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Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames – Slip Into A Dream
Delmark DE 842 (2015)

After the smashing success of Dave Weld's new groundbreaking contemporary blues album "NIGHTWALK" and the renewed interest in Dave first album "Burnin' Love", Delmark makes available for radio downloads his second album for the label: Slip Into a Dream". This album is another powerful statement of contemporary blues well rooted in the Chicago traditions. Dave Weld learned with his mentors, J.B. Hutto, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Shaw, Brewer Phillips & Lil' Ed.

Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy's talented son, Greg Guy, and Sax Gordon on tenor and baritone saxes also lent their names and talents to the success of this album.

In their review of Weld’s first Delmark CD, Living Blues magazine said: “Burnin’ Love is a raucous monster…Weld performs wonderfully wild guitar…their sweet vocal harmonies are as animated as Weld’s wicked and rockin’ slide guitar. [Monica Myhre’s] “Talk Dirty” is equally suited for a sultry blues diva…here Myhre displays her burly pipes.”

The songwriting team of Weld and Myhre has reached new heights with the sublime title track, the self-described “Sweet Rockin’ Soul” and the crossover “Sweet Love (Dulce Amor)”. Other new songs include “Looking For A Man”, “May Be Right May Be Wrong” and “Tremble”. With special guests Bobby Rush adding harp on 2 songs, Greg Guy (son of Buddy Guy) on guitar on one and Sax Gordon on tenor and baritone sax.

Dave Weld is a beacon of passion, conveying a musical tension usually set at the boiling point. In a review of Weld’s first Delmark CD, Living Blues magazine said: “Burnin’ Love (Delmark 806) is a raucous monster…Weld performs wonderfully wild guitar…their sweet vocal harmonies are as animated as Weld’s wicked and rockin’ slide guitar. On Slip Into A Dream the songwriting team of Weld/Myhre has reached new heights, terrific jolts of newly forged music with ragged-edge spontaneity. Notes by Frank-John Hadley, DownBeat enclosed

1. Slip Into A Dream 6:27
2. Sweet Rockin’ Soul 4:38
3. Looking For A Man 4:57
4. Take Me Back 5:45
5. May Be Right, May Be Wrong 5:38
6. Sweet Love (Dulce Amor) 5:21
7. Louise 3:58
8. Tremble 6:16
9. Walk On Down 6:48
10. Dorothy Mae 4:21
11. Too Bad, So Sad 4:16
12. 20% Alcohol 5:02
13. Slip Into A Dream (Reprise) 1:40

Dave Weld, vocals, guitar
Monica Myhre, vocals
Harry Yaseen, piano
Graham Guest, piano (5,6,7), organ (1,10)
Dave Kaye, bass
Greg McDaniel, bass (5)
Jeff Taylor, drums, vocals (lead on 10)

Parris Fleming (4), Kenny Anderson (6), trumpet
Rajiv Halim (4), Hank Ford (6), tenor sax
Bryant Smith (4), Bill McFarland (6), trombone

With special guests:
Bobby Rush, harmonica (3,12)
Greg Guy, guitar (11)
Sax Gordon, tenor and baritone sax (7,8,10)


1. Slip Into A Dream 6:27 (Weld/Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
2. Sweet Rockin’ Soul 4:38 (Weld/Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
3. Looking For A Man 4:57
(Monica Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
4. Take Me Back 5:45 (Weld/Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
5. May Be Right, May Be Wrong 5:38
(Weld/Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
6. Sweet Love (Dulce Amor) 5:21
(Myhre/Weld, Welder Music, BMI)
7. Louise 3:58 (Monica Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
8. Tremble 6:16 (Dave Weld, Welder Music, BMI)
9. Walk On Down 6:48 (Monica Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
10. Dorothy Mae 4:21 (Jeff Taylor, Welder Music, BMI)
11. Too Bad, So Sad 4:16 (Monica Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)
12. 20% Alcohol 5:02
(J.B. Hutto, Foggy Day Music/Slideslinger Publ., BMI)
13. Slip Into A Dream (Reprise) 1:40
(Weld/Myhre, Welder Music, BMI)

Album Production and Supervision: Robert G. Koester
Recorded, mixed and mastered at Riverside Studio, Chicago by Steve Wagner
Cover photo: Steve Wagner
Additional photography: Art Voytovich, Art Priv Amol
Design: Dave Forte, ForDzign

www.daveweld.com

Thanks to our fans, we love you!!!! Also to Larry and Trudy, Bobby Rush, Graham Guest, Sax Gordon, Harry Yaseen, The Heard, Kenny Anderson, Hank Ford, Bill McFarland, Buddy Guy, Greg Guy, the Guy family, Mark Maddox, Johnny Sims, Jeneene Brown, Chicago Blues Fest, Steve Jones, Crossroads Blues Society, Mike Cloeren, Pennsylvania Blues Fest, Anno Bouwhuis, Jay Reil, Doug Tackett, Moses Jones, Road Dawg, Our beloved family, Mike, Michelle, Ryan, MAX, Skip and Sandi Weld, Ken, Tristan, Ronnie Earl, Mark Mack, EG McDaniel, Dan, Fargo Blues Fest, Mike Graham, Verdi Club for honoring the veterans, Skip and Ruby Hefernan, College of Lake County, House of Blues, Oslo Blues Society, Dag Kohman, Rolf Johannessen, Christian Boncour, Blues Station, Blues on Whyte, Blues Can, King Biscuit Festival, Gloria and Paul, Lisa Palmeno, Peter, Jacqui, West and Matt Leigh, Diana Mark, the Duran family, McHenry Blues Festival.

Special Thanks to the Imperial Flames for all their loyalty, hard work, contributing talent, creativity and dedication! The best people to be in a band with: Monica Myhre, Jeff Taylor, Abb Locke and Dave Kaye. – Dave Weld

"In loving memory of my mother, Maria Garcia, for that first big push on the stage when I was six, and all her hard work and love"! – Monica Myhre



Surprise! The gold standard is set for fiery modern-day Chicago blues with the release of Slip Into a Dream. Certainly needing reinvigoration, the genre gets red-hot shots of adrenaline when guitarist Dave Weld performs in a recording studio. He and his Imperial Flames purposefully torch their second Delmark album, the follow-up to 2010’s almost-as-good Burnin’ Love (Delmark 806). After all, Chicago blues is Weld’s life-blood, his very existence hanging on a deep infatuation with Hound Dog Taylor, J. B. Hutto and other hold-nothing-back pyrotechnists in the hallowed canon.
Immersed within West Side club action since the 1970s, Weld today makes the rounds as a beacon of passion and stability in a genre largely reduced to tired formulas. Conveying a musical tension usually set at the boiling point, Weld makes sure Slip Into a Dream does the job it sets out to do: provide his faithful fans and new converts with superior entertainment through terrific jolts of newly forged music that possess a ragged-edge spontaneity. Weld, a communicator, said of the session, “Our concept was to go through the process, do the really hard work correctly and honestly, to bring the audience our best effort, our best ideas, our best expression of emotion, in relation to what we see as commonality in human nature. And we just wanted to go in the studio and play our **** off!”
Total success. Weld and singer Monica Myhre (aka Mrs. Weld) and the other band members—pianist Harry Yaseen, bassist Dave Kaye, drummer Jeff Taylor—attain wild, rapturous heights in twelve original songs and one cover, Hutto’s “20% Alcohol,” while staying on the ebullient emotional arc of the music they love. They’re bound to rules governing blues expression but the knot is not restrictively tight. They show confidence in their ability to bring fresh, slashing immediacy to the material. The band never lacks for vivid presence. Myhre merits a place in the top-tier of contemporary blues singers for her solid contributions, whether in a volatile rough-housing mode or evidencing an even-keeled temperament (notably on “Sweet Love” and “Walk on Down”).
Following the way of his heart, Weld converges self-possession with technical artfulness in guitar fulminations which manifest his many years gaining intimacy with the blues—he’s plied this trade over thousands and thousands of nights and occasional days. And this dexterity extends to the nitty-gritty and nuances needed for successful blues singing and songwriting. The man does it all.
A native of Lake Forest, a picturesque city north of Chicago along Lake Michigan, Weld studied history at New Mexico State University (thus avoiding the Vietnam-era military draft) before returning home for the blues life. He initially earned his keep playing with ex-Hound Dog Taylor sidemen Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey at Sweet Peas, then joining up with several former bandmates of Howlin’ Wolf in the house band at the 1815 Club. Weld’s affinity for the blues was apparent to those wary, seasoned veterans. An important supporter was Hutto, a highly regarded slide guitarist with extensive credits, including two albums cut for Delmark, Hawk Squat (Delmark 617) and Slidewinder (Delmark 636). Weld noted, “J. B. was the most authentic blues guy I knew [who was] closest to real blues from the South being played on electric guitar. His vocals hold true today, and his words are intense and personal. J. B. gave me band-leading advice, songwriting advice, and life advice.”
Weld’s comfort with urban blues level was further illustrated when he took on rhythm guitar duties in the fast company of his slide guitar-playing friend Lil’ Ed Williams in the raw-and-rowdy band they called the Blues Imperials. The acclaimed 1986 Alligator album Roughhousin’ captured their incandescent spirit.
Weld was with the Blues Imperials for about ten years before branching off in the late-1980s to lead his own outfit. The Imperial Flames have had several incarnations over the years. Past members include luminaries like Lil’ Ed, saxophonist Abb Locke, drummers Ted Harvey and Vernon Rodgers, and bassists Herman Applewhite and Mike Scharf. Weld is especially appreciative of two guys who’ve long stuck by him: Bernard Reed, a bass player and Jeff Taylor, a drummer (both have also worked with leading blues and r&b acts in the Windy City). To date, the Imperial Flames have performed in 26 states, 11 countries, and at about three dozen festivals, among them the Montreal Jazz Festival and, naturally, the Chicago Blues Festival.
With Slip Into a Dream, Weld and the Imperial Flames, along with guests Gordon Beadle on scalding saxophone, Bobby Rush on harmonica, AND Greg Guy on guitar, come at the listener with happy vengeance. They square blast furnace fun with a collective sense of conviction. “Every song comes out of a groove we love,” said Weld. “We fulfill the songs’ potential.”
--Frank-John Hadley
DownBeat



Other Delmark albums of interest:
Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames, Burnin’ Love (806) with Lil’ Ed
j.B. Hutto, Hawk Squat (617) with Sunnyland Slim
Slidewinder (636)
Stompin' At Mother Blues (778)
Eddie Shaw, Can't Stop Now (698) with Detroit Jr.
Brewer Phillips, Home Brew (686) with Aaron Moore
Studebaker John’s Maxwell Street Kings, Kingsville Jukin’ (830)
That’s the Way You Do (810)
Junior Wells, Hoodoo Man Blues (612) with Buddy Guy
Magic Sam, West Side Soul (615)
Otis Rush, All Your Love I Miss Loving, Live (781)
Little Walter, The Blues World of (648) with Muddy Waters

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