(Conqueroo) Bobby Rush has announced that he will be releasing his new studio album "Top of the Blues " on August 16th. It is the follow up to his Grammy-winning album "Porcupine Meat." We were sent the following details:
"I'm sitting on top of the blues. I'm a bluesman who's sitting on the top of my game, proud of what I do and proud of who I am and thankful for people accepting me for what I am and who I am," says the charismatic Rush. "I'm happy about what I'm doing and still enthused about what I'm doing. And I think we've got some good songs."
That's a profound understatement. There's something for everyone on Sitting on Top of the Blues, from the boisterous R&B-laced opener "Hey Hey Bobby Rush" through the cooking "Good Stuff," the sexy "Slow Motion," and a stripped-down "Recipe For Love" that features Bobby and his co-producer Vasti Jackson supplying all the accompaniment necessary with their interlocking guitars. Rush wails on pungent harmonica throughout the set, his vocals as sly and sensuous as ever while elastic grooves simmer and surge behind him. Rush has been a master storyteller for decades, and the songs on this disc follow in that tradition.
Never one to rest on his considerable laurels, Bobby's not about to start now. "I think I'm getting more acclaim because I'm working harder, and when people tell me I can't do something, that's the wrong thing to tell Bobby Rush," he says. "I'm considered the king of the chitlin' circuit. I'm crossing over now, but I haven't crossed out. And I think the music itself says that about me."
Scott Billington, producer of Porcupine Meat for Rounder Records, was involved this time too, though to a lesser extent as Rush recruited the multi-talented Jackson to help with much of the action behind the board. "I wanted to come with a record behind winning a Grammy," says the veteran bluesman. "So we went and finished it up." The album spotlights all of Rush's strengths: blues, soul, funk, and everything in between.
"That's about the truth of me," he says of his new disc. "That's all I know. Even if I do something different, I'm going to put enough blues in it so you'll know that I'm still this blues singer that's giving you what I know about it. Anything I do or say is going to be about the blues. So that's where I was coming from with that. It's got a lot of little twists. It's got a little of this, a little of that. And I often talk about how I came up and who did I love and who influenced me.
"I think the first one was my daddy, as a preacher. And the next person was Louis Jordan. I respect Little Walter, because he was a good, slick harmonica player. Sonny Boy Williamson, I like the way he plays harp, and I like the way he delivers his songs and writes the songs," Rush continues. "I like Howlin' Wolf because he was good and he was different because of the voice he had. I also like Bobby Bland, the way he kind of squawked with a soft voice. And I like B.B. King and respected B.B. And I like Junior Parker because he was so smooth and slick with what he done. I guess you can find about 20 guys that I like, and when you hear my music, you can hear a little of this, a little of that, a little up, a little down. You put 'em all in a bowl and stir 'em up, you get a Bobby Rush. That's called a Bobby Rush blues soup."
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