Various - 2 albums: Baltimore On Tap: Baltimore's Best Blues Bands / Live At The Cat's Eye

As you may or may not know, we recently moved lock, stock and family barrel from Paris to Baltimore. Are we crazy? Possibly. But there is one thing that Baltimore has hands down over Paris - THE BLUES. Blues musicians in Paris are perfunctory. They know the correct notes to play... but they play them with about as much passion as an arranged marriage.

Here in Baltimore the blues are gritty... the musicians make lots of mistakes... they get drunk, chase women... some are missing teeth... but when they're tearing into a riff, it makes you feel good.

We recently had the good fortune to meet Rudy Strukoff of Rude Dog's Rhythm Revue. Rudy, a Chicago native, has been in town for several years and taken it upon himself to collect samples from some of Baltimore best blues musicians. "While it can be said that not all of these players are completely sane," says Rude Dog, "the musicians on this compilation took the long hard road and did something noteworthy, they combined their talents and made a blues record that is guaranteed to keep you groovin' from beginning to end." ~Addison Wiggin, The Daily Reckoning

Album: Baltimore On Tap: Baltimore's Best Blues Bands
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 51:15
Size: 117.3 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Year: 2003
Art: Front

[4:34] 1. Automatic Slim - Don't Come Knockin'
[3:13] 2. Jimmi Sexton - (Got My) Mojo Workin'
[6:03] 3. Keenan Wells - Love's In Vain
[3:16] 4. Rude Dog - Who's Been Talkin'
[4:16] 5. P. J. Ellis - Can't Kill My Heart
[3:43] 6. W.C. Spencer - Forty-Four
[4:11] 7. Red Jones - Charm City Swing
[2:50] 8. David Gofreed - Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover
[4:06] 9. Detroit Slim - You Been Warned
[2:58] 10. Dave Evans - Messin' With Me
[3:36] 11. Larry Dennis & Wild Rice - Too Tall To Mambo
[4:18] 12. Ursula Ricks - Born Under Bad Sign
[4:07] 13. Ursula Ricks - You Gotta Move

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Album: Baltimore On Tap: Live At The Cat's Eye
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 69:33
Size: 159.2 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[3:57] 1. Automatic Slim - King-A-Ling
[6:38] 2. Automatic Slim - Get Out Of My Life Woman
[4:26] 3. Linwood Taylor - Blues Man
[7:45] 4. Rude Dog - Dirty Lipstick
[5:21] 5. Ursula Ricks - Shakey Ground
[6:06] 6. Rude Dog - Shake Your Hips
[5:21] 7. P.J. Ellis - Ain't The Kind Of Woman
[5:38] 8. Eric Olsen - Tore Down
[7:29] 9. Eric Olsen - Been Downhearted Baby
[4:05] 10. Linwood Taylor - Can't Get A Woman
[6:02] 11. Linwood Taylor - Good Morning Little School Girl
[6:41] 12. Rude Dog - Crab Town Crawl

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W.C. Spencer - 2 albums: Blues Explorer / Bluescat

Baltimore-area bluesman W.C. Spencer plays guitar, harmonica, drums, and organ and sings on his recordings, and his live shows are a spectacle, as he plays drums, guitar, and sings all at the same time, not unlike Mr. Satan of the Satan & Adam blues duo, who recorded for a variety of blues labels in the 1990s. Using an invention of his own creation, an eight-piece Alectroset hybrid drum kit that he plays with just one foot, Spencer can play an organist's bass pedals with the other foot. He plays all the instruments while singing the blues.

Spencer launched his performing career in 1974, after graduating from Lynchburg College in Virginia. Through his performing career, he's had plenty of inspiration from unique guitarists like Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton. Spencer opened shows and shared stages with both of them during the 1970s and '80s. Spencer began playing guitar in his native Baltimore as a ten-year-old and quickly took his cues from people like Libba Cotten to teach himself acoustic guitar. He wrote his first original composition as a 14-year-old, and by the time he was 15 he got his first electric guitar. In high school he formed his first band, the Heathens, who specialized in British blues and rock & roll bands like the Rolling Stones and the Animals.

After four years in college in Virginia with no degree, Spencer returned to Maryland and put together a blues trio. But when his two partners on bass and drums were unable to tour with him because of day jobs and family commitments, Spencer began experimenting with a harmonica rack and a tambourine on his foot. Working with a University of Virginia engineering student, he created a rudimentary drum kit and hi-hat that he could play with his foot while playing guitar and harmonica. As he continued to hone his craft and perfect his sound, he added a foot bass pedal synthesizer as well as snare and crash and ride cymbals to supplement what he was doing on drums with his right foot.

Spencer toured extensively through the late '70s and early '80s, opening shows for Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, Merle Haggard, and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. He returned to Baltimore in 1983 and earned his college degree at age 33. He worked a procession of conventional jobs through the 1980s but also developed a substance abuse problem. W.C. married the girlfriend who helped him overcome his alcoholism in 1991 and moved to rural Maryland. After a job layoff in 1994, Spencer recorded his first album, Bluescat, accompanied on some tracks by Hammond B-3 organists Tommy Lepson and Marty Canelli.

His second album for Catscan Records, Over Time, includes a blues tune from each of the ten decades of the 20th century as well as a smattering of original songs. He covers the likes of Muddy Waters, Albert King, Tampa Red, and W.C. Handy on the album. Spencer toured extensively up and down the East Coast based on the strength of his second album, dazzling audiences with his multifaceted live show and his sheer dexterity in being able to play all his instruments simultaneously. Spencer's most recent album is 2005's Blues Explorer. Here, he tackles well-known covers like "Kansas City," "Key to the Highway," and "Worried Life Blues," but also gives fans spry originals like "I Said the Blues." ~bio by Richard Skelly

Album: Blues Explorer
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 40:33
Size: 92.9 MB
Styles: Modern electric blues
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[2:51] 1. I Said The Blues
[3:42] 2. 44 Blues
[3:04] 3. Tell Me Momma
[3:43] 4. So Long
[2:32] 5. Kansas City
[2:51] 6. Down With The Blues
[5:01] 7. I'm Leavin'
[2:46] 8. Worried Life Blues
[2:39] 9. Mean Old Train
[4:58] 10. Call On Me
[3:04] 11. Fat Man Walking
[3:17] 12. Key To The Highway

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Album: Bluescat
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 54:23
Size: 124.5 MB
Styles: Modern electric blues
Year: 1996
Art: Front

[3:28] 1. Crosscut Saw
[4:29] 2. No Place To Go
[4:16] 3. Unseen Eye
[2:52] 4. Same Old Blues
[4:05] 5. Blues All Day Long
[4:09] 6. Baby Please Don't Go
[3:35] 7. I Just Want To Make Love To You
[4:35] 8. Is This Goodbye
[4:12] 9. I Can't Believe
[4:41] 10. My Time After Awhile
[4:27] 11. Little Red Rooster
[5:26] 12. The Problem
[4:02] 13. Got Love If You Want It

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