Riverhead Slide will still be blues trio of last year's festival but this year will also be featuring Gael Ludlow on vocals, Richard Hall on keyboards and Keri Betti on harmonica. (Keri will also be playing with his father's band).
Our new CD "After All These Years" will be launched at the BOI Jazz and Blues Festival.
After all these years. We only ever did want to play the blues you know. That was what Riverhead Slide was all about when we started messing around in 1989, and it’s what Riverhead Slide is all about now, even though we’ve sometimes had to throw in a few rock anthems at the occasonal public bar gig.
I wrote After All These Years with the band and it’s many changes in mind (along with quite a bit of innuendo and artistic license of course), and also probably with some surprise that we have been able to survive and still play our blues somewhat against the odds over the years. The song was recorded in one shot on the Dobro, resulting in a natural live feel which seems to perfectly sum up the roots of Riverhead Slide.
The Slide have a settled lineup these days with solid core members Murray Finer, Pete Ludlow and myself, but Riverhead Slide has been through lots of changes. I’m the only original member although Rick Marsh (harp on Further on up the Road) still sits in with us sometimes, and Kev Sheehan (guest vocals on Hootchie Cootchie Man) was our second drummer and second longest- standing drummer after Pete Ludlow. Our ex-lead guitarist Darren Hogwood plays solos on Further on up the Road and Robert Johnson’s Ramblin.’
For this album we brought some other old friends back too. From our first CD - Sliding Blues - new recordings of three of my favourite
originals: Serious Blues, Riverhead Slidin’ Blues, and Slidin’ Man, resulting in new and different feels with the addition of keys courtesy of Richard Hall and Keri Betti’s harp on Riverhead Slidin’ Blues.
Richard has worked with Pete and Gael Ludlow in bands over the years, also studio session man and jingles production with Gael.
Gael Ludlow needs no introduction and has a strong and natural blues voice. She features with lead vocals on two numbers on the CD. I’ve always wanted to play the amazing I’d Rather Go Blind (often credited to Etta James, also I believe, the inspiration for Green’s “Albatross”) and when Gael said she would sing with us we grabbed the opportunity to record it.
Pete and Gael Ludlow
The other song Gael features on is Love Me Like a Man, (the Chris Smithers classic recorded by Bonnie Raitt) also featuring Richard’s keys and Keri on harp. Riverhead Slide has always needed (in my opinion) a harp player, and after Rick left us, and Darren Hogwood a little later, Murray, Pete and I were left to operate as a 3-piece. We ‘discovered’ Keri Betti playing harp at the Bay of Islands Jazz and Blues Festival, and we were blown away, luckily we were able to persuade him to sit in and play on the CD. We recorded Harp Breaker live in a couple of takes, directed and produced by Keri.
Nigel Major had sat in with us on a couple of gigs where we felt we needed a bit more of an electric blues feel. For the album we thought it would be nice for him to solo on my old favourite: Peter Green’s Black Magic Woman. His blues rock style creates a great feel on this track, and the result is a mix with hints of Green and Santana.
Our previous CD -“Naked Blues”- had a deliberately stripped down, 3 piece acoustic feel and we wanted a contrasting sound for “After all These Years.” It had been suggested that some of the originals on “Naked Blues” were of a somewhat personal, insular nature. I had wanted to write an upbeat, friendly and humorous blues, in contrast to this, and It’s Good was the result. Richard’s input and keyboard triplets turned it into a good time boogie rocker.
It wouldn’t be a Riverhead Slide CD without the usual liberal lashings of open-tuned slide guitar throughout, so no disappointment here. And there’s lots of slide on tracks like Elmore James’ Got to Move, our impromptu version of Johnson’s Sweet Home Chicago, and of course Willie Dixon’s Little Red Rooster (with more than a bit of an appreciative nod towards versions by Howlin’ Wolf and the Rolling Stones).
So that's where we’re at “After all These Years.” I hope you like it.
Steve Wigz.
