Rockfold 2014
Crazy Blues
Former KILLING FLOOR axeman cuts deep and goes deliciously mad on the dozen of smoking tracks.
You can’t go wrong with Mick Clarke even when his endeavors turn mental like here, on the album which deliberately eschews the tentative elegance of 2013’s "Ramdango" in favor of more gutsy feel. There is an acoustic-laced funereal walk of “Mr W’s Holiday” but the title piece turns its classic lyrics on their head to proclaim that “there gonna be a change in me” and, closing the circle, to link the songs chain back to opener “No Way To Get Along” where a catchily insistent riff dances around the simplest of beats before the strings are fiercely mauled and caressed with a slider.
Such a primal approach also informs “See You Later Alligator” and its evil twin “The Thing” on the rocker side of things, while the piano-sprinkled “Complicated Woman” reflects the Chicago look at the titular genre, the more playful Windy City jive filling “Rain” with its surface tension pitched tight. This playfulness carries the easy roll of “Steady Road” prompting one to want to join the veteran Brit on his guitar-wielding journey, especially after “Lovin’ Heart” struts its instrumental, organ-backed wares in a hot ‘n’ nasty way. “Fuzz” covers its swing in the swampy punk dirt, though, and adds a bottom-end twang and frilly curlicues for good, wild measure. “Can’t get my rest,” admits Mick Clarke, whose itch is the listener’s pleasure. Long may he rave.
****1/3
