"Steve Howell continues to not only to thrill us with his extraordinary guitar picking style, but also, in his own special way, offers us a history lesson of what really good American Roots & Blues sounds like. There is a gentle humbleness that not only guides him through his music and, in essence, he is much more concerned about what he has to offer than with all the accolades that follow." - Blues Underground Network Review, British Columbia (September 2010)
"Texan Steve Howell is a first-class fingerpicker and singer with a convincing voice grounded in the traditional American songbook, in which Country-Blues and Delta-Blues, Rockabilly, and Folk influences along with Rhythm and Blues flow together into a special art form in which the song is the focus and not the technical possibilities of interpretation. His accented and exceptionally clean picking gives the music a new face. He bows to the catalog and to the composers, yet manages to make them contemporary. As a result, his music sounds modern while still breathing tradition and history." - Blues News, Germany (May 2010)
"Texan Steve Howell takes us on a wonderful journey through American roots music. The excellent finger picking on his acoustic guitar is a central theme throughout." - Jazz ‘N More, Switzerland (May 2010)
"Steve Howell brings a breath of fresh air to old and popular songs. Steve performs each song with great understanding and finesse. You feel as if you're diving back into the deepest roots of Blues, a place where you meet the ghosts of those who wrote all those traditional songs." - Blues Matters!, United Kingdom (June 2010)
"Warm, powerful and with a sound and feel that is reminiscent of the old masters. Whether solo acoustic or enlisting the accompaniment of a band, Howell sings and plays from deep wells of experience, giving each and every number that feeling that he has experienced it all and allowing the listener to believe every word. Steve Howell is the real deal." - Billtown Blue Notes (Mar. 2010)
"Steve Howell is in Class-All-His-Own. What a master of Blues/Roots guitar!! What sets him apart from most of the virtuosos is that while many are 'technically brilliant' they lack emotion/feeling and this is where Steve trumps all of them." - Real Blues Magazine, Victoria, British Columbia (Feb. 2010)
"Acoustic guitar picker/singer Steve Howell specializes in an up tempo, fun style that manages to incorporate elements of blues and the U.S. south. Arranging memorable folk-blues tunes comes quite easy for the talented Mr. Howell." - allmusic.com (Feb. 2010)
"Steve Howell has a way of putting his own soul into the music and bringing it to vivid new life. There is just something so elemental in what is expressed, it is like air itself. What is being passed along is like the river of life." - Bentley's Bandstand, Sonic Boomers (Jan. 2010)
"One of the finest interpreters of the American roots music songbook. Rocking with attitude and sexy slide guitar. Howell croons with deep emotion and embroiders it with delicate fingerstyle. Close acquaintance with the music of Steve Howell will only shed enlightenment and joy." - Guitar Edge Magazine (Jan. 2010)
"Steve Howell is a consummate storyteller, coupling his deep knowledge of the great bluesmen of the past with his delightful fingerpicking style and rich, resonant vocal delivery to breathe life into everything he sings. Steve Howell is a brilliant interpreter of songs from bygone eras. His warm, inviting vocals evoke a down-home, front-porch charm." - Nashville Blues Society (Jan 2010)
"An elegant finger-picking guitar. Howell has a nice warm voice that envelops the music he picks." - Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Feb. 2010)
"Veteran musician Steve Howell shares well-done country blues with his weathered, respectful voice and clean finger-picking guitar style." - Buddy Magazine, Dallas, Texas (Feb. 2010)
"Howell's relaxed singing style and his painstakingly polished takes on acoustic treasures earned him keen approval in connoisseur circles." - Ctrlaltcountry E-zine, The Netherlands (Mar. 2010)
"Steve Howell's music is like an evening around the fireplace at an old southern homestead, acoustic guitars as crackling and blanketing as the embers themselves, all with the fluidity and cool hand of a master craftsman. This highly emotive style of playing complements Howell's husky, commanding voice. A gentle, Deep South-inspired acoustic troubadour." - Living Blues Magazine (April 2010)
"Low-key and without pretense, Howell honestly delivers songs we should all know by heart but probably don't. He delivers each with integrity and authority." - Elmore Magazine, NY, NY (March 2010)
"...lovely finger-picking acoustic guitar....good-time vocals...." - blueinthenorthwest.com, United Kingdom (May 2010)
"Steve is a highly skilled fingerpicker, and at the same time, a very soulful artist - a combination that is not to be taken for granted in every skilled guitar player." - Blues News - Finland (June 2009)
"Steve Howell is an accomplished, finger picking style, acoustic guitar player with very strong vocals. I was amazed by his effortless finger picking ability. Front porch Country Blues done the way it should be." - IllinoisBlues.com Blues Blast (Feb. 2009)
"Howell's guitar picking is crystalline perfection, and his understated vocals are emphatic and expressive. Soulful and softly dynamic re-creations of the acoustic country blues for a modern audience." - Bloomington Alternative, Blues & More, (Feb. 2009)
"The understated, down home Southern-drawl vocal style is the perfect compliment to the airtight arrangements and tasteful playing Howell exhibits on guitar." - Vintage Guitar Magazine (March 2009)
"Howell's complex, masterful guitar work is full of nuance, and his relaxed vocals exhibit a rich warmth that is well-suited to this material." - Living Blues Magazine (Jan/Feb 2009)
"Nuanced, masterful interpretation. Howell is able to evoke deep emotion through subtlety rather than overstatement." - Blues Revue (Feb/Mar 2009)
His acoustic guitar is a universe of its own, singing alongside in a timeless voice of praise but like the blues itself, is really offering us the world." - Bentley's Bandstand, Sonic Boomers (December 2008)
"Steve Howell brings a scholarly passion to his music and it is a delightful education, but there is nothing professorial about the performances. Thanks to his broad vocabulary on acoustic guitar, the Texas-born Howell swings and rocks even in these sparse arrangements. A lesson on the blues worth hearing." - Associated Press (2008)
"If blues fans think the idea of a a songster left the planet with the late Mance Lipscomb, Steve Howell will turn that thinking around right quick in an age where songs are too often mere vehicles for guitarists to strut their virtuosity. You will search long and in vain to find a warmer or more inviting sound, both instrumentally and vocally." - Guitar Edge Magazine (2008)
"Howell is an accomplished fingerpicking guitarist and a musical scholar. His interpretations are spirited and exact. The emphasis is on getting the details right, and he does." - All Music Guide - 4 out of 5 stars (2008)
“It has a steady beat, soft and cool, plenty of melodies, each as crisp as the next, played with incredible perfection, the thing that takes you wherever it wants, whenever it wants and you never even feel the time is dragging, it's that beautiful....Played by a quartet of virtuosos in a laid-back, easy style. A quartet that serves you a sharp-dressed music, concise, but careful — notice that I didn't say sterile! Mustn't get it wrong! A gentle and fresh music that we would like to hear more often, a music in which each instrument shines like the sun, where everything is all happiness and precious. Steve Howell is a warm singer and excellent guitarist...it's all great, it's all rolling in silk, a listening gem that's a long way from the noise and the fury. A pearl recommended for aficionados of beautiful guitar, but also for all blues lovers who still know where the blue note comes from......” - Blues & Co. Magazine (France) Jan. 2007
“Wow. Talk about your complete breath of fresh air! This is an awesome, awe inspiring collection of classic old tunes remodeled and reinterpreted by Steve Howell and company. Fantastic renditions of some time honored classic tunes. Howell shows a delicate balance of respect and admiration for his source material while still taking it to a new place for us. A wonderful album of great work.”
- Southwest Blues (April 2006)
“Howell and his sidemen display an obvious comfort with the material and guitar fans will enjoy the warm tones he coaxes from his Benedetto archtop. Howell's vocals easily glide over the music, but with enough character to make these interpretations his own. Engineered and mixed at Shreveport's Sandbox Recording Studio, the cd's crisp production lets all instruments shine, sure to please even the most discriminating high-end audio enthusiasts. This easy-going and enjoyable release will certainly gain Howell wider recognition. Simply put, this is how the pros do it.”
– Living Blues Magazine
“The natural ease of Steve’s Chet Atkins-styled picking and the jazz trio format seamlessly blends these artifacts of Americana together. The intros to “Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams” and the absolutely gorgeous cover of Satchmo’s “When it’s Sleepy Time Down South” convey so much emotion on their own that the verses are almost anticlimactic. When he switches into a higher register...., as on Blind Teddy Darby’s “I Never Cried (Built Right On The Ground),” Steve finds a gentle yearning that suits him well, sort of a cross between Clapton and Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson. There’s true gold just beyond the pastoral horizon of “Out Of The Past...”
- OffBeat Magazine
"Steve Howell simply shines on his new release. Country, Blues and Jazz sounds that feature the guitar and vocal workings of a master musician. "Out of the Past" features a variety of music styles that are clean and uncluttered and are more than enjoyable to listen to. Steve presents his songs with an uncommon feel for the past music of days gone by. This album is excellent and should make waves throughout the music industry."
- Roots Music Report
"Steve plays these songs his way. He has been playing them for years, but he does it without changing them. That's where his heart is. Of all my fingerpicking friends, Steve is the fingerpickingest."
- Joe Osborn (legendary bassist who has played on hundreds of Top 40 pop, rock and country hits)
“Howell’s arch-top picking, marked by a lovely melodic sensibility, is immaculate, his vocals relaxed and honest. Songs like Charley Patton’s Moon Going Down” and Blind Teddy Darby’s “I Never Cried” surprisingly work as well in the small band arrangements created by Howell and Joe Osborn on bass.”
- Blues Revue, February March 2006
“The [Texas] guitarist/ vocalist’s preference for roots music and vintage Tin Pan Alley in an intimate trio setting affords a rare, close-up opportunity to hear Joe Osborn work his masterful way with a song.”
– Bass Player magazine ‘BP RECOMMENDS’ section, January 2006 "Out of the Past" is a delightful acoustic journey back in time to the Great American songbook. A must listen disc for today's songwriters and pickers alike."
- James "The Blues Hound" Nagel - 90.1 KPFT Houston, TX
Not being a songwriter myself, I have always had very high regard for truly great songs and those who write them. The tunes on this CD represent some of my favorites from what I consider to be music’s golden age. Virtually all of the songs presented here are from the 1920s and the 1930s. Some came into their own in the ritzy big city night clubs, cabarets, and in the musical theater. Some were born in the country, in barrelhouses, roadhouses, and cotton fields. In both cases, I think they still contain very pervasive and constant human experiences, motivations, dreams and hopes. I subscribe to the basic theory that all forms of music are somebody’s folk music. My hope is that you will be able to hear what I think is so wonderful and powerful about these tunes and hear something you like. Thanks for listening.
- Steve Howell
