Howard Glazer & The El 34s – Brown Paper Bag (Random Chance).

The sleeve of Brown Paper Bag professes that Howard Glazer was influenced by Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters and Kim Simmonds and this 13 track album of original blues rock includes elements from all three. The El 34s are a classic power trio consisting of Glazer on electric guitar, acoustic resonator guitar and vocals, Bob Godwin on bass and Charles Stuart on drums. They open with the eponymous title track which has a great introduction with strong guitar from Glazer. His vocal delivery is interesting to say the least. It does get a bit laboured at points but gets better with repeated listening, can’t fault the guitar though. Cold, Sad And Lonely is a slow blues burner and his vocal is almost snarled at the listener. I don’t know who he has styled himself on but it is vaguely familiar. Steamrollin’ Baby is played on acoustic resonator and is very proficient, if unspectacular but the deft, Chicago style guitar work on Going To Chicago makes it a highlight although the female backing vocal only highlights Glazer’s limitations. Having said that, Sad Situation, a slow, classy blues actually has Howard’s best vocal so far. The acoustic Radioactive Woman tells of Glazer’s past employment in a power plant and that’s why he wrote the song. However, this is hardly a radioactive performance.

Backing vocals help out the Louisiana swamp inspired stomper, Don’t You Love Me No More and they’re off into Delta blues on Full Moon Blues where the painfully slow style suits his voice better. This steel guitar song is one of the best on the album. Another different style is the jazz blues of Mean Hearted Woman. Again, he turns in an excellent introduction and the vocal is passable but like most of the songs it is carried by his guitar playing. You could quite easily have been listening to Jimi Hendrix on the introduction to The Dogs They Bark At Midnight and it just gets better – a highlight. One criticism I have is that sometimes Howard tries to get too many words in and Smokin’ And Drinkin’ is a case in point. Still can’t fault the guitar though. There’s another slow, moody blues on Start Again and I’m getting more used to his voice. This is definitely his type of song and there’s more than a passing nod to John Lee Hooker here. The final track, Freedom, is a strange guitar instrumental and it’s not really necessary.

A bit of a mixed bag but the trio are very tight, Glazer is an excellent guitarist and there are some good songs in there.

www.randomchancerecords.com
www.howardglazer.com

Copyright David Blue 2006.