Blues Reviews by Big Wayne: Al Wood and The Woodsmen CD Review

Blues Reviews by Big Wayne: Al Wood and The Woodsmen CD Review

Al Wood and The Woodsmen CD Review

Today we take a listen to Al’s new CD “Mood Swinging Blues”

1. Late Night Stroll 5★★★★★
2. Firefly 6★★★★★★
3. Highway 17 5★★★★★
4. Parting Glass 4★★★★ nice harmonica
5. Diggin’ Down Deep 5★★★★★
6. Treena Ballerina 6★★★★★★ Fun Tune Got me whistling!
7. The Pasture 4★★★★ nice harmonica
8. Feeble-minded Woman 6★★★★★★ Groovy
9. Blame-Shiftn’ Blues 5 ★★★★★ Great solo work!
10. Passenger Freight Train 5★★★★★
11. Rollin’ (Fade Away) 5★★★★★
12. (Enter) Jazz Thief (Exit) You 7★★★★★★★
13. Shake 6★★★★★★ Get up and dance Rockabilly!

Average (mean) 5.307692308
Median 5
Standard Deviation 0.85

Album Score: 9.45★


“I love this album, it’s Romantic and Fun! Many flavors influence this album and it is primed to influence your spirit to bring you out of the blues! The doctor’s prescription is to take a dose of mood swinging blues now!” Big Wayne www.LiveBluesTonight.com


Al Wood is a multi-talented performer and song writer from Ottawa, Canada. Al plays a mean Chicago roots Harmonica and on guitar he is expressive and diverse! On this album Al and the Woodsmen’s innovative style are heard. Many flavors of music are combined, but yet remain unique.
Blues Flavored roots/folk and country influence with, at times, acoustic rhythm of the rails. Thirteen all original tunes make for nearly an hour of foot tapping music that will get you feeling your blues fade away. I felt as if I knew the music even though it was new to me. Clever lyrics, great vocals, awesome Harmonica solos and a fantastic band consisting of Fiddle, Guitar, Acoustic Bass, Drums, Lap Steel Guitar, Mandolin, and Banjo. Had me whistling along with the first song.
My top 3 songs were “Firefly”, “Treena Ballerina” and “Feeble-Minded Woman”; with my favorite being “(Enter) Jazz Thief (Exit) You”. I know that’s 4 favorites not 3. LOL
I really enjoyed all the aspects of this album and can’t wait to see what’s next. Are you all coming to California anytime soon? Let me know!

http://www.alwoodmusic.com

Promoting your gigs and getting more exposure!

A 3 or 4 part resource series by Big Wayne.

Part 1: Introduction

Ok, it’s been a while since I have posted anything here on the blog. It’s not that I haven’t had material to review, although I do have less CDs coming in to review. But my recent absent has been because of the promoting and production of the new LBT Website. LBT, for you newbie’s, is short for LiveBluesTonight.com.  Any way I have worked very hard on the site and the search engine and still it’s just me and I have to do my day job to pay the bills…with this economy that has been a whole other sad story! So I want say thank you for being patient with me, especially those bands that were hoping to be featured in my review. I will post a new review soon. But thought I should post something on the blog before I post the review so to get you all listening again. Are you there… listening that is?

 So, another part of the delay in posts is music. Well I am a musician! I recently started a new band with some friends or let me rephrase that, some friends and I started! And a part of that roll has been promoting, producing and booking. You know up to this point in my so called career in music has shown me that musicians in general are some of the coolest people you’ll ever know. They’re also some of the most neurotic and seriously sensitive people (in a Bad way)! I mean come on! It’s the entire artsy crowd, walking around with their hearts on their sleeves. Me too, I am not exempt by this. I don’t think I am neurotic but sensitive…yes, I am sensitive about my passions. And of course you have the EGOS… Big Headed egos. I could really write a lot about this as I have had the misfortune of this behavior in all of the bands I’ve been in. Not me of course, just a few other people that feel they are bigger and better than everyone else! Give me a break. If you don’t know what I mean about musicians being neurotic and sensitive, yet at times cool, interesting or even exotic, one only has to visit the next NAMM Convention to get an eye full of all that! If you like to people watch this is the place for you!  You will be completely entertained by the people that show up. Every stereotype imaginable is there and more! I know, I know I am a part of the freak show. I can’t be missed since I stand out so.  And that is a small part of the fun. Anyway I’m getting off track here.

 One of the things I keep getting offended with is how people keep telling me how gifted I am in promoting and Booking. I can’t tell you how many times I am told how that is my biggest talent. I think to myself, I have more to offer than that! I have other talents! This booking and promoting thing was developed out of necessity. There’s no talent in that, anyone can do it! SO, why am I so insulted by being good at something that others are not so good at? And why am I so good at it? My whole life I have always been told how talented I am in art, as a vocalist etc. I have always been very creative. It’s kind of a family trait, talented vocalists, artistically creative and inventive people. So I think the creative and inventive side of me has helped me to be “gifted” in the promoting and booking. Also most musicians don’t want to deal with the “business” side of music, and perhaps that is a part of the reason they compliment me so! LOL All joking aside, it is very important!

The next post will air soon and in this series we will be looking into some great resource’s both online and in print! So stay tuned!

Peace…..