"Medication Time" explores a period of his life 16 years ago, where the stress of a child contact battle during a messy breakup resulted in a total breakdown and a 2 month stay in a mental hospital in West Wales. "I wasn't emotionally prepared for the sudden separation from my children that came with the divorce. Up until then I was somewhat of a control freak, so the realisation that control is but an illusion never really dawned on me until I found myself floored by reactive depression, suicidal, & sectioned within a state- run facility. Men rarely discuss these kind of emotions with one another, so they can often surprise the hell out of us and prove to be too overwhelming to cope with. Being a musician, I was lucky that I was able to fit the practicalities of my working life around my predicament. I also have some amazing friends. I managed to get back on my feet. Many people don't have these luxuries. Many fall by the wayside and never get back up again."

Going back and listening again to Tony Joe White's prodigious output from his early years, one is amazed at the depth of his talent as a guitarist, a singer and as a songwriter. After a series of albums that explored his love of deep Southern Blues, TJW took a warmer, more acoustic turn with Home Made Icecream. A lot of this is the back porch music he clearly loves - and here he is surrounded by fine session men who, if I recall from my old vinyl copy, include a drummer who wouldn't play until he'd read the lyrics…which as Tony Joe noted: "Is all right by me." The album flows beautifully, kicking off with a little rocker - Saturday Night in Oak Grove Louisiana (Tony Joe always had a thing about vehicles - little details like fender skirts - and here its the fibreglass mufflers on his pickup truck) and featuring among other things a gorgeous, lightly picked acoustic guitar and harp instrumental: the title track of the album. There's a ballad - Ol Mother Earth - but the standout is the last track which blows in like a cold breeze off a lake. "Did Somebody Make a Fool Out of You" is among his best ever examples of songwriting, singing and guitar playing.

This Blind Pig CD reissues material from 1983-84. The legendary veteran Jimmy Rogers (taking most of the vocals and occasional guitar solos) is heard teamed up with the talented harmonica player Rod Piazza and his jumping group. The results are consistently exciting. Piazza's harmonica serves as a perfect foil to Rogers' voice, and the impressive backup band (which also features Honey Piazza on piano) clearly enjoys jamming on the basic blues changes. The many strong solos and the superior material make this an easily recommended set.

It had to be a train. The name of Victor Wainwright's new band - and the sleeve image of their debut album - is also the most fitting of metaphors. In music folklore, the train might have associations with the freight-hopping bluesmen of yore, but with this restless boogie-woogie innovator stoking the furnace, this project is a charging locomotive - surging forward, crashing through boundaries of genre, sweeping up fresh sounds and clattering headlong past the doubters. At a sweet-spot in his career, where most established stars would rest on their laurels, Victor Wainwright & The Train instead rips up all that has gone before. These twelve tracks are originals in every sense, written by Wainwright, pricking up ears in a sterile music industry and stretching the concept of roots in bold directions. The result is an album that walks a tightrope between scholarly respect and anarchic irreverence. On this white-knuckle ride, only The Train could keep the material on the tracks. "I ended up with a hit-squad of downright amazing musicians," he reflects, "that shared my curiosity for all corners of the roots genre. We wanted to capture how we feel performing, right smack-dab on this record, and I believe we've done that. Now I just try to keep up…"

Rock & roll had grown louder and wilder by leaps and bounds during the '60s, but when Blue Cheer emerged from San Francisco onto the national rock scene in 1968 with their debut album, Vincebus Eruptum, they crossed a line which most musicians and fans hadn't even thought to draw yet. Vincebus Eruptum sounds monolithically loud and primal today, but it must have seemed like some sort of frontal assault upon first release; Blue Cheer are often cited as the first genuine heavy metal band, but that in itself doesn't quite sum up the true impact of this music, which even at a low volume sounds crushingly forceful…

The original line on Gary Clark, Jr. was that the young Texas guitarist was supposed to be the future of the blues, having been mentored by Jimmie Vaughan and Eric Clapton, but as his star rises, Clark has made it increasingly clear that his creative ambitions run a lot deeper than being the next hotshot guitar slinger. On his major-label debut, 2012's Blak and Blu, Clark demonstrated he isn't interested in following the path of blues traditionalists, and while there's plenty of great guitar work on 2015's The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, this is by no means a conventional blues album. Rather, The Story of Sonny Boy Slim is a thoughtful and passionate amalgam of African-American music past and present, and the blues is one of many crucial ingredients in the formula along with R&B, soul, rock & roll, funk, gospel, and hip-hop (the cyclical drum and guitar patterns that dominate many tracks demonstrate in themselves that the aural dividing line between blues and hip-hop isn't as wide as some like to imagine).

Evidence's 1996 reissue of the 1984 Johnny "Big Moose" Walker album Blue Love is adorned with five bonus tracks, all added to the beginning of the album. Fortunately, this does not change the essential character of this sublime, low-key set, since all 11 tracks cut during this session consist of Walker alone at the piano, idiosyncratically playing a wide variety of originals, standards, and Ray Charles tunes. Although this all sounds of a piece - that is, terrific late-night blues - it's not same-y, since Walker keeps shifting his phrasing and playing, not just from song to song but within the songs themselves. As such, it sounds as if he's playing in the same room with you - a wonderful, intimate feeling that makes this a latter-day gem from this fine pianist and singer.

You might think that Castro's first album recorded for mighty blues indie Alligator – and twelfth overall – would mark a departure for this longtime rocking soulman. Despite a fuller sound, fleshed out with Lenny Castro's percussion and boosted by an ever-present horn section led by longtime cohort Keith Crossan, this is another typically solid effort from the singer/guitarist. Perhaps it's unfair to expect that Castro would somehow break free of, expand, or alter the blue-collar persona he has cultivated over his solo career as he shifts to a higher-profile label affiliation. Veteran producer/musician John Porter returns to join Castro's strong, husky vocals – a cross between Delbert McClinton, James Brown, and Bob Seger – to a rather slick, radio-friendly approach that buffs off the frontman's natural grit, arguably overly so.

Fantastic Negrito’s upcoming album and short film White Jesus Black Problems was inspired by a search into his ancestry where he found that his 7th generation grandmother was a Scottish indentured servant who entered into a common law marriage with an African American enslaved man, his 7th generation grandfather, in open defiance of the racist laws of 1750’s colonial Virginia. Their love story is a healing testament to standing up against inhumane and brutal systems with love as your only weapon. Their perseverance is a lesson in today’s polarized society on the virtues of constant struggle in the face of ignorance, fear, and violence, which is still present in the contemporary embodiments of white supremacy, bigotry, and hatred. It's important to tell the story of how those who suffered much greater indignities and violence than we do in contemporary times were nonetheless able to preserve their humanity through human connection and the determination to love. If they can do it in 1759, we can do it 2022.

Santa Monica-born guitarist Coco Montoya has been a member of Albert Collins' Icebreakers (as a drummer), and was the first lead guitarist in John Mayall's re-formed Bluesbreakers in 1985. He is, of course, best known as a solo artist with six recordings cut between 1995 and 2007. The reason for the long breaks between albums is simple: endless touring; it's the way a bluesman really makes his money. Blind Pig Records was the first label Montoya recorded on as a solo artist, and he cut three albums for the imprint – Gotta Mind to Travel, Ya Think I'd Know Better, and the incredible Just Let Go. As such, The Essential Coco Montoya, compiles the essential tracks from his Blind Pig stint.

A reissue, with bonus tracks, of MonkeyJunk's first album (2009) previously available on their own Beefy label. Tiger In Your Tank kick started the group's acclaimed international career winning a Blues Award in Memphis as 'Best Artist Debut' and the Canadian Indie Award for 'Blues Album Of The Year'. The album has been remastered and includes two tracks recorded especially for this reissue. The Ottawa based trio are Canada's most acclaimed blues/roots music band. MonkeyJunk's touring schedule regularly includes dates in Europe and major festivals across North America.