Guitar man! Guitar-zan!
Ron Addison sings with an earthy grit and plays guitar like vintage Clapton in a folksy way on this album of bluesers with Mary Munsey/key-sax, Duane Frye/harp and a collection of backup vocalists. The band has a Dire Straits feel with Addison adding his licks to the calypso’d “Carletta” and the grooving “Down On The River” while a dash of Creedence pops in on the Suzie Q-ish “Picnic With You”. The team boogies on the twaning “Hoo Doo” and Addison taps into his inner Tony Joe White on a riveting “Rainy Night In Georgia”, while showing his grit on “And I Know”. Dirt under the nails on this one.
Canadian Steve Dawson shows his dexterity on the strings, playing acoustic, electric, pedal steel and slide guitars for starters, showing the breadth width and depth his range. Mixing and matching with Jay Bellerose/dr, Jeremy Holmes/b, Chris Gestrin/key, and Daniel Lapp, Dawson creates a kaleidoscope of colors, giving echoey radiance when soloing with the pedal steel on “Burnt End” and sounding like a rural version of Brian Eno with Fats Kaplin on accordion on “The Waters Rise”. There’s a Bachish feel with harpsichordish sounds on the clever “You Still Believe In Me” while you’re taking a country road on the twangy “Lilys’ Resister”. He trudges through a Nashville skyline on “Tripledream”, rocks the blues on “Twig Bucket” and goes swampy for “Ol’ Brushy” while closing the album out with a Leo Kottke’d “Whirlwind”. Gotta see this guy in concert!!!