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Live In Germany
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Blues Revue 2012
Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze hits a career peak
on the tough Live In Germany. O...Blues Revue 2012
Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze hits a career peak
on the tough Live In Germany. On this largely
uptempo set, Wally “Sweet Daddy” Greaney is
singing better than ever; the lone slow number,
Casey Bill Weldon’s blues ballad “Outskirts Of
Town,” reveals no vocal deficiencies beyond a
questionable instinct to leap at random into
falsetto. His harmonica breaks are generally strong
in tone and dramatic construction. The band –
Thomas Lipps (bass), Peter Perfido (drums), and
Uwe Herr (guitar) – is rock-solid, playing with a
clear awareness of dynamics and taste. Herr
deserves special mention for his fine, clean Fender
tones, crafty note choice, fresh phrasing, and,
especially, for his solo choruses in “Driving
Wheel,” played via tuning peg manipulation
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Live In Germany
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"Wally Greaney, Singer, Saxophone- and Harp player from the States gives his carrer into the traditi..."Wally Greaney, Singer, Saxophone- and Harp player from the States gives his carrer into the traditional Chicago-, Texas- and Westcoast Blues. From three shows in 2009 between Breisgau and Allgäu he took advantage to record a live CD with his band that now is released. Its not the first CD of the band that exist since 1990, but nobody gave the band big attention yet.
This is absolutely not to understand if you hear the new CD. What Uwe Herr is playing with his guitar is top quality and the rhythm section with the bass player Thomas Lipps and the in Europe living American Peter Perfido is absolutely high class. Herr, who was activ in the Cadillac Blues Band and the Rockabilly Trio Rockin`Carbonara don`t only play the necessary licks very good, no, he is playing a lot of thrilling, intelligent and funny ideas, that makes him very unique in the crowd of the good guitar players. Why this band is not in the line up of european festivals is one of the big mysteries only the music business can answer. Who wants to proove if the words I say here are right, just hear the new CD of this german-american 4 man band ! "
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Back For More
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Review - Back For More
Art Tapalti 2004
If you live in Western Mass., your very familiar with ha...Review - Back For More
Art Tapalti 2004
If you live in Western Mass., your very familiar with harmonica ace Wally Greaney, AKA Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze. Whether it was his work as singer and harp-master in the local blues band King Cod and the Blues Sharks decades ago or his spirited Chicago styled blues from his current band Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze, Greaney is one player you should not miss. He’ll be quick to tell you that he began playing harmonica in high school way back in the early 1970s, not the most popular instrument choice in the days of heavy metal. But Greaney persevered and gracefully outlasted every musical trend by playing pure blues. The CD opens with Big Sea Of The Blues, his personal acceptance of 30 years on the blues road. Wally will tell ya, Ain’t nothing wrong with being a small fish in the big sea of the blues. That foot tappin shuffle turns into the hard blues on Come Love Me Shoes. Immediately these two opening cuts spotlight the 18 year partnership between Greaney and guitarist Mark Easton. Most notable is how sympathetic each listens. Easton lays understated Delta chording while Greaney sings or plays. When Easton solos, Greaney underlines the musical story with a cool harmonica groove. Greaney also plays tenor sax on the jazz-blues Doin What We Choose. Within these 13 original songs, Greaney also included a timeless piece of his personal history, Frank G. Rohan Blues. This was the first song Greaney wrote as a freshman way back in Holyoke High School and it’s vice principal, Rohan. From cutting classes to smoking in the parking lot to drinking, Greaney recalls everyone’s high school experience. Easton pulls out his dark electric slide on the Delta bluesy Likin Stick, a song you might want to listen to with the teenagers in the car because they’ll quickly figure out that this likin stik is his harmonica. By the end of the disc, Greaney and the band are ready to boogie and Boogie Time is a perfect fit. A quality recording by a quality guy.
Art Tipaldi - Boston Blues Society
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S.D.C.B. Live At The Ridge Port Pub
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Sweet, Cool, Breeze, just the feeling I was looking for on this warm Florida night. On vacation with...Sweet, Cool, Breeze, just the feeling I was looking for on this warm Florida night. On vacation with my wife, I was itchy to hear some blues. I'd recently heard about this harp player and to my surprise found that he was appearing close to us. With little pleading, (she knows my obsession), we ventured to check these guys out. What I got was a SMOKING band from western Massachusetts, heating the night up even more. Wally "Sweet Daddy" Greaney and his tight band just lit the place up, opening with an uptempo "Chicken Shack" and rolling into an original called "Bark." The packed house on this Sunday night sat up and took notice immediately.
I spied a saxophone on stage and on the next song, "Sweet Daddy" showed he can play both the "Mississippi saxophone" and the real thing equally as well. Opening "Teeny Weeny Bit of Your Love " on harp, he soloed and brought it home on the sax. Nice touch.
A little history on "Sweet Daddy."
He's been playing professionally since the mid 70's, has recorded or worked with Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and Jr. Wells.
Opened for Taj Mahal, Koko Taylor, James Cotton and Buddy Guy. Has toured internationally for a number of years, recording a CD "Live in France," which has received much acclaim in the blues periodicals.
Did I mention his vocals? Moving from straight ahead Chicago to slow blues to swing, this guy captures the feeling. On the Ray Charles song "Green Back Dollar Bill," "Sweet Daddy" shows his storytelling ability as well.
I particularly liked the Louis Jordan tune, "Outskirts of Town," with the slow, haunting harmonica and oh so soulful vocals. The band kicked through several more songs in this long first set, including "Somebody" (Rod Piazza), an original song about a devoted "Sweet Daddy" fan called "He Loved the Blues," a swing tune called "I Love the Blues," Freddy King's "Boogie Man" and Sonny Boy Williamson's "Cross My Heart" (the last two done real funky). They closed the set out with an extended boogie instrumental showcasing "Sweet Daddy's" harp proficiency, changing tempo (he even inserted a couple of lines from Amazing Grace) and literally blowin' himself blue!
The band:
Mark Easton on guitar. He's been working with "Sweet Daddy" since 1999 and recorded on "Blowing Down the House," the newest S.D.C.B. CD. This guy just attacks like it's his last show. Given plenty of room to play, Mark threw killer solos one after another at the crowd, only to have them cry for more. And he obliged, even trading solos with "S.D." on "Cross My Heart." With his shaven head and husky physique, one might expect a raw sound, but what comes at you is masterful phrasing and a really nice touch.
The rhythm section consisted of Eddie Humber on bass and Patrick Levery on drums. I don't know much about either of these guys, except that the drummer came on for this Florida tour. They set the groove very well, hitting all of the stops, (Wally loves stops), as if they'd been together for a while. This is a tight band, and having caught them at the end of their tour, anything unfamiliar to the rhythm section had been worked out.
My wife loves sax and wanted to hear more so I mentioned that to "S.D." He opened the set with two numbers on sax, "Sissy Strut" and "Doing What I Choose"(another original), blowing with such intensity that it moved a group of vacationing women to throw money into his sax while he was playing!
It was getting late and we had to drive a little ways through unfamiliar territory so we didn't see the end of the show.
The last songs we heard were Kim Wilson's "Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You" and a real down in the alley version of "The Sky is Crying," with S.D. using his chromatic to express the passion of the song.
"Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze" is one of those "must see" bands. Hopefully he'll book a tour through the Midwest and stop on bye. Sure added to my vacation. He has 3 CD's out and you can look them up on his website at: http://come.to/sweetdaddy .
This review is copyright © 2001 by Harold Tremblay, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved.
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S.D.C.B. Live In France
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Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze: Live In France
Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze is a Blues quartet out of the Nor...Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze: Live In France
Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze is a Blues quartet out of the Northeastern region of the United States, that has a strong European following. Led by Wally "Sweet Daddy" Greaney (harp, sax, and vocals), the band covers a variety of blues ranging from tough Albert Collins style, to funky numbers with a jazzy feel.
The music on this disc was recording in 1997 in France, and is amazingly well recorded for a live album. It has a studio-like clarity and punch, and even more impressively, the band edited out as much crowd noise as possible. That would rarely happen in a rock record.
Choosing to record live was also a good idea as it plays to the band's main strength, which is that they are a very professional and tough touring band, and are at their best when stretching out. The whole set is a series of fine performances and intelligent (yet loose and funky) solos. It's music that is confident, and doesn't resort to cheap dynamics.
Outstanding cuts include a fine shuffle, "Hey Baby," which moves along with a nice edge provided by the fine rhythm section of Joe Fonda on bass and Peter Perfido on drums. Uwe Herr provides a very cool and funky guitar workout on "In Love With A Musician," and "Sweet Daddy" shows a truly superior sense of tone and dymanics in "Sweet Tooth Mama" and "Routine Blues."
It's easy to see why the Europeans have already discovered this outfit. Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze delivers their hot Blues chops with a jazz musician's sense of cool, and the sound is Grade A Prime Blues Club music. Sure to make your espresso taste better, believe me.
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God Bless Sweet Daddy
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God has smiled on Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze
Thursday, June 22, 2006
The 1997 Dodge Ram 3500 is lon...God has smiled on Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze
Thursday, June 22, 2006
The 1997 Dodge Ram 3500 is long and red. It is missing a rear hubcap. There are 170,000 or so miles on its odometer, a bed behind the first row of passenger seats. It has traveled to destinations that would challenge MapQuest. It gets 15 miles to a gallon and has a 35-gallon gas tank.
"Which means," Wally Greaney says, "it costs me more than a C-note every time I fill it to the brim. What kind of gas do I use?" He laughs.
"The cheapest," he says. "I prefer to pay $3 to, let's say, $3.19." Wally's not exactly crying the blues. He's just stating a fact.
This year, a winter tour of Florida cost $1,000 in fuel.
Last year: $600.
The cost of a life on the road. When you are a musician.
What does he call his van?
His answer is as direct as the blues music he plays.
"Reliable," Wally says. He's 51. A Holyoke guy his whole life. A bluesman, with Irish and French heritage. Yet there is more purr in his voice than growl. But when he says that he could listen to a shuffle all day long, it is almost like he is putting his hand on the Bible and swearing an oath. The day we talk, he is working on the details of a September tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Saturday at 6 p.m., Wally and his band, Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze, will be playing the third annual John J. Philpott Road Race post-run party at the Elks in Holyoke.
The following week, they'll entertain at Szot Park before the Chicopee fireworks.
This is Wally Greaney's life.
One he is most grateful for.
He's married to Catherine Lyons and is the father of two teenage girls, Elizabeth and Jillian.
The youngest of four, Wally grew up in the Springdale neighborhood of Holyoke, on the fourth floor of a five-story tenement, or "block" as he calls it. One of the biggest events of his childhood was when someone moved out of the first floor, and his family got to move three flights down.
"That was a beautiful thing," he says 40 years later.
Before Wally turned 13, he met a kid named Mike Dabinski. He's not sure if he can even spell that last name right of his late influential friend. He feels bad about that. But he still thinks, he hopes, he's getting the spirit right of those old street-corner serenades.
"But you know, I wanted to be just like Mike," Wally says. Mike played the harp.
"I just wanted to blow the hell out of it," Wally says. "No grand plan. No other ambition. Just play."
And back then you could go down to Shirl's Record World on High Street and buy yourself a harmonica with leftover first communion money. The Stones and Led Zeppelin dominated the airwaves.
"I wasn't the best student," Wally says. "But I figured out they didn't invent the blues."
Not long after that, Wally discovered the music of blues giant James Cotton.
"He's the king, brother," he says. "He's the king."
By the mid-1980s, Wally met the late Kenny Johnson, James Cotton's drummer. Kenny had moved to Greenfield. A friendship was struck.
Up until then, Wally had played in a series of cover bands. He sang, played harp, taught himself saxophone. He knew all the words to probably as many Eagle songs as an Eagle.
Wally also worked for a dozen years at H.B. Smith in Westfield. He started making boilers. He ended up in the packing room. It was there he met a trucker, a harmonica player with a cowboy hat and a story to tell. It didn't matter the story, they all ended with a punch line and the words: "Lord, have mercy, Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze is in town."
"When it came time to name a band, my vote was for Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze," Wally says. "It just sounded like the blues."
His vote counted. The band now consists of Mark Easton on guitar and vocals, Eddy Humber on bass, Jimmy McNamara on drums. Joe Elliott sometimes sits in on keyboards.
Wally and Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze have recorded four albums, two of them live. One in France and the other at Theodore's in downtown Springfield. He is also featured in a DVD with his friend, John Kay of Steppenwolf. Wally has an endorsement deal for Hohner, the famous harmonica maker. When not on tour, he hosts his own Sunday evening blues show on WRNX. He has even shared the stage with his hero James Cotton. He and his band play upwards of 150 shows a year.
The blues have been very good to Wally Greaney. Lord have mercy.
Tom Shea can be reached at tshea@repub.com
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DVD Spotlight
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DVD SPOTLIGHT
John Kay and Friends, "Live at the Renaissance Center" (Rainman) FOUR STARS
He's...DVD SPOTLIGHT
John Kay and Friends, "Live at the Renaissance Center" (Rainman) FOUR STARS
He's best known as the lead singer of Steppenwolf, the '60s outfit that has sold more than 30 million albums and scored hits like "Magic Carpet Ride," "Monster" and, of course, "Born to Be Wild."
Though it has gone through plenty of personnel changes since the old days, Steppenwolf's still a very successful touring act with Kay out front, and in fact the band is just winding down yet another lengthy summer road trek. But Kay's got a more intimate, bluesy side that he reveals on this non-Steppenwolf DVD, recorded live in November 2002 at the Renaissance Center in Dickson, Tenn.
Here, the singer's blues roots shine brightly, on tracks like "Corina, Corina," Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man" and Kay originals like the nostalgic "My Sportin' Life," the upbeat "For the Women in My Life" and "Feed the Fire," the latter sung as a duet with Renee Amand.
Longtime fans will be pleased to see Kay and company reel back the years with a few Steppenwolf hit toward the end of the show, including "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Born to Be Wild."
Kay's got a first-rate band with him throughout, sparked by Ron Hurst on drums, Guy DeVito on bass, Michael Wilk on keyboards and Wally "Sweet Daddy" Greaney on harmonica.
For purchasing information on the Internet go to www.steppenwolf.com.
LOAD-DATE: September 20, 2004
