Arlen Roth Tele Masters

Arlen Roth
 Tele Masters
 Aquinnah Records

 Arlen Roth has collected a bunch of fellow masters of the Fender Telecaster guitar for this new album. With a rhythm section of Tom Hambridge on drums, Tommy McDonald on bass, and usually Billy Panda on acoustic guitar (or Bryan Sutton), he has joined with Steve Warriner, Cindy Cashdollar (steel guitar), Jack Pearson, Steve Cropper, Brad Paisley, Will Ray, Albert Lee, Vince Gill, Brett Mason, Joe Bonamassa, Johnny Hiland, Bill Kirchen, Jerry Donahue, and Redd Volkaert. Most of these guests come from the country music world with Cropper and Bonamassa being exceptions.

Mostly instrumental, there are vocals from Steve Cropper, Sweet Mikey C. and Arlen’s daughter, Lexie Roth. There are some terrific country romps including the opening "Remington Ride" with Warriner and the lively adaptation of Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson" with Albert Lee." Similar selections include perhaps the over-the-top interpretation of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" with Cindy Cashdollar's steel guitar adding atmosphere and the cover of Chuck Berry's "Promised Land" with Jerry Donahue and a vocal from Sweet Mikey C.

There are many other pleasures, including Roth's marvelous duet with Bill Kirchen, "Tuff Tele," along with Jack Pearson's blues-rock rendition of "Key To The Highway." Pearson is a pretty fair singer as shown on his own "I Can Fix It." Steve Cropper and Hambridge wrote, "White Lightning" with a fair, at best, Cropper vocal but with plenty of solid guitar. "Satisfied Mind" is a lovely guitar duet by Roth with Vince Gill while Roth's rendition of "Tennessee Waltz" has a precious vocal from his daughter Lexie. There is a highly charged revival of Link Wray's "Rumble" by Arlen and Will Ray while the trio of Bonamassa, Roth, and Pearson get down for "Joe's Blues," a number in the spirit of Albert Collins. Roth's "Funky Mama" with Jack Hiland is dedicated to Danny Gatton and provide the appropriate guitar fireworks here.

With 16 tracks and an hour and a quarter of hot guitar, Arlen Roth has put together a memorable release for country music and roots music guitar lovers.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the May-June 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 384). Here is Arlen with Duke Robillard (who is not on this CD) and Cindy Cashdollar 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.