Blues Rock Guitarist Frank Cosentino Readies to Conquer the Airwaves with New Single ‘VIBIN’ Ahead of ‘COMEBACK’ Album Release

  

Blues rock guitarist Frank Cosentino ready to take over the airwaves with new single ‘VIBIN’.

 

After more than four decades of touring, writing, and producing new music Frank Cosentino realized he needed to change his lifestyle.

 

“I overcame the challenges of addiction and got sober seven years ago,” he stated. “With renewed inspiration, I returned to songwriting with increased focus and energy.”

 

After working with producer Derek Downham at Studio Cardinal Toronto, Cosentino is ready to release his next album to the world.

 

The upcoming album, aptly titled ‘COMEBACK’, includes his soon-to-be-hit ‘VIBIN’, which took over the airwaves on July 23, 2024.

 

“The story of ‘VIBIN’ symbolizes my journey,” he explained. “Fate guided me towards collaboration with Juno-winning producer Derek Downham. Together we brought my newfound creativity to life. Throughout the process, my progress was evident and I emerged as a stronger writer, player, and human.”

 

Cosentino’s guitar driven blues rock, combined with his poetic lyric style, will wow fans and newcomers to his music alike. Inducted into The Blues Hall of Fame as a Master Blues Artist in 2017, Cosentino is considered a real gentleman of the blues, making it his mission to keep the art of blues guitar growing and moving forward.

 

His new music does just that – drawing on his past experiences, which include sharing the stage with greats like Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, and Jeff Healy, and new blues talents Sue Foley, Phillip Sayce, and Anthony Gomes, Cosentino creates new classic blues in his personal style.

 

“It’s been my personal goal as a producer to work with other artists who have a grand understanding of their respected genres and Frank Cosentino has been a lifelong stalwart of blues and a ferocious lead player,” stated Downham, who plays keyboard, drums and bass on the track.

 

Frank’s goal is to ignite and stoke the flames of ambition at the heart of the listener. A song that pushes forward against the naysayers and gatekeepers, the hero is within each and every one of us but you can’t wait for the call. We ultimately walk alone into the ring to face the variables life hurls at us. Weather the storm and your reward is truly living a life fulfilled.

 

COMEBACK will hit music retailers in Canada on September 20^th 2024.

 

Until then, keep up with Cosentino on his website, and his Instagram and Facebook pages.

Ottawa-Based Blues/Roots Singer Songwriter Jeff Rogers Nominated For Blues Blast Music Award

Canadian blues and roots singer-songwriter and keyboard player Jeff Rogers is having quite a year.
 
His new album Dream Job has just been nominated for Soul Blues Album of The Year at the 17th Annual Blues Blast Music Awards in the U.S.
 
“I’m very grateful for the honour and proud to be considered for Soul Blues Album of The Year,” says Rogers. “It’s special when your peers recognize your work.”
 
Dream Job was released Internationally on February 16, 2024 (Diesel Entertainment/MVD/Fontana North) and was recorded in the revered music mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where many of the greats including, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Etta James, Paul Simon, Otis Redding and The Black Keys, have recorded.
 
For this album, Jeff was accompanied by some of the legendary musicians, including Kelvin Holly (Little Richard, Bobby Bland), Clayton Ivey (The Staple Sisters, Thelma Houston), Justin Holder (Keb Mo’, Delbert McClinton) and Shonna Tucker (Booker T. Jones, Drive-By-Truckers). Dream Job is co-produced by Dick Cooper of The Cooper Brothers and features special guest appearances by Grammy Award winner, Colin Linden, and Juno Award-winning singer, Kellylee Evans.
 
Rogers was thrilled to open for The Legendary Downchild Blues Band last fall on their Canadian theatre tour and just performed at the Ottawa Jazz, opening for one of his favourite bands, Lake Street Dive. With more show slated for 2024, he looks forward to performing at festivals in the US in 2025.
 
With stellar album reviews in DownBeat Magazine and Blues Matters in the UK, Jeff Rogers is making an impact around the world with his new album. His unmistakably soulful voice often evokes weighty comparisons to the past - whether that’s Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles or even Otis Redding…. yet, his tone, range, phrasing, and sincerity, all make him unmistakably contemporary – and totally original. 
 
“…emotional honesty and a measured assurance…intelligent self-composed songs on troubled pleasurable romance….” - DOWNBEAT
 
“Look for Dream Job and Jeff Rogers to make a mark in 2024.”- Billboard Canada
 
Listen to Dream Job at https://jeffrogers.lnk.to/DreamJob
 
For more information on Jeff Rogers see www.jeffrogers.ca

Blues Rock Guitarist Frank Cosentino Releases New Single ‘You Can’t Call Back’ From Upcoming COMEBACK Album

After more than four decades of touring, writing, and producing new music Frank Cosentino realized he needed to change his lifestyle.

“I overcame the challenges of addiction and got sober seven years ago,” he stated. “With renewed inspiration, I returned to songwriting with increased focus and energy.”

After working with producer Derek Downham at Studio Cardinal Toronto, Cosentino is ready to release his next album to the world.

The upcoming album, aptly titled ‘COMEBACK’, includes his soon-to-be-hit ‘You Can’t Call Back,’ is out now.

“The story of ‘You Can’t Call Back’ symbolizes my journey,” he explained. “Fate guided me towards collaboration with Juno-winning producer Derek Downham. Together we brought my newfound creativity to life. Throughout the process, my progress was evident, and I emerged as a stronger writer, player, and human.”

Cosentino’s guitar driven blues rock, combined with his poetic lyric style, will wow fans and newcomers to his music alike. Inducted into The Blues Hall of Fame in 2017 as a Master Blues Artist, Cosentino is considered a real gentleman of the blues, making it his mission to keep the art of blues guitar growing and moving forward.

His new music does just that – drawing on his past experiences, which include sharing the stage with greats like Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, and Jeff Healy, and new blues talents Sue Foley, Phillip Sayce, and Anthony Gomes, Cosentino creates new classic blues in his personal style.

“It’s been my personal goal as a producer, songwriter, and artist to work with other artists who have a grand understanding of their respected genres and Frank Cosentino has been a lifelong stalwart of blues and a ferocious lead player,” stated Downham, who plays keyboard, drums, and guitar on the track.

“Our goal was to write a song that would ignite and stoke the flames of ambition at the heart of the listener. A song that pushes forward against the naysayers and gatekeepers. The hero is within each and every one of us but you can’t wait for the call. We ultimately walk alone into the ring to face the variables life hurls at us. Weather the storm and your reward is truly living a life fulfilled.”

 

VOODOO RAMBLE ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE ‘MIDNIGHT RIDE’, FEATURING MUDDY MANNINEN

European Blues Challenge finalists Voodoo Ramble are led by vocalist/guitarist Boris Zamba.

The band is known for guitar-led songs with vivid imagery and a groove laden style which incorporates rock, blues and soulful Southern rock influences.

As Boris says: "The Allman Brothers were where it all started for me.”
 
‘Midnight Ride’ is the latest collaboration between Boris Zamba and lyricist Pete Feenstra, with special guest the expressive guitar playing of Muddy Manninen.
 
As Boris says: “Muddy’s mixture of electric guitar, lap steel guitar and fill-ins gave the song a new dimension.

We started with Pete’s evocative lyrics - which I call “unearthly”- as they create an experience even without the music. So when it came to actually building the music round the narrative, it was a real joy.
 
Dragutin Smokrovic aka ‘The Fig’, gave the track its sonic depth with his Mixing, mastering and production. Above all he really captured the intensity when I went head to head with Muddy."

Pete adds: “For me, this is the perfect example of when lyrical imagery magically turns into music.

I had this nebulous film noir idea set in old Victorian era docks with creaking boats and the need to escape, before  Boris and Muddy magically transformed it into a Southern rock biker anthem.”

Quotes:

“Lyrical dexterity and musical muscle.” Blues In Britain.
 “Expertly crafted, these nuggets will delight many Classic-Rock stations. Paris Move
“A sophisticated blues bombazet of mastery!” Raw Ramp
“Voodoo Ramble proves that classic rock and blues rock go hand in hand.” Bluestown Music (NL)
“Blues is a wide church, and this is really entertaining blues that can put a smile on your face, I could almost play the air guitar to it!” 

Toronto Indigenous Blues/Folk Artist D.M. LAFORTUNE Releases "Mr. Businessman’s Blues" From Upcoming 25th Anniversary Edition of ‘Beauty And Hard Times’

There are plenty of reasons for an artist to want to revisit their work, and many of them go beyond simple OCD. As she marks the 25^th-anniversary rerelease of an album she’s issued twice already, under two different titles, Indigenous Toronto blues-folkster Diem (D.M.) Lafortune has more of those reasons than most—some good, some bad, but all of them as bracingly honest as her eternally vital music.
 
The forthcoming remastered edition of Lafortune’s Beauty and Hard Times represents a new lease on life for a record that was hailed in 2013 as “an overall musical masterpiece that will demand you listen to [it] over and over before you truly comprehend how good it really is” by reviewer K. Kanten of the Indigenous publication Windspeaker. And that was when the album was already on its second go-’round, having originally been issued with a different mix as in from the cold all the way back in 1996.
 
That first version had earned Lafortune a Harry Hibbs Award for Perseverance in Music and Songwriting from the Maple Blues Society. But she herself was never fully happy with the record. Put some of that down to the constant striving for perfection that’s part and parcel of the creative spirit. The rest, she freely admits, was caused by lingering trauma from a seriously dysfunctional childhood. Lafortune was raised in a household that was not just adoptive, but horrifically so: As an infant, she had been taken from her Aboriginal single mother and given to a white family, by what she now snarkily refers to as “the Catholic Children’s Abduction Society.” Her birth mother was told she had died, and her new parents didn’t hide their disappointment at the quirky, damaged child they had gotten in the bargain.
 
The long and painful journey to self-acceptance took Lafortune down many roads, some of which tended looked like blind alleys. Call her a wanderer, or a polymath, or a Renaissance woman, but she’s worn a lot of hats in her day: From musician to attorney, from social-justice advocate to photographer to theatre artist. Along the way, she’s experienced several serious psychological crises—and emerged with an enhanced understanding of the human heart that makes her art and activism so fiercely passionate.
 
Especially in its 2024 form, Beauty and Hard Times plays like a debt repaid for the companionship she’s always found in and from music. Being taken in by some of the stalwarts of Canada’s jazz and folk scene while in her early teens gave her some semblance of stability; even before that, she delighted in the Acadian melodies her adoptive father played and danced to in their home (on the precious occasions when he wasn’t away for work). His death in 1982 lit the spark of “Mr. Businessman’s Blues,” the re-redone album’s advance track and a Dylan-esque broadside that’s all the more biting when you’re in on her background as an exotic hostage in a white-bread world:
 
Tell me Mr. Businessman, how does your money grow?
How much sweat is on your brow? How weary are your bones?
How much toil to dig this Earth, to slash, enslave, control?
When you’ve used up our great resource, do you plan to work your gold?
No doleful lament, the song has an electric snap that’s particularly palpable in its latest version. Leading the inquisition on vocals and guitar,  Lafortune gets nimble support from her backup crew of Denis Keldie (accordion and keys), Rick Lazar (percussion), Bryant Didier (bass), Rob Greenaway (drums) and Neil Chapman (guitar, and Lafortune’s collaborator for 50 years now).
 
“It took me 25 years before I started my first record and another 25 years to get it right,” Lafortune says, sounding content at last. “I am releasing the 25^th-anniversary edition of that fabulous CD now. I feel good about it. And it means I can now move on to my next one. I probably have four more almost ready to go.”