Bluestown Records

The Blues Foundation has announced the nominees for The Blues Music Awards 2007. It is with great joy and pleasure we inform all fans that Jeremy Spencer is nominated in the category “Comeback Album of the Year” for his wonderful new cd Precious Little. The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists.

Voting has already started and is open to Blues Foundation members. If you're already a member log on to www.blues.org and view the entire list of nominees for The Blues Music Awards and vote today!

The winners will be announced at The Blues Music Awards on May 10, 2007, at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis .

Jeremy Spencer - Precious Little
Andy Fairweather Low - Sweet Soulful Music
Chicago Bob Nelson - Flyin' Too High
Dion - Bronx in Blue
Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing

The Original Fleetwood Mac legend Jeremy Spencer has recorded his best songs to date and released his new album PRECIOUS LITTLE on Bluestown Records. PRECIOUS LITTLE is out now with original songs like “Bitter Lemon”, “Psychic Waste”, “Maria De Santiago”, “Precious Little” and more. Spencer also does some fantastic versions of blues classics like “Bleeding Heart” and “It Hurts Me Too”. His rock’n’roll and rock-a-billy roots are covered by greatly inspired versions of Fabian’s “Please Don’t Stop” and Slim Rhodes’ “Take and Give” (Sun 1956).

Jeremy Spencer did a rare appearance and played a release concert in the club Muddy Waters in Oslo , Norway on Monday February 20. He put on the greatest blues concert that you can imagine. It was of the genuine kind. The kind that you might sometimes expect from an Otis Rush or a Buddy Guy in top form. Jeremy Spencer does not play with volume but with layers of feeling and taste. He controls the crowd with the intensity in his vibrant singing and the personal and unique sound of his slide guitar.

Muddy Waters is a small club and it was packed to capacity, and the atmosphere felt like when visiting a hot blues club on the Chicago west side in it’s hay days in the 1960’s.

Jeremy Spencer played the new songs like “Precious Little” and “Maria De Santiago” from the album. The standards that he did was Otis Rush's “Double Trouble” (which was amazing!), Elmore James's “Bleeding Heart” and as a last song and a crowd pleaser he did an Elmore James medley based around an inspired Dust My Broom with everything else Elmore James tossed into it. Spencer also did “Bitter Lemon”, “Psychic Waste”, “Please Don't Stop” and “Many Sparrows” from the album.

Although there were no heavy rock volume from the stage that night Jeremy Spencer kept the crowd in the palm of his hand for more than 90 minutes. The old Fleetwood Mac fans came out and they got more than they imagined - and then some. From what you can hear on the new album PRECIOUS LITTLE and the release concert on Monday February 20 Jeremy Spencer must be considered to be the most genuine blues player in Europe right now. No doubt.

PRECIUOUS LITTLE has been out in Norway now for three days and it’s already getting some great reviews in the Norwegian press.

Ex Fleetwood Mac performer
Jeremy Spencer
In the studio to record new solo album

Juke Joint Studio, Notodden - Norway
11.11 - 20.11 2005

This will be his first blues album since he left Fleetwood Mac in 1971. Spencer is in high spirits and he still makes unbelievable music. His voice and guitar has never sounded better.

The recording session in the fantastic and all analogue Juke Joint Studio in the small town of Notodden , Norway produced 14 new recordings with a mix of both new and older material.

Spencer performed the older blues and rock ‘n’ roll material with smile on his face as a nod and “hello I’m back” to all his fans that have waited all these years for a new release. With the new songs he will surely gather a lot of new fans without losing a single one of the old ones. Jeremy Spencer is authoratively showing the world that he has played his guitar every day for all the time he’s been away, and that he has moved on both musically and as a song writer.

Every track is centered around Spencer’s inventive and clear toned slide guitar and his warm and vibrant singing style. Half way into the mixing period it’s easy to say that the world has not seen the best of Jeremy Spencer yet. His best recordings to date is on its way.

With the Juke Joint Studio recording session the guitar legend is finishing what he started when he decided to return to the stage and play the well famed Notodden Blues Festival last August. Jeremy Spencer thrilled the Notodden audience for three days with stunning performances. The Norwegian media all raved about the strong return of the original Fleetwood Mac guitarist. With the new cd they will be in for another big surprise.

Spencer’s enthusiasm for the recording project is clearly shown in his statement to the local press: “I have totally extremely enjoyed it.”

Please keep coming back to this site for more updates on Jeremy Spencer’s new cd as the project moves along.

Once again Norwegian blues rebels Spoonful Of Blues receive a great review for their latest release Chasin’ That Devil’s Music on Bluestown Records. This time around it is Art Tipaldi that praises the album in the American magazine Blues Revue.

SPOONFUL OF BLUES
Chasin’ That Devil Music
Bluestown Records 1011
When you chase that devil’s music, aka the blues, it never matters where you begin. At some point you must end up in Mississippi , the taproot of blues. Spoonful of Blues is one of the top blues bands in

Norway

. Though they regularly play throughout Scandinavia, the have also played the Sunflower Blues Festival in Clarkesdale , Mississippi . In fact, the band’s singer and harmonica player Jostein Forsberg travels at least once a year to Clarkesdale, Memphis , and other Delta blues hot spots. Those trips have exposed Forsberg too the purest blues in the world and, as co-writer of these 13 originals, his song writing is lean and precise. Add to that the juke joint authenticity recreated in the band’s home studio in Notodden, where they use the board from the Stax Studios, and you have a band who understands how to best engineer the music you play to sound like the place it comes from. The Mississippi blues that Spoonful admires is built on riveting, hill country grooves established by the driving rhythm section playing below Forsberg’s gritty, electric harmonica and Morten Omild’s raw guitar work. Their first song, “Down In Mississippi,” is an irresistible juke joint romp which easily transports listeners into that setting. The Norway-Mississippi connection continues on Spoonful’s “Three Forks Store,” a jug band styled tribute to the place where Robert Johnson was poisoned. On the title cut, taken from title of Gayle Dean Wardlow’s book about Delta blues pioneers, Forsberg and Rita Engedalen chant a liturgy of blues history about Charlie Patton, high water, and cotton, while Omlid’s guitar dials into those hard Delta days. As his guitar playing gets more frenzied and the rhythm section begins pumping., this song accelerates to a frenzied climax. The band shows off some high flyin’ John Lee Hooker boogies on “Boogie Now” and “Midnight Man.” On “Midnight Ride” Forsberg deftly combines a John Lennon type song with a Junior Kimbrough “all night long” refrain. A dedicated band like Spoonful of Blues proves how universal the blues can be.

Art Tipaldi

BLUES IN BRITAIN gives CHASIN’ THAT DEVIL’S MUSIC 8 out of 10 possible points in their latest issue.

Spoonful of Blues – Chasin’ That Devil’s Music

Spoonful of Blues are a Norwegian blues band led by singer and harp player Jostein Forsberg and comprise of Morten Omlid on guitars, Jans Haugen on bass, with drumming duties shared by Esklid Aasland and Kai Kristoffersen. Forsberg is the leading light in Norwegian blues and plays a major part in putting together the Notodden festival each year, on of the most successful blues events outside of the

USA

. His first love is Mississippi blues and this influence shows through strongly on the band’s second release.

The opening track – “Down in Mississippi” – is a one chord boogie that could easily be Kenny Brown, and large parts of the rest of the CD stay mostly in a North Mississippi vein with shades of Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside clearly audible, especially on the excellent “Need My Baby”. And the title track has a bass line to die for. One or two of the songs are out and out rockers and tend to be weaker than the blues, but they do add variety and make for a nicely varied set. The loops and samples used on the band’s debut release – Three Car Garage - sadly don’t appear this time but demonstrate the band’s awareness and willingness to move into territory that has given so much positive publicity to bands such as NuBlues.

Apart from the excellent songwriting (all the songs are originals), special mention should be made of the top quality production. There is a rawness that doesn’t quite capture the Fat Possum sound but makes a damn good try. The North Mississippi blues here are dirty and menacing and the country blues of songs like “Three Forks Store” are sparse and simple, just how they should be.

Blues means different things to different people, and the North Mississippi thing is not to everyone’s taste, but if it is then you should definitely check out this release. Norwegian blues may appear something of a curiosity, but these guys are serious players who are deserving of much wider recognition. Rating 8 – Chris Kerslake

Bluestown Records artist
Trond Ytterboe performs with Fleetwood Mac legend
Jeremy Spencer

Bluestown Records artist Trond Ytterboe (ex Notodden Blues Band) and his new stellar band The Trond Ytterboe Band are to play The 18. International Notodden Blues Festival together with founding member of Fleetwood Mac, Jeremy Spencer.

On Tuesday April 19 the Notodden Blues Festival released the full program for their 2005 event on a press conference at the Muddy Waters Blues Club in Oslo. As a special surprise for the media Jeremy Spencer was flown in for a short exclusive appearance.

Jeremy Spencer, who left Fleetwood Mac in 1971 to never return, performed Elmore James' "Madison Blues" and "It Hurts Me Too" for the media together with the Trond Ytterboe Band.

After hearing Jeremy Spencer practise with the band and see them play the short concert it's easy to state that Jeremy Spencer is a gem on the blues scene today. Very few can come even close when it comes to performing classic electric guitar blues. His singing is as strong as ever and he has developed his slide tecnique to an even higher standard than before.

Jeremy Spencer and the Trond Ytterboe Band will play two days at the upcoming Notoddenfest - August 5. and August 6.

J.T. LAURITSEN has signed with Bluestown Records and is releasing his best work ever on CD. PERFECT MOVES is J.T. LAURITSEN’s 4th release and his first on Bluestown Records. We are happy to have this popular, creative and productive artist on our label.

PERFECT MOVES is filled with good songs, strong, soulful vocals and tasty arrangements. All played by some of Norway ’s best musicians. This is roots based music at its best and J.T. LAURITSEN delivers from beginning to end. The Norwegian critics are all praising PERFECT MOVES and are really giving J.T. LAURITSEN credit for perfecting his personal branded mix of blues, soul, zydeco and rock ’n’ roll.

Spoonful of Blues – Chasin’ That Devil’s Music

Powerful stuff from the Juke Joints of Telemark – the hill country of Norway