Matt Pearce & The Mutiny - The Soul Food Store

Where to begin?  I know – Julia Roberts.  Remember that scene in Pretty Woman where Julia comments on the length of her legs, and tells Richard Gere that she’s providing “88 inches of therapy wrapped around you for the bargain price of three thousand dollars”?  Well, I don’t suppose Matt Pearce has Jools' pins, but The Soul Food Store provides 56 minutes of musical pleasure for the bargain price of eleven quid.
Gotta Get Home, the attention-grabbing 2019 debut album from Matt Pearce & The Mutiny, was a Stevie Wonder-tinged chunk of funky rock, and The Soul Food Store picks up where that left

Matt Pearce, floored by positive Blues Enthused review

Pic by Tina K

off, as opener ‘Got A Thing Going On’ bowls in with a funky, good-time groove, seamlessly melding together crunching guitar chords, thumping drums, bubbling bass and flaring horns.  It’s a hook-laden pleasure, topped off with a burst of wailing sax from Steve Beighton that gives way to a brief but scorching guitar break from Pearce.
So far so very good.  But while this was very much the sound of Gotta Get Home – and there’s more of it to come - Pearce and his crew pull some different rabbits from the hat this time around.  ‘All The Gods’ features another strong hook, but this time in the course of an epic-leaning slowie.  It's got a nagging guitar riff, fluttering keys, and some weighty guitar chords in the bridge, as a preface to a moody, thematic solo from Pearce.  ‘Promised Land’ has a toughened-up Latin vibe, with a neat and catchy staccato pre-chorus, and progresses through some skidding keys from Jon Moody into a fierily Santana-esque Pearce solo.  Then he gets a slide on his finger to deliver some swooning notes over simple piano chords on the intro to the Beatle-ish, guitar-weeping ‘Bring It All To Me’.  There’s a wistful chorus, soulful organ, and subtle, spot-on backing vox from Daliah Sherrington, and even as Pearce knocks out some Duane Allman-sweet slide breaks it remains all about the song.  Later on, too, there’s the delicious ballad ‘Beautiful Disguise’, which bridges the woozy late-night vibe of ‘Cry Me A River’ and the romance of ‘Sea Of Love’.  It’s an old-fashioned kinda thing, with strings courtesy of Richard Heacock, given a modern, glossy delivery, and with an exquisite, melodic guitar solo to boot.
Getting back to the booty-shaking fare though, ‘From Here To The Moon’ has a finger-popping, sax-smooching intro before bursting into vibrant life with a simple, chunky riff, another killer hook, and – underlining a clear Pearce forte - another course of serpentine slide playing as Kelpie McKenzie’s bass locks in the snapping drums of Joe Lazarus. It’s funky rock to be sure, but here and on the upbeat, driving ‘Never Get Away From Love’, with its tripping rhythm and spacy solo, there’s a distinctly British slant in evidence.  Hell, the punchy, strutting ‘Don’t Take It So Hard’ even down-shifts into an extended, razor-sharp guitar solo that melts into sax and vocal harmonising carrying echoes of ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’.  It’s a seven and a half minute noodle-free zone.
There’s a nu-soul side to the slinkiness of the chilled title track, mixing brittle-toned guitar and jazzy organ.  But the pace is hotter on ‘A Better Way’, with its handclaps and scuffling guitar riff, and if Matt Pearce demonstrates throughout that he knows the vocal vibe of stuff like this inside-out, with on-the-money phrasing, he’s still not shy about capitalising on Sherrington’s top-notch singing, which provides some smart counterpoint here.  And there’s more wiggling, wriggling funkiness on the album closer ‘King Of The World’, with its throbbing bass and popping snare.
Salutes and medals are due to all of Pearce’s Mutineers, an ensemble who are on it throughout, and sound like they’re having fun in the process, revved up and given clear direction by Pearce, who leads the whole enterprise with brio.  The Soul Food Store is music with a smile on its face, and it works an absolute treat.

The Soul Food Store is released on 29 April by Mutinear Records, and can be ordered here.

Laurence Jones Band/Matt Pearce & The Mutiny - Oran Mor, Glasgow, 1 December 2019

It’s three years since I last saw Laurence Jones play live.  And a lot has happened in the world of Laurence Jones since then.  He’s changed from a three-piece to a four-piece, bringing in Bennett Holland on keys.  He’s grown his hair and grown a beard.  He’s changed record labels.  And he’s released two albums, last year’s The Truth, and the most recent Laurence Jones Band.  He’s still smiling though, in the same rather endearing way as always.

Tonight’s set leans heavily on those two most recent albums, kicking off with ‘I’m Waiting’ from Laurence Jones Band.  With Bennett Holland giving it some welly on organ, and new bassist Jack Alexander Timmis supplying bubbling bass, it conjures up a surging late 60s

The guitar may gently weep, but Laurence Jones smiles 

rock sound that’s one of the strengths of the new album, and which continues through the following ‘Stay’.  ‘Wipe Those Tears Dry’ is funkier, with loose-limbed bass from Timmis providing a great groove, and its also apparent that Jones’ voice has developed further over the years, especially backed up by Holland and additional backing vocalist Abbie Adi.

By the time they get to the soulful, retro ‘Quite Like You’ it’s apparent that the new songs have that bit more oomph than on the album.  In sub-zero Glasgow, drummer Phil Wilson had come onstage swathed in a scarf, but by now he’s getting warmed up on the song’s bouncing rhythm, while Holland supplies some funky organ.  And on ‘Mistreated’, propelled by a great bass line, Jones delivers a big wah-wah solo which is the focus for them to collectively whip things up.

Jones reverts to a trio for Stevie Ray Vaughan’s slow blues ‘Lenny’, on which he does a good turn, with delicate use of his whammy bar contributing to interesting bendy segments.  Then he sits down with an acoustic for an appealing run through ‘Long Long Lonely Ride’, with bluesy piano tinkling from Holland and a tasteful, twanging guitar solo.

If I had to choose a song from The Truth for them to play live, the romantic ‘Take Me’ probably wouldn’t be it, and although Jones’ solo kicks off a rousing crescendo the ensuing singalong doesn’t seem a good fit.  ‘What Would You Do’ is more interesting though, a twitchily funky, danceable affair that grows from choppy riffing, through an organ solo to a call and response guitar and keys passage.

Personally I’m more interested in seeing what Jones can do with his satisfying guitar showcase on his slow blues ‘Thunder In The Sky’ than the admittedly decent stab at ‘All Along The Watchtower’ that precedes it, great song though it is.  And another cover in the form of CCR’s ‘Before You Accuse Me’ chugs along rather stiffly at first, but starts to swing nicely after a boogie-ing piano turn from Holland leads into a Jones’ solo, with Wilson playing nicely behind the beat.

They close with the Stonesy, good-time handclapping vibe of ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’, before returning to encore with ‘Live It Up’, a bit of a throwaway enlivened by Wilson

Phil Collins lookalike Matt Pearce gets stuck in

standing as he whacks out the drum intro, and some “Hey Hey” audience participation initiated by Holland.  Jones and co are a tight band, and they warmed up a freezing night, but I can’t help thinking Jones really needs to comb his repertoire for a couple of more powerful songs to create a set that really takes off.

Support band Matt Pearce & The Mutiny are no slouches, and make their own sizeable contribution to the evening’s entertainment.  Pearce, the guitarist with hard rockers Voodoo Six, is a dapper specimen in jacket, waistcoat and feather-adorned titfer, and a confident performer on both guitar and vocals.

‘Scarecrowing’ opens their forty minute set with tight-but-loose funkiness, Pearce pitching in some controlled wah-wah playing alongside a clavinet-style solo from Joe Mac on keys.  ‘Like A Hammer’ is all slinky verse and crunching chorus, with Pearce getting into some busy guitar/bass harmonising with Kelpie McKenzie.  There’s a ballsy fuzziness to his guitar sound on ‘Ordinary Blues’, which as he hints in his introduction has a decidedly Rush-like riff going on under the verse.

He switches from Les Paul Gold Top to a hollow body to contribute slide guitar on the bluesy riff of ‘Gotta Get Home’, the title track from their first album, which also features some gutsy vocal harmonies on its Beatle-ish anthemic chorus.  New song ‘Got A Thing Going On’ is muscular and bright but also jazzy, and ‘Set Me Free’ is another well-constructed track, slower and with Pearce’s solo built around some strong themes.

They close with a medley of Prince’s ‘Strange Relationship’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’, giving it some serious biff on the latter, with fuzzed up guitar on the riff and some blazing organ, before going off to a big cheer.  Matt Pearce & The Mutiny are a serious proposition with their brand of rocked-up funk, and I fully expect them to be out there drawing their own audiences before long.

Matt Pearce & The Mutiny - Gotta Get Home

Well, here’s an unexpected pleasure.  Matt Pearce plays guitar with hard rock outfit Voodoo Six.  I did not know this.  I’ve heard of Voodoo Six, and maybe heard a couple of minutes of their music. That’s it.  It seems though, that about a year ago Matt Pearce had an epiphany. For whatever reason, he had a sudden urge to draw upon some of his listening habits, and “just knew I had to form a seriously funky blues band.”  And lo, Gotta Get Home is the result – and it’s pretty damn good, folks.

Matt Pearce plays that funky music, white boy!

Pearce and his buddies have managed to serve up an album of originals that’s imbued with appealing freshness and enthusiasm from start to finish.  But opening track ‘Scarecrowing’ immediately announces that Pearce’s vision involves a hefty dollop of funk being an ingredient in the rocking blues recipe, with a blend of shake yer ass riffing, Stevie Wonder-style clavinet, and a pleasingly twiddly, harmonised tumbling guitar line.

That funk element is in play to some degree across much of the album, but especially on ‘Dig Deeper’, with its infectious hand-clapping dance groove and climbing melody, and also on the closing ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, which is funk-blues with bite, melding a steady rhythm, a gritty guitar riff that throws in a nod to ‘The Wanton Song’, slide guitar undercurrents, and good use of vocal harmonies.

They dial the funk down a tad on the likes of ‘Ordinary Blues’ and ‘Like A Hammer’, but still swing. Both tracks are driven along by twisting and turning riffs of different kinds, and on both there’s clever use of effects to give an inventive dimension to the sound.  The former mellows in its middle eight, with languid slide ahead of a spot on solo, before a coda plays around with the rift again. The latter is a rockier affair with a tough chorus, softened with some female backing vocals but with a head-over-heels bridge.

There’s a bluesier feel to the mid-paced ‘Set Me Free’, which rolls along on an electric piano riff, while a contemplative opening guitar line sets the tone for Pearce’s subsequent soloing.  Bluesier still though, is ‘Worried’, which features Delta blues like guitar picking over a simple metronomic beat, with just some crooned female “oohs” as a sweetener.

On a more soulful level is ‘Some People’, a slower song that’s one of the highlights of a strong album, with a nagging melody that’s liable to become an earworm, a momentary snatch of which evokes the Staple Singers’ ‘Respect Yourself’.  Layering Pearce’s guitar with cascading piano runs and lush organ chords, it again makes good use of vocal harmonies, but in particular it showcases an expressive guitar solo.  And taking that soulfulness into gospellated territory is the title track, with a bullhorn vocal on the opening verse as a precursor to some excellent female backing vocals from Acantha Lang.  It’s got a good hook and another bout of impressive slide soloing, which carries on underneath more Lang vocal explorations to add to the atmospherics.

Gotta Get Home is a very good album – not a great album perhaps, but easily good enough to make me enjoy repeated plays over the last week.  Matt Pearce has done a bang up job of delivering original material with arrangements that make engaging use of funky rhythms, on the money slide playing, some handy vocal harmonies, and refreshing guitar effects to liven things up.  On extended listening I can recognise some of the influences he cites, such as the Black Crowes - but only fleetingly.  Mostly what I hear though, is a sound that is distinctively and effectively that of Matt Pearce & The Mutiny.

Gotta Get Home is released by Mutinear Records on 3 May.