Living Blues Magazine Living Blues #296 Back Issue

Living Blues #296 (May/June 2025) features Detroit’s Queen of the Blues, Thornetta Davis, has been honing her craft for nearly 40 years, though she struggles to gain acceptance on festival stages in the United States. Despite her shows bringing rave reviews, wider fame has been elusive. Davis opens up to us about her life in the blues. New Orleans vocal dynamo Erica Falls calls her band Vintage Soul but says the phrase really sums her up as a person. Raised in the church, Falls embraced the secular music history of the Big Easy as she grew older, and over the last 15 years she has become one of its leading vocalists. Family band Southern Avenue is carrying on the deep musical legacy of their Memphis hometown. The band has just released its first album on Alligator Records and is quickly becoming one of the best-loved acts in the blues world today. Twenty-seven-year-old Texan Xavier Shannon has been playing guitar since he was a teenager. Like many other musicians his blossoming career was shut down because of COVID, but he is back at it now and about to release his first album. This issue’s Let It Roll focusses on Skip James and his Paramount Records recording session in Grafton, Wisconsin, ca. February 1931. Skip James’ lone pre-war recording session may be one of the most important and influential of all. James was an idiosyncratic player who produced some of the deepest blues ever put on record. On two February days at the Paramount Records studios, James cut 21 sides (18 issued) that continue to stun listeners to this day.
All of this plus the 2025 Living Blues Blues Festival Guide, Breaking Out with Nick Wade, the latest in Blues News, and over 50 record, book, and film reviews.