UG Blues & Jazz Album Review

Release Date: 2008
Label: Ultimate-Guitar.com
Genres: Blues
Number Of Tracks: 17
In what is an album of acuity, Ultimate-Guitar’s very own blues guitarists exhibit their mastery of the Blues genre; showcasing the overwhelming presence of skill to be found in UG’s members.

Sound:	8
Lyrics:	7
Impression:	9
Overall rating:	8
Users rating:	8.4
Comments:	100

overall: 8

Featured review by: UG Team, on june 27, 2008

Sound:

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· Download UG Blues & Jazz Album

Ultimate-Guitar’s very own blues guitarists collaborate to great effect, on what should be advertised as the ideal introduction to blues. Listening to music as passionately recorded as this, one need not look to any other source of inspiration to listen to more blues music.

Insofar as there is so much talent on show, it is hard to choose a select few tracks to discuss here. On an album on which Max Korlinge’s track: Joyous Blues is joyously up-tempo, enfilading the listener with a blaze of harmonica-guitar blues; and Ian Schober’s Blues in E turns out a rampant, galloping guitar rhythm that bands such as Iron Maiden would die for, there is a real sense of artisanship about this album. An industrious effort, it is; however, the ‘fabric’ of the UG Blues album is to be found within Shine On Blues, performed by James Hayes. Recorded in an uncommonly refined manner, his labours boast erudition. Despite doing their best to remain as sincere and insouciant as possible, there is a tangible expression of grace on this album, and it’s a testament to the artists’ proficiency. Whether it is the adagio of Grey Sky Blues, or the intricacy of Sam J. Parker’s Desolation Blues, Ultimate-Guitar’s blues artists do the site justice. // 8

Lyrics and Singing: Largely instrumental, with the notable exception of Workin’, performed by Kevin Saucier, and a few of the covers, the lyrical qualities of the album are largely demonstrated by Amos Helvey. The apex of delight and raw passion on this album is arguably his rendition of Rollin’ and Tumblin’, the Muddy Waters classic. This mix of covers and originals blends excellently, and it seems fitting that Muddy Waters’ influence inexorably endures on modern day blues. The Liquid Blues Band’s very own Gone Forever is yet another standing tribute to the talent of Ultimate-Guitar, and lyrically holds it's own, retelling the story of ‘my baby’, who is ‘gone forever [...] straight outta town’, leaving the vocalist ‘so down’. Don’t let that get you down, there’s plenty to keep you up beat on this album! // 7

Impression: Blues guitarists are often tempestuous, boldly revolutionary, and astutely talented. Abstemious, they are not; Ultimate-Guitars very own Blues guitarists draw influence from the greats, such as SRV, Jimi Hendrix and Muddy Waters. In the event, the only thing that is lacking from this album is a more qualified recording process throughout; let this leave you unperturbed, for the quality is there to substantiate my claims that there is a lot more to come from these guitarists. Neil Flynn, the brainchild of the project, assured me that the artists are planning another album so that we can put it onto online music shops and give the money to the charity’. With such sentiments behind the music, you can sit back and enjoy yourself. From the initiating track, recorded by the prodigious Eric Nikolaides, to the closing Stormy Monday rendition, by James Hayes, the album does not disappoint much, if at all. // 9

- Sam Agini aka ss311 (c) 2009

Comments

[szekelymihai]

Just downloading now.Looking forward to hear it and the DW has a great speed.I also encourage all others to start writing their onw songs to get on the next UG album :cheers:

[Keyphur]

sweet, cant wait to hear it. rock on

oh yeah, FIRST!!:haha never got to say it

[szekelymihai]

Well i just listened to the whole thing and its pretty good.I have to congratulate Eric Nikolaides, James Hayes and Kevin Saucier, those were my favorites!Excellent work everybody!

[Pingis_Or_Death]

Not a big fan of blues, my dad would probably like this album though.

[swe_fender]

Excellent work! didnt belive it when I first saw it, cool that guitarrists on UG took this initiative, metalguitarrists should as well! =)

[Helpy Helperton]

Pingis_Or_Death wrote:

Not a big fan of blues, my dad would probably like this album though.

not a fan of blues? what are you doing on a guitar website, blues are cool, you may have to wait until your tastes mature a little

[ShaDoW0lf]

Helpy Helperton wrote:

Pingis_Or_Death wrote:

Not a big fan of blues, my dad would probably like this album though.

not a fan of blues? what are you doing on a guitar website, blues are cool, you may have to wait until your tastes mature a little

heh, thought you said testes :P
A guitarist doesn't have to like blues. In fact, he/she can HATE it passionately and still be a guitarist. Buy yeah, blues is cool..

[sucay]

Helpy Helperton wrote:

Pingis_Or_Death wrote:

Not a big fan of blues, my dad would probably like this album though.

not a fan of blues? what are you doing on a guitar website, blues are cool, you may have to wait until your tastes mature a little

i'm a blues head but man you dont have to have a "mature taste" to like blues, you either do or don't.

[YetAnotherMuso]

hey wow this sounds cool, so cool in fact that I am going to attempt to download the album using dialup...which is a feat not undertaken lightly believe me! Major kudos to the UGers who made this

[thecrazytapper]

downloading now.... can't wait to hear it...

[hamish5178]

wow, whoever wrote this obviously had a thesaurus on hand.

[Td_Nights]

I wonder if the author of this review realized that half the people on the site won't understand half the words that were used lol.

Anyway, it's sounding really good.

Perhaps one day UG will have themselves a folk/viking metal album.







I can dream, can't I?

[GuitarHero0715]

I'm not a fan of blues either.

But my cousin would dig this album. I guess?

Im gonna download, just because its UG though, ill probably listen to it for about 20 seconds tops.

[TheDev01dOne]

Largely instrumental, with the notable exception of Workin’, performed by Kevin Saucier, and a few of the covers..

My song, "Grey Sky Blues" had lyrics and wasn't a cover. Just putting that out there.

Awesome that we got on the front page for this though and thanks anyone who downloads it and listenes to it and hopefully enjoys it. UG Blues album #2 is on the way and is planned to be all original songs, no covers.

Props to Neil for initiating this and keeping it all organised too, great that someone is passionate enough about the music to put in so much effort, especially for all of us Blues/Jazzers.

[TheUnholy]

Just because you know long words, doesn't mean you have to use the, UG Team :p. This article could benefit from being written more about the album, and less about the reviewer trying to show off his vocabulary, and ending up sounding awkward as he shoehorns words in where the don't want to go.

Props on the project though guys, great to see this little community producing great work

[PopPunkPotHead]

Nice, free music. Thanks UG
And it is actually great music

[Pingis_Or_Death]

Helpy Helperton wrote:

Pingis_Or_Death wrote:

Not a big fan of blues, my dad would probably like this album though.

not a fan of blues? what are you doing on a guitar website, blues are cool, you may have to wait until your tastes mature a little

Listen buddy, I've been listening to blues all my life and I'm sick of it. Imo most of it sounds the same, with the same chord progressions and I just find it dull. Maybe I would like it more if my dad hadn't been playing it through the stereos almost every day since I was born. Besides, every has different tastes in music and just because you like blues doesn't mean you have a more mature taste in music.

[ss311]

Having listened to the album to review it, I must say that it's a job very well done. Well done to you all.

There are only five words in there that should really pose a problem for anyone whose first language is English.

Oh, and I'm big on words. If you check my profile, you will notice that I love dictionaries; learning words is a hobby of mine.

[ss311]

^When i say anyone, I mean anyone who is 16+.

[poisoneggs]

Wow, thanks a lot guys, I love it.
I always wanted to master blues and jazz, but unfortunately I lack improvisation. Thanks again.

[GD_GC]

Wow, great review, good stuff! I can't wait for the next album!

-Eric Nikolaides

[nadav183]

downloading read comments and really looking forward to hearing this 1

[Broken_Drum]

Helpy Helperton wrote:
not a fan of blues? what are you doing on a guitar website, blues are cool, you may have to wait until your tastes mature a little

Come on, just because they don't really care for Blues doesn't mean their taste is inferior to your own.

[Thornography]

Helpy Helperton wrote:

Pingis_Or_Death wrote:

Not a big fan of blues, my dad would probably like this album though.

You're an idiot if you think that you blues = mature taste. People can like any music they want and still be as "mature" as you. It's called diversity.

not a fan of blues? what are you doing on a guitar website, blues are cool, you may have to wait until your tastes mature a little

[Astaldo]

just great!

[ctb]

i'll have a listen.

[red157]

Wow, I remember reading about this in the thread... Glad it's on the front page. Same yesterday's review of Angels and Airwaves is rated 1.3 above this (Which is surely better).

[Dimebag22]

Sweeeet.

I'm on the album, my track is "Long Gone Blues by Kris Moore." I would love to hear comments on my track to improve my playing

:cheers: to Sam for doing the review.

[Dimebag22]

Oh and just to let you guys know, you don't have to download the album, you can listen to it on the UG Band Profile, then if you like what you hear, you can download it.

Just thought it would save you some time

[rattlehead924]

Td_Nights wrote:
Perhaps one day UG will have themselves a folk/viking metal album.

lol that would be so beast

[ze monsta]

Good job guys.

Looking forward to getting on the next one!

[sunofnothing4]

This is bad ass! Thanks UG

I love you *big shimmery eyes*

[turtlewax]

Excellent Idea, ist there going to be similar things with other genres, or even a covers ablum?

[Jimmy94]

Thanks for the great review and the comments. Right now I'm planning out a track for the next blues & jazz album, which I think will be better than the first one!

[Jimmy94]

szekelymihai wrote:

Well i just listened to the whole thing and its pretty good.I have to congratulate Eric Nikolaides, James Hayes and Kevin Saucier, those were my favorites!Excellent work everybody!

Thanks so much for listening, glad you enjoyed it.
-James Hayes

[Jackolas]

This sounds fantastic, why wasn't I told earlier?!

Really though, good stuff. :cheers:

[aetherspear]

Nice review. Check my tracks "Call it stormy monday" and "Gone Forever" on this album. Great job to everybody who contributed.

[MedicreDemon]

sounds cool, i didn't know anything about this. Downloading now

[dirtymexican863]

It's more of a Jazz/Blues album really...

[Scotdizzle]

Nice, but the language used in the review could be toned down a little. It's a reveiw of a blues album not Shakespeare

[Scotdizzle]

Scotdizzle wrote:

Nice, but the language used in the review could be toned down a little. It's a reveiw of a blues album not Shakespeare

Dammit I mean review

[washburn0c03]

I'm looking forward to any other albums UG pumps out no matter what genre. I'm just hoping to see alot of orignals and very few covers.

[Gabel]

Which I had heard of this! I would have recorded for it too!

[VLVTRVOLVR13]

what are you guys using to play the album? its an .rar file and my windows media player does not recognize... any ideas?

[futurama_rules]

ok, 1. it doesn't matter if you like blues, dont' comment on it if you don't like the genre.
2. on the other side, don't say non blues musicians are always bad.
3. haven't listened yet, but thinking of giving it a try.

[pak1351]

@ VLVTRVOLVR13

google "winrar" and use that to extract them to mp3

[CollinPlaysBass]

Ya, You think Amos Helvey's contribution to this album was amazing, you should hear his band!

[RonnyMex]

YetAnotherMuso wrote:

hey wow this sounds cool, so cool in fact that I am going to attempt to download the album using dialup...which is a feat not undertaken lightly believe me! Major kudos to the UGers who made this

I feel this man's pain as well.

[bboyhemi]

finished listening to it and i like loved it .
Im not a blues guy, but this stuff it really good actually, though i didn't expect my self to like it.

i dont know if its appropriate to ask but do any of the guys have notes/tabs for these songs? cuz the guitar parts in these songs are NO JOKE!

[RevolverX]

Great blues album - I can tell we've got some real purists around here. I'll be sure to put it on sometime next week before heading out to see Johnny Winter!

Just an aside though - and I know this is sticky territory - but this is definitely NOT a jazz album! If I try to explain why I'll shoot myself in the foot, I'm sure, so I'll go the safe route and just say that although the two are related, there's an expected vocabulary distinct to each and on the jazz end, it just ain't there!

[GD_GC]

Yeah, I agree there isn't really any jazz, but we wanted to name it for the Blues/Jazz subfourm in general, even though there is mostly blues on there.

[the_extremist00]

this album is awesome lol

[Bored to Tears]

This album is pretty cool. The only thing that would make it better is some better production.

[joshua029]

VLVTRVOLVR13 wrote:

what are you guys using to play the album? its an .rar file and my windows media player does not recognize... any ideas?

its a compression extension. like .zip but better. goole winrar and you'll be okay

[Minderbinder]

With "shine on blues", it's just him playing over a free online backing track from "gilmourish.com" Everyone else played their own instuments.

[Shazazmic]

UG reviewing their own album? I was expecting them to give it like an 11 lol.

[musicology]

I kept waiting for an altered dominant, or a even tritone substitution, but apparently the "jazz" of the blues and jazz album got cut out of the final mix.

[IMABBALLPLAYER]

What about the original UG album, that started out in the Pit?

[Slash 602]

Jazz? it's just a blues album, so why bother calling it blues and jazz?

[Dimebag22]

We called it the Blues and Jazz album because it originated in the Blues and Jazz Subforum.

And this album was produced and recorded bu Ultimate Guitar users, not the Ultimate Guitar staff.

[Sloopy]

I really love what the guys have done!

[tyler_j]

is this the first UG album to be released for download?

[Nikkari]

Dimebag22 wrote:

Sweeeet.

I'm on the album, my track is "Long Gone Blues by Kris Moore." I would love to hear comments on my track to improve my playing

:cheers: to Sam for doing the review.

ok kris I like it and I like a lot. I'm from Finland and just spent a weekend in the countryside sitting on the dock and listening to this album. Your song has a sweet "black touch" (I hope that's not too offending to say something like that).

All and all magnificent album and really inspires me to improve my guitar skills to be able to play this kind a shit during the hot summer days spent with frends and family in the countryside. Somehow blues just fits the mood of those days.

More shit like this! And for free obviously

[farquarl]

Awesome album. I dont usualy listen to blues but I loved this. Great that it was free download too.

[odb56]

Where do i get that Album ? i want it =)

[Jimmy94]

The links to download are just above the review.

[pak1351]

class act guys. Can't wait for volume 2

[kevinm4435]

it would be cool if there was actual jazz next time

[Freshnoise]

hamish5178 wrote:

wow, whoever wrote this obviously had a thesaurus on hand.

I was thinking the same thing. How often do you hear words like enfilading, erudition, or inexorably?

Sounds cool though, I'll give it a listen.

[Lefty7Stringer]

yay I can listen to people over use the blues scale for an hour

[Lefty7Stringer]

Td_Nights wrote:

I wonder if the author of this review realized that half the people on the site won't understand half the words that were used lol.

Anyway, it's sounding really good.

Perhaps one day UG will have themselves a folk/viking metal album.







I can dream, can't I?

+1

[MeGaDeth2314]

We seriously need a prog-metal album. I'd record a track in a heartbeat!

[nuncautnumquam]

what i don't see is how this is a blues and jazz album, when only blues tracks are present? I'll give it a listen anyhow, i love the blues. Just that one question

[TheBurningFish]

Td_NightsPerhaps one day UG will have themselves a folk/viking metal album.







I can dream, can't I?

It'd be a long dream :P

[Dimebag22]

nuncautnumquam wrote:

what i don't see is how this is a blues and jazz album, when only blues tracks are present? I'll give it a listen anyhow, i love the blues. Just that one question

For the hundredth time, it originated in the Blues and Jazz subforum, so therefore we named it the Blues and Jazz album because it was made by the Blues and Jazz forum regulars.

[Jimmy94]

Don't worry, I'm working on an original jazz comp for the next one

[Billy Picken]

All I can say is awesome job to all involved! This made my day, it's always great to have fresh new music to enjoy.

[Psychologic]

Love the album, very beautiful guitar play Congratulations to all the guys that made it on the album.

[theocao]

hmm
I kinda wanna be on a ug album but I suck to much prolly in a few years.

[2003LP]

This seems to be a decent album

[adriank]

Nice work guys. Have it playing right now and think its an awesome album. I'm definitely keen to hear more from all of you.

[TeXaS_db]

Woo Struttin' Busted FTW, ha jp. My favorite song was the Little Wing cover by eric, a great acoustic cover.

[Rock_Rebel]

Excellent album, I honestly can't pick a favourite song. There is some serious guitar mastery here.

[Rock_Rebel]

Hope there will be other albums, like Punk, Rock and Metal, stuff like that, It'd great. I hope this is the start of a great collection of UG Albums.

[God's Guitarist]

i downloaded and tried to expand it but it says that grey skies has an error and thus the file cannot be extracted?? from what i gather im the only person who's had this problem. anyone know whats going on??

[mlkIII]

Great job by everyone, but how do you get in? I would love to collaborate on a blues album.

[bazman13]

thats choice that you can just download it all for free

[stef123]

doesnt work for me, says windows cant download the file. help?

[ss311]

Freshnoise wrote:

hamish5178 wrote:

wow, whoever wrote this obviously had a thesaurus on hand.

I was thinking the same thing. How often do you hear words like enfilading, erudition, or inexorably?

Sounds cool though, I'll give it a listen.

All the time, because I can actually read. I know these words, so I use them when I have the opportunity.

[buzzzxx]

what a fantasic vehicle for the talent on this site. I am downloading it now and can not wait to take a listen. How did you all find out about the making of the album to contribute tracks? Congrats to all who appear on it.

[carpincowboy]

i`ll give it a try
give me some insperation i hope.

[GD_GC]

buzzzxx wrote:

what a fantasic vehicle for the talent on this site. I am downloading it now and can not wait to take a listen. How did you all find out about the making of the album to contribute tracks? Congrats to all who appear on it.

We found out because we are all regulars in the subfourm, and one of us had the idea to do it. If you want to get involved on the next one, start checking out the Blues/Jazz subfourm!

[Dimebag22]

Yeah, if you really want to be on a blues album, chances are that you wont make it on to the next one, but if you start posting in the Blues and Jazz subforum, you would definitely make it onto the third one.

[AnoKid09]

aerialanatomy wrote:

white guys shouldn't play the blues but w/e

Tell that to Eric Clapton....

seriously..that was dumb.

[Connavar]

aerialanatomy wrote:

white guys shouldn't play the blues but w/e


Tell that to Eric Clapton....

seriously..that was dumb.

Not to mention others like rory gallagher. There are lots of great white blues players out there

[Ryzeke1]

Sweet...Soapbox Kings. Visited their Myspace page, and some serious good blues stuff. Oh ya, and the album is great stuff too =)

Checked!

[theneildeal]

Thanks for all the comments!

Neil Flynn - Album creator

[RubberSoul54321]

Excellent stuff - keep it up

[CedricL]

I've only listened to a couple tracks but I'm feeling 'Blues Jam' and 'Shine on Blues'. Good stuff.