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| LIVE WITH POLLY O'KEARY - COLONEL & DOUBLE SHOT |
| Recorded live at the Wild Buffalo, Bellingham, Washington, the group is made up of Curran ("Colonel") Stromberg (ex-Smokin' Gun) on guitar and vocals, Polly O'Keary on bass and vocals, Dave Cashin on keyboards, and Will Clark on drums. Performing mostly cover versions of blues standards by T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Big Bill Broonzy, there are impressive individual compositions by Polly O'Keary ("What's Gone is Gone") and the Colonel's "Do What's Right, Bad Man" displays his phenomenal guitar and vocal dexterity. The duo collaborates on "How Come You're Never Home", the opening track. Ms. O'Keary has the vocal chops to carry a "barrelhouse", if you don't mind her somewhat mannish voice, but it seemed, at times, that both she and Colonel were trying too hard to get that deep-down blues growl that should just come naturally. She actually does have a sweet voice and captures the vocal essence of Janis Joplin, though, on Jimmy Reed's "You Got Me Runnin'" (a.k.a. "Peepin' and Hidin'), which morphs into "Bright Lights, Big City". She's not too shabby on the bass, either! Colonel's vocals sound a lot more natural and pleasant on the Texas blueser "Letter to My Girlfriend" (Eddie Jones). There's some great sassy rockin' on guitar and (rollin' on piano, too)! It's no surprise the Los Angeles-born native was named one of the top guitar players in Guitar Connection Fans of keyboard blues will really enjoy the contributions of Dave Cashin, who puts 100% into his playing, whether it's Stevie Ray's straight-ahead boogie ("Love Struck Baby"), Gary Moore's shuffle ("Since I Met You Babe") or on Stromberg's slow-blues pi�ce de r�sistance, "Do What's Right, Bad Man". Will Clark's performance on drums left nothing to complain about either, as he's capable of handling whatever beat is thrown at him. And speaking of slow blues, I don't personally care for jumped-up versions of same ("Stormy Monday Swing"). It seems to mock the original intent of the lyrics, especially when they don't flow smoothly or are crammed in to fit the new rhythm or tempo. On the other hand, Stromberg's version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" follows closely the psychedelicized version made famous by Jimi Hendrix, which was a definite improvement on the original while still retaining the seriousness of the subject matter. It's really quite a good collection of songs, but the excitement and appreciation from audience feedback is strangely missing due to the scarcity of audible applause expected on a live recording. |
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