As I have stated many times, there are some fabulous blues men and women up in Canada that the larger American and European audiences need to hear about. One of those is a very talented guitar player from Ontario by the name of Shawn Kellerman. Entering his third decade as a bluesman, Shawn has gathered a lot of friends along the way. Over twenty of them lend their talents to his new recording Kell’s Kitchen.

Bobby Rush, who Shawn has worked with for a number of years, contributes his vocal talents to one of my favorite songs on the album We Are Blues Men. And one of my favorite harmonica players, Jason Ricci out of New Orleans, sits in on three other tunes: Hard Man to Please, You’re Gonna Learn From This One, and Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon (which is an vintage cover of a tune by the Guess Who!). Another of Canada’s fantastic new female singers, Meghan Parnell of Bywater Call, also contributes her talents for 4 of the cuts on the recording. And Shawn’s friend Zoom from Michigan belts out her soulful vocals on the song, Mac & Cheese.

Shawn is also a bit of a guitar nerd (like Joe Bonamassa) and tours with a whole trunkful of guitars that provide different tones for his music. I particularly loved his guitar playing on Down By the River where the lead vocals are provided by Noah Allard and Shawn gets to focus on producing some badass riffs.

Another song on the album that I absolutely loved is the last track on the recording, Living Off the Love You Give. This is a Little Milton tune that features the late Lucky Peterson on the Hammond B3 organ. Shawn was part of Lucky’s band for eight years and his love and respect for both of these great bluesmen shines through in this energetic rendition.

Kell’s Kitchen is some mighty fine blues cookin’….. heavy on the blues with nice splashes of soul and funk. All the best ingredients of the blues are featured on this fabulous recording….give it a listen!!

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Ben Vee started out spinning songs on terrestrial radio and at nightclubs back in the 1970’s in his home state of Louisiana. After a career in the construction business, he returned to DJing in 2011. He now hosts two shows each week on http://www.bluesmusicfan.com and writes about the blues for BMFR and at http://www.benveeblues.com from his home in Connecticut. He also has a personal 24 hour stream devoted to the Roadhouse Blues… WRHB as well as a Youtube channel.