(Modern Electric Blues) Billy Lavender - Memphis Livin - 2009, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

William "Billy" Lavender - guitar, vocals
Dan Cochran and Mike Stoker - bass guitar
Brad Webb - acoustic guitar, dobro, rhythm guitar
Tony Adams - drums, percussion, vocals
Blind Mississippi Morris - harmonica
Russell Wheele - Hammond B-3 organ
Ken Dinkins, Reba Russell - vocals
Maria Spence and JoJo Jefferies - backvocals

---

#777#777#777Memphis Livin, Released Tue, 2009-10-20 I55 Music, LLC

When artists such as Billy Lavender and Brad Webb walk into a club, it's not uncommon for the band to stop in the middle of a song to announce their entrance. When artists such as U2 and BB King are in need of talented singers, they turn to Memphis in search of local legends such as Reba Russell .

When the European blues are in search of legendary musicians, they turn to famed artists such as Blind Mississippi Morris, Danny Cochran or Russell Wheeler with his magical B-3 Leslie. Let's not forget Vince Johnson, whose smooth voice, stage presence, and entrancing harp transport us all to Beale Street. Memphis Livin is more than just an album. It's the very essence of the blues genre. Memphis Livin, featuring the finest musicians Memphis has to offer, encompasses virtually every form of blues from a Kansas City shuffle to the truly greasy northern Mississippi style. It has been said and remains true to this day, that Beale Street is the boot camp of the blues. If you can play there, you can play anywhere in the world.

Behind the blazing leads of Billy Lavender and the chest- thumping drums and percussion of Tony Adams, Memphis Livin will ensure that the blues spotlight remains where it belongs - shining brightly on the home of the blues and those real heroes who have dedicated their lives to ensuring this genre lives on for many more generations to come.

---

Billy Lavender may not be a familiar name to many blues fans, but he is considered to be one of the best guitar players involved with the Memphis music scene. He has been playing for over forty years – and was part of the generation of left-handed guitar players that simply turned a regular guitar upside-down and never missed a beat, despite the strings being in reverse order. Taking the role as leader on this collaborative project, Lavender has gathered together a cast of veteran musicians and vocalists and turned them loose on a batch of original material that serves as a primer on the diversity of the Memphis musical tradition.

Lavender turns in a solid vocal on the roadhouse rocker, “Get Along” but his fiery guitar work really makes an impression. “All the People” is a soulful plea for love and understanding with a multi-tracked vocal from Lavender. Brad Webb joins Lavender for an acoustic duo take on the brief “If I Could”, with Webb’s dobro setting the mood for some fine vocal harmonizing.

Drummer/percussionist Tony Adams takes the vocal lead on the opening track, “Singing the Blues”. His deep, gritty voice is a great match for this raucous tune, with Lavender matching the singer’s intensity on his guitar. “Bad Boy” gives Adams the opportunity to show his skill as a blues singer while “Delta Time” finds him belting out the lyrics on a blues theme with a heavy rock-influence. The energy level skyrockets when Reba Russell digs into “Let’s Party”, her vocal raising the roof with help from Blind Mississippi Morris on harmonica. Even better is her performance on “Blue”, a slow blues tune. Russell’s voice adopts a sultry purr before easily sliding through her impressive range to belt out the chorus with conviction. She also takes the lead on “Bottom Line” and delivers another strong performance on this ballad, salvaging some interest on what is the weakest cut on the disc. With his gritty vocal style and some down-home harp playing, Vince Johnson makes the most of his time in the spotlight.

“Cold As Ice” finds him pleading with his woman to come back home and using his harp to convey just how strong his feelings are for her. Lavender contributes a concise guitar solo. Johnson and Lavender tear through the up-tempo “Shake It”, contrasting Johnson’s simple harp phrases with Lavender’s cool, precise guitar licks. Another highlight is “3AM”, another slow blues with a soulful vocal from Johnson and more of Lavender’s impressive guitar work. Ken Dinkins handles all of the vocal arts on “Tonight”, a rock ballad that conjures up memories of Jimmy Hall and Wet Willie. “Just Chillin” has a brief vocal refrain over a deep, funky groove with Johnson’s harp taking the lead. While the assorted vocalists get much of the attention, the success of this project also rests on the stellar accompaniment. The unsung hero is Russell Wheeler, whose work on the Hammond B-3 organ consistently delights as he breathes life into each arrangement.

Dan Cochran and Mike Stoker share the bass guitar duties while Brad Webb covers the rhythm and slide guitar parts. Additional vocal help comes from Maria Spence and JoJo Jefferies. Collaborative projects like this can often fall short of the mark due to the difficulty of melding so many different styles and personalities into a coherent package. The fact that Billy Lavender makes it look easy is a testimonial to the lessons he has learned over his lengthy career. And he certainly has a talented group of musical compatriots helping him achieve his musical vision. This debut recording is a delight from start to finish. Can’t wait to hear more from Mr. Lavender !!!

Reviewer Mark Thompson is president of the Crossroads Blues Society <http://www.crossroadsbluessociety.com/>; in Rockford.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 13. December 2009, 9:45

Billy Lavender / Memphis Livin

Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-S203D Adapter: 4 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 12
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Not detected, thus appended to previous track

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:10.31 | 0 | 18780
2 | 4:10.31 | 2:56.20 | 18781 | 32000
3 | 7:06.51 | 5:42.65 | 32001 | 57715
4 | 12:49.41 | 3:15.20 | 57716 | 72360
5 | 16:04.61 | 6:06.30 | 72361 | 99840
6 | 22:11.16 | 2:04.22 | 99841 | 109162
7 | 24:15.38 | 5:15.54 | 109163 | 132841
8 | 29:31.17 | 3:55.14 | 132842 | 150480
9 | 33:26.31 | 3:41.04 | 150481 | 167059
10 | 37:07.35 | 4:56.60 | 167060 | 189319
11 | 42:04.20 | 5:57.65 | 189320 | 216159
12 | 48:02.10 | 2:30.13 | 216160 | 227422
13 | 50:32.23 | 1:43.12 | 227423 | 235159
14 | 52:15.35 | 5:21.15 | 235160 | 259249

Track 1

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\01 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Singin The Blues.wav

Peak level 93.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 719F100F
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\02 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Let’s Party.wav

Peak level 97.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 4C18D8B1
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\03 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Tonight.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC A63A7697
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\04 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Just Chillin’.wav

Peak level 91.7 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Copy CRC 2719AC8D
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\05 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Cold As Ice.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 66C78A97
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\06 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Get Along.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC C5349C34
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\07 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Blue.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC B319F039
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\08 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Shake It.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC BD0F9D25
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\09 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Bottom Line.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 4C1857F1
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\10 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Bad Boy.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 0DAA9616
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\11 - - William “Billy” Lavender , 3Am.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 3D994125
Copy OK

Track 12

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\12 - -.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 5B15C7C2
Copy OK

Track 13

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\13 - - William “Billy” Lavender , If I Could.wav

Peak level 69.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 15E5C4B6
Copy OK

Track 14

Filename C:\Users\ZINHOF\Desktop\14 - - William “Billy” Lavender , Delta Time.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 14CDBFCF
Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report

-----------------------

DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE

-----------------------

PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.0.3 B1 build 1.0.3.0
Copyright (c) 2008, 2009 y-soft. All rights reserved
http://y-soft.110mb.com

ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.

FILE: 01 Singin The Blues.flac
Size: 31191700 Hash: 34C017F4DF43A8F5DE3B6C89B4D8DF87 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 99%
Signature: C3EAAA279390D3C541272CD3DB06301FC6B6914A
FILE: 02 Let's Party.flac
Size: 20880465 Hash: 487938B932A938058FAEFC7CA8BDE20C Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 99%
Signature: 2326FC71C307FF28BB4229C9903F933E64D3F429
FILE: 03 Tonight.flac
Size: 37827660 Hash: 902A272D4D31C047933612BA1D437835 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: 9218ACE8D9F1FF7FD662573B16D6096ADEF5B4AF
FILE: 04 Just Chillin'.flac
Size: 23593965 Hash: 48FEB48195709466B5FCB556D0394736 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: CBC45DE9BEC4DD8FD762017182BF64D63639E3D7
FILE: 05 Cold As Ice.flac
Size: 41257835 Hash: 31964ACBB89E7918B215C94E2D618E67 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: AA4FD461F3549EEF98F3F3BD212B68963554B9C5
FILE: 06 Get Along.flac
Size: 15785692 Hash: 7179AC6796CCB55BE2AD79FD23622FC2 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: 198191D5D524FA12EE016EC869C2030A3A07AC25
FILE: 07 Blue.flac
Size: 33976243 Hash: 2EAC8E8867C3E714B7EADADB1D32C334 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 99%
Signature: 9565CBD7E56DBA3F8C796DC358FDA4583850A187
FILE: 08 Shake It.flac
Size: 28444598 Hash: EB4A7B3886838B55BD0DF1AB4C83FFF3 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: EC17FC329603B40B5C9E82E2DA30DDD8B1173801
FILE: 09 Bottom Line.flac
Size: 27019453 Hash: F45A661B01135CB5D1ECC6835BA9F433 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: 7D4009549D9A0EB277CEB8941CAE96AAB495BB29
FILE: 10 Bad Boy.flac
Size: 32258594 Hash: 6E9428B8D33E0980543E39A563900E39 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: FBAA0D475113340EB1187E133979471B252E9894
FILE: 11 3AM.flac
Size: 41603220 Hash: CDF16D0F044F8095F0EDA6298EE363C5 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: E2348A053FFE57406DB291039C10505AB013B64F
FILE: 12 All The People.flac
Size: 16288564 Hash: E8080289F31D551FCD19A3E2C340AC66 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: E186075B7282518E7ED43924E8F1D5CBE5009B5D
FILE: 13 If I Could.flac
Size: 9793424 Hash: B70C4792CDEEBB9FC886D03856F6B499 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 99%
Signature: 9261B44843ADC191E6253043CC580D7EE9095CD5
FILE: 14 Delta Time.flac
Size: 37882432 Hash: B5CF972D47685C7A95F7FFA268E79B2A Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: 85AF3789B9D82C084A36B538EAB91FE146806E74