| CD REVIEW |
| NAKED BLUES - LITTLE BILL |
| This musical effort is unusual in that the bandleader's chosen instrument is a bass guitar, along with his raunchy, blues-natural, vocals, which are not unlike those of Duane Allman or Van Morrison (although he's been compared to Joe Tex and Ray Charles, whose song, "Hard Times" is covered on the CD). Bill's minimalist bass-playing and heartfelt lyrics are augmented through the immense talents of Mark Riley on guitars and Montana mandolin and Tom Morgan on drums. "Little Bill" Englehart, a notorious Northwestern U.S. musician who had a hit in the '50s with "I Love An Angel", continues to produce some fine songwriting here, with over half of the tracks being his own compositions. He obviously doesn't care much for window dressing, staying close to the highly effective bare-bones (aptly titled "naked") approach, whether it's blues-defining melancholia such as the CD opener, "Never Been to Mississippi" or the uptempo country-blues "Don't Say You Love Me"). His self-portrait as an unrecognized songwriter, comparable to Hank Williams and J.J. Cale, I think, is spelled out in the country-blues of "Don't Know What I'm Doing Wrong" ("�waiting for someone famous just to sing my songs"). Mark Riley, although sweetly accompanying Little Bill on electric and acoustic guitar and mandolin throughout the CD, absolutely shines on "Evil" (authorship unknown). In fact, he has been justifiably nominated as best acoustic guitar player in the 14th annual Washington Blues Society (www.wablues.org) Best of the Blues (BB) Awards Show on April 29/02 in Seattle. Little Bill is also nominated for an award in the general songwriting category. Because he is not strictly a blues songwriter, in the "purist" sense, Little Bill did not receive a nomination in this particular category, but his "Back Door Blues", as well as "Never Been to Mississippi", both outstanding slow-blues tracks on this CD, would have qualified him in my books! Tom Morgan is one of those drummers like Charlie Watts whose skills are so subtle they blend in throughout the project without causing any waves or detracting from the star players but without which the overall sound might have a detrimental effect. Another cover song on the CD is Louis Jordan's "Early in the Morning", also covered on John Mayall's recently-released "Along for the Ride". The difference in the two interpretations is like night and day, and although both are splendidly presented, I prefer the laid-back approach here. Little Bill is also a contributing writer with the monthly Blues To Do (www.bluestodo.com), a popular and influential Seattle blues magazine published by Marlee Walker, host of "Preachin' The Blues" on KEXP-90.3 FM or live streaming at www.kexp.org. The magazine, connected with the Northwest Blues website (www.nwblues.com), is also published in hard-copy and has a who's who of both Canadian and US advertisers, including Alligator Records, Washington Blues Society, Toronto's Rounder/Bullseye Records and Stony Plains Records, Montreal's Justin Time Records and the Vancouver Folk Festival. Currently under the eclectic artist roster of Merrimack Records (www.merrimackrecords.com), which includes award-winning slide guitarist Nick Vigarino, vocalist Kathi McDonald and keyboardist Chris Ho, Bill Englehart is a songwriting bass guitarist who has successfully proved "you don't got to come from Texas to do the blues". |
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