock guitar player out there today. A tireless performer. Your best bet would be to start with the Allen Woody albums (bass player who passed away in 2000).

S/T
Dose (my favorite)
Life Before Insanity

Then came a string of tribute albums for Allen.

The Deep End vol 1
The Deep End vol 2
The Deepest End

The latter of which includes an awesome 3 hour DVD. All of these tribute cd's gather together a bunch of different bass players that Allen looked up to and/or respected. All are really, really good I just think you should start with the roots of the band first.

After you've absorbed all that there's a couple of awesome live cd's worth getting.

Live: With A Little Help From Our Friends. 4 cd's of pure blues rock bliss. These guys can play some awesome covers.

Live At The Roseland Ballroom. This may be oop print but worth it if you can find it.

Oh, and then there's the new album, Deja Voodoo. Not bad. Not as hard edged as the Alan Woody albums though. A little more subdued if you will. The music incorporates the addition of keyboards/Hammond organ player which I like. I think Warren is taking the band in a slightly different direction here which is probably a good thing. Can't wait for the next album.

Darren

[Chip_B]

Ever heard of Tommy Castro,Gov't Mule,Magic Slim & the teardrops? Any of them anygood? Blues/Rock style?
Tommy Castro's Essential is, well, essential for any fan of his music. It's very good. I can also vouch for Gov't Mule.

Magic Slim plays the sort of Chicago Blues that Muddy Waters was famous for, so if that's your thing, you'll like it. It's definitely not Blues-Rock though.

If you're looking for Blues-Rock, here are some recommendations:

Joe Bonamassa - A New Day Yesterday, Blues Deluxe,and So It's Like That

The Hoax - Sound Like This

Monti Amundson - Big Monti's Blues, I See Trouble, and The Mean 18. Good luck finding them though.

Sonny Landreth - The Promise Land

Ian Moore - Modernday Folklore

Arc Angels - s/t

Storyville - A Piece of Your Soul

Colin James - Bad Habits

Tony Vega Band - Dear Sweet Goodness

Jimmy Thackery - Sinner Street

Studebaker John and the Hawks - Tremoluxe

-Chip

[kexodusc]

Gov't Mule is amazing...Warren Haynes is one of the most talented musicians alive, and hardest working too.
You can't go wrong with any of their albums, but my favs are "Life Before Insanity" and "Deja Voodoo".
I'm in the camp that thinks Deja Voodoo is their best to date...a bit different, but considering the number of similar artists out there, it's quite refreshing to see a group treading new grounds.
The DVD's are great.

[shokhead]

A guy on another forum was talking about these guys. He was also saying that every blues guitar played is measured by SRV's playing. I disagreed. He also said Jimmy Hendrix did a blues song,machine gun? He said its the talk of the blues players. The blues guitar. song.
I have joe bonamessa and Arc Angles{double trouble} both good. I like the faster,newer blues,SRV,Eric Clapton,Gary Moore{his new cd is real good,power of the blues} Robert Cray. I'm not big on muddy waters,bb king,the older guys.

[kexodusc]

To tell you the truth, I'd put Warren Haynes up against SRV any day...SRV was a dynamite player, but a rather mediocre song writer. For real blues guitar, you should look at the 3 biggest influences in SRV's style:
Freddie King
Albert King
and B.B. King (who IMO is the single greatest pure Blues guitarist ever). Actually, I have an interview somewhere in a magazine from Warren Haynes that claims those three were some of his biggest influences too.
No surprise that Hendrix was heavily influenced by B.B. King and other blues musicians as well. There's a lot of blues in Hendrix and Clapton's guitar work.
Music evolves over time, but if you were to ask Clapton, Warren Haynes, SRV, Hendrix about guys like T-Bone Walker, the 3 Kings, Muddy Waters, etc, they'd tell you they owe a lot to these guys.

The amazing thing about SRV was that he tought himself just by playing with other musicians. Very few lessons. Inspiring.

[shokhead]

Well you might check out the AVS forum and the blues thread and see what redbone i think his name is say about SRV. For the most part,its him first and everybody else way behind and that how the industry thinks to. I like SRV but i dont jacko$$ over him.

[kexodusc]

Well, Redhouse would offend a good portion of the blues community calling SRV the best ever. SRV is a legend, no doubt, but sometimes musicians whose lives end in tragedy prematurely are remembered as being greater than they otherwise may have been. Not only that, it's pretty hard to argue who's better than who with a huge fan of SRV. This guy admits to meeting SRV, collecting SRV paraphernalia, etc...To him SRV is the best, and that's fine...to many others, he was just really good. He's in my top 5, just don't think I can put him at the top in that genre.

AMG has a pretty good description of his work. Texas Flood and In Step are definitely must buys,but his other work is a bit weak, only worth buying because SRV's playing is so strong, but if In Step or Texas Flood don't hook your, the others won't have much to offer.
I guess it's the musician in me that really holds song-writing in high regards in addition to playing.
Yngwie Malmsteen is probably the most amazing guitarist in terms of pure technical ability...but damn a lot of his music just really sucks.
I'll have to admit, seeing SRV live might have been so overwhelming that it would forever skew my opinion, but I never got that chance. For those that did, I'm extremely jealous.

[tentoze]

I'll have to admit, seeing SRV live might have been so overwhelming that it would forever skew my opinion, but I never got that chance. For those that did, I'm extremely jealous.
I always fell somewhere in the middle as far as SRV was concerned, but I did see him at some point in '89 in Dallas during the SRV/Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop tour. A friend who WAS a big fan convinced me to go, and since I'd always liked J. Beck...been too long ago to remember a lot of details, but the show was at some HUGE venue, maybe Cowtown Colisseum or something....this was SRV's "return" home, so it was clear he would be the 2nd act. Beck and the boys put on a fine show as the opener. SR was also very good for about 45 minutes- by that far into his set, things were soooo loud and his over-playing was so dominating, I thought my ears were going to bleed. By the middle of the first song of his encore, even my friend was ready to leave. I don't go out of my way to listen to SR to this day.

[shokhead]

And i'm not knocking SRV at all,he should be in your blues collection but i agree with Kexodusc,TF and In Step and Sky is falling are good cd's. I'm really liking the new Gary Moore,power of the blues more and more. If he could only sing a tad better. LOL