Tom Principato – Guitar Gumbo/Celebrating 40 Years Of Roots Guitar Playing (Powerhouse Records).

Washington DC blues guitar legend Tom Principato’s latest album Guitar Gumbo has a scattering of self written originals with a few carefully chosen covers thrown in for good measure. He opens with Louisiana (Been Callin’ Me), a John Fogerty style Southern blues rock. This sets up a good tone for the rest of the album and gives us a glimpse of his guitar virtuosity. It’s much the same for If Love Is Blind which is some more of that good time music. The Southern/country blues rock vein continues with They Took My Money Away, a Fats Domino song. Tom drifts off onto bar-room blues for the Mayo Williams classic, Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee and his loquacious vocal continues without skipping a beat – your feet will move to this one. Return Of The Voodoo Thing keeps up the pace although it is a bit rockier than the others. This gives us the chance to hear Tom’s guitar skills as they come to the fore – this is an excellent instrumental. From a fast instrumental to a slow one, Tango’d Up In The Blues is a novel concept that tries to merge the two genres. His guitar skills enable him to just about get away with it. Hey Now Baby is a swinging New Orleans blues. Written by Roy Byrd and Principato gives it a more funky treatment than the more well-known Professor Longhair (Byrd) version. He returns to the Creedence Clearwater Revival style on Helping Hand so just turn up the volume, have a good time and sing along. The penultimate song is the often covered Jambalaya and Tom turns in a good version. It’s not twee at all and I’d like to think that this is the version that most of us would like to play. The album finishes with Tipsy, a fret burner of an instrumental.

The Anniversary CD Celebrating 40 Years Of Roots Guitar Playing has Tom playing in a number of styles and throws up a surprising track or two. He opens with one of his own songs, Play It Cool, which is a swinging blues with stinging guitar and blazing horns – a great start. A couple of covers follow Never Make Your Move Too Soon (Stix Hooper & Wil Jennings) and My Baby Worships Me (Steve Earle). The former carries on from the opener and has a funky bass line and the latter flits between R&B and country. Kim Wilson guests on joint vocal and chips in with thunderous harmonica. Tom’s guitar screeches through this. There’s a return to the self penned songs on Blue Groove, an urban blues instrumental where Tom shows great proficiency. The often covered Jimmy Liggins song I Ain’t Drunk follows and this jazz/barroom version is up there with the best. Tom is now swapping self written songs with covers and Blue Mood is the next of his songs. This is a slow blues burner, the sort that Peter Green turned out in his heyday. The Booker T & William Bell written The Hunter was made famous by Free and, although Tom is not up to Paul Rogers’ standard vocally he more than makes up for it on guitar where he more than matches the original. Congo Square is a Sonny Landreth song and has been recorded by John Mayall and The Neville Brothers but this swaggering, funky blues is before both of those versions. Bullmoose Jackson makes a guest appearance on the Leiber & Stoller song Nosey Joe. This is swing jazz and it is great fun. Things calm down a bit for Blue Lights, a sultry blues instrumental before Every Minute, Every Hour arrives. This is an electric blues in every sense and his voice is totally suited to this. The high tempo continues with In Orbit and Tom’s skills are evident on this jazz blues instrumental. Gritty Chicago blues are next on offer with Little Johnny Jones’ Sweet Little Woman and then Tom gets all brave and takes on Jimi Hendrix’s Up From The Skies but this is the one song that does not work. The last cover is Merle Haggard’s Today I Started Loving You Again and Tom gives this country song the blues treatment and it works well in both genres. He goes out on a high with One For Danny (Dedicated To Danny Gatton) and his high paced country finger picking is just the perfect tribute.

Tom Principato has released a number of albums but these two are a perfect introduction to a top guitar player.

http://www.tomprincipato.com/

Copyright David Blue 2006.