You don’t learn the blues, you have to live the blues to play the blues. I mean, learn all your lessons the hard way early on so you wise up on fools trying to come up on you; eat, sleep, and shit in places you never thought you would, learn to cry on cue, love your lover, leave your lover, kill your lover for leaving you, beg for money, have sex for shelter, drink your sorrows, fight your way out of a bar, eat your weight in humble pie, then pick up a guitar and let it all out. Yeah that’s a lot like this record. If you liked the first Soledad release, it just keeps getting better with this latest offering. It sways with more rock’n’roll and (good, old) country with a heavy nod to seventies gospel/country-tinged Rolling Stones. The Brothers (key lyricist Johnnie Walker and drums virtuosity Ben Swank) have added the organ, guitar, and sax accompaniment of Oliver Henry, making the Soledad more concentric with their new sound and direction. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re a fan of the previous debut record of packed, solid white meat albacore blues, then you’re gonna be a bigger fan than ever before with this here new record. The oggity boogity keeps in step with their rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowwel’s “Break ‘Em Down” and a curious revision of “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone.” Oh yeah, break it on down, sit on that porch, sweat your toxins out, and pray for death or rain… or both – just listen to this record, damn it.
–nam (Estrus)