Tim Gartland Satisfied

Tim Gartland
Satisfied
Taste Good Music.

This is the 4th album by the Nashville based singer-harmonica player-songwriter. I found his prior album "If You Want A Good Woman," to be a "rollicking set of blues and rockers." Like that recording, this was recorded by Kevin McKendree (and his son Yates) at McKendree's The Rock House studio. While Tom West plays keyboards on most of this, McKendree also adds keyboards to several selections. Robert Frahm handles most of the guitar here with Tom Britt playing slide on a couple of selections. Steve Mackey on bass and Tom Bruno round out this fine studio band with Wendy Moten on backup vocals.

"Drinking For Two" is the first song with a driving, second-line groove and Gartland's world-weary vocals and full-bodied harmonica, McKendree's piano and Britt's slide guitar. Gartland is a limited, straight-forward singer although with a modest vocal range. His harmonica playing has a fat-tone and he plays with plenty of drive and swing. His backing is first-rate with a solid rhythm section. Robert Frahm, who I saw when he lived in the Washington DC area, displays his chops with a crisp solo on "Don't Make No Trouble." This song also displays his ability to craft songs with memorable hooks. There is also plenty of variety in the songs including the country-soul flavor of "Blues For Free," the rollicking of "Can't Paint a Prettier Picture," with its Chuck Berry feel, with Tom West channeling Johnnie Johnson and Frahm channeling Berry while trading fours with the leader's harmonica.

The title track is a lovely lament with a slight Tex-Mex accent and atmospheric chromatic harmonica. Frahm's tremolo-laced guitar and West's organ lend a swampy tone to "Walk On" with co-writer Ray Desilvis contributing an effective backing vocal. The variety here is also displayed by the reggae groove employed for "Why Does The Room Begin to Sway?" One can suggest that the use of a reggae groove certainly would be welcome in more blues performances and recordings, but it remains rare.

While Gartland may have limitations as a singer, he remains a capable vocalist. He writes intriguing songs, is a distinct harmonica player and is accompanied by a splendid studio band on a most enjoyable release.

I received my review copy a publicist. This review originally appeared in the May-June 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 384) although I have made minor changes. Here is a brief clip of Tim Gartland performing.

Dave Hurricane Hoerl Un-Twisted

Born in San Francisco, but resident of Vancouver, British Columbia for over three decades, harmonica player and singer Dave “Hurricane” Hoerl is best known as a member of the jump blues band, The Twisters. Un-Twisted on Full Swing is his first solo recording and  has him backed by members of The Twisters and others. Hoerl’s originals and covers are supported by Double D (Dave Dykhuizen) on a variety of guitars; Chip Hart on drums; Roger Brant - Fender bass; Dave “Cob” Webb on Piano and Hammond Organ; Johnny Ferreira on Soprano and Tenor Sax; James “Buddy” Rogers on – guitar; Brandon Isaak on guitar and Keith Picot on upright bass.

No track displays the direct character of Hoerl’s music better than Pure & Simple Blues, as he proclaims that when is by one self, play some some of that pure & simple blues, and music for the head may leave him cold but what sets his spine a tingle must come from the heart. Nothing fancy with the simple shuffle beat and guitar backing for his singing and assured harp playing followed by Double D’s sharp lap steel solo.   The opening Soul Mate is a love song to his wife with a lazy Jimmy Reed style shuffle rhythm. He gets energetic singing O.V. Wright’s I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled and Crazy, with Webb’s Hammond B-3 adding to this track.

Snake Charmer has an amusing lyric about a belly dancer, with Hoerl on chromatic harp while Ferreira adds fills as well as takes a serpentine solo on soprano saxophone. The peppy Grand Old Game (with a Bo Diddley groove) is a rare new song celebrating the sport of baseball while She Took Back Her Heart, is a lament about a sweet love that has soured. The recording closes with a charming, short solo harmonica rendition of I Left My Heart In San Francisco.

David Hoerl is an amiable singer and a fine harmonica player with a crisp attack and tone, but also displaying a definite melodic quality in his playing. With supple, straight-forward backing, he has produced a small gem with Un-Twisted. Un-Twisted can be purchased from cdbaby and itunes.

Unfortunately shortly before this CD was issued, Hoerl suffered a massive stroke that left him hospitalized and fighting for his life. As with many stroke victims, his future is uncertain. He is currently under great care in hospital and will soon be moved to a long-term care facility. Benefits are being held for him and folks can send funds through paypal. His website is http://www.davehoerl.com/ and has information on how folks can donate funds to assist him. There is also a Facebook page with more information, https://www.facebook.com/hurricanehoerl.

I received a download of the CD for review from a publicist.  Here is a video clip of Dave “Hurricane” Hoerl performing, from 2011.

J.T. Lauritsen - Play By The Rules

Blues has become an international music and a recording by Norwegian harmonica-accordion player (Jan Tore) J.T. Lauritsen, Play By The Rules (Hunters Records) illustrates this. For nearly 20 years he has led The Buckshot Hunters who have had several well received recordings. The present recording was recorded at sessions in Memphis and Oslo, Norway and has appearances by Victor Wainwright, Anson Funderburgh and others on various tracks. Greg Gumpel or Willie C. Campbell on bass, Wainwright on keyboards and Josh Roberts are common to the Memphis recordings while Atle Rakvåg on bass, and Ian Frederick Johannessen on guitar are on the Oslo sessions. Jon Grimsby is drummer throughout while guitarist Arnfinn Tørrisen and keyboardist Paul Wagnberg are heard on both sessions.

Lauritsen impresses on this marvelously varied group of performances. One would be surprised listening to him sing to discover English is not his first language. He sings in a natural,relaxed fashion and the supporting musicians do a bang-up job in backing him on some nice covers and originals. William Bell’s Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday starts this recording off on a nice southern soul vein followed by the Crescent City groove on Lauritsen’s original Next Time, with  zydeco flavor provided by the leader’s accordion with Wainwright taking a rollicking piano solo. Te title track is a nice slow blues with Josh Roberts adding slide guitar. Billy Gibbons on harp joins Lauritsen on a easy rocking shuffle rendition of Walter Horton’s Need My Babe, taken as a medium shuffle which is followed by Wainwright’s Memphis Boogie, that he gets off to a rollicking start followed by Roberts crisp solo and then more boogie woogie piano before the leader steps up.

We are taken back to New Orleans on Big Joe Maher’s Ever Since The World Began, which then followed up by a fine take on the Cookie and the Cupcakes swamp pop classic Mathilda. Like the rest of this recording, it is wonderfully played and sung at the right tempo. Anson Funderburgh adds strong guitar to Find My Little Girl as Lauritsen sings about going back to Dallas, Texas to find his little girl while plays rhythm guitar on the atmospheric take on Gillian Welch’s Valley of Tears.

The performances on Play By The Rules never come off as hurried or frantic and there is a genuine soulful quality to J.T. Lauritsen’s vocals that make this release well worth noting.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is a video of J.T. Lauritsen.