An instrumental by Frank, Sideswiped, kicks this CD off with a funky groove, tight horns and solid guitar and solid sax from McKelley. Next up is Frank’s Cold Day Down Below, with a second line groove and more tough sax (this time from Tischler). Skin Bones and Hair, is a terrific T-Bone Walker styled shuffle from Frank with some nice T-Bone inspired playing from him. London handles the vocal on his hot rocker, Cuttin’ Up, where Tischler rips a terrific tenor sax solo as Frank chords under him and the rhythm section swings hard with some more T-Bone inspired playing from Frank on a live rendition that got the dancers jitter-bugging hard. London’s The Fidget showcases his strong harmonica playing set against the rocking rhythm and riffing horns. Best I Can is a tough-sounding slow blues.
The choice of covers is interesting from a lesser known Jackie Brenston number Leo the Louse; a straight cover of 60 Minute Man; and The Five Royales amusing Monkey Hips & Rice. Frank does a fairly nice rendition of Robert Lockwood’s Little Boy Blue, backed just by the rhythm section. The most surprising cover is a three tenor sax feature on Sonny Rollins’ Tenor Madness that allows McKelley to display his jazz chops with guest tenor players Christopher Burge and Tony Koussa. This is followed by the rainy night feel of The Lonely One.
London handles the vocal on the amusing cover of Ernie K-Doe’s Mother-In-Law that closes this varied and quite engaging recording by this tight and swinging, jump blues band. Special - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition will likely enlarge Blue Lunch’s fan base beyond the band’s Cleveland roots.
A publicist provided the review copy. Here is the late Robert Lockwood, Jr., playing with Blue Lunch.
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