BIG DADDY WILSON
NECKBONE STEW
Tracklist
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
Cross Creek Road
7 Years
Neckbone Stew
I Just Need A Smile
Tom Cat
He'll Make A Way
Give Me One Reason
Running Shoes
My Babe
Damn If I Do
Cookies Gonna Kill Me
The River
Peanut Butter Pic
00:03:00
00:04:05
00:05:38
00:03:12
00:03:00
00:03:55
00:04:22
00:04:53
00:04:16
00:03:16
00:01:38
00:04:24
00:02:58
Ruf 1236
Barcode: 710347123620
Release Date: 27 January 2017
Take a Cadillac ride through the Southern States and you’ll hear a thousand flavours of music on the
breeze. Listen to Neckbone Stew and you’ll hear them expertly stirred into one record. “It’s a mixture
of all the spices and good stuff you’ll find in most Southern kitchens,” says the award-winning US
bluesman Big Daddy Wilson. “To make a good stew, you need a little bit of everything, and this was
the idea I went with for my new CD. A beautiful mélange of blues, spiritual, roots, soul and reggae. I
just felt like mixing it up this time.”
Released in 2017 on Ruf Records, Neckbone Stew is the latest twist in a fascinating life story. Wilson
was raised a “real country boy” in Edenton, North Carolina, but fate had other plans. By 1979, the
young Southerner had escaped the grinding poverty of his hometown, enlisting in the US Army and
relocating to Germany, where he fell for the raw power of live blues. “I met the blues here,” he
remembers. “I didn’t know what the blues was before. It was here that I found a part of me that was
missing for so long in my life.”
Wilson had sung in church as a child – a precaution by his mother and grandma to keep him “away
from drugs and off the streets” – but his natural shyness meant he’d never considered stepping
onstage. Now, he discovered a talent for songwriting and an unmistakable voice that soon won praise
from the iconic Eric Bibb: “As soon as you hear Big Daddy Wilson’s voice, whether speaking or singing,
you hear his southern country roots. It’s a voice baptised in the river of African-American song, a voice
with the power to heal”.
That’s a sentiment echoed by the thousands who have watched the Big Daddy Wilson Trio perform on
stages across the USA, Europe and Southern Hemisphere over the last two decades. Working from his
adopted home in Germany, meanwhile, the expat bandleader has also earned acclaim for studio
Ruf Records, Ludwig-Wagner-Str. 31 A, 37318 Lindewerra/Germany
Phone: +49 36087 9220 Fax: +49 36087 92211
www.rufrecords.de [email protected]
albums like 2009’s Love Is The Key, 2011’s acoustic Thumb A Ride, 2013’s I’m Your Man and 2015’s
Time. And yet, according to the man in the hat, Neck Bone Stew is the jewel in his back catalogue. “For
me,” he says, “it sits on top. The latest is always the greatest. I was in the mood, like John L. Hooker
said.”
If Neck Bone Stew brings together a variety of genres, then it also unites a dream-team of musicians
who helped these 13 songs soar. Led by the multi-instrumental talents of Wilson himself on vocals,
guitar and percussion, long-standing Trio members Cesare Nolli (guitar) and Paolo Legramandi (bass)
brought fire and flair to sessions at Italy’s Fire Place Room. “These guys are just incredible musicians
and great to work with,” reflects the bandleader. “I have some special guests, too. The phenomenal
Ruthie Foster. Mr. Staffan Astner. One of my blues heroes, the great Eric Bibb. And this CD is
produced by the Goosebumps Brothers. It was a piece of cake – or should I say, Cookies Gone Kill Me.
Thanks to the local café who supplied all the cookies…”
As for the songs, they run the gamut. There’s the rolling acoustic blues of Cross Creek Road. The
exuberant brass lines, wah guitar and bad-luck lyric of 7 Years. The melancholy clipped chords of
Damn If I Do, with its depiction of a lover brought his knees (“You got your hooks so deep in my
heart/You got me crawlin’, but still you won’t stop”).
The album’s musical variety, meanwhile, is exemplified by the magical moment when the title track
switches from an aching slide-blues into a reggae strut, with lyrics describing a lover who “got them
big old hips, look just like two battleships”. Wilson is equally adept on the sun kissed balladry of I Just
Need A Smile, which pairs lush chords with a lyric that implores us to ditch our gadgets and reengage
with our humanity. “It’s all about life,” decides the bandleader of the album’s subject matter. “But
there are two things you need in a good blues CD – a woman and some food.”
At a time when most mainstream music fails to satisfy, Neckbone Stew will give Big Daddy Wilson’s
growing army of global fans the soul food they’ve been craving. “Throughout my career and journey,”
he reflects, “I’ve been influenced and inspired by so many different and talented people, places and
things. And somehow I wanted to bring it all together on this album. To put it all in the Stew…”
Musicians
Big Daddy Wilson
Paolo Legramandi
Cesare Nolli
-
Percussions, Vocals
Bass, Vocals
Guitar, Drums, Percussions, Keyboard, Vocals
Guest Musicians
Staffan Astner
Guitar
Eric Bibb
Guitar
Sven Lindvall
Tuba
Nik Taccori
Drums
Ruthie Foster
Vocals
Davide "Dave" Rossi Keyboard
Alessandro Meroli www.mikezito.com
Horn, Flute
Paris Renita
Backing Vocals
Also available
www.bigdaddywilson.com
THUMP A RIDE
RUF 1172
Ruf Records, Ludwig-Wagner-Str. 31 A, 37318 Lindewerra/Germany
Phone: +49 36087 9220 Fax: +49 36087 92211
www.rufrecords.de [email protected]
BIG DADDY WILSON ON TOUR
January 08th 2017
January 14th 2017
January 16th 2017
January 18th 2017
January 19th 2017
January 20th 2017
March 25th 2017
Blues Caravan 2017 Tourdates
January 27th 2017
January 28th 2017
January 30th 2017
February 01st 2017
February 02nd 2017
February 03rd 2017
February 04th 2017
February 05th 2017
February 07th 2017
February 08th 2017
February 09th 2017
February 10th 2017
February 11th 2017
February 12th 2017
February 14th 2017
February 15th 2017
February 16th 2017
February 17th 2017
February 18th 2017
February 21st 2017
February 22nd 2017
February 23rd 2017
February 24th 2017
February 25th 2017
Jazzclub Blues Brunch
North Sea Jazzclub
Muddys
CUBA
S-Ka
Stadtkeller
Lantaren Venster
Gladbeck, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Weinheim, Germany
Birrhard, Switzerland
Altnau, Switzerland
Lucerne, Switzerland
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Alter Schlachthof
Hypothalamus
Jubez
Merlin
Gemeindesaal
Quasimodo
Café Hahn
Musiktheater Piano
Harmonie
Tonenburg
Theaterstübchen
Sang & Klang
Reithalle
St. Barbara
Hirsch
Garage Deluxe
Colos-Saal
Music Hall
Blues Garage
Objekt 5
Downtown
Kammgarn
Charlys Musikkneipe
Jazzoase
Soest, Germany
Rheine, Germany
Karlsruhe, Germany
Stuttgart, Germany
Lindewerra, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Koblenz, Germany
Dortmund, Germany
Bonn, Germany
Höxter, Germany
Kassel, Germany
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Offenburg, Germany
Zwickau, Germany
Nürnberg, Germany
München, Germany
Aschaffenburg, Germany
Worpswede, Germany
Hannover, Germany
Halle, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Kaiserslautern, Germany
Oldenburg, Germany
Siegen, Germany
Ruf Records, Ludwig-Wagner-Str. 31 A, 37318 Lindewerra/Germany
Phone: +49 36087 9220 Fax: +49 36087 92211
www.rufrecords.de [email protected]