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Thursday, January 25, 2018

Ruf Records artist: Jane Lee Hooker - Spiritus - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Spiritus, from Jane Lee Hooker and it's smoking! Opening with How Ya Doin?, Hooker opens up where they left off on their hot release, No B! back in 2016. Dana "Danger" Athens is upfront with a powerful voice and Tracy "Hightop" Almazan and Tina "T-Bone" Gorin create a sense of Thin Lizzy while Melissa "Cool Whip" Houston on drums and "Hail Mary" Zadroga on bass give you flashbacks to Van Halen. Powerful is the word. With the poise of Free, Gimme That is a solid blues rocker... oh yeah...with cow bell! Blues ballad, Later On shows a more subtle side of Athens' vocals and Almazan and Gorin's guitar tones are round and mellow. Blending Hound Dog Taylor with a modern garage rock feel gives you a hot rocking version of Lightning Hopkins' Black Rat. Excellent! Clean blues ballad, How Bright the Moon is a real spin featuring Athens on piano and total blues sincerity for one of the best tracks on the release. It doesn't have the frenzy of most (and I like frenzy) and it doesn't have the rawness of many (and I like rawness) but it is a really nice track showing what this band can do in the pure blues ballad arena. Very cool. Bobby Blues Bland's Turn On Your Love Light is a fusion of tandem (Allman like) guitar leads, Greatful Dead like jamming and of course Bland's own energy, spun into a modern blues rocker. Very cool. Wrapping the release is The Breeze, a smooth, blues (mostly) instrumental giving the gang a good chance to stretch instrumentally. Athen's lays down some of her most emotional vocals on the release here making it a perfect conclusion to another strong release by the band.


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