| Blues |
Musicien américain surtout connu pour être l’organiste du stade des Yankees de New York de la ligue majeure de baseball, Ed Alstrom a non seulement enregistré quelques disques de blues mais il se rendra à Memphis, TN, pour l’INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE, en janvier 2026, sur Beale Street. En effet, la NJBS (North Jersey Blues Society) avait organisé son Local International Blues Challenge le 27 avril 2025 à The Stanhope House et c’est Ed Alstrom qui a été le grand gagnant dans la catégorie SOLO/DUO. C’est pourquoi il se rendra à Memphis pour l’INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE en janvier 2026, lui qui avait atteint les demi-finales de cette compétition l’année dernière.
Aujourd’hui il nous propose son cinquième opus, qui aligne pas moins de 18 titres, tous listés sous cette chronique et comportant, pour chacun d’eux, un commentaire personnel de Ed, qui chante et a composé 17 des titres de l’album, les lyrics de “Always Near” étant signés par son ami Kay Murcer. Les instruments joués par Ed et ses invités sont également précisés ci-dessous, pour chaque titre, et nous vous invitons tous, si vous le pouvez, à venir l’écouter en live en janvier 2026 à Memphis!
Dominique Boulay
Paris-Move & Blues Magazine (Fr)
PARIS-MOVE, June 16th 2025
Follow PARIS-MOVE on X
::::::::::::::::::::::
Tracklisting complet:
1 – BE NICE
Ed Alstrom: lead and background vocals, Hammond B3 organ, piano, bass, guitars, percussion
Don Guinta: drums
Ula Hedwig: background vocals
Ed Alstrom: This song outlines a path toward world peace and universal respect, which we are less likely than ever to see in this polarized world. I snagged the basic groove from a Magic Sam song, so on that basis I guess this is a ‘blues’.
2 – BLUES AIN’T ALRIGHT
Ed Alstrom: lead vocal, B3, piano, bass, guitars, percussion
Frank Pagano: drums
Ula Hedwig: background vocals
Ed Alstrom: Little Milton put a well-known song out in 1983 called ‘The Blues Is Alright’. I guess it can be, but it most certainly can be less than alright, and frequently downright undesirable. So, this has already been touted as an ‘answer song’ to that, and not by me.
This and the previous song demonstrate the background vocal wizardry of Ula. With no instructions or guidelines or guardrails, this is what she does!
3 – SLOW BLUES
Ed Alstrom: vocal, B3, bass pedals, bass drum
Robert Hill: guitar
Ed Alstrom: I recorded an album in 2003 with my piano trio (of which Don Guinta was a member) . The group and the CD were called ‘Acid Cabaret’, and we did gigs around the NY area. That group played everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Great American Songbook to Cream and Mountain tunes, all arranged as oppositely as we could to the originals. We even did the NYC Cabaret circuit, and garnered a few awards somehow, despite being decidedly the antithesis of what they were all about – women in ball gowns sitting on a stool singing Gershwin tunes.
The lyrics of “Acid Cabaret’, the title cut from that CD, turn up here as the bulk of the song. Why waste them, right? Recycling is good, and they work as a blues.
Robert Hill’s guitar is just perfect; he’s from Arkansas originally, and you can hear that when he plays anything.
4 – FLEE THOUGH NONE PURSUE
Ed Alstrom: all vocals, B3, Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, bass, percussion
Robert Hill: guitars
Don Guinta and Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: This is a mashup of two ideas: the whole Robert Johnson mythology about the ‘deal with the devil’ at the Crossroads, and a bible passage that I am fond of. It is from the book of Leviticus originally, but was reprised in Proverbs 28, and states: ‘The righteous will be bold as a lion, but the wicked will flee though no one pursues’. Roll that around in your mind for a sec: the latter person is running away, but nothing is chasing them. They are fleeing from… nothing, or more accurately, their own imagination. That must be the blues, folks.
I was touring the South in the fall of 2023 with Robert Hill, and we were tooling around in a van through Arkansas and Mississippi, even on Route 66 itself for a time. We were frequently sitting in the van not talking much, so getting the vibe like I was at ground zero for this, I grabbed my phone and started writing lyrics, welding the Johnson story and that bible verse together. Over the course of a few days, I had 10 verses written.
Now, the music? It’s a 12-bar blues form slightly ‘modernized’ on each verse, and then the verses progress in 1-4-5 form as well; e.g. the 1st verse is in Am, the 2nd in Dm, and the third in Em. So, there are kinda two blues progressions going on simultaneously. Then, the guitar solo (again, brilliant stuff from Robert) goes into a different key altogether, just because.
I had both drummers, Donnie and Frank, record this because I figured they would approach it differently and I would choose one of the other. I chose to use both! And Robert’s guitar on this is authentic and bone-chilling.
5 – THE TRUTH
Ed Alstrom: all vocals, piano, guitar, bass
Jerry Vivino: tenor and baritone saxophones
Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: I got the idea for the hook of ‘The Truth’ about 30 years ago probably, and never hatched anything to go with it until this project. I searched all of the quotes I could find about ‘truth’, and got everybody from Abe Lincoln to Winston Churchill to Oscar Wilde to Elvis involved. Lot of fascinating things said about the concept of truth here, elucidated from the standpoint of a mythical poor soul who is crusading for it.Jerry Vivino has been a great friend of mine since the late 1970s, and his brothers Jimmy and Floyd (yes, that would be ‘Uncle Floyd’) have been integral parts of my musical development. I emailed Jerry the track and his parts, and he just did ‘em and sent ‘em back, one shot, and provided the absolute perfect solo on tenor. Frank gives us that New Orleans, John Boudreaux, quarter-note groove to perfection. These are two guys I met when I was a teenager, I’ve been to hell and back with both of them, and I am so grateful I can still make music with them to this day.
6 – SICK
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, guitar, B3, bass|
Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: Wrote this while I was working for Casio Keyboards in the ‘90s, and traveling like a madman all over the world, and getting really sick of it. I know, it’s ‘Lonely Avenue’, but it worked for me
7 – ALWAYS NEAR (lyrics: Kay Murcer)
Ed Alstrom: lead vocal, acoustic guitars, Fender Rhodes, CASIO VZ-1 synthesizer, bass, drum programming
Ula Hedwig: background vocals
Ed Alstrom: My good friend Kay Murcer wrote these lyrics. Kay is the wife of the late great Yankees centerfielder Bobby Murcer, who is very dear to every Yankee fan. Kay and I became friends during Covid when she took to following me on Facebook when I was posting my organ playing non-stop, because I had nothing else to do. I saw her post this poem on FB, and I told her it should have music, so here it is.
8 – RECORD PEOPLE
Ed Alstrom: vocal and piano
Ed Alstrom: I recorded my first CD, ‘The Record People Are Coming’, in 1996. During that time, I was in a band in which the bandleader would pull us aside before every gig we did, and breathlessly tell us, ‘Guys, the record people are coming tonight!’. After a while, we realized they were not.
On the 1996 CD, it was a Beatnik-style recitation over a free-jazz kind of track. I thought I would resuscitate it here as a straight blues, so I could play it at the IBC for judges and… record people!
9 – SOMETIMES
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, bass
Rob Paparozzi: harmonica
Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: At my house we have a large bay window that, unfortunately, birds occasionally fly into and splatter down below. Last time it happened was when this song got hatched and written, as a metaphor for life.
10 – SCREWED
Ed Alstrom: lead vocal, all guitars, bass, B3, clavinet
Ula Hedwig: background vocals
Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: I told Pagano, ‘gimme straight-up Howard Grimes on this’. He did. Another example of Ula’s boundless creativity. Re the song, I guess we’ve all felt this way, no?
11 – H-O-P-E-L-E-S-S
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, B3, bass pedals.Rob Paparozzi: harmonica
Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: I was driving to a gig. I stopped at a traffic light, and saw an office building on the opposite corner of the intersection. The lighted sign on it said ‘THE CENTER FOR H-O-P-E’. The songwriter in me was instantly piqued, and I pulled over to the side of the road and started furiously typing lyrics into my phone. I think the Center could and should use this as a theme song or bed for a commercial. And it does actually have a happy ending, too!
12 – GREAT NOTCH
Ed Alstrom: lead vocal, guitars, B3, piano, bass
Rob Paparozzi: harmonica
Ula Hedwig; background vocals
Don Guinta: drums
Ed Alstrom: If you live in Northern New Jersey, you have surely heard of the GREAT NOTCH INN in Little Falls. It is as close as NJ gets to a legit roadhouse, and many of us in NJ think it well qualifies as one. The proprietor is Rich Hempel, along with his sister; they are the grandchildren of the original owners in 1924. The ‘Notch’ as we call it, was slated for demolition due to highway renovation and condo development in the area, but somehow it survived and even thrived, the state being forced to leave it in its existing state and build around it, and in the negotiations it even provided them with an new updated parking lot! It houses all types of interesting characters; many people are afraid to go there because they think it’s a ‘biker bar’, which it can be, but in point of fact the clientele is quite diverse and peaceful and fun. It also is one of the few places left in NJ to go and hear the blues and rock and roll in its purest available forms. It deserves its own theme song. Long may it live!
I did try to get Rich Hempel himself to play drums on this, but we just couldn’t put it together. He’ll get his chance someday!
13 – FRUITCAKE
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, Farfisa VIP-600 organ, bass, percussion
Jerry Vivino: baritone saxophone
Don Guinta: drums
Ed Alstrom: Don Guinta and I have been playing Professor Longhair’s tune ‘Her Mind Is Gone’ for many years. This is our arrangement of that with new words, same concept – clinically insane women. Don’t be offended, ladies; it can be easily gender-reversed .
The Farfisa’s ‘Syn-Slalom’ feature, which makes it so the notes you are playing are kind of immaterial, adds extra insanity.
14 – YOURS IS A PLACE
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, Fender Rhodes, acoustic bass
Ed Alstrom: This was written for my beautiful, personable, smart, talented, riotous, and extremely patient wife Maxine, who has endured my nonsense for 40 years. This is about as close as I can get to an actual love song.
15- SUCCESS (WAS NOT TO BE HAD)
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, acoustic bass
Don Guinta: drums
Ed Alstrom: Donnie and I have also played another New Orleans song frequently, Lee Dorsey’s ‘People Gonna Talk’. Again, I have recycled our groove on that for this tune.
A lot of my songs come from a line somebody said; this one comes from a line that I said to somebody. A friend and I were discussing some situation we had been in where it was doomed to failure, and I said, ‘Well, success was not to be had’, and we both started laughing uproariously. What I wound up doing with the title was applying it to an analytical and business-like assessment of a relationship gone bad.
16 – CROSSFIRE
Ed Alstrom: lead vocal, 12-string and electric guitars, bass, piano, synthesizers, background vocals
Ula Hedwig: background vocals
Dennis Diken: drums
Ed Alstrom: I had first envisioned this as a Mamas and Papas kind of tune. I recorded most of the tracks, and passed it along to Ula, giving her no instructions at all, and she filled in the vocal end of it, and it soon grew bigger than what I had imagined. My good bud Dennis Diken of the Smithereens plays drums on this; we do a duo together in NJ called ‘TWO GUYS’ where we play and sing 50s/60s chestnuts, and have a riot doing it.I had my simplistic drumming on it as a reference, and Dennis did two complete takes based on that, only far more competently. Then he said, ‘I wanna do one more, and I’m just gonna go for it and take it out’. Mission accomplished, my friend!
17 – I DRUNK U DRIVE
Ed Alstrom: vocal, piano, Farfisa VIP-600 organ, bass
Don Guinta and Frank Pagano: drums
Ed Alstrom: In support of the Designated Driver, especially if it’s your partner.
18 – DON’T CRY AT MY FUNERAL
Ed Alstrom: lead vocal, acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric bass, Fender Rhodes, B3, pipe organ, mandolin, accordion, melodica, theremin, alto saxophone
Maxine Alstrom; acoustic piano
Ula Hedwig: background vocals
Frank Pagano; drums
Ed Alstrom: The first song recorded for this album, and the last to appear on it. This is what will get played at my funeral, if I have any say, and I hope other people can use it at other people’s funerals. This turns out to be a ‘story of my life’ song, as it contains instruments that I actually played 40-45 years ago (some quite poorly), like my father’s accordion, my alto saxophone that I plated in junior high school, and theremin. There are also recorded quotes from musicians who influenced me hidden in the tag.