One of today’s greats, Duke Robillard, pulls out his Gibson paintbrush and paints the town blue as he sings and plays with a juke joint jumping team of Bruce Bears/p-org, Mark Teixeira/dr, Jesse Williams-Marty Ballou/b, a sax section of Greg Piccolo, Rich Lataille and Doug James along with some cameo guests. Chris Cote adds jivey vocals to the R&B’d Do You Mean It”, the boogie woogie’d “What Can I Do” and the bouncy “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing” with some sassy voice by Michelle Wilson teamed on the shufflin’ “You Played My Piano.” Robillard’s licks are sweet on “Just Chillin’” and the team gives a Kansas City groove to “Give Me All The Love You Got” Robillard driving the team on “No Time” with some wailing harp contributed by Mark Humel. Low ceilings and heavy smoke.
Rural sounds are delivered in faded jeans by Steve Strongman, as he sings and plays guitar like a 70s rocker with Dave King/dr, Colin Lapsley/b, Jese O’Brien/p, Pat Sansone/key-p-g, Audley Freed/g and James Haggerty/b with the tunes divided between sessions in Nashville, Tennessee and Hamilton, Ontario. Strongman adds a rich and breezy harmonica to the shuffle’d “Paid My Dues” and hard hitting two stepper “Can’t Have It All”. The band rocks to a steady groove on “Tired Of Talkin” and “Bring You Down” while giving a nice take of Al Green’s Memphis classic “Let’s Stay Together”. Music for moving.