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.
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.
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