Eddie 9V - Saratoga

Eddie 9V may have emerged as a blues artist, but listening to Saratoga - as with his previous album Capricorn - he sounds more like he’s been an inmate of a soul asylum.  A goodly chunk of the 12 songs here lean towards finger-snapping soul stylings, aware of their ancestry but up to date and distinctive.
The title track ‘Saratoga’ sets the tone with a four-on the-floor beat underpinning a cool electric piano style groove, with a soulful vocal from Eddie reinforced by slinky harmonies, and with a smoochy sax bridge before things get lively via a dialled up chorus boosted by organ, and a stinging, fizzing guitar break.  Before long 9V and co are also serving up an old-fashioned soul
ballad in ‘Cry Like A River’ on which his excellent vocal delivery evokes the likes of Percy Sledge

Eddie 9V unobtrusively checks for his wallet

Pic by Cameron Flaisch

and Sam Cooke.  The following ‘Love Moves Slow’ is a loose-limbed stroll in the sunshine, with twirling electric piano and clever backing vocals courtesy Leah Bella Fraser, while the 9V fella musters a Marvin Gaye ‘Let’s Get It On’ vocal vibe – which is quite a compliment.
Eddie and his gang do explore some different highways and byways though, notably on ‘Wasp Weather’.  Here you get a half-spoken vocal over thump’n’clack percussion and diddling rhythm guitar, conjuring up the “two turntables and a microphone” rhythmic feel of Beck’s ‘Where It’s At’.  It’s an irresistible groove, embellished by a barroom piano excursion from Chad Mason.  Then they follow that with a sharp left turn into the dreamy ‘Truckee’, apparently inspired by a mushroom-fuelled camping trip on the eponymous river.  It’s all twinkling guitar and nimble, airy slide remarks, and a delicate, starlit ambience laid out over long, soft organ chords.
Meanwhile ‘Tides’ may be in a soul vein, but with more of a modern edge, akin to The Black Keys.  It may start off with relaxed, skipping drums and minimalist guitar, bass, and Wurlitzer organ, but then crunches into some tough, bass-end chords heralding the “Just like Mars and the moon” chorus, accompanied by clearer swoops of organ, while Cody Matlock adds a subtly warped guitar solo.
‘Love You All The Way Down’ is the longest track on the album, and another slow, trippy kind of animal, easing along over a lazy beat and flickers of organ, while Eddie does his classy falsetto thang again.  There are ripplings of guitar and keys, and gradually it shakes itself out of its reverie, culminating in an excellent outro highlighting sensitive guitar and Wurlitzer.
‘Chamber Of Reflection’ has a jazzy undercurrent, with smouldering, moaning horns from Noah Sills that would surely provoke Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan of The Commitments into preaching his sermon that “soul music has corners”.
To close 9V jettisons his soul and falsetto vocal stylings in favour of a crooning approach in keeping with a ballad that might have appealed to Elvis, or Roy Orbison, with cooing vocal overdubs and twanging guitar from Eddie himself.
Eddie 9V may be standing on the shoulders of soul giants when it comes to the direction of his latest album, but he gives those influences his own spin, not least by means of his confident, characterful vocals.  And the album is given extra colour by the moments when he jumps off the soul train and comes up with something a bit different.  Saratoga is another impressive outing, taking Eddie 9V further on up the road.
 
Saratoga is out now on Ruf Records, and can be ordered here.