BLUE STRINGS…Brad Vickers and his Vestapolitans: Twice As Nice, Wentus Blues  Band With Duke Robillard: Too Much Mustard

Brad Vickers sings with a pop styled voice and plays guitar like a juke joint junkie as he rocks the blues with a team of Bill Rankin/dr, Margey Peters/b, Jim Davis/ts, VD King/bs, Dave Keyes/or and Mickey Junior/harp-voc in a cut and paste fashion of songs. With Junior’s harp, there’s some two stepping on “Stealin’ Stealin’” and shuffling on “Look A There Look A There.” Vickers picks out a winner on the  boogie’d “Coast To Coast”, taking Jimmy Reed’s classic “Close Together” and gets some earth shattering tones out of his strings. On bottleneck, Vickers creates a rural mood for the title track with his high tone voice creating a sweet and sour contrast to the foreboding environs, whereas “Red Dust” bounces with some exquisite riffs. This guy can hit the strings!

Guitar legend Duke Robillard joins in with this boogie woogie blues band of Robban Hagnas/b, Niko Riipa/eg, Pekka Grohn/p-org, Daniel Hjerppe/dr and Juho Kinaret/voc on this foot stomping set of shuffling rockers.  You get an upbeat 50s R&B feel from the get go on “Stayed at the party” while Grohn’s Hammond saunters with Hjerppe’s percussion as Kinaret growls out Tom Waits’ “2:19.” Robillard guitar cries on the rollicking “Right In Your Arms” and is clean as Ajax for “Miranda.” The team gives a hint of the roots group The Band on the traditional sounding “Where Have All The Songbirds Gone”, while Grohn taps into his inner Professor Longhair on “Feels So Good.” These guys get the joint jumping.

www.bradvickers.com

www.wentusbluesband.com

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