Cathi's Reviews 3/3/10
Back Alley Players – “Beyond the Blues” (B.O.N.E. Entertainment) B-Funk with big horns. Husky voice, smooth playing…Mostly not blues…on the fence between popular and soul.
Laid-back, kind of a middle-road approach. Some sultry singing, some really terrible music and some pretty nice blues guitar (#9). Okay, but no hot flashes here.
James, Elmore Jr. & The Broomdusters – “Baby Please Set a Date” (Wolf) B+
One of what he claims amounts to 30 children of Elmore James (he’s one of two acknowledged kids of EJ’s), Elmore Junior came up loving to play drums, but learning guitar at his dad’s clear insistence. His intermittent relationship with the always-traveling Elmore Sr., got him extensive lessons on slide guitar, and eventually landed Junior in Chicago (upon Elmore Senior’s death), where he connected with Willie Dixon and became “Elmore Jr.” He and the Broomdusters have been road dawgs since and play pretty cool blues with Elmore Junior singing and playing weirdly reminiscent,raw, slide guitar. They do mostly his dad’s songs—I expected “Elmore Light,”but actually it’s loose barroom blues, which I always dig and immediately order a whiskey. Mostly medium-tempo, but I love hearing slide treated like the main instrument along with those loose country vocals over blues sax. Pass the Jack brother.
Keys, Tommy – “The Man in the Moon” (LPF Records) B-
New Jersey Keyboard man puts out some smooth piano playing with a tolerable talk- vocals on top. Nice player and okay band, less than great vocals. An act that seems like it would be much more entertaining in person. Kind of a New Orleans piano approach – hot afternoons, lazy renditions, lots of talk-story and frequent change-ups in arrangements. Got a few lady backup singers to sweeten the deal. Not really recommended.
posted by Cathi N @ 4:37:00 PM
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