Monday, May 30, 2022

Charlie Musselwhite - Mississippi Son

Charlie Musselwhite may have grown up in Memphis, and spent much of his adult life in Chicago and San Francisco, but he was born in Mississippi, and now lives there in Clarksdale, of “Crossroads” fame.  And Mississippi Son is an expression of his lifelong affinity with the acoustic country blues that emerged from Mississippi and throughout the South.
Musselwhite may be best known as a harp player, but he’s also played the guitar since his teens, and his guitar, voice and harmonica form the bedrock of this album, with occasional help from rhythm buddies Ricky ‘Quicksand’ Martin on drums and Barry Bays on stand-up bass.  The
Charlie Musselwhite - have harp, will travel
Pic by Rory Doyle
result is a down-home, stripped back affair, and though the 14 songs are split between originals and covers, one can scarcely hear the join.
For example, there’s a Tony Joe White groove to both the original ‘Blues Up The River’ and the take on John Lee Hooker’s ‘Crawling King Snake’, but in different flavours.  There’s a peachy swing to the former, with tumbling guitar notes and bright harp over loping bass and tapping drums to accompany Musselwhite’s groaning vocal.  But the latter has more of a dark chocolate taste, brooding and with bouts of wordless, moaned vocal.
Meanwhile Musselwhite’s own ‘In Your Darkest Hour’ feels like a descendant of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s ‘You Gotta Move’, and if its twinkling guitar feels like it's treading a familiar blues path, augmented by mournful harp, the real point is that Musselwhite nails the vibe.  The same is true of ‘When The Frisco Left The Shed’, which may share some DNA with ‘Key To The Highway’, but interleaves Musselwhite’s guitar and voice beautifully, and adds a mellifluous harp break over the gently clacking rhythm.  Charley Patton’s ‘Pea Vine Blues’ is another train song, but a snappier one, with a skipping, rattling rhythm from Martin on drums and some chirpily bird-like harmonica.
The melody of spring-in-the-step ‘Blues Gave Me A Ride’ carries undertones of ‘Stagger Lee’, given a lift by intertwining of pinging guitar and cheerful harp, while the slower ‘Drifting From Town To Town’ is ‘Red Rooster’-tinged, with an appealing, undulating bridge.
In a different vein, ‘The Dark’ is a folkie Guy Clark tune turned into a not-quite-talking-blues, not particularly rhythmic and with Musselwhite’s incidental guitar accompaniment leaning towards a lower pitch.  And ‘Rank Strangers’ is similarly semi-spoken, a murky reflection on alienation with hints of Americana as the tune takes some novel turns.
Some tracks don’t add much to the equation though.  A brief whirl through John Lee’s ‘Hobo Blues’ has some tension in its nagging, repetitive melody, but that’s about it.  ‘Stingaree’ is a fairly inconsequential jaunt through some familiar blues tropes, albeit with a neat stop-time acoustic guitar segment.  And the instrumental ‘Remembering Big Joe’ may feature some nifty picking and thumb-strumming bass from Musselwhite, but it still feels like something of a limbering up exercise, and with some moments of strings squeaking gratingly on frets.
For my money trimming the album by, say, four tracks would have said “never mind the width, feel the quality”.  But still, throughout Mississippi Son the simple virtues of Musselwhite’s subtle vocals, rippling acoustic guitar and understated harp capture the spirit of country blues, underlining and celebrating his connection to his musical roots.
 
Mississippi Son
 is released by Alligator Records on 3 June. 

Monday, May 23, 2022

Sass Jordan - Bitches Blues

Well, Groovesville Arizona.  Or Quebec, to be more precise, since that’s where Sass Jordan abides.
There’s nothing very clever about Bitches Blues, nothing very much at all.  But sitting in the sunshine listening to it with a beer in hand, I can tell you, is one of life’s simple pleasures.  What we have here is 28 minutes of infectiously confident rootsy blues, spread over three originals and five covers.
An ice-cream swirl of organ provides a fanfare, and then guitar weighs in and they set off on a
Sass Jordan makes like Tina Turner - kinda.
Pic by Michiel Dreidijk
brisk, crunching take on ‘Still Alive And Well’, the Rick Derringer rocker recently included on Edgar Winter’s Brother Johnny tribute album.  Jordan snaps out the lyrics in a rasping voice, like Tina Turner revisiting Nutbush, augmented by duelling guitars and funky bass en route to a revved-up, gospellated final flourish.
But if that suggests a penchant for Johnny Winter-esque rockn'rollin' blues, the rest of the album is subtler, rootsier fare.  ‘Chevrolet’ is an old-style blues courtesy of Taj Mahal, with subtle percussion from Cass Pereira and steely Dobro from Chris Caddell accompanying Jordan’s calm vocal, before the arrangement expands to include a harmonica break.  And ‘Even’ is a new toon that suggests a couple of bar staff winding down at the piano in the aftermath of Stagger Lee shooting Billy Lyons, Jordan singing slow and sassy while Jesse O’Brien gets rinky-dink on the ivories, all rolling left hand and trilling, chiming, chirruping right.  It’s a down-home delight, and little wonder that Jordan lets out a cackling “Yee-how!” at its conclusion.
The barroom vibe is there on ‘Still The World Goes Round’ too, an original that swings around a snapping beat with zippy slide fretwork to the fore, a country-ish pre-chorus and everyone mucking vocally on the refrain.  And Cadell unwraps a slithering, squeaking slide solo as the icing on the cake.
The classic ‘You Gotta Move’ is downbeat blues with a plaintive, church-style vocal from Jordan buttressed by simple harmonies, over acoustic chords and spangly Dobro, propelled by sparse bashes of kick drum and tambourine.  Lowell George’s ‘Sailin’ Shoes’ then delivers another highlight, setting sail to a background of more juke joint chatter and sparkling, swooning slide, then growing into a loping Southern funkiness accentuated by Jimmy Reid’s rhythm guitar.  There’s a singalong chorus, and a jangling piano break from O-Brien, and a slowed down outro to add an extra twist.  And there’s a lurching groove too to Freddie King’s ‘Ain’t No Big Deal On You’, with a funky riff and stuttering bass from Scott Marriner over a lazy beat, while Jordan’s gets down with a hoarsely rasped vocal, with a guitar solo of lemon-squeezed sharpness providing extra bite.
They close with another quality original, ‘Change Is Coming’, a sitar intro from Reid setting a reflective tone before it hits a firmer stride with grinding guitar, and squawks of harp from Marriner, over shuffling, offbeat drums.  There’s more mournful slide guitar work from Cadell, while Jordan sings, more positively, that “It’s gonna be all or nothing, just believe till you see” – an assertion of hope for hard times.
Bitches Blues aims for a down-to-earth, honest-to-goodness blues vibe.  Making that work demands an affinity for the material and the skills to bring it to life.  Sass Jordan and her compadres tick both those boxes.  Now go get a beer, pull up a chair, and enjoy.
 
Bitches Blues is released by Stony Plain Records on 3 June.
 

Friday, May 20, 2022

Xander and the Peace Pirates - Order Out Of Chaos

“Go on then – surprise me!”  Really, this should be the music blogger’s motto.  See, an awful lot of “pretty good” albums cross my path.  But it takes more than that to really grab my attention, and keep it.  Xander and the Peace Pirates, though, have managed it with their second album Order Out Of Chaos.  Well, mostly.
What Xander and co have going for them is a sound that’s all their own.  Oh, a few vague comparisons are there to be made, and I’ll make ‘em, don’t you worry.  But when the opening track ‘We Cry’ kicks things off, what I’m hearing is something decidedly different.  Careful intertwining of acoustic and electric guitar lines paves the way for Keith Xander’s light, soulful, aching voice.  There are blissed out chords like a mirage in the desert - but, y’know, in sound.  
The deeply moody and sensitive Xander and the Peace Pirates

It’s an imaginative, trippy setting for a plaintive (and timely) lyric about the horror of warfare.  There’s also a lightly funky segueway into a two-guitar conversation, and an urgent outro replete with spoken word snippets in the background.  Is there a whisper of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’ fluttering around some of the chords?  Maybe - and that would be apposite for the lyrical vibe.  But the melding of Keith Xander and Mike Gay’s electric guitars with Stu Xander’s acoustic is their own creation.
A similarly reflective quality pervades ‘Leave The Light On’, with prickly guitar lines surfing Adam Goldberg’s rolling drums and thrumming bass from Joel Goldberg.  There’s a smidgen of Hall & Oates in the soulful delivery of some imaginative contemplation about homelessness, and a splintering guitar solo that shows you don’t need to go at warp speed to make your mark.  The opening verse of ‘Soul Sailing’ dials things down even further with a combination of just acoustic guitar and mournful slide, before they kick into a hooky chorus reinforced by good harmonies, and there’s another incisive, biting, effects-enhanced solo to round it off.
They spread themselves a bit on both ‘I’m No Good At Being Bad’ and ‘Order Out Of Chaos’, but in different directions.  The former moves from twinkling guitar to a gutturally-pitched riff, and hints at Foreigner in earnest mode.  Keith Xander offers up some effective dabs of falsetto, and there’s some tasty, spaced-out slide guitar á la Dave Gilmour before they rev up for the bridge.  Then the title track pulls out more of those shimmering guitar chords over a steady beat as the backdrop to another round of thoughtful social commentary, like a smoother and more ethereal Wille & The Bandits.  Keith Xander scores with another soulful vocal, and there’s a pinballing guitar solo for good measure
The wistful ‘Into The Water’ continues to be convincing in this vein, with its perfectly judged, elegiac mood, and they take the swaying ‘Kiss The Rain’ at a bit more of a clip, adding in some out-of-the-ordinary, wind chime-like guitar sounds.  But by the time we get to the more-of-the-similar ‘Breathless’ my attention is sagging a bit, and the brief ‘Fog’ doesn’t offer much of a gear change.
But with the closing ‘Heart Stop’ they do knock out a sturdier riff, and inject it with more swing, as if they were belatedly aware a palate cleanser was required.  It also comes with a lyric featuring some lines that would make David Coverdale blush – well, maybe – and though there’s a bit more rock’n’roll to the guitar solo the song jolts to a halt after two-and-a-half minutes, as if they’d run out of ideas.
So yeah, Xander and the Peace Pirates caught my attention good and proper with their distinctively British soulful rock stylings (in spite of the transatlantic references made above) and thoughtful lyrics.  And for most of the album they kept me hooked with a bunch of strong songs, impressively delivered.  If they’d just managed to stir a bit more range and dynamics into that recipe then Order Out Of Chaos would be a potently satisfying brew.  As it is, it’s still a welcome surprise.
 
Order Out Of Chaos is out now, and can be ordered here.

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Bonham-Bullick - Bonham-Bullick

So it’s a covers album, innit?
Well yeah, that’s true.  This outing by singer Deborah Bonham (sister of you-know-who) and guitarist Pete Bullick (who did the strumming for Paul Rodgers on his Free Spirit tour and album), does consist of 13 cover versions, of varying vintages.  What it isn’t, though, is a collection of everyday favourites drawn from the Great Blues-Rock Songbook, given the same old, same old treatment.  No, this is something with a much more distinctive flavour than its prosaic title would suggest.
Okay, so there's the familiar Albert King toon, ‘Can’t You See What You’re Doing To Me’, delivered in funky blues fashion, on which all and sundry swing with abandon around Richard Newman’s perfectly behind-the-beat drums, while Bonham's soulful vocal makes it clear that
Sepia-toned imagination from Pete Bullick and Deborah Bonham
she knows this kinda stuff inside out.  But the rest of the album finds them exploring, mostly, more adventurous territory.
One of the highlights of the album, for example, is ‘Bleeding Muddy Water’, a song by the late Mark Lanegan, who is not someone I’ve ever really followed.  And it’s a lurking, mysterious thing, with distant echoes of ‘No Quarter’ in its dappling keyboard theme, but otherwise a low-down sound all of its own, with Bonham asserting that “You’re the bullet, I’m the gun”, and Bullick delivering a searing solo that’s positively Kossoffian in its use of sustain, before an outro that combines that recurring keyboard motif with moaning, overdubbed vocals and more haunting guitar.
This vibe is very much in keeping with both the opening ‘See You Again’ and the closing ‘The Changeling’.  ‘See You Again’ opens with spooky guitar and pattering percussion, while Bonham demonstrates that Sari Schorr is by no means the only female around these days who can deliver a brooding vocal.  It’s seven minutes’ worth, but builds in intensity with some soaring and swooping guitar from Bullick, and speckles of programmed synth.  ‘The Changeling’ comes over like late period Robert Plant going a bit Americana, atmospherically minimalist in form with halting drums and bass from Marco Giovino and Ian Rowley, ghostly pedal steel from BJ Cole, and a slow, intense Bullick solo.  There’s more in a similar vein along the way, with the likes of the restrained and reflective ‘Trouble Blues’, which showcases Bonham’s voice very nicely indeed, and the ominous ‘When The World Comes To An End’.  And there’s a similar intensity to the Hayes and Porter composition ‘I Had A Dream’, but in a more straightforward blues ballad form, which may not be as overwrought as Zep’s ‘Since I Been Loving You’, but carries more heft than Johnnie Taylor’s original soul reading, good as that is.
Other highlights include the suppressed soul of OV Wright’s ‘I Don’t Know Why’, on which Paul Brown (aka Brother Paul of The Waterboys) revs up his Hammond organ to provide another gear, though it still feels like it could do with another dimension.  Stephen Stills’ ‘Sit Yourself Down’ offers up some quality pop-rock, with urgency provided by the clattering drums, thrumming bass and helter-skelter guitar, ahead of a false ending and a coda driven by more Hammond from Brown.  Meanwhile shimmers of piano introduce the slow ballad ‘Why It Don’t Come Easy’, and the piano continues to be to the fore as it develops into a big, dramatic affair, counterpointing crashing waves of drums with chocolate box piano and sounding like a downbeat Elles Bailey moment – or perhaps more likely, Bailey’s forerunner Elkie Brooks.
When you get down to it, 14 tracks (including the radio edit of ‘See You Again’) and 65 minutes is too much, with a couple of lesser tracks applying the brakes along the way.  All the same, Deborah Bonham and Pete Bullick have assembled an enjoyably different and eclectic collection here. So yeah, Bonham-Bullick is a covers album Jim, but not as we normally know it, and credit is due for its vision and imagination.  
 
Bonham-Bullick is out now on Quarto Valley Records.

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Ian Siegal - Stone By Stone

A maverick.  A troubadour.  A curator.  A provocateur.  Ian Siegal is all of these things and more.  While he’s ostensibly a blues artist – and he’d probably refute that label – every album he delivers is capable of stirring the pot and producing new twists on classic recipes.  So what’s he up to this time?
Well, Stone By Stone has a stripped back vibe similar to his Picnic Sessions album, but with some new prime accomplices in the form of Robin Davey and Greta Valenti.  It’s also like two mini-albums folded together – a batch of downbeat, man-and-guitar focused material on the one
Ian Siegal - never blows smoke up your ass
Pic by Rob Blackham
hand, and a clutch of brighter, more percussive tracks on the other.
The album opens in the latter mode, with the clapping, clanking, clunking gospel-derived ‘Working On A Building’, with elasticated bass from Davey contributing to a juke joint rhythm while Siegal is joined at the mic by Jimmie Wood and JJ Holiday, who respectively add harp and guitar to the mix – in Holiday’s case including a delightfully scratchy solo.  It runs to six minutes, and is worth every second.  The gospel thread then continues with the Sam Cooke-meets-civil-rights-anthem soul of ‘Hand In Hand’, a chirpily positive affair on which Siegal duets with Shemekia Copeland, the latter on top form and sounding particularly carefree.  It edges towards New Orleans along the way, with Davey making his slide guitar sound like toots of trumpet around some gorgeous harmonizing from Siegal and Copeland.
This upbeat side peaks with ‘I’m The Shit’, a co-write by Siegal and frequent conspirator Jimbo Mathus that comes over like the theme for some gleefully lurid David Lynch movie.  It’s witty both musically and verbally, swings like a trapeze, and has a killer chorus that’ll drill its way into your brain for the day.  And between them Siegal and Davey get clever on guitar, to make like fiddle and mandolin adding some twirling accents towards the end.  There’s more fun too with ‘Monday Saw’, returning to the gospel feel with handclaps, footstomps, tambourine shakes and little else as backing for Siegal’s voice, as he tosses out shaken’n’stirred biblical images about “Mary Magdalen wearing a little cocktail dress”, and “The devil with five aces, smiling on both faces”.
Meantime the album’s more reflective aspect begins with ‘The Fear’, a slice of acoustic Americana redolent of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings.  “The last time you were wasted brother, did you even taste it going down,” asks Siegal in a low-pitched vocal, receiving complementary toots of harp from Jimmie Wood, before progressing into an exhortation to “let love be the guiding light”.  ‘Psycho’ is a macabre tale of brooding violence dating back to the 60s, given a suitably claustrophobic treatment that combines faint guitar strumming, plonking bass, and Siegal’s magnetic, close-up crooning.  And ‘KK’s Blues’ is a collaboration with Mathus that sets the sad tale of a girl who won’t dance to country anymore to a sweet, irresistible melody and a lilting acoustic guitar motif.
For me the balance of the album leans a tad too far in the direction of this sombre side, but there’s still no arguing with the quality of songs like ‘Gathering Deep’, an elegiac ballad featuring Mathus supplying mandolin and vocal harmonies, or the rolling, two-guitar-weaving ‘This Heart’, with echoes of Springsteen á la Nebraska.  And ‘Onwards And Upwards’ is a worthy curtain call, just Siegal and his guitar in Townes Van Zandt mode.  Along the way though, ‘Holler’ injects more rhythm and grit into the minimalism – a pure country blues with acoustic guitar that’s both glittering and percussive, while Siegal’s voice well and truly lives up to the title.
Ian Siegal is a character, who can come over like a doesn’t-give-a-shit contrarian.  But his albums never go through the motions.  Stone By Stone is another outing that’s full of freshness and depth.  This is roots music for grown-ups.
 
Stone By Stone is out now on Grow Vision Records, and can be ordered here.

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Robin Trower - No More Worlds To Conquer

Robin Trower does what Robin Trower does.
I could stop right there, and it would just about sum up No More Worlds To Conquer.  Just about.  There is a little more to be said though, so let’s get to it.
The opening ‘Ball Of Fire’ finds Trower twanging his way into a lean but sturdy riff, over behind-the-beat drums from Chris Taggart and his own supple bass lines.  There’s a catchy enough
Robin Trower cosies up to best friend
Pic by Rob Blackham
chorus, and some warped, wiry guitar soloing that’s typically-Trower.  And if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool fan of yer man then there’s plenty more of this kind of thing to keep you happy.  But for those of us who are, shall we say, less devoted listeners, there is an additional element to be considered.  Because on this platter Trower has recruited one Richard Watts to perform the vocal duties, and even if he’s not quite Jimmy Dewar (and to be fair, who is?) the soulful results are still waaay better than Trower’s own efforts on the likes of 2017 album Time And Emotion, which were passable at best.  This is a major plus point in my book.
The lack of dynamics through much of the album, on the other hand, becomes rather wearing.  'No More Worlds To Conquer' itself is up second, and it’s slow, languorous and one might even say minimalist.  Watts essays a patient vocal, and Trower nods heavily towards Hendrix – now there’s a novelty – from the ‘Hey Joe’ inflected intro to his restrained, wah-wah-ing solo.  It’s the languid pace though, that sets the tone for several tracks to follow.  There is not, as it were, a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.
There are faint traces of funk in ‘Deadly Kiss’, to go with snatches of falsetto from Watts and some sparks of originality in Trower’s guitar sound, with some tension and release added to the studied discordance.  ‘Losing You’ is a mite more sprightly, but otherwise is notable only for an angular guitar break.  Meanwhile ‘Waiting For The Rain To Fall’ features sparkles of guitar around a warmer, more inviting tune, then a fluid solo before it fizzles out.  There’s a fair bit of fizzling out in the course of No More Worlds To Conquer.
It's not until the eighth track, ‘Cloud Across The Sun’, that something more upbeat emerges to seriously vary the diet.  The funk quotient is turned up a bit on a semi-shuffle, around which Trower’s guitar stirs and probes, sparks and flickers with life.  The chorus has a decent hook too.
Two of the best tracks are saved till last.  ‘The Razor’s Edge’ may not be as vigorous or energetic as ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ of ‘Day Of The Eagle’, but it points in that direction all the same.  It’s muscular and spiky, with a stronger tune than many of the other tracks, with Watts at his most Dewar-esque as he nails the vocal, while Trower adds reverberating, prickly guitar fills.  And the closing ‘I Will Always Be Your Shelter’ shows just what a slowie can be.  It’s a soulful lullaby of a song, well delivered by Watts, that draws the listener in effortlessly, while Trower serves up his most emotive solo of the whole album.  Beautiful stuff.
So yes, there are some good moments along the way here.  But the discerning reader will have recognised that I don’t go a bundle on Trower’s go-to modus operandi of rather torpid six-string exploration.  The mournful collage of ‘Fire To Ashes’, for instance, put me in mind of a radio interview with Michael Schenker, in which he kept banging on about “artistic expression through playing electric lead guitar”.  Me, I’d like a bit more snap, crackle and pop for Richard Watts to get his vocal teeth into.  But if Robin Trower doing what Robin Trower does floats your boat, then No More Worlds To Conquer should be just the ticket.
 
No More Worlds To Conquer is out now on Provogue Records, and can be ordered here.
 
Note – Incidentally, for anyone who’s wondering, the title of the album comes from a misquotation about Alexander The Great in the movie Die Hard, of all places.  Further illumination can be found here.

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Gimme 5 - Robert Jon Burrison of Robert Jon & The Wreck hits the Blues Enthused jukebox

Robert Jon Burrison is lead singer and guitarist with Californian roots rockers Robert Jon & The Wreck, who head out on their latest British tour on 9 May.  So here he is occupying the Gimme 5 hotseat to share 5 songs that have been on his radar lately; 5 artists who have been a key influence on his music; and his 5 ideal guests for a long lunch.  Get ready for a real smorgasbord of stuff ranging from Southern rock to modern soul for us to sample - play that funky music, Robert Jon!

Gimme 5 songs, old or new, that have been on your radar recently.  [Check out the links to listen to all Robert Jon’s selections.]
 
Let Me Ride by Allman Brothers Band:  "The Allmans album Seven Turns has been on heavy
Robert Jon & The Wreck get ready to hit the road
Pic by Robby Boyd
rotation for me lately,but the song from it that I keep coming back to is Let Me Ride. It has an amazing groove and a chorus that sticks in your head all day long.
 
Shooting Stars by Rival Sons:  “Rival Sons has been on repeat since my son was born earlier this year.  I liked this song before but every time it’s played my son calms down and goes to sleep.  He seems to like it even more than I do.  He’s in charge so it's played in my house almost everyday!”
 
Cumberland Gap by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit:  “Jason writes everything you need in a song.  It has energy, it has the groove, and it’s such a great chorus that you can't help but sing.  I love Jason Isbell's song writing and tend to listen through his records pretty often.
 
Leave the Door Open by Silk Sonic:  “Silk Sonic is Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak's new group.  It has the throw-back sound of 70s soul with two of the heaviest hitters in the industry right now. It also helps that my wife seems to always throw it on whenever she gets a chance.
 
Drugs by Anderson East:  “It's one of Anderson’s newer songs.  I'm still very much into his older stuff but for some reason when the bass-line starts and it comes on my Alexa or Spotify, I never skip it.  This track has a great feel and just makes ya want to dance. 
 
 
Gimme 5 artists or bands who have had a big influence on your work.
 
Amos Lee:  “There's something about his body of work and craftsmanship in his songs that makes him at the top of my list. I still listen to him almost daily.  I really love his voice and what
Rock'n'roll influencers Aerosmith growing old disgracefully
he does with it.”  [Must admit I wasn't familiar with Amos Lee, so if you're in the same boat here's his song 'Worry No More', from his recent album Dreamland.]
 
The Black Crowes:  “They have such a solid body of work that stretches through so many genres.  I love that kind of diversity. The groove and feel to the songs just puts you in that right place that makes you want to recreate in your own way.
 
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats:  “Their recordings are amazing but their live show has blown me away. The songs are simple and heartfelt, but at the same time have the such great big production. The horns and arrangements make for such great tracks.  It's hard to let these songs pass by without being a heavy influence.
 
Ray LaMontagne:  “Similar to Amos I listen to a lot of singer/songwriters.  What Ray does when he delivers his songs is mesmerizing.  You feel the connection to him immediately.  He's written some of the greatest songs that have ever been written, which is why he is such a large influence on my songwriting.
 
Aerosmith:  “Straight up Rock'n'Roll. They got the swag, they got the songs, and they’ve got the talent to boot.  I've been a fan since I was young and I feel like everyone needs that straight up rock n roll sometimes. Whether they know it or not.

Gimme 5 guests you’d love to invite to your ideal long lunch.
 
Uber-chilled Willie Nelson - would he get on with Gordon Ramsay?
Dave Grohl:  “Because it's Dave Grohl Who wouldn't want to have lunch with him?”
 
Will Ferrell:  “Because he's hilarious and you need the comic relief to keep a lunch party moving along.”
 
Gordon Ramsey:  “If we were to have lunch, I'd like to hear what Gordon Ramsay has to say about the meal that we are eating in person. It would make for an easy ice breaker I'm sure.
 
Zac Brown “Because I feel like we'd just get along. I don't know that to be true but I just have this feeling we would and if we didn't I'd take my chances with inviting . . .”
 
Willie Nelson:  “’Cause I don't know anyone that wouldn't get along with Willie Nelson!”
 
Just one track – pick one of your tracks that you’d share with a new listener to introduce your music.
 
“I’d go for ‘Waiting for Your Man’.  Its our brand new single. It's heavy hitting and features exactly what we do and who we are.




Check out the Blues Enthused review of the band's latest album, Shine A Light On Me Brotherhere.

Robert Jon & The Wreck tour the UK from 9-20 May, tickets available here - details of all dates shown below.