Hokie Joint – The Music Starts To Play (Cool Buzz).

Formed in late 2007, Hokie Joint have set themselves the task of reminding Blues fans that the guitar doesn’t have to be the main instrument. The Music Starts To Play is their second album and follows on from their 2008 debut, The Way It Goes….Sometimes. They are hard to pigeonhole, going from the Folk Country of the energetic eponymous title track to Folk Rock in the form of Force Of Habit with its Rolling Stones style chorus, Aeroplane and Apologise via the more straightforward Jackie Boy. All their songs show a penchant for storytelling and they are all originals. The Blues are never far away from t5he surface but it is the Country feel to the album that comes through most on tracks such as Bang Bang, Watch What We Eat and Remington. They have managed to get away from the guitar driven stuff and it is Giles King on harmonica who is the main driving force with Bang Bang being the standout , albeit frantic, track. There is a lot of humour on the album but they can be dark and sombre with the strangely alluring This Body Of Mine being a good example. Add gutsy vocals from Jojo Burgess and the occasional guitar interlude from Joel Fisk and you have a solid base to build a lasting future.
http://www.hokiejoint.co.uk/
http://www.coolbuzz.nl/

David Blue.

John-Alex Mason – Jook Joint Thunderclap (Naked Jaybird).

The last John-Alex Mason album that I reviewed alternated between acoustic Country Blues and urban electric Blues on a track by track basis. This time he’s gone all Seasick Steve on us. My Old Lonesome Home is a raucous opener with the harp player blowing his lungs out. Cracking stuff! Gone So Long features Cody Burnside and is a chugging swamp Blues in keeping with the standard of the rest of the album. A piece of rapping from Burnside is a surprise and the overall grit of the track could make it a candidate for a TV theme tune for a series in the vein of The Wire. More Than Wind is a slow, mournful Blues and there’s a mandolin in there now in addition to the fiddle. This will draw out emotions from you. I felt sad but strangely euphoric in parts. Burnside also guests on Riding On. Do I hear a glockenspiel in there? He’s not afraid to try things out, is he? The drummer is on the pots again. All of this is over a metronomic electric Blues with a slide guitar solo that’s a tad manic in parts. However, I don’t feel that Mason is showing his full repertoire and he’s holding back for some reason. Rolled And Tumbled is a slowed down variation on Robert Johnson’s Rolling And Tumbling with harmonica, slide guitar and bongos – it works, believe me! Diamond Rain would be some women’s idea of heaven. A fiddle is added and this makes for a more Country feel, not that I’m complaining. Signifyin’ Monkey, what’s that title all about? What the song delivers is a slow, brooding deliberate blues rock with gritty guitar and an overall hypnotic feel. The percussionist sounds as if he has got the pots and pans out on Free, which is vital and vibrant. Write Me A Few Of Your Lines will make you boogie until you drop and the guitar is like a mosquito in your ear, but in a pleasant way. Whisper is an acoustic deconstructed blues. Just guitar and voice and he can carry it too. This is superb in its starkness.
This is an album of many parts, some good, some even better.

http://www.nakedjaybirdmusic.com/
http://www.johnalexmason.com/

David Blue.