ROUND-UP: BLUES
Julian Taylor Band Desert Star APORIA
With a track record that goes from Neil Young to The
Weeknd, there’s no such thing as a typical Torontonian, and Julian Taylor is fast becoming one of the square-peg city’s favourite refusenik sons. On 2019’s hardfunking Avalanche album, we feared for the health of his wah-wah pedal, and here again the bandleader revisits those dread-shaking flavours on early struts like Heard Good Things, complete with Kravitz-like soul-man bark.
But he’s palpably grown, too. Try the title track’s easy-on-the-ears country soul, One Time’s exploration of the haunted end of Americana, or the standout House Is A Garden, with its almost gospel slow-bloom balladry. True, Taylor may not be immune to commercial considerations: the hip-hop-informed
Hot Heels and That Spice are potential crossovers that could drop right into the Radio 1 ‘A’ playlist (and it’s not often you hear that round these parts). But Desert Star always feels authentic – if a touch overlong (at 22 tracks, Taylor might want to have a quiet word with his muse). ■■■■■■■■■■
Ghalia Volt One Woman Band RUF
Locked down and bandless, Volt powers up convincingly on this solo third album on which she does everything short of strapping cymbals to her knees. Stomping cheap drums under dirty-sounding slide guitar, there’s a magical rattle and shake here, with moments like Espìritu Papàgo coming on like a locomotive slicing through a field of magic mushrooms. ■■■■■■■■■■
Curtis Salgado Damage Control ALLIGATOR
Musical mentor to John Belushi, sometime Santana vocalist and threetimes cancer survivor, Salgado has been around the block (a fact wryly acknowledged here on the infectious The Longer That I Live). But it all boils down to the blues, and while Damage Control throws traditional shapes on some bouncers, few preach the gospel with such joy and character. ■■■■■■■■■■
Kat Danser One Eye Open BLACK HEN MUSIC
While blues tourists hang around the Clarksdale crossroads, One Eye Open finds singer-songwriter Danser more interested in the intersection between Afro Cuban jazz and the flavours of New Orleans. The concept sounds starchy and academic, but this is music for the good times, with Frenchman Street Shake alone enough to spark a street party. ■■■■■■■■■■
Geoff Everett Swamp Frog SELF-RELEASED
Having hidden behind the Eldon Backhouse alias for his previous release, Everett’s name is back on the tin, and the British blues veteran’s musicianship remains of the highest calibre. Can’t Go On Too Long is woven through with a guitar line that Mark Knopfler would be proud to claim, while You Can’t Catch Me twists a little of The Beatles’ Come Together into a stellar strut. ■■■■■■■■■■