New release a must

LOW DOWN and TORE UP
The Duke Robillard Band
Stony Plain Records
9-out-of-10

If you like the blues, and you're Canadian there are two names you should have come to trust in terms of being purveyors of quality blues; Stony Plain as a record label, and Duke Robillard as a musician.

When the two are teamed together you really can mark it as a disk you should own even without reading this review, or giving it a preview listen.

In the case of Low Down and Tore Up that is certainly the case.

With 14-cuts the disk is just a rockin' blues good time, with Overboard being a great example of high tempo, good times blues.

Then Robillard shifts gears and plays it slow, relaxed and almost sultry on the instrumental Blues After Hours.

A veteran of just a pile of blues recordings, Robillard makes the transition on tempo with a practiced hand on the guitar strings.

The material here is all gleaned from other writers, but that is never a huge concern with Robillard who has an uncanny knack of making every song he performs his own. John Lee Hooker's Want Ad Blues is an example. The Robillard band cooks through the song, making it one of the best on the disk.

Overall this is another great effort, as to be expected from someone of Robillard's stature when supported by his fine band which includes Bruce Bears on piano, Brad Hallen on acoustic bass, and Mark Teixeira on drums.

Check it out at www.dukerobillard.com

- CALVIN DANIELS

HEBREW LESSONS
Fine Canadian Forces
Indie
6-out-of-10

Fine Canadian Forces is another example of a solo performer tagging themselves with a name that makes you think band. Frankly it's still one of those current trends which makes little sense to me.

In this case "Fine Canadian Forces is Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Jordan Fine: a loop-pedal specialist making music rooted in rock/pop, but adding influences ranging from classical and modern jazz, to yacht and prog rock, and to glam metal and grunge," explained his website. "Originally a classic-rock-inspired, jazz-trained guitarist, Jordan went straight from university to sail away as a cruise-ship show-band guitarist. After three years on the ocean he threw off his sea legs, itching to forge a new musical path and identity back in his hometown of Toronto."

While on a technical level you can hear the classical underpinnings of his music, the style is more a twist of progressive rock, jazz and folk.

The website states "his new release, Hebrew Lessons is a culmination of a year's worth of song writing, and tongue-in-cheek cover arranging. The album features a steady mix of both, with the former including hits by Steve Winwood, Rick Springfield, the Beatles, and the McGarrigle Sisters. The sound of the record features a blend of electric (electric guitars and effects, KORG synthesizer) and organic (vocal beat-box percussion, brass, vocals.)"

Familiar songs such as Springfield's Jessie's Girl and John Lennon's Eleanor Rigby certainly help make the disk more easily accessible for old rockers.

"The original compositions are intended to be as densely polyphonic and complex as can be replicated live, where individual guitar, synth, vocal, and rhythm lines are layered on top of each other, deconstructed, harmonically shifted, and tempo shifted - all while remaining faithful to the standard modern pop form," detailed his website. "The cover arrangements are also intended to be as richly dense, but with the original pieces isolated into individual lines, and then slowly reconstructed to be unique, yet recognizable, live remixes."

While Fine tries some things here to make the music unique, for this ear it falls a bit short of being one to highly recommend.

Check it out at www.catherinemaclellan.com

- CALVIN DANIELS
Past reviews are archived online at http://calmardan.blogspot.com/