---------------------------------------------------------------
NEW BBC CBEEBIES SERIES
The 'Blues' episode features Michael Messer playing solo Delta Blues slide
guitar
and jamming with the wonderful ZingZillas band!
BROADCAST DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
---------------------------------------------------------------
THE SUNDAY TIMES - OXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL - 2010
'TALKING BLUES'
<<LEFT TO RIGHT>>
DAVID FREEMAN - PAUL OLIVER - PAUL JONES - MICHAEL MESSER - ED GENIS - IAN
SIEGAL - MARCUS BONFANTI
JAZZ FM BROADCAST ON SATURDAY 3rd APRIL 2010
PLAYLIST
ROLLING & TUMBLING - MICHAEL MESSER, ED GENIS, PAUL JONES, IAN SIEGAL, MARCUS
BONFANTI
CATFISH BLUES - PAUL JONES & IAN SIEGAL
SWEET LOUISE - MARCUS BONFANTI
I CAN'T BE SATISFIED - IAN SIEGAL
SHOULDN'T DO THAT - MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS
ROOM & BOARD - PAUL JONES
BLUES IN E - MARCUS BONFANTI, MICHAEL MESSER, ED GENIS, PAUL JONES, IAN SIEGAL
---------------------------------------------------------------
LOUISIANA RED & MICHAEL MESSER UK DATES - MAY 2010
------------------------------------------------------------------
1st BRITISH SLIDE GUITAR FESTIVAL
23rd JANUARY 2010
Set up by popular demand through the Michael Messer Forum
RED LION - ATHERSTONE - UK
EVENING CONCERT - WORKSHOPS - FACE TO FACE - OPEN MIC
EVENING CONCERT
MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS
TOM DOUGHTY +
LUCY ZIRINS
------------------------------------------------------------------
JAZZ FM LIVE SESSION & INTERVIEW
24th OCTOBER 2009
TRACKS PLAYED
Michael Messer - King Guitar
LIVE - Michael Messer & Ed Genis - Rolling & Tumbling
Michael Messer - Locomotive Skin
LIVE - Michael Messer & Ed Genis - Shine On
Michael Messer - Sad Side Of The Note
LIVE - Michael Messer & Ed Genis - Shouldn't Do That
---------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMER 2009
MICHAEL MESSER IS CURRENTLY WORKING WITH BBC TV CBEEBIES
ON A NEW SERIES TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT MUSIC & INSTRUMENTS
---------------------------------------------------------------
BBC RADIO 2
MONDAY 11th MAY 2009
PAUL JONES RHYTHM & BLUES SHOW
LIVE SESSION & INTERVIEW
LOUISIANA RED & MICHAEL MESSER
FEATURING PAUL JONES ON HARMONICA
Photo by Liz Aiken ©2009
---------------------------------------------------------------
LOUISIANA RED & MICHAEL MESSER UK DATES - APRIL/MAY 2009
Louisiana Red & Michael Messer UK dates April/May 2009
A collaboration of two great musicians from totally different
backgrounds,
brought together through a passion for playing blues slide guitar and
many years of mutual admiration for each others’ work
---------------------------------------------------------------
APRIL 2009
ACOUSTIC MAGAZINE FEATURE
APRIL 2009 ACOUSTIC MAGAZINE FEATURES AN
INTERVIEW WITH BJ COLE & MICHAEL MESSER
CLICK MAGAZINE COVER TO READ THE INTERVIEW
---------------------------------------------------------------
DECEMBER 2008
fROOTS MAGAZINE FEATURE
MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS INTERVIEWED BY DAVE PEABODY
---------------------------------------------------------------
JUNE 2008
MICHAEL MESSER BRAND OF RESONATOR GUITARS
IT HAD TO HAPPEN!
MICHAEL MESSER RESONATOR GUITARS WILL BE IN THE UK IN JULY 2008
SEE RELEVANT PAGE ON THIS WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION
CLICK MM FOR MORE INFO
MICHAEL
MESSER BLUES®
- MICHAEL
MESSER LIGHTNING®
---------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 2008
PLAY THE BLUES IS MUSICROOM'S BEST SELLING CD
AVAILABLE FROM MUSICROOM.COM
OVER 3 HOURS OF AUTHENTIC BLUES TRACKS TO
JAM WITH
TO READ THE REVIEWS OF PLAY
THE BLUES CLICK HERE
---------------------------------------------------------------
FEBRUARY 2008
MICHAEL MESSER SELL-OUT CONCERTS!
Anvil Theatre
– Basingstoke - Nov 07 – SOLD OUT
West End Centre – Aldershot - Nov 07 – SOLD OUT
Crooked Billet –
Stoke Row - Jan 08 – SOLD OUT
Norden Farm – Maidenhead - Jan 08 – SOLD OUT
21 South Street – Reading - Jan 08 – SOLD OUT
Hooker Blues – Wrexham - Jan 08 – SOLD OUT
Ashcroft Arts Centre
- Fareham - Feb 08 - SOLD OUT
Otterton Mill –
Budleigh Salterton - Feb 08 – SOLD OUT
---------------------------------------------------------------
JANUARY 2008
IN ROCK - leading rock
magazine in Russia
Front cover December 2007
Jon Anderson, John Fogerty, Michael Messer
FOUR PAGE INTERVIEW / FEATURE
---------------------------------------------------------------
JANUARY 2008
MICHAEL
MESSER & ED GENIS
‘Going Up The Country’
18 Jan 2008
For the first
gig of the year, British slide maestro Michael Messer and his long-time rhythm
guitarist Ed Genis,
delighted a near-capacity crowd with two fine sets of mainly vintage delta
blues, with variations along the way.
The two musicians have developed an almost telepathic understanding on stage
after 25 years together.
Michael Messer
switched guitar several times; playing acoustically in a conventional slide
manner and also lap-style,
with his playing on Terry Clarke’s “Blue Letters” being one of the evening’s
highlights, with its piercing Chicago flavoured
slide playing. The Sleepy John Estes tune, “Diving Duck” was given an African feel, with
Ed Genis’s fluent acoustic
guitar
underpinning Messer’s slide.
The duo doffed
their cap to one of the most legendary bluesmen on the moody “Robert Johnson’s
Wake”, and performed
what is considered to be the first recorded slide guitar piece, “Steel Guitar
Blues”, surprisingly recorded in New York, not
in the Delta, Chicago or the south! Both songs are to be found on Michael
Messer’s “King Guitar” release, along with the
fine “Crow Blues”, which featured more trademark gorgeous playing.
From the more
recent “Second Mind” we were treated to the brooding “Locomotive Skin” - very
different to the full band
arrangement on the album and the lovely “Shine On”, appropriately a song about a
steel guitar. Mississippi Fred
McDowell’s “Write Me A Few Short Lines” saw another delta legend’s music
featured with yet another most impressive
arrangement. Michael Messer may not be the greatest vocalist in the world, but
his guitar playing is certainly of the highest calibre!
GRAHAME RHODES
---------------------------------------------------------------
NOVEMBER 2007
'THAT SLIDING SOUND'
BJ COLE & MICHAEL MESSER
- 15th November 2007
I saw the Michael Messer Band last year at the Wirral International Guitar
Festival and they played a wonderful
set of funky blues based electric music – tonight we heard the other side of
this remarkably talented musician.
An acoustic evening, very laid back and all done in the company of one of the
world’s finest steel guitarists, BJ Cole.
Michael and BJ started the evening with a long and atmospheric piece certainly
with a number of eastern influences,
before being joined on stage by acoustic bass player, Chris Clarke, and the fine
rhythmic playing of long time band member
Ed Genis. The two set evening show featured the exemplary style on Michael which
complimented perfectly the pedal steel
and stand guitars of B J Cole. Far from the expected ‘blues’ night the audience
was treated with several styles including
some vintage Hawaiian pieces.. - beautiful. The atmosphere was relaxed and there
was some banter between musician
and audience, together with some informative background about both songs and
instruments.
Certainly Michael Messer is one of the UK’s hidden gems, certainly deserving of
greater recognition from outside
of the music industry. And what about the mercurial B J Cole? Apart from his
many years in the industry,
his reputation as one of the greatest pedal steel guitarists around, his whole
demeanour is one of warmth and great
humility and humour, and a welcome addition to any stage in the world.
Tonight we got more than just the blues we had a world treat of different
styles,
different musical cultures and exceptional musicianship – see you next year we
hope!
Reviewed by Maddie for the Wirral International Guitar Festival website -
16.11.07
---------------------------------------------------------------
SEPTEMBER 2007
BJ COLE &
MICHAEL MESSER
'THAT SLIDING SOUND'
When blues pioneer WC Handy first heard a street
musician in 1903
playing his guitar by sliding a knife on the strings, he described it as
“the weirdest music I’d ever heard, played in a manner popularised
by
Hawaiian guitarists who used steel
bars”.
The story of that weird sound and how the sound
of the Hawaiian
guitar was passed into the blues, country music and subsequently
into rock music and beyond, will be explored in a special concert by
BJ Cole and Michael Messer.
INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL OF GREAT BRITAIN
CONCERT DATE: THURSDAY 15th
NOVEMBER 2007
SEE CONCERTS & TOURS PAGE ON THIS WEBSITE
---------------------------------------------------------------
JULY 2007
5 CONCERTS AT COGNAC BLUES PASSIONS FESTIVAL, FRANCE
MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS - 2 CONCERTS
MICHAEL MESSER & THE SECOND MIND TRIO - 2 CONCERTS
MICHAEL MESSER & THE SECOND MIND BAND - 1 CONCERT
---------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 2007
MICHAEL MESSER & ED GENIS
RECEIVE A 5 MINUTE STANDING OVATION
Sat 5th May 2007 (photo by Simon
Pritchard©)
'Michael Messer and Ed Genis receive 5 minute standing ovation at Mumbles
Jazz'n'Blues Festival.
It was a privilege to be part of the day and witness a faultless set of
mesmerizing world class blues'. GW
---------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 2007
ALBUM RELEASE
'FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH'
NATIONAL DEBT IS A ROCKIN' ROOTS BAND WITH A TWIST OF LONDON
IN ITS
SOUL, THAT MICHAEL SITS IN WITH WHEN HE IS NOT ON TOUR
CLICK TO HEAR NATIONAL DEBT mp3
RIDING ON THAT MIDNIGHT TRAIN
SEE MICHAEL MESSER FORUM FOR DETAILS
>CLICK HERE<
---------------------------------------------------------------
APRIL 2007
MICHAEL MESSER IN RUSSIA
МAЙКЛ MECCEP
LUCKY CHARMS - SECOND MIND - KING GUITAR
ALL THREE CDS RELEASED IN RUSSIA IN APRIL 2007
TOUR DATES WILL BE ANNOUNCED
PLAY MAGAZINE - APRIL 2007
(monthly music magazine - circulation 47,000)
(4 star review / number 10 in
album chart / CD of the month!)
---------------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY 23rd DECEMBER 2006
Mark Lamarr Show
BEST OF 2006 LIVE SESSIONS
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
Michael Messer
Blind Boys of Alabama
Tony Joe White
Graham Coxon & Band
New York Dolls
Tom Waits
Mark played LUCKY CHARMS from the Michael
Messer live session
“This track….just
excellent…this is called Lucky Charms”
Mark Lamarr – BBC Radio 2
---------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY 19th OCTOBER 2006
LIVE CONCERT ON
THE RADIO
RECORDED LIVE
AT THE BELGIUM RHYTHM & BLUES FESTIVAL
21.00 to 22.00
www.l1.nl
---------------------------------------------------------------
>AUGUST/SEPTEMBER >2006
|
CILU 102.7 FM - Thunder Bay Jazz
For the Week Ending: Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 |
|||
 |
|||
|
NUMBER ONE >NATIONAL CAMPUS & COMMUNITY RADIO |
|||
| Rank | Artist | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Messer | King Guitar |
Cooking Vinyl |
| 2 |
Amanda Mabro  |
Superwoman In The Making | Independent |
| 3 | Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet | Husky | Hyena |
| 4 | Nina Simone | Little Girl Blue | Fuel 2000 |
| 5 | JW
Jones Blues Band |
Kissing In 29 Days | Northern Blues |
| 6 | Lisa B | What's New Pussycat | Piece Of Pie |
| 7 | Elvis Costello And Allen Toussaint | The River In Reverse | Verve |
| 8 | Ripplegroove | Under The Microscope | Independent |
| 9 | Liberty Ellman | Ophiluchus Butterfly | Pi |
| 10 | James Hunter | People Gonna Talk | Rounder
|
|
CILU 102.7 FM - Thunder Bay Jazz
For the Week Ending: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 |
|||
|
|
|||
| Rank | Artist | Title | Label |
| 1 | Nina Simone | Little Girl Blue | Fuel 2000 |
| 2 | Amanda Mabro | Superwoman In The Making | Independent |
| 3 | Art Ensemble Of Chicago | Non-Cognitive Aspects Of The City: Live At Iridium | Pi |
| 4 | Elvis Costello And Allen Toussaint | The River In Reverse | Verve |
| 5 | Ripplegroove | Under The Microscope | Independent |
| 6 | Michael Messer | King Guitar | Cooking Vinyl |
| 7 | Jon Crosse | Kind Of Blue And Pink | Jazz Cat 47 |
| 8 | Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet | Husky | Hyena |
| 9 | James Hunter | People Gonna Talk | Rounder |
| 10 | Liberty Ellman | Ophiluchus Butterfly | Pi |
--------------------------------------------------------------
>SEPTEMBER >2006
MICHAEL MESSER >DVD
AN INTRODUCTION TO BLUES SLIDE GUITAR
Michael Messer starts
with the basics of how to hold the slide to produce a clear note and a great
tone.
He demonstrates string dampening techniques, vibrato, tone, sustain, scale
patterns and riffs up and
down the neck for both solo and backup parts in the style of your favourite
blues guitarists.
The unique camera shots giving you a 'player’s eye view' of Michael's left hand
is a feature
that makes this DVD the ultimate tool for learning how to play Blues Slide
Guitar.
AVAILABLE FROM >
www.euroblues.co.uk &
www.frets.co.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------
>THURSDAY 3rd AUGUST 2006
MICHAEL MESSER & THE SECOND MIND BAND IN SESSION
>BBC RADIO 2
PAUL JONES
RHYTHM & BLUES
SHOW
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/jones/
---------------------------------------------------------------
The BBC website has Michael
Messer's Johnny Cash
CD liner notes - along with a chance to win JC's new
album and three Michael Messer albums.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/lamarrsat/
In December 1992, Johnny Cash
wrote the liner notes for the Michael Messer,
Terry Clarke, Jesse Taylor album, Rhythm Oil - The Sessions
. What he wrote
was a poem based on lyrics and images from the songs, followed by a statement
of how he felt about the music on the album, Rhythm Oil - The Sessions.
Two of the tracks from Rhythm Oil are on Michael Messer 's
album, King Guitar, on Cooking Vinyl.
Johnny Cash by Alan Messer
The beat, the beat
The beat, the beat
Wheels, heavy metal, pig iron,
Rhythm Oil
Southern soil, troubles and toil
Wild, ragged, rolling, flowing, scattering
Everything in the way.
Mississippi catfish, Miss`ippi, Miss`ippi
Get on board or get out of the way
Rhythm Oil
Rub it on your bones, rub it on your baby
Ohhhhhh......
She had such fine cheek bones
Her eyes looked a scene from "War and Peace"
Purple dress......
"Word pictures playing through my mind as I listen to the refreshing,
earthy, panting sound of Rhythm Oil.
I believe that Michael Messer and Terry Clarke didn't do a lot of
vocal overdubbing. What I hear here is the real thing.
Bare-bones blues gut-bucket rural rock. This record carried
Me away to a long time ago, down a delta dirt road
to a land of my musical good-old-daysing."
"PS...Don't squeeze the trigger, if you can't stand the recoil."
Johnny Cash
Written by JOHNNY CASH ©December 1992
---------------------------------------------------------------
>SATURDAY 15th JULY 2006
AT MIDNIGHT
LIVE IN SESSION >BBC RADIO 2
MARK LAMARR
FRIDAY NIGHT
SATURDAY MORNING SHOW
MIDNIGHT 'TILL 2am
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/lamarrsat/
“This track….just
excellent…this is called Lucky Charms”
Mark Lamarr – BBC Radio 2 – July 2006
---------------------------------------------------------------
REISSUES >KING GUITAR & SECOND
MIND
4 STAR REVIEW IN MAVERICK
---------------------------------------------------------------
KING GUITAR
& SECOND MIND
RE-RELEASE DATE >15th MAY 2006
Cooking Vinyl is re-releasing
Michael's
highly acclaimed albums King Guitar & Second Mind
CLICK HERE FOR PRESS RELEASE
For more information on these re-releases
visit the KING GUITAR and SECOND MIND pages on this website
King Guitar (COOKCD363)
Second Mind (COOKCD362)
For any enquiries, please contact;
Cooking Vinyl - PO Box 1845 London W3 0ZA
info@cookingvinyl.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
GUITAR MAESTROS DVD SERIES
RELEASED >31st MARCH 2006
The Guitar Maestros DVD features Michael Messer in conversation
with
Trevor Dann and a studio concert
with long time accompanist, Ed Genis.
visit
http://www.soundtechniques.co.uk
MUSICROOM.COM >CUSTOMER REVIEW
>FIVE STAR RATING!
For those of you interested in blues
slide guitar in all its genres, this DVD is excellent.
The Sound Techniques production team has done a fantastic job – the DVD is
of very high quality in terms of both sound and vision. Michael Messer plays
superbly
and features both classic blues tracks (Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson etc) and
his own
compositions. Michael discusses and demonstrates National, square-neck Dobro,
tri-cone
and electric styles of slide guitar playing. And his talent and life-long
passion for slide guitar
shines through. Quite inspirational. Whilst this is not billed as an
'instructional' DVD,
the camera work is so clear that you will have no problem steeling licks!
Robin - (Tywyn, United Kingdom)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Monday 6th March 2006
Michael Messer interview on BBC 6 Music with Phill Jupitus
click and listen
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/phill_jupitus
Michael's interview is in the last half hour of the show
---------------------------------------------------------------
LUCKY CHARMS - THE NEW ALBUM
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO ORDER
http://www.cookingvinyl.com/acatalog/Michael_Messer1.html
TO VISIT THE LUCKY CHARMS PAGE/READ REVIEWS
>>>CLICK HERE<<<
For any enquiries, please contact;
Cooking Vinyl - PO Box 1845 London W3 0ZA
info@cookingvinyl.com
Website:
http://www.cookingvinyl.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
ISSUE 05 >AUGUST 2005
With the
legendary Johnny Cash himself providing a poem for the sleeve notes,
Mark Tucker quizzes the UK No.1 slide player, Michael Messer, about his
new album,
the public's new acceptance of 'traditional' music and playing live with a
guitar that has no controls
---------------------------------------------------------------
GOURMET GUITARS VOLUME ONE (DVD)
From Guitar Enthusiasts for Guitar Enthusiasts
Blues giants Eric Clapton, Michael Messer, Robbie McIntosh and
Louisiana Red
play Fine Resophonic Guitars. Find out why...
We meet the men who make the blues
The living legacy of the Mississippi Delta Blues; Louisiana Red and one of the
most influential slide guitarists of today, Michael Messer, both play Fine
Resophonic Guitars.
See Red, Michael and Robbie sharing their secrets & playing style on Volume 1 of GOURMET
GUITARS
Michael Messer signature 'King Guitar' by Dave King
Designed by Dave King & Michael Messer, the limited edition
'King Guitar' is specifically made for electric slide playing, was
launched at The London Guitar Show in May 2005
WEMBLEY EXHIBITION CENTRE
Michael Messer & the Second Mind Band
Performance times > main stage
12:15 >Saturday >12:15 >Sunday
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Messer featured on latest Dave Peabody album
"SIDE BY SLIDE"
Sixteen tracks with four of the top slide guitarists in the world today;
Mary Flower, Michael Messer, Steve James & Gypsy Dave Smith
Catalogue number: AP1562
Appaloosa Records
Distributed in the UK by
http://www.cadizmusic.com
Also distributed by Cadiz in the UK - Michael Messer - MOONbeat
(scroll down for MOONbeat review)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Live in session on BBC Radio 2
The Paul Jones Blues Show
Broadcast date - Thursday
2nd September 2004 @ 8pm
Songs performed;
Locomotive Skin - Blue Letters
Driving Wheel - Hummingbirds in my Soul
---------------------------------------------------------------
SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE >LONDON 20/7/04
MICHAEL MESSER & THE SECOND MIND BAND
Michael Messer by William White ©2004
Michael Messer is (probably) the best thing to happen to the
blues since that
sad day
R.L. Burnside abandoned his guitar in his manager's office.
Don't believe me? Go and see him live, acoustic or with his Second Mind Band.
Michael Messer & The Second Mind Band was on stage before the
Dr John gig at
Shepherd's Bush Empire on 20th July. It was encouraging to see so many turn out
for
a support act but then for those 'in the know', Messer IS King Guitar! Playing
from his
latest album, the superb Second Mind, (voted 'Best Blues Guitar Album Of The
Year'
by International Guitar Federation, ahead of Chris Rea, Eric Bibb & Sonny Landreth),
Messer and band rocked us and rolled us through an awesome set.
His electric slide guitar weaves and duels with the sampling
and scratching from young
Louie Genis's turntable and collection of old blues vinyl. This is contemporary
blues with
its heart in US delta country and urban Chicago, but here's something going on
that makes
the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Blues is a broad church with a firm
foundation
- it has the robustness to evolve without losing it's soul - and here we have
guitar blues at
it's most skilful, melodic and creative with the deepest of blue roots. Credit
must be given,
too, to The Second Mind Band and to Terry Clarke, the writer and co-writer of
much of
the material the band performs. Together they're a winning combination.
Sue Cavendish
www.netrhythms.co.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEW OF WOMAD FESTIVAL >JULY 2004
MICHAEL MESSER & THE SECOND MIND TRIO
It was refreshing to see British bluesman Michael Messer
bringing his frightening guitar
skills to WOMAD on Saturday. Messer was at his best singing his own songs,
especially Locomotive Skin and Hummingbirds in my Soul (which feature
on his acclaimed album Second Mind). One thing is for sure, Messer
can play a damn good slide guitar and is unique in his ability to play both
Chicago
and delta licks, to a little Hawaiian slide and then back to huge runs of notes
that make your hair stand on end. Messer deserves credit for
his unique take on American blues as an historical treasure
trove and his cerebral and fun show can be locomotive
to my party any day.
Geff Cowart - Reading Chronicle -July '04
---------------------------------------------------------------
September 2004 issue of GUITAR & BASS magazine
includes a five page article about Michael Messer, his
music & his guitars
But the real gritty blues content lies in three essential
tracks; the
Clarke-penned title track features some excellent raw slide guitar
work & low doomy vocals to produce an effect similar to the
Rolling Stones' version of Robert Johnson's Stop Breakin' Down,
but much darker, with a stomping rhythm & much more emphasis
on the growling slide licks. Also written by Clarke, Rising Sun
again opts for heavy, gutsy rhythms, crackly slide guitar &
saturnine vocals, and also features some wild harp from co-
producer, Ron Kavana.
But by far the most intriguing item is the six minute closer medley;
Robert Johnson's Wake/Up Jumps The Devil, the first part written
by Terry Clarke, the second a curious collaboration between the long-gone
delta blues legend & Messer himself. The piece mixes standard blues
acoustic,
electric & slide guitar parts with sundry percussion & scary ragged vocals,
while
Kavana busies himself providing an omnipresent didgeridoo part that
underlies the whole thing. As the segway between the two songs approaches, the
tempo picks up considerably, the didgeridoo comes on even heavier & the
slide guitar stings fast and ferocious like an angry bee. This is
improvisational
experimentation at its boldest, but Messer never loses sight of his music's
roots, and the song closes out with the sampled voice of Robert Johnson himself,
still getting the message across nearly 70 years after his mysterious demise.
To conclude, this is an extraordinary, innovative album that deserves to be
heard.
Its only downfall is that, while the fusion of blues sensibilities with light
reggae-styled
rhythms and high singing Hawaiian guitars is a highly original one, amply
showcasing
Messer's talent, pitching eight such pieces against a mere three more accessible
blues
workouts, no matter how long or frenetic, creates an imbalance by
over-emphasising
the earlier material. But if you don't mind that, or even prefer the slippery
Hawaiian licks
to the more sombre straight blues material, this is a worthy & highly enjoyable
album.
Jeremy Isaac - Maverick magazine - issue 23 - June
2004
MOONbeat is available in the UK from leading stores or
http://www.cadizmusic.com
------------------------------------------------
Michael Messer "Second Mind" has won
"BEST BLUES GUITAR ALBUM OF THE YEAR"
BEST BLUES GUITAR ALBUM
NOMINEES
A Michael Messer - Second Mind
B Chris Rea -
Dancing Down The Stony Road
C Eric Bibb - Natural Light
D Sonny Landreth - The Road We're On
E Aynsley Lister - All or Nothing
----------------------------------------------------------
Released - November 2003
OVER 3 HOURS OF AUTHENTIC BLUES TRACKS TO JAM WITH
----------------------------------------------------------
Michael Messer's top ten slide guitar blues recordings
featured in August
issue of Blues Matters!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Michael Messer is listed as one of the world's
best slide guitar players ever.
The April 2003 edition of Spirit, in an article
by Chuck Thompson, Michael Messer is listed as one of the world's
best slide guitar players ever. Other names include: Joseph Kekuku,
Duane Allman,
Blind Willie Johnson, Bob Brozman, Debashish Bhattacharyia, Bonnie
Raitt,
Son House, Hound Dog Taylor, Kenny Brown & Ry Cooder.
IF YOU HAVE FOUND THIS PAGE BUT HAVE NO INDEX TO THE REST OF THE SITE CLICK HERE