ROUND-UP: BLUES
Stephen Dale Petit 2020 Visions
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From busker and addict to solo contender and Stones associate, Stephen Dale Petit’s bumpy path has brought him to 2020 Visions, an endlessly varied album that spills everything the California-born bluesman has under his hat. So, the title track is a punky charger, the microphone foamed with spittle. But then On Top is a Django Reinhardt-esque amuse bouche, and Zombie Nation a polemic with rubber-band funk bass.
If that makes Petit sound like a dilettante, be assured that he can pull off more familiar blues shapes too. The Ending Of The End is a gorgeous slowburn, the guitarist’s unrushed notes evoking Peter Green and BB King. At the other extreme, a sprint through Steppin’
Out goes toe-to-toe with the Claptonfeatured version on John Mayall’s Beano album, while Sputnik Days has a tingling hook, like a roughed-up Albatross. Best is The Fall Of America, a churning, throbbing apocalypse-blues that unfolds over nine minutes and captures the febrile buzz of a bible-belt polling station. You don’t make a record like this by sticking to the straight and narrow. ■■■■■■■■■■
Jack J Hutchinson Who Feeds The Lockdown? SELF-RELEASED
In a lockdown sea of plaintive acoustic strummers, charismatic bluesman Hutchinson’s online sets have been howling good fun. And these ‘live’ tracks – tracked remotely by Hutchinson, bassist Lazarus Michaelides and drummer Felipe Amorim – are a noisy kind of telepathy, with highlights suggesting the trio are scratching the walls to get back out there. ■■■■■■■■■■
Shirley King
Blues For A King
CLEOPATRA BLUES
BB King’s daughter Shirley has inherited her old man’s flair for a blues shout, and also his taste for good company. A starry ensemble and a generous dip into the great American songbook keep Blues For A King ticking over, with Pat Travers roughing up That’s All Right Mama and Robben Ford pushing Ms King to holler up a gale on Feeling Good. ■■■■■■■■■■
David Ramirez My Love Is A Hurricane THIRTY TIGERS
Having given Trump’s America a kicking on the acerbic country blues of 2017’s We’re Not Going Anywhere, Ramirez now puts himself through the wringer, on a sequel that first celebrates the blooming of a relationship, then self-flagellates for ruining it. Standout I Wanna Live In Your Bedroom is elegiac Americana that conjures poetry from a lover’s bric-a-brac. ■■■■■■■■■■
Cherry Lee Mewis Late Night Lock-In
SELF-RELEASED
Chronicling Mewis’s pre-corona-crisis tour, Late Night Lock-In is evocative of a gentler time, when packing into a hole in the wall, within spitting distance of a blues belter, didn’t come with a health warning. The British singer is fine company here, using the intimacy to her advantage on the JJ Cale-ish scuttle of Just Can’t Live Without You and the jazz-cat purr of Let’s Go Back To The Beginning. ■■■■■■■■■■