Featured artist: HARRY MANX
Born
on the Isle of Man, Manx immigrated to Canada as a child. In the
mid-seventies, he traveled to Europe and spent the next ten years
performing in cafes and bars, honing the musical skills that would
provide the foundation for his later musical experimentation.
By the mid-eighties, Manx was touring regularly in Japan and had
lived for several months in India.
On
A Little Cruel, Harry Manx coaxes a remarkable tenderness
out of the ancient and noble west african instrument that is the
banjo. It's refreshing to see it reclaimed as a blues implement,
long after being co-opted by America's inbred contingent. His
soft percussive playing beautifully complements his unhurried,
self-assured vocals on this heartfelt contemporary blues song.
Listen
to A LITTLE
CRUEL
**********
SIX DEGREES OF BLUES:
Conceived
and written by Emanuel Pordes
With
a curiosity that begins in the delta and extends to the stratosphere,
Emanuel Pordes is a blues lover for whom the addiction to 12 bar
has no downside. Where there's good blues to be had, whether it
be old, lost, neglected, co-opted, or buried under the charts,
that is where he likes to be. He
produced Six Degrees of Blues at WGRE 91.5