paul fenton - vancouver blue
its been a long time .. but its time to return to the blues. in my teens i went through a blues period. a genre i have largely ignored, until now. i was chuffed to receive this recently, as exposure to new stuff is always an honour. the instrumentation is excellent lead guitar, bass, drums, hammond organ. 6 tracks of straight honest blues based pub rock. the opening track 'the girl next door' is a straight ahead rock track which has an insistent chorus and would go down well on any aor radio station that plays tom petty, then things get more interesting. 'vancouver blue' has a great style and the hammond organ begins to come through nicely, the singing is basic but real. the next 2 tracks really get the heart of the matter, blues jams with great style, definite highlights for me, with 't-bone walker blues' having a great hammond organ solo (cant get enough of that instrument !). next track 'time' veers back to aor, with an interesting melodic twist, with the vocals being phased, chorused,layered. it builds up nicely from slow classic rock feel, to a full on head bomping r-n-b stomp a really great dynamic track which took me by surprise, superb. last track is a cover of a hank williams song 'mind your own business' which sounds like a pub band - having a fun practise session.
all in all this is the sort of music that if i walked into a bar and there was band playing this stuff i would definitely stay and have several pints before moving on .. just wish i could find that bar.