Shawn Pittman - Too Hot (2010)

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Shawn Pittman - Too Hot (2010)

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Shawn's delicious use of the spare 'less is more' guitar style,which is frequently displayed, by one of Texas's premier guitarists,Jimmy Vaughan, allows the listener to appreciate the skilful artistry of Shawn's individual approach to Texas blues.He raises the quality bar with each successive album release. Here, we find him recording with a very fine group of Italian musicians who have backed him on his recent successful European tour. Speaking to Shawn he informed me that the album came about after Tano had heard him perform the Jerry McCain number "Too Hot" during one of the concerts on the tour and heasked Shawn if he and the band would go into the studio and record the number as it had become a particular favourite of his. So, as a consequence of this request Shawn and the rest of the band went into the Electric Honey Studios on the ninth of November two thousand and nine which also just happened to be their only day off in the middle of the tour; they recorded not only the Jerry McCain number but fourteen others as well such as Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years", Lazy Lester's "The Same Thing Could Happen To You", another excellent choice is Jerry McCain's "Geronimo Rock", and Larry Williams's "Slow Down", these are but a few of the numbers which make up this album. As a measure of the band's sharpness and spot on musicianship all the numbers were recorded live in a four hour session and each of them completed in 'one take', afterwards it was back to the whistle-stop tour of Italy which included eighteen shows in nineteen days. To give the numbers that extra edge Shawn played his guitar through a bassman amp. His obvious enjoymentat playing hard driving shuffles is fully recognizable throughout each number on the album, at some points as Shawn states the music is "pure out furious". These fifteen new recordings have the vitality and urgency of a man on a mission; his almost stabbing and jagged guitar runs introduce a new kind of Texas guitar style to the genre, his confidence and composure whilst performing indicatesa maturity beyond his age. Shawn's voice has a no nonsense, raw and gritty edge throughout the set I wonder if he has been on a diet of emery cloth and vinegar? The very fine musicians that are accompanying Shawn play not only on this album but also throughoutthe tour, they are that powerhouse of a drummer "John Lee" Emanuel Zamperini and the very tight bass player Martin" Keith Punch" Iotti, joining them as guest harp player is the outstanding Max Lugli, together they create a top class rock solid collection of blues blasters. The relaxed ease of manner, the fluidity of play and very obvious bluesy feeling from Shawn and the band just simply oozes out in fierce waves of pleasure. Some reviewers may say that what you are bout hear is a Texas blues blaster; well, I would go further and say ladies and gentlemen that there is only one phrase for what you are about to experience and that is A Searing and Scorching session of "Blitzkrieg Blues Blasters" Texas style! which takes no prisoners whatsoever! So I humbly suggest that you pull on your snakeskin boots and start stompin' those blues! From this album Shawn can expect to gain many more lovers of fast and furious goodtime Texas blues.
Brian Harman(Contributor to: Blues Art Studio, Blues in the South, MN Blues and Blues Matters).– by cdUniverse

1 How Many More Years
2 Secret Weapon
3 Same Thing Could Happen to You
4 Slow Down
5 Geronimo Rock
6 Next Door Neighbor
7 Lookin' Good See All
8 My Love Is Here to Stay
9 Can't Stand to See You Go
10 Play a Little While
11 Business Man
12 Where You Get Your Sugar From
13 Burnin' Up See All
14 Reap What You Sow See All
15 Too Hot

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Shawn Pittman - Too Hot (2010)

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BIO: One of the most powerful artists on the blues scene, Shawn Pittman has it covered on every level: singer, guitarist, songwriter, performer, and producer. Born in 1974 in Talahina, Oklahoma, the then-capital of the Choctaw Nation, and raised outside Oklahoma City, in Norman, Pittman got an early start in music. Inspired by the boogie-woogie piano stylings of his grandmother, and by his grandfather’s guitar picking, Shawn took up piano at age eight, following that with the drums, before concentrating on guitar at 14. Introduced to the blues by lifelong friend Bracken Hale, who to this day remains a regular co-writer, Pittman quickly progressed through Jimmy Reed’s rhythmic foundations to Albert King’s lead guitar style, along the way absorbing the approaches of touchstone artists like Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Frankie Lee Sims, the Vaughan Brothers, and Albert Collins. He can also discuss and reproduce the styles – and the dustier corners of the catalogs – of such artists as Lowell Fulson, Jerry McCain, Lazy Lester, Robert Nighthawk, Chuck Berry, Hound Dog Taylor, and Ike Turner.
Acknowledging Shawn’s talent and determination, his parents allowed him, at 17, to move to Dallas and pay his dues in that city’s thriving blues scene. His uncle took the underage artist to clubs where he could sit in. Although Pittman considers his time performing in the bands of Mike Morgan and Hash Brown as invaluable experiences, James Brown could have had Shawn Pittman in mind when he sang “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing–Open Up The Door, I’ll Get It Myself.” Pittman financed and produced his acclaimed first album, drawing the attention of Cannonball Records, which optioned and re-released it as Burnin’ Up. The same label issued Something’s Gotta Give in 1998. Intensive touring and a stint in Susan Tedeschi’s band, including an appearance on national television, followed. After Cannonball sank, Pittman moved to Austin, and, backed by the famed Double Trouble rhythm section, released his third long-player, Full Circle, on his own. He followed it in 2004 with Stay, a bold, wide-ranging project that explored Americana, soul, and rock styles.
Discouraged by the business and recognizing that a break for personal reasons was in order, Pittman withdrew completely from music in 2005. But a straight job proved ultimately to be unsatisfying, and in 2008, Pittman returned to stage and studio. Having learned the hard way that talent, songs, looks, and dynamite performances are not automatically rewarded in equal measure with success, Pittman resolved to bear down, give 110%, and work hard enough to make his own luck. He wrote and released the strikingly original albums Meridian (2009) and Undeniable (2010), while coordinating the issue of a best-of compilation and a live album in Europe, as well as a house rockin’ trio project recorded with Austin’s excellent Moeller Brothers. In 2011, Delta Groove released the superb Edge Of The World, a truly hand-made album that Pittman penned, arranged, performed, and recorded himself, in his home studio, to universal praise.
Pittman is the rare artist who intuitively balances genuine creativity with a deep reverence for those who paved the way. “There just aren’t people around anymore that can do things like Howlin’ Wolf or Guitar Slim or Albert King did,” he says. “Those guys created their own thing and had people playing with them who played that stuff naturally. We will never see that again. The only thing to hope for is that musicians will still discover those guys and continue to be influenced by them.” Extending that tradition in a meaningful way is at the core of his work. Accompanied by the stellar rhythm section of Willie J. Campbell and Jimi Bott, Pittman recently recorded his eleventh CD, of which he says, “It is by far and away my best stuff ever, and I want to be careful with what I do with this one. Whether artists do their own material or not is way too often overlooked, especially in blues. By the time I finish this new record, I will have written and recorded about 90 original songs. I still believe that I have what it takes to transcend genres, not just maintain the status quo.” Today, he is at work mixing tracks in the midst of a schedule that finds him performing regularly in Europe, California, Texas, and across the Southwestern and Midwestern states, and is currently booking festival season appearances. Do not miss Shawn Pittman when he appears near you.– by Tom Hyslop