Bloggerhythms

Two real Blues Brothers, Chris and Ken Whiteley, are long-time members of the Canadian blues community and have appeared on more than 150 recordings between them, dating back to the 1960s. The brothers only recorded together twice, on Bluesology and Sixteen Shades of Blue , and both albums were nominated for Juno Awards, the Canadian counterpart to the American Grammies. Taking Our Time , their third CD together, continues their streak of quality recordings and should garner another nomination. Blues fans are in for a real treat. The brothers not only composed all thirteen songs, they sing every note and play every instrument -- more than twenty in all. While electric guitar is part of their repertoire, they employ banjos, harmonicas, washboards, coronets, mandolins, pianos and drums into their very rootsy country and delta blues sound. If you are looking for Stevie Ray Vaughn or Buddy Guy you should look elsewhere. The songs are as varied as the instrumentation. The brothers may be f...

I never heard of Freddy Cole, the younger brother of Nat King Cole, until recently when I was assigned to write the review of this CD. Because of my ignorance I was astounded to learn that the younger Cole has had a 50-year recording career. I truly didn't know what to expect, but since I always loved Nat's singing, I looked forward to hearing Freddy's most recent release. At times there are traces of Nat in Freddy's voice but he has his own distinctive sound. His voice is much rougher than Nat's and his vocals on this disc may be what Nat might have sounded like if he had lived and his voice changed with age. This isn't a criticism of his singing, and it really isn't fair to compare most vocalists to Nat King Cole without coming out on the short end of the stick, but I'm sure Freddy knows that comparisons are inevitable. There are some excellent choices in material. Cole covers Boz Scaggs' "Harbor Lights," Van Morrison's "Have I T...