Sunday, May 15, 2011



Stoney Curtis Band – Cosmic Connection (Provogue Records).

The Stoney Curtis Band has honed their skills playing the clubs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas over the past 10 years. They’ve also managed to squeeze in four European tours in recent years and this has massively widened their audience. Cosmic Connection is their second album for Blues Bureau and is released on Provogue in Europe. The album contains 12 original songs and Blues And Rock N Roll is a high impact opener. This band is a classic power trio that play top class blues rock. Stoney is a top performer and with Aaron Haggerty on drums and Steve Evans on bass they all come together to produce a full sound. When The Sweet Turns To Sour is a big, ballsy Chicago blues and a joyous thing to hear. Curtis’ grizzly vocal and soaring guitar set the song up perfectly. Mouthful Of Honey is a rock styled blues in the style of The Rolling Stones and The Black Crowes. It’s good solid stuff and its classic rock stylings are easy to like. Headin’ For The City is a swinging blues played in Curtis’ inimitable style whilst Soul Flower is a high energy rocker with an electrifying solo but the vocal comes over as a little bit strained in places. Good Lovin’ Done Right is a classic electric blues, plain and simple.

Big Beautiful Women is a straightforward rocker of a high standard and Curtis shines through. Mary Jayne opens with sustained guitar as Stoney goes all heavy metal! This is high quality and a favourite of mine. Infatuation Blues is a rarity – it’s slow! I’m not too sure about this lyrically but musically it’s top notch as Stoney turns in yet another classy solo. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead is a great title for a song and this is another in the heavy rock vein. High quality and confirms that Stoney Curtis and the band deserve to be on the Provogue label. Rise Up proves that it’s best to stick to what you are good at rather than trying too hard to be different. This blues based effort rocks along as Curtis stays in his safety zone, although he does veer into the progressive side of rock sometimes. They close with a rock ballad, The Letter, which has a good riff and an atmospheric solo but doesn’t leave me wanting more, something that I can’t say for the rest of the album.

http://www.stoneycurtisband.com/
http://www.provouguerecords.com/

David Blue.

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