Albums are available by order from record shops, and at Amazon.co.uk & other sellers on line. They are distributed in the UK by Proper Music
You can also buy mail order from this site (UK only)
USA: For quicker, cheaper delivery you can buy on line from DWM Music
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Buy This Album at Amazon.co.uk or from this site by mail order (UK only)
Living on Credit
was released in February 2008, and this latest album brings a slight change of style,
aided by the hard hitting harp playing of Giles King on the title track and also
on Cotton Was King, a song that's begging to be run over the closing
credits of a movie that hasn't been made yet. The lyrical Like It That
Way and the slow swing of White Boy Blues boast the superb
playing of Guy Tortora Band
keysman Janos Bajtala. Covers of songs from the likes of Blind Willie
Johnson to J J Cale, Curtis Mayfield and Rick Estrin round out a set
containing the musical contributions also of talented drummers Mike Thorne and
Mark Fletcher, Richard Studholme on mandolin, and bv's by the UK Family
Jewels: Frankie & Bex. You can hear samples of some of the
tracks on Guy's
myspace
site.
The album will be available from record stores, online sellers, and as a digital download. We will
place links to on-line sellers and download sites on this page as they are ready.
"Make a resolution to buy this CD, it is more than worth the price . . . every track stands out." Blues Matters! (UK Jan '08)
"Up to his usual fine standard." Paul Jones -- BBC Radio 2
"Sounds as if [it] could have been recorded yesterday or eighty years ago. Tortora is something of an undiscovered treasure" Americana-UK (JAN '08)
"Each song glows with a patina that dates from 7 decades ago. Tortora could be Alvin Youngblood Hart & Rainer’s cousin." Rootstown -Belgium (Feb 08)
Downloads: This album is available as a download from lots of sites, including emusic, mp3.com, mtraks, and too many others to list here. Try putting "guy tortora downloads" into the search engine at your favourite site.
Mail Order: copies of the new album are available now by mail order for the UK only, and only from this site. See the contact page for details.
"You're living in interesting times . . . "
Track List: (underlined tracks link to mp3 samples)
1) Living On
Credit 7)
Super Blue
2) Nobody’s Fault But Mine 8) White Boy Blues
3) Like It That Way 9) People Get Ready
4) Cotton Was
King 10) Sharecroppers
5) God Don’t
Change 11) Falling
6) Mama’s
Tired
12) Don't Do It
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Jefferson
Drive: released in 2004, contains many originals inspired, it seems, by memories
of life and times in Pasadena, Ca and elsewhere. The songs range in
subject, like a series of snapshots, or scenes glimpsed through the window of a
moving car, framed with wry humor and strong melodies. Ranging from the
rootsy "traintime" of My Town, through the subtle funk
of Good Morning Mrs T, to the Mississippi chorus ending of Blues
Take Me Home, the album was recorded in the Tonezone Studio of
co-producer Richard Studholme.
Track List: (samples are underlined)
1) My Town
2) No Substitute
3) Good Morning Mrs
T.
4) Two Fried Eggs
5) Ain’t Nobody’s Business
6) Two Wrongs
“
. . . very, very good stuff!
Excellent songwriting . . . very subtle, beautiful, and lovely side
guitar.” Paul Jones -- BBC Radio2
Reviewed by Frank Franklin (Blues in Britain): "As with Guy’s debut, highlights are hard to pick out for want of failing to give due credit. “My Town” is the opener and the track from which the title comes, setting the bluesy ‘n’ rootsy standard for the hour. The subtle funk of “Good Morning Mrs T” is a soulful homage to Guy’s mum. A “Two Fried Eggs” jazz breakfast is perfectly timed and balanced with subtle, serious, light humour and fine piano from Janos. The often tired “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” (Grainger/Robbins), the first of the two covers, is given new life, building up to a charged finish. The deadlocked relationship of “Two Wrongs” is recounted via medium-paced country-soul and with a hint of honky tonk. “Watch Over Me” is a reverential original gospel piece with weighty slide; though not a hymn and theologically inconclusive, it is wonderfully hymnal all the same. Motherly advice becomes fatherly advice administered in the Eric Bibb-styled “Long Time Blue”. The wistful “Sometimes She Cries” has Richard Studholme’s warm mandolin breeze breathing through it. Backing vocals from the Family Jewels on “Blues Take Me Home” make for a Mississippi field-gospel chorus: a haunting mesmeric, bittersweet moan-riff. This song of reconciliation and convincing justification is an epic! Guy’s slide work is particularly fine here and he lets go vocally as he seldom does. His discipline and restraint serve him to good effect: his arrangements are all the better for reserving his energies for finales such as this.
Overall the collection is a slow burner and a thoroughly enjoyable outing, repeated listenings are well rewarded."
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Footnote
to the Blues: from 2002. This is definitely not an
album of run-of-the-mill blues, and made a good first impression on the UK
scene. This CD contains many fine songs,
inc. I Need A Car, one of Guy's originals (and often requested at acoustic
performances) played solo on bottleneck guitar; also an outstanding solo interpretation of
the Motown classic I Heard It Through The
Grapevine, and a sideways look at Rbt. Johnson's Crossroads Blues
played on electric slide.
Track List: (samples are underlined)
1) Long Slow Blues
2) Hallowed Ground 8) Tough Love
3) I Need A Car
4) Late Starter
5) I heard It Through The Grapevine 11) Going Down Slow (Pt II)
6) Did Somebody Make a Fool Of You
"Footnote to the Blues" was summed up thus in a review by Gary Hearn for Blues & Rhythm -- The Gospel Truth: "Bold and sensitive, full of grace and feeling."
Album Graphic Design & Layout by Neil Littman