Blues Reviews

This album begs the question: What if God gave us Robert Johnson, and nobody cared? We already know the answer to the reciprocal solypsism: What if we made a beautiful city, and our leaders let it wash away.

Because, as I keep saying, a Pete Seeger CD has the same carbon footprint as a Flo Rida record. Your music can be used as a torture device, regardless of whether you are Bruce Springsteen or Metallica. But the Blues fights back, don't it? There has always been an undercurrent in American Popular music that sustains the spirit and makes all the negative passions simmer instead of explode. No matter what horror gnashes at the soul along the dark road, our heritage always causes us to whistle at it.

One day, when all the oil runs out, when electricity is rationed and only soldiers can afford media devices, there will still be voices like John-Alex Mason. He is one of those artists who will, like Picasso once said, paint in the dust with his tongue. And he is as desperately welcome today as Robert Johnson and his compatriots were back when it all started.

Mason was a finalist in the Solo/Duo category of the 2008 International Blues Challenge. He may not have won, but I believe he earned huge recognition for potentially infusing new energy into American Roots music. His eerie voice and haunting guitar resurrect that spooky, swampy sound of drunken juke joints. He reinterprets (and thus repossesses) traditional delta blues songs, while his original songs sound like they came from the exact same place. And where do those songs lead us? Ahh... there is the real question, isn't it? That is the question that all masterpieces should make us ask.

Posted by madmac10 at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the things that bugs me most about the Blues are purist fans. You've seen them, I'm sure—stinking up an afterparty by crowing the loudest about who is and who isn't a true-blue artist. If only other Pop genres had such a picky fanbase: imagine trying to keep the current spate of mysogynistic, materialistic, untalented pricks from sullying the good name of Hip-Hop! (Well, I suppose its just as well, considering how the hand-wringing nannie-goats in the press are just empowering the Soulja Boys of the world.) But mongrelization of the Blues has been the driving force behind American Pop's evolution. A good portion of major artists have been summarily dismissed by purists, and especially in Charles Brown's case, careers have suffered. Hopefully this will not be the case with Dave Gross.

Like Brown, perhaps Gross's biggest handicap to entering the Blues Hall of Fame is his origin. Hailing from the prosaic town of Providence, Rhode Island, a region not especially notorious for its Blues tradition, Gross's style is far from New England dowdy. However, like his parent city, his music is sophisticated and cool. Take the Gamble is one of those few records that find the perfect balance between the Apollonian and Dionysian—dancing on the tightrope strung between the head and the heart. If you take a date to his show, you can dance the night away to his mellow groove; if you go stag, you can stand and study his imaginative arrangements and stunning instrumentation. This album is a heck of an accomplishment, and it bears repeated listening.

Unlike many purists, I cannot claim to be as thoroughly familiar with Gross's claimed influences: T-Bone Walker, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and Django Reinhardt. I cannot tell how closely he emulates these stars, and what I do know of them flies out the window as soon as Gross gets going. He does remind me a little bit of Brian Setzer and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, though. Thankfully, his voice is not as pure as Setzer's is; it is much more colorful with that teddy-boy roughness and that well-timed vibrato. Hopefully, his fanbase won't be limited to swing kids. He deserves huge recognition, and a long, rich career.

Unfortunately, the only time that Dave Gross will be touring the DC area in 2008 will be the Western Maryland Blues Fest in Hagerstown on May 30.  Those of you who cannot get out to see him can catch him on YouTube (thanks to parkernf2!) And if you want to see if Dave Gross will be coming to your town soon, you can always check his website. But whatever you do, buy this record!

Posted by madmac10 at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)