Featured Album – Out of the Blues – Boz Scaggs

Written by Jim S.

I wrote a brief bio of Boz Scaggs in this post recently. I hadn’t really planned on writing about him – or for that matter follow up a blues post with a blues post – but I heard this new album (July 2018) of his and I dug it. Yes, at the grand old age of 74 years, Boz is still very much active, very much still churning out albums.

One writer said, “Long past the hit-making phenomena of the Silk Degrees years, Scaggs is still providing some very good reasons to keep listening to him.”

This new one – Out of the Blues – features a stellar cast of characters: Ray Parker Jr. (yes, the “Ghostbusters” guy), Charlie Sexton, and Doyle Bramhall II on guitars; Willie Weeks on bass and Jim Keltner on drums. And a couple of the songs were written or co-written by a harmonica player named Jack Walroth.

As it always is with Boz, his blues can be smooth or it can be down-home. The kick-off track, “Rock and Stick,” is on the smoother “radio-friendly” side but it’s a good one. And I love the way Boz throws his falsetto in there at just the right time:

Spotify link

You say you want to hear something a little more traditionally bluesy? Of course you do. Check out “I’ve Just Got To Know.” a song by a perhaps lesser-known blues guy named Jimmy McCracklin. That’s Jim Cox tinkling the ivories:

Spotify link

I’ll leave you with one more tune and if these three tunes don’t convince you to pick this bad boy up, I can’t help you. This tune is called “Radiator 110” and it’s got some nice harp on it:

Spotify link

Boz is on a roll as his last two or three albums all have gotten great reviews. Plus for good measure, he’s got a Live at the Fillmore West 1971 album that either just came out or was remastered. Any way you slice it, much good listening.

 

38 thoughts on “Featured Album – Out of the Blues – Boz Scaggs”

  1. Based on these three great tunes you highlighted, I’ve no doubt I’m going to dig this album. Scaggs nicely illustrates that the blues doesn’t necessarily have to be dirty to sound cool!

    Speaking of the blues, I’ve started exploring Paul Butterfield – holy smoke, there’s some great shit on his first two albums. Apart from being a killer harp player, he was a pretty good vocalist!

    I’ve also started listening to the Butterfield Blues Band’s third studio album where they started using horns and adopting more of an R&B sound. I have to say I dig that as well!

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        1. Me too! Best new album I’ve heard in a while. As to the Neil Young tune, I came thisclose to posting it. Thanks for mentioning it. Boz has got some weird tour going on that brings him to a handful of places next year. If he comes around here I’m definitely going. I don’t think there will ever be a Scaggs tribute band unless you and I start one.

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        2. Ha, no Scaggs tribute band? Who knows, though I assume you’re right!😀

          I have to say that while beyond Silk Degrees and now this album I’ve yet to familiarize myself with Scaggs, even with my limited listening experience, I’d consider seeing him, if he comes to my neck of the woods and ticket prices are reasonable.

          There’s something really cool about this dude!

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        4. You know what? We’re starting a fucking Scaggs tribute band. You and I will switch off bass and guitar. Can you sing? I bet CB can. Oh sure, he’s funny-looking. But hey, Mick Jagger is no prize and he does OK. Who else of this motley crew can we enlist?

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        8. Wait, what? Who died and left you in charge? Next thing you know we’ll be fighting over royalties, bitching about each other on TV, arguing over brown M&M’s and writing nasty songs about each other! 🙂

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        11. Funny. BTW, I saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” and enjoyed it quite a bit. Mike Myers is in it and when you hear what he says it’s hilarious. Or, well, it should be but his makeup is so good I didn’t recognize him and only got the joke later.

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        12. PS. It would be quite a bit more accurate to call it The Freddie Mercury movie. They spend more time on his relationships (including his cats) than on any of the other guys.

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    2. Good songs on this album! Thank you Jim for the post. Christian, I’d recommend looking at Buddy Guy’s “First Time I Met the Blues” compilation from the ’70s I think. Great, raw blues. I listen to it quite a bit.

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        1. To you and Christian: it’s a great album/compilation. I’ve been listening to East West and Charlie Musselwhite’s “Stone Blues”. Albums I currently can’t seem to get enough of.

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        2. And it’s not just me and Christian I think who are blues lovers on this site. We just never shut the fuck up about it. 🙂 Yeah, Musselwhite. What a great player. I did one of his tunes on a blues roundup a short while back. He’s always on my mind to add in or do a piece on. Thanks.

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        3. Oh I’m well aware. Most of the time, I never shut up about good blues to my housemates and girlfriend. Blues lovers unite, haha. Would you mind linking to that post? I’d be interested in reading it. Thx

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        5. And BTW, you can look under the ‘Blues’ and ‘Blues-rock’ categories for everything I’ve written on that genre. This is by no means exclusively a blues blog but I love it and I cover it as often as the mood strikes.

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  2. I’ll need to give these tracks a listen in a bit, cause I’m currently listening to The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. Again. Damn fine stuff on there.

    Anyhoo, I know I mentioned this before, but the only Boz I’m familiar with is the self-titled album. Absolutely amazing album, that one. A real favourite of mine. I’ll add this one and the other recent releases to my list.

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    1. Yeah, that’s a great one. As I mentioned to Christian, Silk Degrees is a good album but hardly representative of Boz. BTW, he and I are forming a Boz tribute band. You’re teh singer, Jimboy. Start learning.

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      1. I have Silk Degrees in the streaming library. I’ve seen that album cheap countless times, but never picked it up and I’m thinking I should do now. Especially given I’ll need to get to learning the songs!

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      1. Back to his beginnings, I always liked Boz but maybe m initial exposure with certain artists (Like Boz) stamps them with a certain style. that caught my ear in the first place. Make sense?

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        3. Yeah, And Boz has that nice voice. He can do smooth stuff but pull back on the brakes before it becomes too mainstream-sounding. But then he can turn that side on too. Definitely love to see him one day.

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        4. Like I said he has the Arc Angel duo of Charlie and Doyle. That doesn’t hurt. I think it’s his connection to Duane Allman that hooked you plus he does have the goods.

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        5. It was his association with Steve Miller that first caught my attention. But yeah, the Duane thing sealed it. But if you look at Duane’s studio career, he’s inescapable. He played with everybody. That’s the one thing he and Jimmy Page have in common besides being great players. But interestingly, I’ve never seen a Page anthology of his studio work.

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