Canadian indie roots-music label Stony Plain has announced May 13, 2008 as the release date for two very promising new albums - guitarist Duke Robillard's A Swinging Session With Duke Robillard, and Get Way Back: A Tribute to Percy Mayfield from widely-acclaimed guitarist Amos Garrett. The former album will tackle classic songs from some of America's greatest musical craftsmen while the latter effort pays tribute to a great R&B songwriter.
Robillard, an alumnus of both Roomful of Blues and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, is a multiple-Grammy-nominated instrumentalist and a four-time Blues Award winner for "Best Guitarist." A Swinging Session With Duke Robillard further explores that sweet spot where the blues and jazz intersect. Diving into a collection of jazz standards with a stellar band that includes several of Robillard's former Roomful of Blues bandmates, as well as veteran keyboardist Bruce Katz of Ronnie Earle & the Broadcasters, the new collection promises to further showcase Robillard's incredible six-string skills.
"For me, there is a very thin line between what was originally called jazz and the blues," says Robillard in the album's liner notes. "All the early jazz and big band players were adept and often great at playing the blues...guys like Ben Webster, Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Johnny Hodges and Count Basie...Charlie Parker was a great blues player."
Guitarist Amos Garrett began his career as an in-demand session player, adding his unique six-string sound to recordings by artists like Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt and, most notably, behind Maria Muldaur on her classic hit, "Midnight At The Oasis." Over the course of six albums for the label, Garrett has become Stony Plain's signature artist, and he won a Juno Award for his 1989 album The Return of the Formerly Brothers.
Garrett is also an underrated vocalist, and with Get Way Back, he takes on the work of notable R&B singer and songwriter Percy Mayfield. Known as the "Poet Laureate of the Blues," Mayfield's songs have been recorded by a veritable who's who of R&B greats, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Bobby "Blue" Bland and B.B. King, among many others. Mayfield also scored several hits of his own with R&B gems like "Hit The Road Jack" and "Please Send Me Someone To Love."
Although Garrett doesn’t include those two Mayfield hits on Get Way Back, the singer does bring his rich baritone vocals and phrasing to such well-known Mayfield tunes as "My Jug and I" (a hit for Ray Charles), "Stranger in My Own Hometown," "The River’s Invitation," and the title track, among others. In the liner notes to Get Way Back, Garrett states "Percy’s songs, when I discovered them in the early ‘70s, really set my direction. Sharing these songs is very special to me."
