Blues on the Bayou (CD - 1998)

Personnel: B.B. King (vocals, guitar); Leon Warren (guitar); Melvin Jackson (saxophone); Stanley Abernathy, James Bolden (trumpet); James Sells Toney (keyboards); Michael Doster (bass); Calep Emphrey Jr. (drums); Tony Coleman (percussion).

Recorded at Dockside Studio, Maurice, Louisiana. Includes liner notes by B.B. King.

BLUES ON THE BAYOU won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Personnel: B.B. King (guitar); Leon Warren (guitar); Melvin Jackson (saxophone); Stanley Abernathy, James Bolden (trumpet); James Toney (keyboards); Calep Emphrey (drums); Tony Coleman (percussion).

Audio Mixers: Joe McGrath; John Porter.

Recording information: Dockside Studios, Maurice.

Photographer: Kevin Westenberg.

B.B. King made his debut as producer with Blues on the Bayou, released in October 1998. He employs the most basic of ideas for this project: record an album of B.B. King tunes, with B.B. King's regular road band, under B.B. King's supervision. Keeping it loose, relaxed, and focused, King cut this album in four days down at a secluded studio in Louisiana and came up with one of his strongest, modern-day albums in many years. No duets, no special guests, just King and his road warrior band, playing his songs with him producing the results -- no overdubs, just simple, no-nonsense blues done like he would do them on-stage. The result is a no-frills, straight-ahead session that shows that King might be have been 73 at the time of this date, but he still had plenty of gas left in the tank. Tracks like "I'll Survive," and the jumping "Shake It Up and Go," "Darlin' What Happened," the minor keyed "Blues Boy Tune," the instrumental "Blues We Like," and the closing "If That's It I Quit" show him stretching out in a way he has seldom done in a studio environment, and the result is one of his best albums in recent memory. ~ Cub Koda

Having just turned 73, B.B. King released BLUES ON THE BAYOU as a kind of retrospective look at 50 years of playing the blues. King produced BAYOU himself and recorded it at a remote studio in the heart of Lafayette, Louisiana with the band he'd been playing with for the past 10 years. A relaxed and well-oiled feeling is felt throughout this group of songs, some of which were newly written while others are older numbers that were dusted off and re-recorded specifically for these sessions. "Blues Boys Tune" and "Blues We Like" are solidly rendered King instrumentals and "I'll Survive" is a '50s nugget softly gilded by strings and horn charts punctuated by James Sells Toney's fluid piano playing.

King's economical use of notes means that "Mean Ole World" becomes more than just a standard shuffle and "Blues Man" not only possesses a slow burn, but could easily become his trademark song. Digging deep into his considerable catalog, B.B. King shows impressive acumen towards life's potholes by pulling out numbers dealing with betrayal ("Broken Promise"), sassy, Louis Jordan-flavored relationship problems ("Shake It Up And Go"), jealousy ("Good Man Gone Bad") and despair ("If I Lost You," "Tell Me Baby"). minimize