WHICH WAY DO WE GO? Brandon Santini (MoMojo Records) *****
Seven time Blues Music Award nominee Brandon Santini is back with a new album and it’s hot stuff. Which Way Do We Go is soulful modern blues, equal parts Howlin’ Wolf and Big Sugar. This is a burly masterpiece powered by raw emotion.
Born in North Carolina, Santini moved to Memphis in 2003 to work Beale Street. Based in Springfield, Illinois since 2018, the effect of Memphis on his music can still be keenly felt. “It felt good to return to my former hometown of Memphis to record with my touring band” he says. “These deeply personal songs were written during the pandemic and its aftermath, and the album features the raw power that this band takes with them wherever we go.”
Produced by good friend and musical compadre Jeff Jensen, Which Way Do We Go? captures a slinky, swampy vibe… the arrangements aren’t complicated which makes the songs easily absorbable but man, this has an overall groove you can ride for days. It rocks too, of course, on driving tracks like Working On A Mystery. When you hone in on the lyrical content of these songs, you can really feel the emotional weight of the pandemic experience that we all remember so well. Of those times and the songs here inspired by them, Brandon says “This is a moment of reckoning… if we don’t find our way with love and compassion, I fear what lies ahead.” That also applies in the wake of Trump’s inept administration plus the recent federal election here in Canada. Santini knows and we should too, that love and not fear is the way forward.
Which Way Do We Go is a bareknuckle brawl of a blues album, an exhilarating listen.
HOT TRACKS: This War Ain’t Over, Working On A Mystery, Blues So Bad
DON’T NEED BUT ONE Kim Field & The Perfect Gentlemen (Independent) *** ½
This is the debut outing for this all-star roots n blues group from the Northwest. Don’t Need But One is long on confidence with a band that has hit the ground running.
Kim Field, a wicked harmonica player and fine blues singer, began his career in New York City before returning to his native Pacific Northwest. With the number of talented artists and bands calling that area home, it should be considered ‘Chicago West’. This is a suave kind of hardcore blues that combines R&B rave-ups and soulful ballads with genuine blues for a particularly unique yet familiar feeling musical testimony. Aside from Kim at the front of the stage, the group also includes Vyasa Dodson (Curtis Salgado) and Whit Draper on guitars, bassist Denny Bixby (Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Buddy Miller, Chet Atkins) and drummer Jimi Bott (The Fabulous Thunder birds, Rod Piazza). That’s a lot of talent to squeeze into one band.
The Seattle Times calls Kim Field “the finest blues harp player in the Northwest” and the guys in his band are no slouches either. Field’s playing reminds me of Bob Corritore but with a bit more stank, and the band never muddies a song with gratuitous showboating as they plow through these workingman’s blues with spirit and purpose. It kind of surprises me that it’s taken Field this long to get an album out as his songs have appeared in a couple of film soundtracks, but then I suppose the blues is considered a musical specialty as opposed to something more mainstream.
In the end Don’t Need But One isn’t exactly a Saturday night roadhouse rave-up but it is righteous in its own way… these are blues you’ll enjoy having.
HOT TRACKS: Don’t Need But One, Dress The Monkey, I Give In
FALLING THROUGH STARS Laurenne/ Louhimo (Frontiers) ****+
This is the second joint effort between these two powerhouse Finnish vocalists, and it burns hot. Falling Through Stars is sophisticated classic metal, Lee Aaron meets Judas Priest, and it’s the sort of thing you can listen to all day long.
Netta Laurenne says “(this) is our second collaborative album with Noora, and it gave us the opportunity to step in and out of our comfort zones to meet halfway. We had a great time writing and recording the album, which I co-produced with my husband, Nino Laurenne.” Nino, by the way, also plays guitar on this bad boy. Razor sharp, articulate and punishing, Falling Through Stars is really what a metal album should be and having 2 stellar vocalists at the mic is just icing on the cake. The songs are thick and driving, displaying shades of many eras of Rainbow, Judas Priest and other bands that championed 80’s metal as something more than hair-pulling knuckle-dragging aggression. That era is also known for power ballads and Laurenne/ Lohimo are no exception. All For Sale, the first single, is an acoustic ballad high on drama that’s sure to bring out the Bic lighters at any gig. Netta describes the song as “a story of lost love that evolves into the realization that love is never truly lost but instead serves as a teacher. That heartache has a deeper purpose in our lives as a catalyst and a healer.”
The production on Falling Through Stars is both a throwback to the 80’s and a dense, modern sound that is clear and powerful. The vocal melodies created by the two singers have a classic feel that helps make the record instantly likeable. Without necessarily comparing the two, if you enjoy Lee Aaron’s metal stuff, this disc will speak to you too.
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HOT TRACKS: Loud And Clear, All For Sale, Let The Light Be Free
SOUL IN BLUE Tad Robinson (Delmark Records) ******
The latest from Tad Robinson, his first in 6 years, is a sophisticated pleasure. Soul In Blue is the perfect title for this collection of songs as the disc is as much soul as it is blues, and the two forms are not strange bedfellows at all. In Tad Robinson’s hands, the combination is magic.
Born and raised in Manhattan, Robinson made his bones blowing blues harp in the clubs of Chicago. Six of the tracks here were recorded in Indianapolis with his longtime road band plus special guests, the other four at Delmark’s Riverside Studio with the Delmark All-Stars. Soul In Blue isn’t the rough and tumble Chicago blues I usually favor; there’s a smoothness to this album- the songs, the playing, the sound- that is quite captivating. The disc is mostly self-penned songs, and it’s telling that the two covers come from Wilson Pickett and Arthur Adams.
Soul In Blue was produced by Robinson and Elbio Barilari with smart, satisfying results. Some tight, economical guitar solos, righteous rhythms and soulful keyboard work, along with Tad’s vocals and harp playing, give this baby plenty of mojo. Its soul music with a blues heart, maybe even an insistent touch of gospel, and it’s a potent mix. We could hardly expect anything less from Tad; he’s been nominated for a pair of WC Handy Awards and eight Blues Music Awards since signing with Delmark in the 90’s. And this thing flows like nobody’s business.
From the songwriting to the musicianship to the production, there isn’t a single thing I don’t like about Soul In Blue. The word ‘perfection’ can be misused when talking about music, but there is nothing I would have done differently here; it’s a beautiful album.
HOT TRACKS: It’s Private Tonight, Keep It In The Vault, (I’m) Down To My Last Heartbreak
