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January - February 2006 Newsletter
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One Man Band Adolphus Bell Music Maker Relief Fund 13 tracks/41:36
Adolphus Bell is a 61 year old performer who was born in and grew up in Alabama. He has been performing since age 22, 4 years after moving to Pittsburgh, PA. He developed a “One Man Band” concept when he became discouraged with his band members. Bell plays guitar, drums, high hat, harp and sings. He has been doing this and serving as an activist trying to improve the lives of urban ghetto youths since the late 1960’s. He began touring Europe and released his first CD in 2005 with the help of the folks at Music Maker.
The album contains a good mix of famous cover songs and Aldophus’ original tunes. Bell is a creative and talented musician with a penchant for both humor and expressing the plight of the poor in the songs he has penned. The covers are also done well- they are not just a rehash of the originals. His guitar playing and one man band work is utterly amazing.
He opens up “One Man Band” with a track of the same title. Bell humorously introduces himself as multiple band members as he plays the beat and groove. “Alabama Women” features Bell finger-picking his way through a traditional blues song. His fingers glide over the guitar frets and he delivers a fine performance. His songs like “Child Support Blues,” “Have You Ever Plowed a Mule?” and all the others he penned make one sorry that it has taken all these years to have this man and his music recorded for posterity.
While the cover tunes are good, I really do prefer his original stuff. But listening to this man’s deep, bluesy tones on stuff like “I Need Some Money” and Sam Cooke’s Let the Good Times Roll” show us how the One Man Band can make some of this stuff sound fresh.
Part of the recording was done in studio in Hunstville, Alabama but more than half of the tracks were taken down directly by Tim Duffy of Media Maker in Hillsborough, NC. Those tracks sound a bit more compressed, over driven and raw, but they impart an original quality to the music. I liked the CD a lot. It is the newest offering from the Music Maker folks and it proves that the blues are still alive and kickin’!
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