WILLIE NELSON & MERLE HAGGARD - DJANGO AND JIMMIE

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1. Django And Jimmie   2. It's All Going To Pot   3. Unfair Weather Friend   4. Missin' Ol' Johnny Cash   5. Live This Long   6. Alice In Hulaland   7. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right   8. Family Bible   9. It's Only Money   10. Swinging Doors   11. Where Dreams Come To Die   12. Somewhere Between   13. Driving The Herd   14. The Only Man Wilder Than Me

Legacy (Sony Music) / 88875093782

Two true Country & Western veterans such as Willie Nelson (born in 1933, so 82 years old) and Merle Haggard (born four years later, in 1937, and then 78 years old) have released in 2015 this record working together, showing that their age is not a problem at all for doing a good job. Because this record is a very good job, yes indeed.

Good old Country music. The real deal, not that sweetened Pop music that some people want to sell as Country music just because the singer sports a Stetson hat. No way. this CD is not that at all. Of course, with the background of the couple it is impossible to get that and it has to be real Country & Western. And more than that, despite being around 80 years old both of them, their voices sound powerful.

It is, I insist, a classic Country & Western record, with some songs made to dance, such as "It's All Going To Pot" or "It's Only Money"; some others of those called "tear in the beer songs", with "Live This Long", "Unfair Weather Friend" and "Where Dreams Come To Die" outstanding among them; and a third group of songs that remain in the middle of the road, being "Missing Ol' Johnny Cash" the best of them, a beautiful tribute to the Man in Black. A song that I believe is the best one of the whole CD and in which they have received the help of another Country star: Bobby Bare.

Fourteen songs, including some composed by Willie Nelson and/or Merle Haggard and some from different sources, both brand new for this record and old ones receiving a new chance.

The record, in its style, is a good one and I have to admit that I like it a lot. The only "negative" thing of the CD (and it's not that negative!) is to have included another cover of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right". Even with the good version recorded by Mr. Nelson and Mr. Haggard, I wonder if the world was really needing the zillionth cover of that song...

Just a few more lines to highlight the good artwork for the sleave and for the booklet, with wonderful pictures of the two stars.

If you like Country & Wester music, you're going to enjoy this record for good.

UNCLE CHARLIE COMBO - 45'S & MORE

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1. Pretendin' To Be Cool   2. Sugar Hill   3. Don't Tell Me Your Trubles   4. Mambo Cut Boogie   5. Fireball   6. Broken Hearted   7. Blues & Truble Everywhere   8. Goodbye Trouble, Welcome Loneliness   9. Lonesome Feelin' Blues   10. (I Know) You Don't Love Me   11. Dire Need   12. Twin Guitar Boogie   13 Drive Me Home   14. It's My Life   15. Pretendin' To Be Cool (single version)

CAB Records / Cab 56011

Uncle Charlie Combo, or Mr. Carlos A. del Bosque with different supporting musicians, presents a CD which is just what its title says: songs previously released in 7" vinyl format plus some others to fulfill a little bit more of 35 minutes of Rockabilly and some Rock'n'Roll. And when I write "Rockabilly" I mean true Rockabilly.

Fifteen songs (or fourteen, because "Pretendin' To Be Cool" has been included twice, though in two different takes), eight of them composed by Carlos A. del Bosque himself, plus two by Carlos and someone else (one with Sonny West and one with Phil Riza) and four songs from different sources (two from Sonny West, one from Ike Turner and one from Vern Pullen).

As said before, it is a record made up of songs from previous singles, etc. As a matter of fact, we can read at the sleeve notes that there have been included recordings from 2010 to 2015. But even with that gap of time between recordings the CD has a quite homogeneous sound and feeling, probably thanks to the fact that all but one the recording sessions had the same persong mastering and mixing (Ely Agramunt) and also to Uncle Charlie's own Rockin' style, a style that comes right from the 50's Rockabilly pioneers and that I have to admit that I love.

To choose a single song of the CD is just impossible, but I would like to highlight "Pretendin' To Be Cool", the instro "Mambo Cut Boogie", "Goodbye Trouble, Welcome Loneliness", the Hillbilly feeling of "Drive Me Home" and "Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" (with the slapbass work of Adolfo Ruiz shinning by its own). Well, I've mentioned almost all the songs composed by Carlos A. del Bosque... and probably all the songs deserve to be highlighted.

Regarding other's compositions or collaborations, my favourites ones are "Twin Guitar Boogie", with great interplay between two guitar aces such as Carlos and Phil Riza, "Broken Hearted" and "Sugar Hill", reminiscing Buddy Holly from the very first note, no doubt because it comes from the songbook of Sonny West (who wrote for instance the great "Rave On" that was a hit for Buddy Holly).

A wonderfull record, to make it short, that I just have to highly recommend. Good, old, true Rockabilly. By the way, you can get this CD through the artist's own website (www.carlosadelbosque.com).

Uncle Charlie Combo at a 2013 show in Pamplona (Spain),

with Uncle Charlie / Carlos A. del Bosque (guitar and singing),

Adolfo Ruiz (slapbass) and Juan Fresneda (drums).

DANI NEL·LO - SAX-O-RAMA

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1. 4 saxos 4   2. Zarpazo   3. Twist City   4. Chili negro   5. Ciao King   6. Lluvia sobre el cuero   7. El lobo de la ciénaga   8. Pantano Walk   9. Demasiado lejos   10. 60 monos   11. La Cobra vs. McCann   12. Sax Attack   13. Strollin' With The King   14. Las luces del Fillmore

Buenritmo / BR021CD

If there is a sax-player in Spain whose name is immediately related to Rock'n'Roll, that's Dani Nel·lo. He has been the sax-player for such bands as Los Rebeldes, Nel·lo y La Banda del Zoco or Mambo Jambo, to name the most known three, and he has also appeared on stage backing international stars such as Nick Curran.

With that curriculum and in a moment in which Mambo Jambo seems to be having a break, Dani Nel·lo has given himself the pleasure of recording 14 instro songs and to release them in this "Surf-O-Rama", where his tenor sax is almost all the time in the spotlight.

Fourteen instro songs, as with his band Mambo Jambo but, it is important to highlight it, with a quite different style because, as said before, here the sax is always leading the songs.

By the way, the rest of musicians working in this record are top ones, two Mambo Jambo included: Mario Cobo (guitar) and Anton Jarl (drums), plus Dani Baraldés (guitar) and Santi Úrsul (bass).

Along the around 47 minutes of this CD we get from Rock'n'Roll to plain Blues and, above all, Rhythm'n'Blues. Lots of good old Rhythm'n'Blues. It has to be said that this record is in some way a tribute to those saxophonists from the 40's and 50's who played Rhythm'n'Blues and who stepped forward to be Rock'n'Roll pioneers: artists such as King Curtis, Big Jay McNeely or Sam Butera, to name just three.

It is a record that I've enjoyed a lot, maybe thanks to the different rhythms and moods we have along its songs: great slow Blues songs such as "Lluvia sobre el cuero", "Demasiado lejos" or "Strollin' With The King" that are a real pleasure to listen to; mixed with songs with a speeded up rhythm somewhere between Rhythm'n'Blues and Rock'n'Roll such as "Ciao King", "Sax Attack" (my favourite two of the record) or "60 monos", for example. Fourteen songs that are a musical trip from the 40's to the 60's of the 20th Century.

If you like instro Rhythm'n'Blues and the sound of the tenor sax, I think you have to give a chance to this Dani Nel·lo's "Sax-O-Rama".