Finger Lickin' Blues

Finger Lickin' Blues

Editorial Reviews
<"b00005n9862999"> About the Artist
Finger Lickin Blues -- Forrest McDonald’s sixth release on his own World Talent Records label Showcases the funkier side of McDonald’s award-winning guitar style. From the opener “I Feel So Good,” Through “Blues in the Basement,” to the closer “Driving Wheel,” McDonald punctuates the blues mix with his searing chords, effortlessly trading licks with pianist Raymond Victor and special guest “Steady Rollin” Bob Margolin. The title’s double-entendre is deliberate. All thirteen tracks (five originals end eight carefully chosen covers) are laden with juicy notes, sweet sounding chords, and fiery licks that make Finger Lickin Blues as delicious as it sounds!

Forrest McDonald was seven years old when he first heard blues man Josh White perform and as he puts it, “I was hooked!” This experience was augmented by the extensive record collection at the McDonald home Jimmy Witherspoon and T-Bone Walker albums were favorites. Mrs. McDonald received a Martin D18 guitar for Christmas one year, and young Forrest began learning chords. By New Years Eve 1964, Forrest McDonald played his first live gig with a group called the Seagram’s 7.

The McDonald home was in close proximity to the location of the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, where the musical talent on display consumed Forrest -- he saw Ray Charles and Leadbelly perform and caught Bob Dylan’s controversial switch from acoustic guitar to electric. Backstage at Newport in 1969, Forrest played Jimmy Page’s Les Paul, trading licks with Page and Jeff Beck -- “it was incredible,” McDonald recalls.

McDonald joined the Boston Rock Symphony an 11-piece rock group backed by Arthur Fieldler’s 30-piece Boston Symphony Orchestra -- that year. James Montgomery, harmonica player with the rock symphony, became a life-long cohort of McDonald, and appears on What’s It Gonna Take? McDonald also played with the Wadsworth Mansion, who had a Top-20 hit with “Sweet Mary I’m Coming Home.” The group toured with Alice Cooper and Edgar Winter and appeared on “American Bandstand” and “The Dating Game.”

In the early ‘70s, McDonald relocated to California. He met pianist Raymond Victor while cutting a Kathi McDonald record for Capitol, and the two formed a fast friendship on a USO tour of Asia. Back on the west coast, McDonald stayed busy with studio sessions. He recorded with Ike and Tina Turner, played with Jimmy Reed and Bonnie Bramlett, and contributed the guitar solo to Bob Seger’s mega-hit “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll.” The Seger track -- actually done at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio brought McDonald south.

As Forrest tells it, he was visiting his father in Alabama, and suggested they drive to Muscle Shoals to “see what’s going on.” So they made their way to the studio. “When I walked in and met [producer] Jimmy Johnson, he asked me if I had my guitar with me. So I put on the headphones, plugged in my guitar, and gave him a solo.” McDonald must have impressed the crew at Muscle Shoals: two months later the studio called to tell him that Bob Seger purchased the track for his Stranger In Town album!

Some 27 years after they first met, Forrest McDonald and Raymond Victor are still playing together -- according

to one fan, “the result is what a partnership like theirs can produce against all the impediments us blues

lovers know exist. Listening to Forrest and Raymond is like watching a perfectly executed pas de deux!” The

duo have toured the world over, performing and recording with such blues luminaries as John Lee Hooker,

Charlie Musselwhite, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Roy Gaines, and Bobby Womack.

McDonald moved to Atlanta in 1991. His own label -- World Talent Records -- provides a haven for the group,

which was voted “Best Southern Blues Band” by Real Blues magazine in 1999 and 2000. Southwest Blues magazine calls McDonald’s “glowing guitar” teamed with Victor’s “whiskey-drenched gutter voice” a “winning combination.”

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<"b00005n9864999"> Album Description
World Talent Records located in Atlanta, GA is independently owned and operated and specializes in fine blues recordings.

Finger Lickin' Blues, Music, Forrest McDonald with Raymond Victor and the 3D Blues Band

Finger Lickin' Blues

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