The Back Porch Rockers Get Rave Reviews......
Playboy, May 2000
by Charles M. Young
Minnesota blues legends Dave Ray and Tony Glover have formed an alliance with Reggie Scanlan and Camile Baudoin of the Radiators. Now they're calling themselves the Back Porch Rockers. The foursome's album, By the Water (Back Porch Rockers) approaches acoustic blues with low-down, sensual and melodic tunes. Although they play without any drums, the natural percussive aspect of the guitars and the bass makes the music undulate, while Ray's warm warble of experience offers solace for whatever crisis you happen to be facing. Especially recommended: Everybody's Going for the Money.
OFFBEAT - New Orleans' Music
Magazine - January, 2000
Back Porch Rockers - By the Water
(Independent)
South meets north! Legendary New Orleans musicians Camile Baudoin and Reggie Scanlan (of
the Radiators) team up with Twin Cities blues giants Dave "Snaker" Ray and Tony
"Little Sun" Glover (the "bluer" two thirds of Koerner,Ray &
Glover) for a live acoustic blues record that gives you the chills it’s so good.
Here, the Rockers recorded tunes from both ends of the 
Mississippi, like "Everybody’s Going for the Money," by John
Koerner, and the title track, written in part by New Orleans’ master Dave
Bartholomew. Also included are blues-laden versions of old favorites like "Cry to
Me" and "Mississippi Kid."
Highlights are unnamable since the whole of the record is a gem, dripping with Ray’s
chilling vocals, Glover’s intense harp work, and Baudoin’s guitar licks, pulled
together by Scanlan’s bass. The conglomerate comes out just like you think it should
from these genius veterans–easy.
By the Water was recorded live in Minnesota in April, 1998 at a private afternoon party
and a gig at St. Paul’s Turf Club later that same evening, yet, judging from the
quality of the music, you’d think it was a well-rehearsed long-term project.
The hallmark of a great artist is not only the beauty of what he shows his public, but
also the ease with which he does it. Nothing on this record sounds practiced, and no one
seems to try all that hard, but somehow the final product is just perfect. An audience
recording complete with background chatter, you put this record in your player, and out
comes the uncut sound of a good old time. It is a rare treat to hear Baudoin and Scanlan
lay back from Rads-style rock’n’roll drive and join Ray and Glover in making
music that you play on your back porch, by the water, with a few cold beers and the right
company.
–Cristina Diettinger
BLUES ON STAGE (mnblues.com - our thanks to Ray Stiles)
Live Review
The Back Porch Rockers (CD Release Party)
Dave Ray, Tony Glover, Reggie Scanlan,Camile Baudoin
The Turf Club, St. Paul, February 20, 2000
by Dick Houff
Several days before the gig, I had a gut feeling that this would be no
ordinary show. With Dave Ray, Tony Glover, and The Radiators very own Camile Baudoin and
Reggie Scanlon, how could a show of this magnitude be anything less than extraordinary. In
my heart, I'd have to call it historic. The Turf was packed to capacity, and by the end of
the night every CD (By The Water) had sold out! Dave started the first set with his
infamous 12 string picking followed by Tony's harp, Camile Baudoin on guitar, and Reggie
on bass. When Dave opted for electric and plugged-in, all hell broke loose! The frenzy and
totally in-sync phrasings between Camile and Ray were mesmerizing. Baudoin's attack was
riff with countless hammer-on and pulls using his index finger to get a double-string
slide effect-he would also back pedal using the same method! Ray was glowing and the karma
was in evidence between these two warriors as Dave answered the attack with his own
blistering chops. Tony's harp was up front and in your face, and when he took command;
both Ray and Camile stepped back. Reggie Scanlon has got to be one of the finer base
players that I've seen in quite some time-brilliant beyond words and right on top of the
action; minus a drummer, I might add. Too many times, I walk away from shows that have a
commercial polish to them. Without mentioning names or causing ill feelings, I'll refrain
from trashing-that's not my style. The same with records: when they all start sounding
alike, then you know a change needs to be addressed. Listening to this band was a
refreshing move from the above. Original and relentless right to the end; total heart and
soul to the max. When a band gets three standing ovations and the crowd wants a
fourth!-then and only then, can you say:
"This is the real deal!"
It's only Rock & Roll
Wednesday, December 29, 1999
By JOHN SWENSON - - - - United Press International
The blues runs through the history of 20th century American music just as the tributaries
of the
Mississippi River system feed the massive delta at its mouth.
No aspect of musical life, from the classical inspirations of Gershwin to the latest
hip-hop sampler, is uninformed by blues structure, emotion or style. Rock and roll and
soul music simply would not exist without it.
More than anything, blues is folk music. In the 1950s and 1960s blues players who had been
retired for a generation suddenly found their careers revived in the coffee houses and
folk clubs of
American cities gripped by the folk revival. In the mid-1960s a trio of young white blues
players,
Korner, Ray and Glover, became a sensation on the international folk scene with vibrant
performances at the Newport and Philadelphia folk festivals and a groundbreaking album,
"Blues,
Rags & Hollers," that drew critical raves and influenced an entire generation of
players.
"Blues, Rags & Hollers" was followed by four other albums that impacted a
wide range of popular artists, from John Lennon to The Doors and Bonnie Raitt, whose first
album was produced by Ray.
Happily, vocalist/guitarist Dave "Snaker" Ray and mouth harp
wizard Tony "Little Sun" Glover are still at it. The Minneapolis-based duo
joined forces with guitarist Camile Baudoin and bassist Reggie Scanlan, members of New
Orleans' greatest roots rock group, the Radiators, to make the terrific live acoustic
recording "By the Water" under the name of the Back Porch Rockers.
As members of the Radiators for the past 21 years, Baudoin and Scanlan have been spinning
a distinctly New Orleans vibe on everything from Jelly Roll Morton, Robert Johnson and
Howlin' Wolf to Ray Charles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.
The Radiators' sound, a deep blues groove that leaves plenty of room for jamming to its
undulating rhythms, is so unique that a term was invented to describe it, "fishhead
music."
Ray's vocals have the self-assured, sleek soul of the great blues singers of history,
qualities that have only deepened and distilled with age. Where the younger Ray may have
pushed the rhythms more frantically, he now measures each line like a master fisherman
casting patiently for the greatest effect.
Glover's harmonica accompaniment, alternately carefree and light in single-note runs and
tortured with smears, howls and choked notes, is perfectly attuned to the nuances of Ray's
vocals.
The guitar interplay between Ray and Baudoin is dazzling without ever
sounding overstated, in such service to the song as to be translucent. Rhythmic fills and
accents play off each other in syncopated delight, then suddenly a solo erupts out of the
mix.
Meanwhile, Scanlan is holding down the center while at the same time offering interlacing
harmonic runs and dancing like a weaver's shuttle through the stringed dialogue.
The selection of material is inspired, running the gamut of blues emotion from the delta laments of John Lee Williamson, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to the moaning wail of the Memphis Slim classic "Mother Earth," the modern blues style of Fenton Robinson's magnificent "Somebody Loan Me a Dime" and the New Orleans twist gleaned from Professor Longhair and Dave Bartholomew. Perhaps the most brilliant inclusion is a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Mississippi Kid," which crackles with blues authenticity in this stirring acoustic version.
The group's name makes ironic reference to the 50-something age of the
participants, but these guys can rock out fiercely without having to turn it up.
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
All rights reserved.
Click on the chair to order the Back Porch
Rockers' CD "By the Water"