Brother John - Johnny Never & John Colgan-Davis - Black Crow - New Release Review

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Black Crow, from Brother John (Johnny Never & John Colgan-Davis) and it's thick acoustic blues. Opening with Bread and Salt, Johnny Never leads the way on vocal and slide with Holly Hoffman, Shannon Roberts and Monica Moran on backing vocals and John Colgan-Davis on harmonica. Deep rooted blues and a solid opener. Svelte Man Blues is a great rag style blues. Never on guitar and Colgan-Davis get a great cadence going with Never on vocal. Very nice. Charlie Patton's Dirt Road is particularly cool featuring Colgan-Davis really working the harmonica over Never's vocals. Wandering Eye Blues is one of my favorites on the release with slick slide work by Never and with choppy harmonica work by Colgan-Davis. Very cool. Old Man Mose has a real nice guitar stroll feel to it, reinforced by Jimmy Pritchard on bass and and Hoffman and Moran on backing vocals. Colgan-Davis' harmonica work is particularly soulful under the vocal prowess of Never. Whiskey Glass is a somber ballad that really showcases Never's vocals with strong harmonica work by Colgan-Davis. Wrapping the release is boogie, Cook It To The Bone, with it's driving rhythm. With Never on guitar and vocal, Colgan-Davis on harmonica, Chicago Carl Snyder on piano and Mark Shewchuk on percussion, this is a solid closer for a solid release. 

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Squeeze Play/Vizztone artist: Cathy Lemons - Black Crow - New Release review

I just received the most recent release (3.25.14), Black Crow,from Cathy Lemons and it covers a lot of bases. Opening with upbeat R&B style track, I'm A Good Woman, written by Kim Wilson, Lemons flexes her laid back bluesy voice over solid bass from Paul Olguin and drums from Robbie Bean. O'Kanes penned, Ain't Gonna Do It has a much more country pop flavor showing lemons voice in it's most comfortable mode on the release. Title track, Black Crow, has a southern rock ballad sound, not unlike Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Boogie track, Hip Check Man, features some cool harp work from Stevie Gurr who also adds some spanky guitar riffs to this driving number. On slow blues ballad, You're In My Town Now, Lemons conjures up some really emotional feelings eliciting some excellent guitar work from Gurr and also a really super piano expression from Kevin Zuffi. This is my choice of best track on the release. Earl King's It All Went Down The Drain, has a real country pop feel accentuated by key drum riffs from D'Mar and stylized guitar soloing from Volker Strifler. Another really fun track is James Brown's The Big Payback. Lemons has a solid JB's sound going featuring Doug James on healthy sax work and D'Mar really keeps this track tight. I'm Going To Try features the expressiveness of Pearl with again James adding very nice sax on bottom. Gurr steps up with some really nice blues riffs on this track as well leaving a big opening for James to fill and he fills the air. Texas Shuffle is exactly what you might imagine from the title with Strifler laying down some good old SRV styled guitar riffs. Wrapping the release is The Devil Has Blues Eyes which may be the most honest blues track on the release. Why do I say that you may ask. It is very closely related to Robert Johnson's Hell Hounds On My Trail. With only Gurr on acoustic guitar and harp accompanying Lemons , this track captures a nice delta feel. A very nice conclusion to this release.

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