CHARLES "BIG DADDY" STALLINGS is one heck of an interesting musician.  Although there's no questioning his musical talent, nor his ability to sing and play the blues, his eccentric style seems to create a genre of it's own.  I discovered this charismatic character back in 2005, when he blew me away with his first release, "ONE NIGHT LOVER".  Now he's back, doing the same non-concentric work on fifteen songs with equally as many different styles.

 

    Once again, CHARLES is surrounded by quite an entourage of talent on "BLUES EVOLUTION".  On guitar and vocals, and having written, produced and arranged all the tracks, CHARLES "BIG DADDY" STALLINGS is joined by: BILL PRATT on drums, keyboards, organ, strings and background vocals; TOMMY GUN & RON JENKINS on drums; GLENN WORKMAN on piano and organ; RONALD BLAND on bass and guitar solo; GAIL PARRISH on bass; JOE "E FLAT" THOMAS on sax; KELVIN ONEAL on trumpet and background vocals; MARK WENNER, RICH SAMPSON & STEVE LEVINE on harp; STERLING PETTERSON on guitar solo; JOE THOMAS, ALEYSHIA STALLINGS & QUESSE STALLINGS on background vocals; DEBORAH BROWN & MILVIA BRUNEL as the "female voices".  Gee, that's about as many people as you'll see at Camden Yards for an Orioles home game.

 

    "BLUES EVOLUTION", as eluded to earlier, contains fifteen original tracks that range from full blown horn blowin' boogie to good ol' harp blowin' down home blues, from the sounds of Soul Train to the sounds of futuristic funk, from disco dance songs to cowboy dance songs and from instrumental concertos to booty slappin' rap.  You think I'm kiddin?  Come along and listen..........

 

    After a short intro, the blues party kicks off with "LET'S BOOGIE".  This is a smokin', four and a half minute instrumental that eventually gets around to featuring each and every instrument in the band.  And as you'd expect, everyone's peaking.  An absolutely perfect way to start things off. 

 

    "GOING DOWN SOUTH" also goes down a few decibels......quite a few.  It's a bluesy track which features some sharp harp work by MARK WENNER and great rhythm by GAIL & RON.  The lyrics on this one, aside from being very well sung, are totally bizarre....I'm not even going to attempt to explain them. 

 

    "HARD TIMES / GOOD TIMES" is pretty much the best down home blues track on the disc.  Once again, along with some smooth piano by GLENN, MARK'S harp is the highlight on this one.    

 

    All of us who have been working hard at keeping the blues alive will be happy to know that it's survived to the year "2999".  The very clever lyrics on this one are about some very disappointed Martians who greet a bunch of earthlings arriving on their planet - but they didn't bring any blues music with them.  It seems these Martians are blues fans and were hoping to hear Jimmy Reed, B B King and others.  Great song!

 

    "CHA CHA 3000" is an outstanding instrumental.  The contrast, or dare I say the clashing of instruments on this track is amazing.  At times, the piano and organ playing of GLENN and BILL make you think you're listening to the soundtrack of a 1940's Oscar winning movie, then the harp of STEVE LEVINE blatantly takes over and completely changes the sound, but yet things remain constant.  This all happens while the rhythm section of GAIL and RON make you feel like you're watching Ricky Ricardo at the Copa Cabana.  If none of that made sense to you, you need to hear this track. 

 

    Some of CHARLES' best vocals and guitar work can be heard on "STRANGE THINGS".  This one is good ol' straight up, in your face, it don't get any better than this, Chicago Blues. 

 

    Other tracks, which you'll no doubt enjoy but I just don't have the space to cover are: "BLUES TRAIN EXPRESS", "BLUES LINE DANCE", "BLUES COWBOY", "HOBBSVILLE # 2", "BOOTY SLAPPIN", "HAND DANCIN", "HOLA SENIORITA" and "THANK-YOU BOOGIE".

 

    If you've yet to discover CHARLES "BIG DADDY" STALLINGS, it's time you have.  This cat is a little bizarre, a little humorous, a little delirious, a little facetious, a little farcical, but when you get right down to it, CHARLES "BIG DADDY" STALLINGS is a lot entertaining.

 

    Check him out at www.bigdaddystallings.com.  While you're there, tell him you heard the Blewzzman talkin' 'bout him and grab yourself a few CD's as well.