Good Blues Band mixes

[glenn Taylor]

I am working on a good blues band and was looking for some well mixed blues Cd 's to get some ideas for mixes. They have drums. bass. guitar,and harp. The singer has a great voice sort of like Steve Winwood. The concept is sort of a live slamming sound . They have some slow blues and fast shuffles. Does anyone know of any good blues Cd's with a llittle rock influence I can pickup? My own blues band album I did in 14 hours a few months ago got us into the blues competition in Memphis in Feb, but these guys are a lot more picky.
Glenn

[Player1]

Check out Jonny Lang's album "Wander This World" Great rhythm section and part selection.

[plexisys]

Listen to the Buddy Guy stuff. Almost always done live. It's all there including the F**Kups.

[tINY]

If you are looking for some ideas, rather than a single, shining example to follow, you should look in a couple of directions...

Ian Moore - Modernday Folklore
Tom Waits - Alice

Plus a survey of the band's favorite albums...



-tINY

[Lee Knight]

Originally Posted by plexisys

Listen to the Buddy Guy stuff. Almost always done live. It's all there including the F**Kups.

Buddy Guy's Sweet Tea. That album freakin' swings. The sounds are a big part of it too. The murky rumble of a sagging old tube amp with slow tremolo. The trashy but beautiful drums, and drumming. The clever use of ambience but never gimmicky. And not subtle either. Great album, great playing, great production, and yeah... great mixes.

[BudgetMC]

Lots of good stuff on the Alligator label. The first two Lil Ed albums were cut live in just a couple of days.

Check the Evidence label, too.

[taturana]

Clapton's "From the Cradle" is an awesome sounding blues record..and it was the biggest blues record seller ever.

For a more rocked approach, ZZ top's Rhythmeen is quite cool too..

I would also check out classic Freddie King/ Albert King recordings for that vibe factor... The fabulous T-birds and Jimmie vaughan's solo records are really nice too...

Lately i've been listening a lot to Govt Mule as well... sounds great...

I guess it really depends on what kind of blues they play and where you want to take it.

[allencollins]

YouTube - Gov't Mule - Mother Earth (Tail of 2 Cities DVD)

when it all comes down? You gotta go back to mother earth..........


Check out 'Second Winter'

[taturana]

Originally Posted by allencollins

YouTube - Gov't Mule - Mother Earth (Tail of 2 Cities DVD)

when it all comes down? You gotta go back to mother earth..........


Check out 'Second Winter'

now.. THAT's a guitar tone..... eheeh

and it is a real ballsy modern approach to the blues sound...

[Digitar]

Check out Studebaker John and the Hawks. A real Chicago Bluesman. He is great at slide and Harp. If I didn't know better, I would of thought you were describing him.

[BudgetMC]

Here's a local Cincy guy who has been getting really good reviews and attracting a lot of attention.

My harp player sits in with him regularly, and says he's a good egg, to boot.

MySpace.com - Jon Justice - THE REBOUND - Now Available!!! - CINCINNATI, Ohio - Rock / Blues / Soul - www.myspace.com/jonjusticeband

[channelcat]

Taj Mahal's Taj's Blues is a great album. Gov't Mule and North Mississippi All-Stars have the best modern blues sounds IMO. Luther kills on the new Black Crowes album too.

Stu

[Stiff]

Originally Posted by Lee Knight

Buddy Guy's Sweet Tea. That album freakin' swings. The sounds are a big part of it too. The murky rumble of a sagging old tube amp with slow tremolo. The trashy but beautiful drums, and drumming. The clever use of ambience but never gimmicky. And not subtle either. Great album, great playing, great production, and yeah... great mixes.

YES.

One of my favorite sounding albums ever.

[Greg Curtis]

Robert Cray's stuff is produced well.

[KillerV]

+10000 on Buddy Guy's Sweet Tea

That's the first thing that came into my mind when I saw the topic. That album sounds exceptionally good... No hell, it sounds awesome!

My wife wasn't really a fan of the blues untill I played that album to her. Now, whenever we have the chance to do something romantic together like a nice dinner or something she puts on Sweet Tea. If I can get one of my mixes to have the same effect on someone I will consider myself successful.

[doorknocker]

One of my very fave newer blues recordings is Hubert Sumlin's 'About them Shoes'. Rob Fraboni recorded and produced it, VERY powerful sound but without any hype and it has the most amazing room sound. And the performances are incredible!

Another maybe less known fave is Kim Wilson's (of Fabulous T-Birds fame) 'Tiger Man'. A smaller, drier sound than the Sumlin record but equally great, recorded in Austin by Stuart Sullivan.

FWIW, Buddy Guy's 'Sweet Tea' isn't really my...well...cup of tea. Too much attitude I think and they forced a (albeit great) Hill Country sound on Buddy that isn't really him. It worked great for the North Mississippi Allstars or R-L Burnside though but I much prefered Buddy's 'Blues Singer' album which was mainly acoustic and sounds fantastic.

[Mr.HOLMES]

Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood from his debut Album.

[Cookie]

Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard did a really good blues album a couple years ago.

[Stiff]

If you don't dig the sound of Sweet Tea (in which case you're an alien ), I suggest checking out the old records cut at Chess. Once again Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf and those guys, but I suppose if you have the least interest in blues you already have. Two sounds that I also like are the Bluesbreakers with Clapton album (yeah, ain't I the original one?) and the first Rory Gallagher album actually. The later ones doesn't have half the charm the debut has.

[Stiff]

Originally Posted by doorknocker

FWIW, Buddy Guy's 'Sweet Tea' isn't really my...well...cup of tea. Too much attitude I think and they forced a (albeit great) Hill Country sound on Buddy that isn't really him. It worked great for the North Mississippi Allstars or R-L Burnside though but I much prefered Buddy's 'Blues Singer' album which was mainly acoustic and sounds fantastic.

Funny, I think it worked better for Buddy!
'Blues Singer' is a nice sounding album. Almost feels like he's sitting in front of me.

[plexisys]

Also listen to some of the Roy Buchannan stuff. It's a very different style of blues than most of the music mentioned above.

[dbbubba]

There are so many approaches you can take.
While I really like all of ZZ Top's later releases from Rhythmeen onward I can't really call that a blues approach.
Billy and his team are just the masters at taking things over the top, but still rockin' the blues.
I like the Govt. Mule stuff as well.

If you have the space, I'd record the band live in a room with plenty of ambience.

Being from Texas, I have recorded a lot of blues, but my all time favorite recording was one I did for Joe Kubeck and his band The Pinch back in 1982.
I put the three piece band in the same room with some tall gobos around the drummer, but allowed plenty of bleed.
It was a quick, six hour session where we tracked everything live thru my old Sphere Eclipse and straight to 2-track.
All other blues records I have done where I had maybe more time sound a bit "forced" production-wise and I wish I could peel back the "production."
By "forced" I mean thinks like digital reverb and "modern" treatments.

To me blues cries out for the basic band, room, mics, console, recorder.

[d. gauss]

really depends on what you've already recorded. soundwise, and stylewise. the mix is only gonna present what you have in a the best possible light.

personally, i'm not a fan of the many "slick" blues records out there, and that includes many mentioned above. the chess stuff is the real deal.

below are a few links to very recent stuff that i really think sounds killer in an old school vibe. oh, and speaking of old school, here is a blues record i just recorded that is 100 percent live in a living room. amazing players, and no overdubs at all:

(replace the $$ with ss) http://www.davegro$$.net/

Kid Ramos West Coast House Party CD

Amazon.com: Player: Nick Curran & The Nitelifes: Music

[Dr Gris]

First of all I would ask them if they want it to sound old and vintage or more modern.
Do they want to sound like the listener is present in the room they play in?

I think ambience is important, no reverb on anything!!
The same ambience for everything, maybe slap-back delay on vox.

I still LOVE the recordings Johny Winter made with Muddy Waters:
Hard Again 1977
I´m Ready 1978
King Bee 1981

As mentioned before, Tiger Man with Kim Wilson is great!
Jerry McCain did some crazy and cool sounding tracks, obscure, slamming, rocking, vintage blues.

Good luck!!
/Magnus

[dbbubba]

Originally Posted by d. gauss

and speaking of old school, here is a blues record i just recorded that is 100 percent live in a living room. amazing players, and no overdubs at all:

(replace the $$ with ss) http://www.davegro$$.net/

VERY VERY nice up-dated version of the old-school blues sound.
I like the first cut a lot.

Good work.

[rjacobsen]

You might want to listen to some good harp players or bands with harp players. Guys like, Little Walter, James Cotton, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Norton Buffalo, Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes, just to name a few. You can go to You Tube and find tunes by all these guys, then maybe get CDs of what you like the most.
rjacobsen

[mbrebes]

John Mayall's albums always sound good, both newer and old. For old ones, the John Mayall with Eric Clapton still sounds great.

Jimmie Vaughn solo albums. Coco Montoya. Sonny Landreth. Tommy Castro. Most of the artists on Alligator.

What I would really recommend would be for you to ask the group to bring in a blues CD that is similar to what they want theirs to sound like. I use that approach with most types of music. It saves a lot of headaches and gives you a starting point. In this case, a CD is worth a thousand words.

[doorknocker]

Originally Posted by mbrebes

Jimmie Vaughn solo albums.

Oh yes! 'Do you get the blues?' sounds great, very dimensional and real. Jimmie mentioned that he didn't use tape....it's one of the records that I always mention and play to the 'tape-only' folks.

[Bluzzi]

For me when it comes to Blues its performance first so production is really a far,far second in there. But its really up to the band right? Don't they have any idea of what they want (or are they leaving it totally up to you?)?

Again its my opinion but a little reverb and/or echo and a bit of compression does not hurt. Listen to some slow minor blues and often you will hear reverb so exaggerated that normally you wouldn't even hear that much on Celine Dion's sound (and god there is a lot of reverb on her voice!).

For me my favorite recording as far as "sound" is T. Bone Walker's "Good Feelin'" recording in France in the '70s I believe. It won a Grammy for best Blues recording if that means anything to you.

But there are so many great blues recordings its insane! Where do you start? I prefer the Chess sound but I do also like modern sounding blues records. Blues is about honesty first. Sound is icing.

I think from a mix point of view the blues is almost like Jazz in the sense that the performance and tune will dictate the mix.

I'm sure you know all that anyway but I like to hear myself talk!

Someone mentioned Studebaker John previously and he is an example of an artist that has a "sound". A lot of compression on everything is what I hear and it works for him where it would ruin most Blues.

Have fun, I envy you! Around here Blues bands are rare and good ones...well..


Jim

[Singinto Th'Can]

Originally Posted by doorknocker

One of my very fave newer blues recordings is Hubert Sumlin's 'About them Shoes'. Rob Fraboni recorded and produced it, VERY powerful sound but without any hype and it has the most amazing room sound. And the performances are incredible!

+1 for Hubert's Shoes! I read the OP and it was the first thing that came to mind. It has a nice range of singers and players, but a very consistent unifying vibe.

I'd love to hear somebody make a record that sounded like Junior Wells' Hoodo Man Blues (with Buddy Guy), but current blues isn't usually that stark.