Johnnie Bassett - The Gentleman is Back

The legendary Detroit blues guitarist and singer delivers the lightly stinging licks that are his playing trademark and warm, mellifluous vocals as he uniquely combines jump blues with Delta stylings.

Reminiscent of BB King with just a touch of Bobby Bland, the eleven song set finds Johnnie, at 72, in prime form performing a richly rendered cover of the Hoagy Carmichael standard Georgia and a batch of originals penned mostly by producer Chris Codish. The range is wide - from the R&B groove of A Woman's Got Ways to the jump-style swing of Keep Your Hands Off My Baby and the jazzy touches of the lengthy album-closer My Old Flame.

Bassett's career stretches back for more than five decades. As a child he heard the likes of Tampa Red, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Lonnie Johnson at his grandmother's popular fish fries. Later in Detroit he formed the Bluenotes asnd gigged with John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown and Eddie Burns. This was followed by a tenure as the house band for Detroit's Fortune Records label and Chicago's Chess Records. Since then he has recorded a series of excellent albums with his band the Blues Insurgents which have been nominated for five W.C. Handy Awards.

Personnel: Johnnie Bassett (guitar, vocals), Chris Codish (keyboards), James Simonson (bass), Skeeto Valdez, Keith Kaminski (saxophones), John Rutherford (trombone), Mark Byerly, Bob Jensen (trumpet), James Morris (pedal steel, track 9), Duncan McMillan (Hammond organ, tracks 8,10), Sean Dobbins (drums, track 10)