Paul Filipowicz - Unfiltered (2018)

"Early on, my native Chicago blues guitar players were my favorites, Magic Sam being the biggest influence. His soul, his grace, his fire, but his figure picked phrasing, triggered me. I thought, Hey I play that one (lick). So I started covering most of his songs. That was over four decades ago."

I am well aware that when I show up and preform there is a lot of head scratching going on. People can't identify my style so I thought I'd bring out some of "Sam's" stuff like I used to. To give people a reference point.

I also wanted to pay homage to the sounds that were in the air when I was growing up.

The only way the Old Man could get out on a Saturday night was to take "the boys". My mom figured he couldn't get in too much trouble with us along. Instead of the movies we went to bars and pool halls. We shot a lot of Saturday night stick.

Canal Street was a strip in Lemont, IL, between the tracks and the old "Ditch". That's what they called the original "L&M Canal". It was a regular stop. The midget bartender would line the back of the bar with beer cases so he could tend customers.

When it would get slow he would come over and shoot with us. He would drag a beer case around and stand on it to shoot. He had this cane that turned into a cue. You unscrewed the bottom and it was a glass for your drink, a match holder was in there and the other half with the tip, slide out and assembled into a custom pool cue.

If he tapped it "just so" a two inch blade appeared from the tip. Nobody messed around in that place. The Juke-Boxes were different in each place. Ring Of Fire, was everywhere but we got Ray Charles, Little Richard, In UNFILTERED you have, tried and and stuff like "Honky Tonk" too. Blues true classic blues and a hand full of was always coming through the doors driving originals to sink your ears into and windows of the place next door to the barbershop that I shined shoes in front of. Six cent a piece, two for a dime. Jimmy Rogers was getting a lot of play, but when Wolf came on you just knew it had to be him. Wolf always had that extra snap.

So, besides Magic Sam I wanted to the try and capture the feel of that era. "Canal Street" is the street sounds from the ears of a ten year old out past eleven o'clock at night.

The instrumental, "Unfiltered" is an attempt to condense, in my mind's eye, all the music drifting through the air during these excursions. The rest of the stuff is us doing what we do. Weather it's a cover or one of my originals the boys always bring it strong. I can't thank them enough."

Like Wolf, Paul Filipowicz always brings that extra energy that is lacking in much of today's music. Paul always brings that extra snap. You'll be "Riding High"!

PAUL FILIPOWICZ All guitars and Vocals
BENNY RICKUN Harp
Chris Sandoval Drums
Rick Smith Bass
Tony Menzer Bass "My Woman"
Jimmy Voegeli Yamaha C7 grand p1ano "Howln' for My Darl1ng"
Tom Sobel Tenor and IJantone saxophones
Jack Naus Trumpets



Track List:
01. All My Whole Life Baby
02. Brand New Hat
03. Unfiltered
04. Canal Street
05. Howlin' For My Darling
06. Everything Gonna Be Alright
07. I Found A New Love
08. My Woman
09. Tin Pan Alley
10. Reconsider
11. Riding High

More Music in My Blog
Follow My RSS Channel