01. Alley Cat Boogie 03:53
02. Sweet Poison 03:29
03. Come To Mama 03:43
04. I Don’t Know 04:38
05. Yeah Now Baby 03:52
06. Birthday Song 04:27
07. Nowhere To Go 03:02
08. Warning Shot 03:12
09. Swingy Dingy Baby 03:42
10. Too Sad To Wipe Away My Tears 04:03
11. Recession Blues 03:04
12. Evaporated Blues 05:34
13. Your Cheating Heart 03:23
14. Part Of Something Special 04:47
15. What Cha Say? 04:10
16. Working Man 05:01

Pierre Lacoque: harmonica
Inetta Visor: vocals
Michael Dotson: vocals (5, 9, 12), guitar
Giles Corey: guitar
Carls Weathersby: guitar (6, 14)
Neal O-hara: keyboards
Brian Quinn: bass
Kenny Smith: vocals (15), drums
Andrew Thomas: drums (2, 3, 5, 6 9, 12, 14)
Sax Gordon: saxophones
Ruben Alverez: percussion
Kae koen, Diane Madison and Nanette Frank: backup vocals

My father, born in 1915 and having seen and heard such, would call Warning Shot "Roadhouse Music." More technically, this is "jump blues" employing a larger-than-average band with an unidentified horn section on a majority of the 16 selections, the longest clocking in at 5:36 and the shortest at 3:00. This is an old-fashioned recording of 45 rpm singles ready of radio play, the majority of which would play well on what remains of independently-programmed radio.

Mississippi Heat is led by one Pierre LaCocque, a fine harmonica player in the vein of Charlie Musselwhite and Paul Butterfield. LaCocque penned 10 of the songs on Warning Shot played all of the harmonic and produced the recording. Hailing from Chicago, LaCocque came by his abilities honestly, capable of playing every style between Sonny Boy No.1 and Little Walter Jacobs.

What Warning Shot is not is a rehash of the poor maligned twelve-bars ad nausem. The styles range from the Elmore James-inflected "Sweet Poison" to gulf humidity of "Come to Mama" and "Recession Blues." The swampy dirge "Evaporated Blues" sung by Michael Dotson contains an overdriven Tony Joe White propelling a modified version of Son House's "Death Letter Blues."

LaCocque gives an instrumental "Your Cheating Heart" that recalls the best of Floyd Cramer and Boots Randolph's work in the 1960s. It is a romp; like the entire recording. Other standouts are Inetta Visor, who belts with the best of them and Neal O'Hara who excels equally on piano and organ. Enjoy this recording with a shot of Jack Black with a Jax back. ---C. Michael Bailey, allaboutjazz.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

uploaded yandex 4shared mega solidfiles cloudmailru filecloudio oboom clicknupload

back

01. Goin' Home [4:22]
02. Jean's Jive [3:08]
03. She's Got Everything [4:06]
04. What Kind Of Man Is That? [5:11]
05. That Ain't Love [3:49]
06. Blues For George Baze [4:18]
07. Caribbean Sunshine [3:33]
08. Heartbroken [5:43]
09. Madcat Hop [4:51]
10. Hobo Blues [3:42]
11. Still Havin' A Ball [3:53]
12. Gonna Leave And Let Her Be [3:51]
13. What Else Can I Do? [4:20]
14. Footprints On The Ceiling [3:44]

Musicians:
Pierre Lacocque (harmonica); 
Inetta Visor (vocals); 
Chris Winters (guitar, background vocals); 
Michael Thomas (guitar); 
Steve Howard (bass); 
Kenny Smith (drums);
+
Carl Weathersby (vocals, guitar, electric guitar); 
Billy Boy Arnold (vocals, harp, harmonica);
Peter "Madcat" Ruth (harp);
Phil Baron (piano);
Pat Brennan (piano);
Michael Freeman (tambourine).

To be asked back to work on new recordings for an artist with whom you have established a great rapport is always a delight for any producer, and so it was with great enthusiasm that I accepted Pierre Lacocque's offer to have me join forces with him again to co-produce the next Mississippi Heat album.

We had forged a fine working relationship together on the previous outing "Handyman", to say nothing of the fine friendships that followed along with both Pierre, his brother and "co-conspirator' Michel, and many of the band members and contributors. Both of us felt strongly that we had to present the current line-up of musicians and the new songs Pierre had written in the strongest possible light and especially so, since the extra attention we had paid to the recordings and arrangements on "Handyman" had received wonderful kudos from so many quarters and continue to do so. Technically, the recordings demanded a well-equiped and acoustically favorable room with some size to it. Tone Zone was once a gain the obvious choice and made so much happen for me so easily.

"Footprints on the Ceiling" encompasses a huge body of very diverse work indeed, drawing from a wide and deep range of influences within that great musical family of the Blues. Without Pierre Lacocque's unswerving and deep committment to his unique, and I feel, exceptionally refreshing vision, Mississippi Heat would not be able to take us on the rich musical journey it now does.

For Pierre, as bandleader and main writer, Mississippi Heat has always been a vehicle through which he can explore and deliver to both the listener and the live audience, a wide variety of his impressions and interpretations of both traditional and contemporary Blues. Also as a player, it allows us to see in no uncertain terms, that he knows his instrument very well indeed and that the roots of the music he writes and plays are deeply etched into his musical being.

Providing us with such diversity on a record or throughout a live performance, he invites all who particippate and all who listen to really dig deep down inside to discover their own influences and perhaps touch deep and passionate feelings. The result is a wonderful journey through a very different yet often familiar landscape of rich and thoughtfully crafted pieces. He darres not to follow the now well-trodden paths of predictability and gently challenges the listener to consider a more diverse and perhaps a more rewarding collection of work when all is said and done. I admire this greatly.

Working together with Pierre is always a shared commitment to the possible and to strive for excellence. It is thus a truly rewarding experience. It is my sincere hope that in addition to sharing the musical journey we have all taken during the making of this record, the listener will also taste some of the wonderful ingredients and feel the passsion that has been poured and stirred into this next chapter for Mississippi Heat. ---Michael Freeman, cdbaby.com

download:  uploaded yandex ziddu divshare

back

01. Let's Live It Up
02. Steadfast, Loyal And True
03. Jumpin' In Chi-Town
04. She Died From A Broken Heart
05. Betty Sue
06. Another Sleepless Night
07. Peace Train
08. Been Good To You
09. I Want To Know
10. Enlighten Me
11. Daggers & Spears
12. Don't Cry For Me
13. I Got Some News Today
14. Until We Meet Again

Personnel: 
John Primer (vocals, guitar); 
Carl Weathersby (guitar); 
Rhonda Preston, Inetta Visor (vocals); 
Giles Corey (guitar); 
Pierre Lacocque (harp); 
Sam Burkhardt (alto saxophone); 
Hank Ford (tenor saxophone); 
Bill McFarland (trombone); 
Christopher Cameron (piano, Clavinet, Hammond b-3 organ); 
Ruben Alvarez (percussion); 
Mae Koen, Vanessa Holmes, Kay Reed (background vocals).

In times like these, the blues form is well-placed to reflect them, and with its sometimes fine balance of the urban and the down-home, Mississippi Heat is a band more than capable of doing it.

Pierre Lacocque, a mouth harp virtuoso without any of the negative connotations such virtuosity might imply, has been leading the band for awhile now, and Let's Live It Up! shows he's doing it as effectively as ever, just as he's coming up with originals for the band to perform.

That said, there are factors working against the effect of the music. "She Died From A Broken Heart" is more deep soul than blues, and the presence of backing vocalists means it comes out more as sophisticated soundtrack than anything else—until, that is, Lacocque's solo takes things higher. Sure, he's a virtuoso in who knows his instrument inside out, but Lacocque never strives for effect, and the balance between head and heart is about 25/75, making for telling expression.

"I Want To Know" benefits from both Carl Weathersby's stingingly effective guitar and Inetta Visor's no-holds-barred vocal delivery. Like Lacocque, they both exemplify expression, as they're so far inside the blues that there's no way back—and that's a good thing.

The title track is all about the right circumstances for letting off the steam built up over the course of the possibly degrading working week, its message timeless, but with something contemporary about it, too.

Lacocque's all over the intro of "Enlighten Me" in the best possible way, before Visor takes over with her forthright delivery. Considering how long the band's been together, its tightness can be taken for granted, but that doesn't alter the fact that there's no sterility to be found. Here, as elsewhere, the groove is nailed, but not without the inclusion of little surprises, as Christopher "Hambone" Cameron's piano solo shows.

"I Got Some News Today" is as down-home as anything here; John Primer takes both the vocal and a tellingly concise guitar solo, and Lacocque gets to do his inimitable thing in fine style.

"Until We Meet Again (Au Revoir Et a Bientot)" closes things out in similar fashion, also showing what a night out the band provides. Rounding the program out nicely, it shows, too, that there's still plenty of life in the blues form. ---Nic Jones, allaboutjazz.com

download:  uploaded ziddu 4shared divshare

back