Kenny has Won BLUES ALBUM OF THE YEAR
AND
Contemporary Blues ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Always a difficult choice for the Blues Critic staff, this being the only category we get to vote on/pick. Great years for the likes of Curtis Salgado, Elvin Bishop, B.B. King and many others but the comeback kid Kenny Neal just deserves it. It was time. It's not just that Kenny Neal made a comeback after a long (undisclosed) illness sidelined him for nearly two years (Before that bout he had already suffered the loss of his older brother Raful Neal and then sister Jackie Neal was murdered by a scorned lover), but that he made a great record ("Let Life Flow") that contained a poignant, survivor song (title track).

February 2009

BLUESWAX Selects Kenny Neal for
Album of the Year!

As with the Artist of the Year Award, the nominating process for BluesWax Album of the Year 2008 began back in December when our readers and contributors began making nominations. The nominating process created the final ballot of:

Full Tilt - Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials
It's Hot In Here - EG Kight
Let Life Flow - Kenny Neal
Maestro - Taj Mahal
Peace, Love & BBQ - Marcia Ball

These were all great nominations and we loved every one of them! In the final voting, again with record returns, you selected Kenny Neal's Let Life Flow as BluesWax Album of the Year 2008. The win is the first for Neal in the BluesWax awards.

Here is a reprise of the Let Life Flow review that ran in BluesWax (BluesWax Rating: 9)

A Magnanimous Return, (06/25/08)

During an eleven-month period beginning in 2004 Kenny Neal lost his father, Raful Neal Jr.; a brother Ronnie; and his sister Jackie. Shortly thereafter Kenny fought an 18-month battle with Hepatitis C. This is Kenny's comeback album and his first recording since 2004.

I last saw Raful Neal Jr. at the 2000 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Onstage with Raful, was his young grandson. The Neals have always been a musical family and as the oldest son Kenny may now be considered its patriarch. Musically the influence of his father can be heard throughout this recording.

The album opens with several tunes written by Kenny. On the title track, he sings, "Life is so unpredictable, that's the way it is/Gets a little hard to bear sometimes/Things out of nowhere to blow your mind/One thing I know for sure/You got to let life flow." On the next track Neal states, "Every time I turn around the Blues is right there/I take a deep breath the Blues is in the air/Said the Blues, please leave me alone/I think you oughta go back to your trouble at home/Blues, Blues, Blues, leave me alone." Joe Campbell's trumpet and the saxophone of LeRoy Harper provide great horn arrangements on these two songs ("Let Life Flow" and Leave Me Alone").

Lucky Peterson's organ and the horns of Alfonso Guillory and Kenny Neal Jr. make Larry Duane Addison's "You've Got to Hurt Before You Heal" the perfect vehicle for Neal to express his emotion. Neal's own "Louisiana Stew" signifies that the healing is over.

Neal pays tribute to his dad by including two songs written by him. "Starlight Diamond" features Kenny's harmonica. On "Bleeding Heart" he takes a passionate guitar solo. "Broken Dreams" was co-written by Neal and Rebecca LeMesnager and on it Neal takes a jazzier guitar solo. The rhythm section of Darnell Neal (bass) and Bryan Morris (drums) do a great job throughout.

Neal also covers "Another Man's Cologne," originally recorded by Little Jimmy King and The Memphis Soul Survivors. Also covered are Ivory Joe Hunter's "Since I Met You Baby" and Willie Dixon's "It Don't Make Sense, You Can't Make Peace."

Kenny Neal gives us his fourth original on "Fly Away" as he sings "to prepare for eternity, we got to pray/Cause one day will come, we got to fly away." Kenny Neal possesses a rare spirituality and it is reflected on this magnanimous return.

Richard Ludmerer is a contributing editor at BluesWax

The staff of BluesWax congratulates Kenny Neal for winning the BluesWax Album of the Year Award! And we thank the thousands of you who participated in this year's nominating and voting process. You have spoken!