Downchild Can You Hear The Music

Listening to Can You Hear The Music (True North Records), the new recording by the venerable Canadian blues band Downchild, one is struck by the sound and the pace of the music. Given the four decades plus Downchild has been around this should be no surprise, but it is also refreshing in this age of guitar shredders whose idea of nuance is only occasionally turning the volume dial on their guitar or amps down. Don Walsh with his guitar, harmonica and songs may be the axis about which Downchild revolves, but Chuck Jackson's gritty singing, Michael Fonfara's keyboards and Pat Carey's saxophone also standout while the bass of Gary Kendall and the drums of Mike Fitzpatrick lay out a tight rhythmic foundation. On several tracks they are joined by Peter Jeffery's trumpet.

The title track, a hot jump blues that musically evokes Louis Jordan’s classic, Choo Choo Ch’Boogie, kicks this set off. The easy rocking I'm Always Here For You, like the opening track, benefits from crisply arranged horns in addition to the band's solid groove. I Need a Woman musically suggests Little Richard’s Directly From My Heart, with Walsh's fuzz-tone guitar break complements the urgency imparted by the Jackson's vocal. Blue Moon Blues takes the band down into the alley, while Fasten Your Seat Belt is another hot jump blues with strong harp and a tough tenor sax solo.

After Walsh's jaunty slide guitar on The Road, there is a nice swampy feel about My Mississippi Queen where Jackson (who wrote this choice lyric) sings about meeting a lady near New Orleans who later one night caught the eye of everybody in every club on both sides of Beale Street before she broke his heart. She took his money but more when she took his heart it was the worst thing any woman can do. Walsh adds a strong harp solo to go with the strong lyric and backing resulting in quite a jewel of a performance.

There’s a full moon out and Downchild are on a rambling mood on the rocking shuffle Don’t Wait Up For Me, with Fonfara's rollicking piano accompaniment and Walsh's crisp, slide guitar break. Scattered, a jumping harmonica feature concludes a superbly played, and consistently entertaining blues recording.

I received my review copy from True North Records or a publicist. Here is a video of Downchild in action.

JW Jones' Solid Blues

Another older review. This review from 2004 is of a marvelous Canadian bluesman, JW Jones. The review appeared in the September-October 2004 Jazz & Blues Report although I have made minor changes. I have previously blogged about his last recording, http://inabluemood.blogspot.com/2010/09/jw-jones-no-longer-prodigy.html. He has a new CD coming out called Seventh Hour. He is using the release of this CD in part to raise money to help battle Cystic Fibrosis. Here is the link to help fund this release and help the fight against Cystic Fibrosis. http://www.indiegogo.com/JW-Jones-New-CD-and-donation-to-Cystic-Fibrosis

Canadian JW Jones' Northern Blues release, My Kind of Evil perhaps shows how International the blues has become. Kim Wilson who helped produce and guests on several tracks is among those who mentored the Ottawa-based Jones who has developed into a solid guitarist with a disc reminiscent of efforts coming from several West Coast artists, although this is a band with a full-horn session and not led by a harmonica player.

Wilson himself has two fine vocals on Willie Mabon's I Don't Know and the Smiley Lewis classic, Blue Monday, while Colin James sings on What You Do to Me and You Got Me (Where You Want Me). Jones himself shows he has learned his lessons well with B.B. King, Johnny Guitar Watson, Ike Turner and others being detectable influences as he opens with a rocking original Shake That Mess with a nice groove and hot guitar. With James singing Johnny Watson's What You Do to Me, Jones plays a homage to Watson's early twisted guitar stylings set against a hot New Orleans rhumba groove.

Jones also has really developed as a vocalist as shown on several tracks here. A couple of instrumentals also display Jones skill and thoughtful playing and given his growth as a vocalist, choice covers and solid original material and first-rate studio band, J.W. Jones has produced a fine recording.

Here is JW Jones performing.

Monkey Junk's Garage Blues Textures

The Canadian trio MonkeyJunk has a new release, To Behold (Stony Plain). Steve Marriner (vocals, harmonica, keyboards, guitar), Tony D (lead guitar), Matt Sobb (drums) all hail from Ottawa. They took their name from a comment by Son House made talking about the blues and monkey junk. In relation to not having a bassist, they note the examples of Hound Dog Taylor as well as Little Walter. They had an acclaimed independently produced CD and were third place finishers at the 2009 International Blues Challenge. On their web site their describe there music as “Swamp R&B. Soul boogie. Deep blues. Oh, yes, and bedroom funk. Dark sometimes, rockin’ at others. You can dance. Does that tell the story?”

The opening Mother’s Crying starts off with a driving North Mississippi Hills groove, and the following cover of Hank Williams’ You’re Gonna Change (Or i’m Gonna Leave) has a slightly heavy backbeat with Marriner adding harp on a performance that is a bit more country flavored. While the opening of Right Now might suggest they might be viewed as grunge, garage blues, the starker and atmospheric Let Her Down, a terrific slow blues performance on which Marriner sits down at the organ, displays they are much more versatile. It is followed a nice laid back soulful flavor of With These Hands, while the late night blue ballad While You Are Mine, has some low key harp and organ in the backing.

This disc closes with The Marrinator, a feature for Warriner’s driving harp. The tightness shown by MonkeyJunk comes from playing together for years. They are strong players. Warriner’s vocals are first-rate and they have solid material. To Behold is an impressive release that is should hopefully lead to their expanding a growing fan base. Their website is http://monkeyjunkband.com.


I received this from a publicist for the release.