The Incredible Blues Puppies – Puppy Fat (Note Records).

The Incredible Blues Puppies are Alan Glen (vocal, guitar, harmonica), John O’Reilly (vocal, guitar), Jim Mercer (vocal, bass) and Dino Coccia (drums, percussion) and they certainly are not puppies in British blues circles. Puppy Fat provides Alan Glen another vehicle on which to showcase his not inconsiderable guitar and harmonica talents. The album starts with Another Kind Of Love, one if only four self written songs on offer. This is stylish British R&B that gives an upbeat beginning that bodes well for the rest of the set. Alan Glen is one of Britain’s top harmonica players and playing of this standard will help to cement that position. Good Morning Miss Brown is a Taj Mahal song and the rhythm section of Coccia and Mercer provides a pounding beat akin to a train in full flight. The instrumental title track is another of the self-written songs and has Glen on form with his harmonica leading the way. Another original is Angle Of Dissent, written by drummer Coccia. This has a clever lyric but the style will take a little getting used to. Man Down There is a fast paced blues that has Glen playing his lungs out again and both he and John O’Reilly provide excellent guitar backing. This was written by lesser known bluesman G.L. Crockett whose main claim to fame was Think Twice Before You Go.

When you think of T-Bone Walker you think of jazzy blues and that is exactly what you get on T Bone Jumps Again. Another giant, Mississippi Fred McDowell, is covered next. His 61 Highway has a beat added by arranger Mercer and there are times when this works. Unfortunately, this is not one of those times but there is no denying the quality of the playing. The Puppies get a little frenetic on Rosco Gordon’s Just A Little Bit before returning to the more sedate swing blues of Walking To My Baby. This is a Kim Wilson song and is therefore harmonica led but the guitar does get a surprising solo as well. The closing track is 7 Years Too Late and Mercer’s arrangement of this Coccia song is much better. They finish in the manner that they started and give us British R&B of the highest order and with Roger Cotton guesting on Hammond they could not have gone wrong.

http://www.note-music.co.uk/

Copyright David Blue 2006.