For those of you who get off on hard, gritty blues guitar, here comes an album for the ages. 3 Skulls and The Truth (Blues Bureau) is by three great guitarists David Hidalgo, Mato Nanji and Luther Dickinson from Los Lobos, Indigenous and North Mississippi Allstars respectively.
Meeting as featured artists on the traveling Experience Hendrix Tour, their admiration and respect for each other paved the way to combining their skills on the best boogie blues guitar album in some time. All three are above the line lead guitarists who, when it’s their turn, rake. The trio is joined by bassist Steve Evans and drummer Jeff Martin, who are not passive players; their confident work here is electric.
Produced by Mike Varney, the record’s strong point is in its material. Twelve original tracks that fit this genre are hard to find; the band custom-fit the material to their strengths. Because all three guys sing in their respective bands, nothing here ever sounds expected.
Roots rock with a sharp blues edge is cool with me anytime. Standouts include, “The Worldly and the Divine”, “I’m A Fool” “Natural Comb”, “Known ‘Round Here”, “Truth Ain’t What It Seems” and the slowed down “Cold As Hell”.
John Hiatt has been kickin’ around for a while now either as a stellar performer or as well as a respected songwriter. As a recording artist his stuff has been dicey at best until he enlisted Kevin Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Journey) as producer on last year’s Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns and now on this, his latest Mystic Pinball (New West).
A jack-of-all-trades musician, Hiatt has tapped on every form of music from new wave to blues to rock to country. His stuff has been recorded by the likes of Iggy Pop, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt, but until recently he’s just been another also-ran.
Hiatt has been recording and touring with The Combo, a drop-jaw band, consisting of fellow guitarist Doug Lancio, bassist Patrick O’Hearn and drummer Kenneth Blevins on his last few projects and along with Shirley seem to have found their way.
The albums 12 tracks are a reflection of all his previous work, be it gritty blues on “Bite Marks” country two-step on “Give It Up” cry-in-your-beer broken hearts on “I Know How To Lose You” or the guitar swagger on “My Business”.
Other standouts include “Blues Can’t Even Find Me”, “We’re Alright Now” and “One Of Them Damn Days”. Well if anything, at least Mystic Pinball gives John Hiatt two-in-a-row good albums.
If you weren’t able to get to Jay-Z’s eight sold out shows in Brooklyn’s brand spankin’ new Barclays Center, here’s a little sumpin’ sumpin’ for ya Live In Brooklyn (Roc Nation).
Eight live performances and corresponding videos culled from the last night, exclusive to iTunes (as of this writing) isn’t too shabby for $9.99. It’s not a full recording, which would be his first live project since Unplugged with The Roots in 2001-or is it from his sold out shows at Carnegie Hall from this past February, which would have been nice.
Still though, Jay-Z is on top of his game, a young man’s game at that, at a chipper 42 years of age. He’s done it by staying relevant not only to his audience but to himself as well. He displays his hip-hop prowess here with a combination of newer material like “Empire State of Mind” and older stuff “Give It to Me”.
The concert footage is pretty cool too. Especially when Beyonce shows up for “Crazy In Love”. Other good ones include “Forever Young” and “Big Pimpin'”.
I really liked The Wallflowers during their initial run from 1996 through 2005. They were a sharp guitar band that didn’t rely on clichés or gimmicks to get their musical ideas heard. Strong songwriting that played to their strengths was the key to their success.
After their Rebel, Sweetheart album they took an extended hiatus. I never thought they’d reunite simply because members Jakob Dylan and Rami Jaffee found solo success. After six years they’re back with Glad All Over (Columbia).
I don’t want to say they’ve matured during their absence but the production by Jay Joyce (Eric Church) sure makes this California band sound grown up. This record is a little too clean-I liked the band when they sounded like they were about to crash and burn.
The writing is still there and Dylan still a strong individual vocalist but the sound is a little too streamlined. Where’s the guitar’s anyway? It’s cool that they’re doing different stuff like the reggae-influenced “Reboot The Mission” but a little revisiting to their meat and potatoes would be okay too.
Good ones include “Love Is a Country”, “One Set Of Wings”, “The Devil’s Watch” and my favorite “First One In The Car”.
Wallflowers (MATC Tmes)
