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Issue 298: October 2026

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Alice Armstrong is playing catch up, as independent musicians often are, but this time sadly for a devastating reason. Just before the first mixes of her new EP The Witching Hour, her father took his own life. Ahead of its release, a recording that began as a spooky seasonal project has been given a darker power, as has her annual Halloween spectacular of the same name. In an understandably emotional and moving interview, Alice talks to Blues In Britain’s Liz Medhurst.

    The Trouble With Love! It’s only rock ’n’ roll, but Joanne Shaw Taylor wants to talk about love. The doyenne of British blues rock artists has a new album released in October that doubles down on the subject in all its messy, glorious forms, from friendship and self-acceptance to unrequited devotion. “It’s a fascinating subject, it’s the best thing we’ve got on earth,” she tells Liz Medhurst.

  Over fifty years into a career marked by five Grammy wins and an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award, Keb’ Mo’ returns with an intimate new album, The Breakdown,that strips back his songs back to his guitar, his voice and selected vocal contributions from the Soweto Gospel Choir and the gospel sextet Take 6. Being invited to perform at the White house during the Obama administration, and playing himself performing at the fictional White House in the West Wing television series, were undoubted highlights of his long and auspicious career, but it hasn’t been all wine and roses, he tells Simon Green. 

        There’s Good Rockin’ Tonight with the UK’s premier jive and swing band, The Jive Aces. Renowned worldwide for their high-energy, spectacular showmanship, the band formed in 1989. The sextet averages around three hundred shows a year, a pretty impressive haul for a band hailing from the east of the capital. “We’re from London and Essex, right on the border of East London,” Ian and Grazia Clarkson tell Pete Clack. “It explains the Cockney accents!”   

.                 For a decade now, the blues grooves of Mississippi and New Orleans have found themselves expressed in the energy and the drive of the music of South London’s Jimmy Regal And The Royals. Playing and recording in Senegal earlier this year has added yet more colours to their musical palette and Snap Back is their bristling new record. “Expect the unexpected,” they tell Steve Morphew.

          Formed in 2007 in San Francisco, and inspired by the soul and blues music of the sixties and seventies, The Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra is a horn-driven, soul-slammin’ powerhouse led by its namesake, the guitarist and bandleader Anthony Paule, and fronted by vocalist Willy Jordan. Recording original music whilst staying true to the origins of the African American art form, their seventh album, What Can We Do? is out on Nola Blue Records and is another winner. Norman Darwen talks to Anthony Paule.

                “It’s a mighty long way down rock ‘n’ roll” sang Ian Hunter in 1973, on Mott The Hoople’s ‘All The Way From Memphis’ and it’s a mighty long way from Memphis up the Mississippi River to rural Iowa, and the elegantly-named Cedar County. Tom Spielbauer and April Dirks have built their sound the old-fashioned way, through countless nights in taverns, wineries, festivals and roadside joints, with guitars, an upright bass, and a boot-stomping foot drum. Meet the Cedar County Cobras.

                   Stories worth telling: like many musicians of his generation, Peter Parcek was profoundly inspired by the blues explosion of the 1960s, coming of age during the British blues boom. He played harmonica on London’s thriving blues circuit, a scene encompassing the likes of Clapton and Beck, and later played on recordings with blues legend Pinetop Perkins, leading his touring band. Taking the plunge late as a professional player, his new album is the excellent Most Of The Time. Graham Munn talks to Peter Parcek.                   

                                  IF you were one of the countless post-war baby boomers who’d acquired a cheap guitar during the mid-1950s, the chances are that once a few chords had been mastered, the next move would have been to learn a Lead Belly song. Except, of course, you probably wouldn’t have known back then that those alluring tunes with their exotic, compelling themes were by Huddie Ledbetter, bluesman, songster and an ex-convict from Shreveport, Louisiana, who’d passed away a few years previously in 1949. John Phillpott looks at the life and times of the legendary Lead Belly, examining his legacy and the wealth of music he bequeathed to future generations of musicians.

                         This month’s High Hopes section devotes itself to four worthy blues artists new to our pages. Growing up in the rural environment of the mountains of the Sierra Morena range in Spain, Anna Dukke had little access to music when she was growing up. Her full-length debut Reborn Wild was released at the end of 2025. “I call my music “Rockin’ Roots” because I want to give a voice to the roots of rock and roll,” she says. Sam Morrow spent years knocking on doors that wouldn’t budge, then walking through others that led nowhere. On his newest record, Southern Boogie, he’s slammed the door shut on the Americana palate of his previous releases and kicked open a new one. “We’re a little country, a little blues, pretty rock and roll, and funky!” Vinyl Paradise formed sometime in late 2016. The Maltese band are known for their energetic, powerful and soulful live performances, as witnessed at the Brezoi Festival this summer. “We’re into the grooves and sounds of Freddie King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan,” they say. And who are we to disagree. The Mario Rossi Band formed in Brazil in 2012, an independent blues-rock trio dedicated to original music inspired by the rich heritage of British blues and classic rock. Recorded in an intimate atmosphere at a studio in São Paulo, UK Time Live is a specially-filmed, half-hour live performance available on YouTube, a performance that channels the band’s spontaneity and dynamics. “It’s a big thank-you for all the support we receive from the United Kingdom,” says Mario. Thank you!

                  And there’s our usual round-up of new albums and gigs, Reconsider Baby, our new regular column PawPrints, and much more. It’s hip to be square!