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| "Be brutal!!!" This was the directive I was offered by guitarist Mark Riley in my review of his CD. Fortunately, apart from two minor incidents where I heard a "faux pas" in the drumwork (by Steve Sarkowsky), there's absolutely nothing to be brutal about. On the first track, "Madman", it was really just the slight pause before the last beat that irked me, and lots of drummers do that. The second instance was towards the end of the ensuing track, "I Think I Love This Girl", where there was definitely a bit of a fumble with the sticks. But that's being petty, not brutal. I did find the guitar song on this track to be a bit "fuzzy", though. From there on, it was pure bliss. Mark does a Jimmy Page-Nick Vigarino sliding steel guitar "chucking around" of his own on "Steel Blues", accompanied by the ever-percussive delights of Chris "Zippy" Leighton, who also spices up "Preachin' Blues" and "Congo Square". The perfect complementary mix of Ric Ulsky's B3 and Mark's slow-blues electric guitar are wrapped up nicely in Mark's smoothly crooning vocals on the memorable "Sunday Mourn'", which is followed by the strains of alternately purring/strutting harmonica and equally appealing vocals of Paul Green on "Bye Bye Baby" (about your "typical" no-good redheaded woman, she says with her tongue firmly in cheek). Ric Ulsky has played with too many bands to mention them all, but in the Seattle area, he has played with Smokin' Gun, Nicole Fournier and Rod Cook & Toast, among others, and I just recently learned that he had played on a long-term basis with Chuck Berry! "Preachin' Blues" is a perfect imitation of Robert Johnson, as I immediately recognized the playing style before discovering this was the only non-original track on the CD. "Sing the Blues" ups the tempo, with Mark demonstrating not only his talent for playing resonator guitars but for building them as well (see www.rnbguitars.com)! "What Colour Blue" is a honky-tonk swayer appropriating the playing style that Eric Clapton popularized but which most likely originated from someone like Fats Domino or another early father of the blues. Ric effected a nice "player piano" sound on this track, which also features Lisa Ramaglia (Duffy Bishop Band) on bass guitar. "Green Blues" is an excellent mid-tempo blues with Spanish colouring in the fluid classical styling on electric guitar. It is apparently a tribute to infamous bluesbreaker Peter Green, but it owes just as much to the sound of Carlos Santana. Steve Sarkowski is absolutely dynamic on this track! "It Doesn't Matter" made me ache for the lost talent of the late Dave Conant in the sentimental country-blues patterning of the composition. Paul Green guests again on harmonica on "Keep Movin'", a folk-blues that evokes images of lazing around in a backyard hammock on a warm summer afternoon. "Congo Square" is a tribal jazz-blues fusion that actually is a bit out-of-place with the overall mellowness of the CD, but it's an exciting warm-up track if you're looking for a "booster" shot. This one's definitely going in the "favourites" collection for 2003!! Diane Wells |
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| CONFESSIONS OF A MADMAN - MARK RILEY |
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