Danny Bryant - Means Of Escape

Danny Bryant’s blues are often pretty heavy, man.  Heavy but, it has to be said, often heartfelt.  And when he gets it right, this can result in something emotionally truthful both lyrically and musically.

The prime example here is ‘Skin And Bone’, which follows on from some of the songs on his last album Revelation in contemplating the death of his father. Low key and built on the simple strumming of acoustic guitar, it’s painfully honest about loss.  It’s up close and personal stuff.  And I can tell you from experience, it hits the emotional mark.

"Say cheese, Danny!"

Pic by Rob Blackham

Nothing else reaches that level, but ‘Where The River Ends’, written some time back for a friend who lost his daughter, features some lyrical, Clapton-like guitar in places. Meanwhile the closing ‘Mya’ is an instrumental exploration that benefits from being a bit more laid back, and less tense than yer typical Bryant arrangement, giving his guitar space to soar more freely as he builds a theme in – again – a Clapton-like fashion.  I’m reminded that on Revelation some of the best moments, for me at least, were those when he began to mine a Clapton seam, such as ‘Shouting At The Moon’.

In a different vein, the title track ‘Means Of Escape’ benefits from revisiting (so to speak) the riff from ‘All Along The Watchtower’, creating a supple vibe, and over the booming drums Bryant does a good job scattering licks around the place, before delivering an impressive solo on the outro.  And even if the lyrics are a bit gloomy apart from the affirmative chorus, Bryant’s vocals sound a mite more relaxed than is his wont.

And there’s the rub. Danny Bryant is rarely, to be honest, a little ray of sunshine.  And this tends to transmit itself through a variety of stomping, grinding, heavy blues outings, characterised by some teeth-clenching vocals.  Opening track ‘Tired Of Trying’, overtly influenced by his mentor Walter Trout, is typical of this tendency, and though it does feature some muscular soloing with a degree of tension and release, it’s overlong. The following ‘Too Far Gone’ is a smidgen more relaxed as it opens, with some nice rolling piano notes, and for a while it reminds me of the kind of gutsy fare the Nimmo Brothers might serve up. But it ends up getting a bit overwrought, and the vocals get too angsty for my taste.

‘Warning Signs’ is a slightly looser affair, with jabs of horns prefacing a useful organ solo, and ‘Hurting Time’ finds Danny dusting his broom on slide guitar, in slow and measured fashion, with some horns and a nice piano solo to leaven the recipe.  But these don’t do much to alleviate the sense of stomp-grind pervading much of the album, which is generally reinforced by Bryant’s idiosyncratic tendency towards vocals that to me sound physically tense. And if I were to offer up a sample of lyrics from across the album, you wouldn’t find many sunny moments.

Danny Bryant does what he does with commitment and intensity, and sometimes seizes your emotions as he does so. But all in all, Means Of Escape would benefit from more light and shade in terms of words, music and rhythm.  Hell, even Walter Trout and Eric Clapton, who haven’t had their troubles to seek, write some upbeat songs.  Discovering a broader palette would serve Danny Bryant well.

Means Of Escape is released on Jazzhaus Records on 20 September.

Danny Bryant's October British tour dates can be found here.

Danny Bryant - Revelation

Truth be told, I’ve never been entirely sure about Danny Bryant.  I’ve got a few of his albums, and saw him live a few years ago.  But there were a couple of things made me think . . . aye, well, mmm.  For one thing, I’ve always found his voice a bit grating.  And that live show just felt – predictable.

Fair play to him though, Danny Bryant seems to have been striving for more variety.  I haven’t managed to catch him with his big band, but that at least suggested some new horizons.  The pre-release chat about Revelation has also been about him trying to dig deep and make it something more personal in nature, in the face of some troubled times lately.  And you know what?  I do believe this album shows progress – with a few reservations.

But let’s accentuate the positive for a bit, eh?  From time to time here Bryant reminds me of

Danny Bryant ponders what to do with this strange device before him

Pic by Rob Blackham

Clapton on a good day.  ‘Isolate’, for example, where an EC-like intro gives way to delicate piano, and then his guitar plays around the melody on the chorus. Brief guitar fills follow as the song progresses, biting but elegant.  And still not satisfied, he comes up with an impressive solo with bags of feel, followed by a downbeat interlude featuring piano, and then another guitar solo – good enough not to feel like overkill, and buoyed by some tasty bass lines from Alex Phillips.

A buzzing keyboard riff hinting at Chariots Of Fire gives a twist to the opening of ‘Shouting At The Moon’, and Bryant has an adventurous go at a falsetto vocal on the chorus as he pursues a daringly personal - and resonant - lyric about the death of his father, before another Clapton-esque moment as a patient, expressive guitar solo rounds off the song.

‘May I Have Talk With You’ is a not-the-bleeding-obvious Howlin’ Wolf cover given a BB King treatment, including horns.  And once again it’s a fine illustration of Bryant’s blues playing, fluid and then wrenching out notes in a fiery closing solo.  Bryant also produces a decent, sensitive vocal – at times at least.  If only his producer Richard Hammerton, who does a damn good job otherwise (including a lot of important keyboard playing), could get him to eliminate some of the growls and hiccupy yelps, the song itself could do the talking.

Which would be good, because his voice can still irritate me, right from the opening title track, on which a melancholy piano intro is swiftly followed by a typically herniated Bryant vocal, before it settles down into his default Trout-ish style.

Bryant says that ‘Liars Testament’ is influenced by Seventies Purple stylings, and yes, there’s something of DP MKII’s rawer moments like ‘Into The Fire’ about it. It’s an instructive comparison, because I can hear a resemblance to Ian Gillan in DB’s gruff, semi-strangulated singing.  But Gillan, in his heyday at least, had way more polish and range at

his disposal.  Danny may not be able to emulate that, but he really does need to find a couple more gears.  Still and all, it’s not bad, and I like the controlled ferocity of Bryant’s playing, underpinned by bursts of horns, on the hard-driving coda.

‘Sister Decline’ is powerful all round, with a sturdy, driving riff over a hard-kicking beat from Dave Raeburn, and loose, clever bass runs, and injections of horns and keys to add to the palette.

‘Truth Or Dare’ is fun too, a slab of good ol’ fashioned boogie with rocking horns and a signature Hammond solo from Stevie Watts.  There’s a key change.  And a quiet guitar/vocal call and response passage for dynamics.  And a big crescendo with lively guitar.  All it needs is a bit of cowbell and a false ending to pull off every trick in the book.  But at four and half minutes it’s kept on a leash – which is almost surprising, because Bryant does have a tendency to overdo it.  A few songs here could benefit from some editing, not least the repetitive acoustic rendition of John Mellencamp’s ‘Someday The Rains Will Fall’, and the rather humdrum closing power ballad ‘Yours For A Song’, which is only elevated by a nifty up tempo coda.

When Danny Bryant captures that Clapton-like feel on Revelation, he lives up to the hefty billing he has on the British and European blues rock scene.  But I’m not going to fawn over him and say it’s brilliant.  Danny Bryant deserves better than that.  He’s not the finished article, but he’s trying – and I think he’s getting there.

Revelation is released by Jazzhaus Records on 20 April.

Danny Bryant is on tour in Germany in April, and in Britain from 7 May.