Having musically grown up during the 1970s, I find it fascinating to hear how today’s generation interprets and imbibes the sounds and attitudes of the Nixon years. Here are a couple interesting albums that are anything but a time warp.
John Bigham/g-voc teams with Jake Najor, Mark Levy, Greg Camp, Curtis Sanford and Richard Huredia to mix together the grit of Chicago blues and modern funky times. Bigham’s got a streetwise voice coming across like he just spit out a wad of chew on stomping pieces like “Can’t Be Helped” and as he snarls on the funky guitar riff on the title track. The guitar strings cry for mercy on the down and bluesy “Daggers” and you’re taken to the back porch of the Delta as Bigham switches to acoustic guitar on “Thursday Morning” and the rock steady “Early Riser.” Lots of shadowy moods abound, and the Strats are strutting.
Meanwhile, sounds straight out of Soul Train are provided by the team of Andre Bernard/tp-tb-voc, Menes Ray/tp-voc, Leroy Lovelace Jr/ts-voc, Rainy Middleton/voc, Dwight Smith/dr, Rod Whittaker/b-key-voc and Steve Rollins/g-voc on this catchy collection of boogalooing originals. Middleton’s got a fresh and energetic sound to her voice, mixing church and street to the vocal harmonies on the modernized Bo Diddley riff on “I Can’t Deny” while optimistic backbeats and lyrics sound delightful on the vintage feel of “Emergency” and the Afro shaking “Rock with You.” The horns get STAXY ,but the vocals are encouraging on “I Know” while a Sly male voice teams with EWF beat for a floppy hat and wide whale chords production of “Love IS Gonna Get You.” These guys put the “fun” back in “Funkadelic.”