Here's the latest from the hard-working, hard-grooving Ottawa
group, its fourth album since 2011, pretty remarkable given their
constant touring regime. The four-piece group is a well-oiled machine,
with Kinsley handling vocals and all the stinging guitar, with Rod
Williams on harp, Leigh-Anne Stanton on bass and Bruce Saunders in the
drum chair. It's hard-boiled, rough 'n' ready electric blues, with more
than a few serious themes and well-spoken messages. There's as much bite
in the lyrics as there is in the music.
There's
a dark current running through some of the songs, part of which stems
from a trip to the U.S. leading up to recording. The group was nearby
during the Parkland school shooting in Florida this past February, and
Trouble Coming resulted, Kinsley telling us "The streets are filled with
angry people, no one wants to give an inch." Murder Creek comes from
that southern journey as well, this time Kinsley telling an older tale
about a robbery in deep woods Alabama, a gang of crooks that ended up
getting hanged, and mystery woman behind the plan. There's also a cover
of the old Colin James number Freedom that's a lot darker than the
original. The blues is out there, and this is music for uneasy times.
No comments:
Post a Comment