Guitarist Terry Medd leads a road kill team of Marty Cochrane/voc, Ross Hall/dr, Casey Ryder/b, Jan Randle/p, Miguelito Valdez-Doug Zacharias/tp, Barrie Sorensen/ts, Armando Alvarez/bs, Tim K eels/tub and David Wilkie/mand through a Decalogue of blues busters. The horns honky tonk through “My Old Truck” and “Rock My Soul”, with Medd’s guitar boogiing on “Shuffle In The Attic”. Jack Lavin blues a Chicago wind off Lake Michigan on “So Long, Goodby” and the horns get Latin hot for “Solitaire”. Cochrane has a Dr. John-ish style to his delivery as on the fun “ Creole Queen” and the team gets smoky on “Keep The Devil Behind”. Belly up to the bar.
Playing both diatonic and chord harmonicas Jason Ricci blows a mean streak with Kaitlin Dibble/voc, Brent J ohnson/g, Jack Joshua/b, John Perkins/dr, Joanna Connor and Joe Krown/B3-p. The leader chugs like a steam engine on “Casco Bay”and lets Dibble belt it out on a Chicago blues read of “5-10-15”. A Pentacostal boogie on “Cirque du Soliel” has Joshua digging in hard, and the rocking is thick with lightning striking on Bobby Rush’s Ain’t She Fine” with the harp snarling on a film noir’d “St. James Infirmary”. Nimbus clouds of blues.
Al Basile’s career is given a retrospective on this album that features material from the 20 albums he produced during those years. Playing horn or singing, he ranges from a psychedelic rock as on “Drive Me Darling” or vintage gospel tones as on “Lie Down In Darkness”. There’s some tasty jazz on a reflective “Don’t Wait Too Long” and even some reggae on “Causing Joy”. Various shades of blue.