Blues musicians Terry Garland and Li'l Ronnie are both well established individuals within the blues community.  Now that they've collaborated on "Live At The Canal Club" I'm sure, that along with myself, their followers might start wondering if this duet is a short term, one release project or will they endure and go on to have the longevity of say a Cephas & Wiggins type duo?  Only time.....well that, along with record sales and gig attendance, will tell.

 

    "Live At The Canal Club" was recorded in the rawest form - live, with no do overs, no over dubbing, no editing and none of the musical magic of studio gadgetry.  It's Terry Garland on guitars, vocals and foot mic and Ronnie Owens on harmonica and vocals, just pickin', blowin' and singin' some real deal blues.  The songs are a nice mix of some of the duos individual originals with classic Muddy, Willie and Jimmy covers.    

 

    The opening track, more than likely topical at the time of it's writing, is currently topical world wide, it's called "Hard Weather".  Terry was tired of it back then and I'm sure, with the strange winter snow storms hitting his southern digs, he's tired of it now as well.  With Ronnie providing steady harp support this one's highlighted by Terry's strummin' and singin'.

 

    Maybe Terry "Can't Be Satisfied", but this live audience witnessing him pickin' and slidin' on that guitar sure are.  This is Terry doing what he does best - getting down to business playin' and his singin' the blues.  

 

    Only a real gambler could appreciate the value attached to a statement like "I love you baby, like a gambler loves the track."  Take it from this gambler, that's a commitment.  That's exactly how Ronnie feels as he tells his lady I'm "Bettin' On You Baby".  As I've heard so many times before, from the Lil Ronnie & The Grand Dukes days, this is classic Ronnie Owens.....smooth but crisp harp leads and even smoother and soulful singing.  That, with Terry's great rhythm guitar make this smokin' track one of the disc's best.

 

    On "Think Big", Li'l Ronnie introduces this instrumental by saying  "this is something for all the harmonica lovers out there".  Do I need to say more?  For the next four minutes he basically goes into a harp playing 101 demonstration.  Making it even more interesting is Terry keeping with him all the way.  Real good stuff right here.

 

    Yes, there are many of them and on this track Ronnie tells us a few of his "Life's Changes".   Coincidently, what I found extremely interesting about this track was it's style change.  Up until now there were several "Terry sounding" songs and several "Ronnie sounding" songs.  This one, even though it was sung and written by Ronnie seems to be the disc's best collaboration work.  More of this and possibly some co-written songs and that longevity I mentioned earlier could just come into play.  Oh yeah, great Jimmy Reed style harp on this one.

 

    The live show, and of course the disc as well, comes to a close with the guys jammin' out to a song called the "Dude Boy Boogie".  Terry's at show's best on guitar and slide guitar and Ronnie's just wailin' away throughout the track.  You know they worked hard on this one because it ends with the lines "I need a smoke break" (Terry) and "I need a drink break" (Ronnie).         

 

    Other tracks on "Live At The Canal Club", which by the way is in Richmond, VA, include: "Stagger Lee", "Upside Your Head", "Trouble On The Way", "It's A Sin", and "Crazy Mixed Up World". 

 

    Terry Garland - www.terrygarland.com and Lil Ronnie Owens - www.lilronnie.com - each have their own websites and I hope you'll visit them both.  But before you do that, you need to go to www.ellersoulrecords.com, because that's where you'll get your copy of "Live At the Canal Club".  As always, please tell them the Blewzzman sent ya.