Anthony Gomes – Music Is The Medicine (Ruf).

Young American guitar slinger Anthony Gomes serves up a dozen self-penned songs on an album co-produced by the legendary Jim Gaines. The eponymous title track is a funky opener with strong guitar. Gomes’ gruff voice is complimented by the female backing and it’s got it all – it’s the cure! Bluebird is a very strong song and Gomes shows that he is an all rounder on this soft rock offering. Now She’s Gone is more of the funk with vocal and over laden heavy guitar to the fore. War On War continues with heavy, searing guitars and I can tell you one thing – Gomes is certainly not quiet! The obligatory ballad arrives in the shape of Love Is The Answer and it is better than the average fare served up on the normal rock album. Gomes slashes his guitar through the middle.

The classy Everyday Superstar is another funk fest with the keyboards the funkiest. Testify is blues influenced and has a heavy rock feel that is blended with gospel – good Southern rock. This is a stormer as Gomes unleashes a flurry of notes. He takes a breather on Waiting For A Sign, an Elton John style ballad. However, this gives him the chance to show that he is as strong a singer as he is a guitarist. His songwriting skills are not too shabby either as his songs have a way of endearing themselves to you. There is a clever thought behind the lyrics of the blues based What If? whereas Run is a straightforward, heavy rock based grinder. When The Right Woman Does You Wrong is a blues title for sure and a blues is what you get. It is slow and moody and Gomes lifts you up and drops you like a stone in what is an excellent finish to a strong album.

http://www.anthonygomes.com/
http://www.rufrecords.de/

David Blue.

Pat Travers Band @ The Ferry, Glasgow 24/10/2008.

With a flourish, Pat Travers arrived on stage and announced “I’m Pat Travers, this is my band, and we’re here to kick your ass tonight”. After this, they launched into a superb version of Life In London and had the audience in raptures thereafter. Pat was in Glasgow to showcase his latest album, Stick With What You Know. Live In Europe, and confirmed that he is still a live act of some standing. He also managed to throw in Ask Me Baby from his eagerly awaited next album but this won’t be released until next year. If this track is anything to go by then the new album will be extremely good. For those of a Pat Travers persuasion, the evening followed a familiar path with Crash And Burn, Heat In The Street, Snortin’ Whiskey and Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights gleaned from past albums. He also showed his blues side with excellent versions of Red House and If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day (a Robert Johnson song not tackled by many). The blues connection continued in the encore with a scorching Statesboro Blues. Despite being a fan of Pat Travers for some years, this is the first time that I have seen him play and I was not disappointed. He has lost none of the vitality in his playing and he currently has an excellent band of Sean ‘The Cannon’ Shannon (drums), Kirk McKim (guitar) and Rodney O’Quinn (bass). These three give Pat the base on which to build and they form such a tight unit.

If you haven’t seen the Pat Travers Band yet then don’t leave it as long as I did!

David Blue.

An after show interview with Pat follows.

Twilight Hotel – Highway Prayer (CoraZong Records).

Twilight Hotel is Canadian duo Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury who play a multitude of instruments between them and they also show their songwriting abilities on this album of 12 original songs plus one bonus. They open with Viva La Vinyl, which shows an early indication of the good vocal harmony that the pair produces. Their dual fragmented guitars set up the song very well and make it strangely likeable. No Place For A Woman is slow, rhythmic Americana and Impatient Love, with Colin Linden on guitar, is acoustic and remains very slow -- this nu-country song shows how well they work together. The eponymous title track is music direct from the American heartland and very strong. Slumber Queen has jangly guitars much in the style of Chris Isaak and it harks back to the 60s whereas Iowalta Morningside is pounding Americana with menacing overtones.

The Ballad Of Salvador And Isabelle has added accordion but the pleasant tune hides the sad tale of illegal Mexican immigrants. Pure Americana and Richard Bell provides telling organ backing. This album was the last recording that he ever made and capped a career of some 400 albums. Shadow Of A Man is a strange one with its Latin execution but a few listens will confirm that it is a grower. The Critic is a bit ragtime and a bit jazz. It works ok but it is just missing something. If It Won’t Kill You is barrelhouse style Americana. There is a St Louis feel to Sometimes I Get A Little Lucky, which is slow and heartfelt and is one of a few songs on the album that could become future standards. Sand In Your Eyes is slow again and Brandy Zdan takes on most of the lead vocal. This is lyrically excellent and is very much in the vein of Krista Detor. Fire is played on slide guitar and piano. It is hard to categorise and a slightly strange finish. However, a quick read of the album sleeve tells you that Colin Linden and Richard Bell played this together and is just two friends playing together and catching a groove. One thing that can be said is that Twilight Hotel is not orthodox in any way. It’s an instrumental finish and not one that I would have chosen but they do keep you guessing right to the end.

http://www.twilighthotel.ca/
http://www.corazong.com/

David Blue.

Paul Orta & Tonky De La Pena – Pawn Shop Blues (Great Recordings).

Paul Orta (Port Arthur, Texas, USA) and Tonky De La Pena (Madrid, Spain) arrived at the studio with a Hohner harmonica and a Martin D28 guitar in hand, sat down and recorded Pawn Shop Blues. There were no amplifiers used and it harks back to the old Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee format. The eponymous opener is a slow Delta blues and is a great start to the album. Muddy Waters’ Catfish Blues features slide guitar and Tonky takes over on the vocal. Talk To Your Daughter is a full harmonica blues with Orta back on vocal. However, I don’t think that the dog noises are necessary on this JB Lenoir song. Ponme Otro Whiskey is sung in Spanish but I’d have preferred the Scottish spelling of Whisky. Otherwise, it’s a standard guitar and harp blues. Boogie The Woogie is a lung bursting stunner and the classic Jimmy Reed song Bright Light, Big City has piercing harmonica from Orta.

Voodoo Mama is in Spanish again and is strange yet compelling. Willie Dixon’s Bring It On Home has more echoes of McGhee & Terry and Feel So Bad is a classic guitar and harp blues, written by Lightning Hopkins. Oh Susanne is more of the same, only slower and the last of the Spanish songs, Vaga Bundo, is upbeat. It is appropriate that the final track is Tribute To Sonny Terry and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It is an excellent tribute and a wonderful end to a thoroughly entertaining album.

http://www.great-recordings.com/
http://home.hetnet.nl/~porta/index.html

Richard Earl – One More Song (Great Blues Recordings).

Richard Earl has shared a stage with great artists such as Little Milton, ZZ Hill and Johnnie Taylor and has forged a successful career with his band, The R&B House Rocka’s. One More Song opens with Henpecked, which has a world weary vocal as you would expect. Come on boys, we’ve all been there. Prominent guitar from Jack Edery and organ from Chris Thibodeaux make for a solid start. Comin’ Back Baby is pure soul and Earl has the classic type of voice for this slow love song. I’ll Be Right Here remains in the soul genre but is more upbeat than its predecessor. My only complaint is that it isn’t imposing enough. Back to slow soul for Baby It’s You and as heartfelt love songs go, it’s ok. Bad News means the blues and Thibodeaux gives it some in the middle. The band plays everything with soul but Earl’s vocal does desert him a bit on this. Blues Over You is a more straightforward blues yet is one of the best tracks and shows that great results can be had when you play it simple. He stays with the blues for His Old Lady And My Old Lady and this tale of bigamy is a slow burner. There is not a lot of pace about this band and Too Many Lovers confirms this. Having said that, the song will have a hypnotic effect on you. One More Song is pretty standard stuff but the excellent closing track, Riding All Night, is the sort of down & dirty blues that I wish he had provided more of.

http://www.great-recordings.com/

David Blue.

Walter Trout – The Ferry, Glasgow 03/10/2008.

From the opening bars of Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away, Walter Trout showed why he is considered to be in the world’s top 10 guitarists. He is no stranger to the stage at The Ferry, this being his 10th visit in as many years and he is totally comfortable with the Glasgow crowd. With a set peppered with outstanding tracks from his latest album, The Outsider, Trout and his band, Sammy Avila on keyboards, Rick Knapp on bass and the newest member, Michael Leasure on drums, ripped up the evening. Walter’s voice continues to grow as does his songwriting, as he gets older and his guitar playing is probably the best that it has ever been. This was exemplified by his impromptu recital of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, which was note perfect.The introduction of Andrew Elt on a couple of tracks gave an added dimension to the vocal performance and when Sammy Avila took over lead duties he proved he is no mean singer himself. I’d like to think that there is a passion for the blues in Scotland and Walter Trout certainly brought that out of the crowd at The Ferry. He certainly got the crowd on his side with a quick version of Scotland The Brave. However, in an evening of standout songs, Child Of Another Time and The Next Big Thing were the true highlights.

Post-show interview with Walter Trout @ The Ferry, Glasgow 03/10/2008.

DB – What brings you back to Glasgow again and again?
WT – A van! (much laughter amongst those in attendance)
DB – Very funny, but is it something about Glasgow or The Ferry, in particular?
WT – You know something, it’s just a great audience. You know, you could feel it tonight. You could feel the energy and the enthusiasm of the people. The first time that I played this city was 17 years ago at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and the people went completely nuts and I thought, this is a great city. Every gig is like that.
DB – Glaswegians are a very hard audience to please but you seem to manage to win them over with no problem.
WT – You know, I’ve never had a problem pleasing them from that first gig in King Tut’s, man.
DB – If Glaswegians don’t like you, they’ll tell you!
WT – That night they went nuts and the manager of the place came out to tell us to stop playing because he thought that they were going to tear the club down. We did about four encores that night.
DB – If they had torn the club down then Oasis would never have been discovered.
WT – Yeah, ‘cause that’s where they got discovered, right?
DB – So the new album. It’s been out for a couple of months?
WT – Yeah.
DB – The title, do you feel like an outsider?
WT – No, I didn’t write that about me. I wrote it about a relative of mine who shall remain nameless, but who I saw at a party at my house for family and friends. I saw him standing across the room and everyone else was having a good time and relating. He was standing by himself and I could see sadness in his eyes. I could see that he felt uncomfortable in social situations and he is still having trouble making friends, a lot of trouble, and this was for him.
DB – Are you pleased with the reaction to the album?
WT – It’s been great.
DB – It’s been high in the blues charts in Europe.
WT – Yeah, and in the States it debuted at number 3 and stayed in the Top 10 for, I think, about 8 or 9 weeks.
DB – Very impressive. You once said and I’m going to quote here, “the blues should not be in a museum”. Do you think that the genre has expanded, say in the last 10 years or so?
WT – It depends on who you listen to. If you listen to people who are on a mission to keep it in a museum, they’re certainly not expanding it and I don’t have a problem with them. What they do is valid; it’s just not what I’m interested in doing. I want to push the envelope a little. I want to feel free of any musical constraints like it has to fit like this or it has to sound like this and that’s why that one verse on Child Of Another Day is about blues purists – “Here comes the guy I’ve met a million times before. He tells me to slow it down, he says remember less is more. He doesn’t understand it, it don’t sound just like it should. It don’t fit his preconceptions so it can’t be any good. But I just ignore him, I don’t care what he said”.
DB – Truer words never spoken. So what do you think of the young pretenders just now, like your stable mate, Joe Bonamassa?
WT – I think he’s great man. I think he’s carrying the torch for this stuff. I think it’s important that there’s young people carrying it on and he’s definitely somebody who is concerned with taking this to a new place, modernising it a little bit, not being stuck in the past, you know. So, I respect him for that, a lot.
DB – I’ve seen Joe twice now and both times he blew me away completely. He is definitely pushing the envelope. He is the young master but he is following after you. I think that you have influenced Joe Bonamassa in a big way.
WT – I think I probably have too and I think that’s kind of evident, you know, and I’m very, very happy if that is true because I feel like I couldn’t have had a better person as a protégé. He’s definitely going his own way with it too. He’s been influenced by a lot of people, I may be one of them, but he is definitely on his own path and God bless him and more power to him. He’s carrying the torch.
DB – Your instrument is the Strat, as is mine although I play very badly. Would you consider using another type of guitar? Could you get that sound from another guitar?
WT – Well you won’t get that sound but on my new album, on a song called You Can’t Have It All, I played a 1962 Gibson 345 through an old Fender Bassman amp and got an old Freddie King kinda sound out of it. But playing live I just like, I just know the Strat. I know how to control it and I’m completely at home with it.
DB – So, how is the touring schedule? Is it hectic just now?
WT – It’s as my old album says, it’s relentless.
DB – And more power to you for that. When do you get a break?
WT – I’m going home in two and a half weeks to vote and I’m home for nine days. Then I come back over and I tour through mid-December and then I’m basically home through March.
DB – So you’ll be back to Glasgow sometime?
WT – Probably the same time next year. It’s kind of a tradition now.
DB – Very much so, the last ten years or so.
WT – Yeah, and always seeming in October.
DB – Taking you back to your Bluesbreakers days. Do you still see any of the guys?
WT – I see them all the time. I get up and play with John Mayall when we play at festivals and I’ve gotten up with Coco and his band and he’s got up and played with my band. We send each other emails all the time. Coco sends me like lots of crazy videos and stuff of people.
DB – The camaraderie is obviously still there so it must have been some band to play in.
WT – It was a hell of a band and I may be biased but I still think in the last thirty years, I think that was Mayall’s best band. When he had me and Coco as duelling guitarists we used to push each other every night.
DB – Yes. I’m a big Clapton fan but it is always better with two guitarists.
WT – Well, yes I think it was for John because he would encourage competition between us and he would get fiery shows every night. It was a duel.
DB – Many people think that Thin Lizzy brought out the dual guitarists but you did it many years before.
WT – Yeah.
DB – Obviously, Sammy is playing tonight and I was speaking to him earlier and he said that he played on the album but John Cleary also played on parts too.
WT – Jon Cleary?
DB – Yeah, I recently reviewed his latest album, Mo Hippa.
WT – Yeah, Jon Cleary’s album was also produced by John Porter, I believe, because actually while we were in the studio John Porter was playing me some cuts and he said “listen to this, I just mixed this for Cleary”. He is an incredible player.
DB – Fantastic.
WT – And I’m glad you call him Cleary. A lot of reviewers and people who have been writing about the album they call him Clearly and I’m like, C’mon.
DB – No, I can read.
WT – (laughter). Yeah, that’s what I mean.
DB – I’ll let you get your food, one last question Walter. You’ve shared a stage with many, many people. Is there anyone that you have not shared a stage with that you would wish to do so?
WT – Yeah, before I die if I could get up and play a song with the Rolling Stones I could die happy. That’d be it.
DB – I’ll arrange it with Mick. I’ll get it sorted out.
WT – Please do. There you go.
DB – Walter Trout, thank you very much.
WT – Thanks Dave.

http://www.waltertrout.com/

David Blue.