Can there be anyone unfamiliar with the music of Robert Johnson? Even if you’ve not actually heard Po’ Bob himself, chances are you’re familiar with his songs, most of the leading (and not so leading) blues acts of the last 50 years or so have covered them. But actual albums consisting solely of Johnson’s songs are not so common, and this fourteen-track set makes me wonder why more haven’t already tried it. It’s a natural.
Blue Touch are a four-piece UK blues-rock outfit. They take the elements of Johnson’s music and emphasize different aspects - and the fact they have a wonderful female vocalist in Andrea Maria adds a different dimension, apparent immediately right from her first few notes on the opening Preachin’ Blues and again on the re-gendered Kind Hearted Fella. Co-lead singer (and guitarist) Neil Sadler is no slouch either.They go for the jugular with the electric slide playing on If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day (sounding more than a little like Eric Clapton and Cream) and turn 32-20 Blues into a strutting slab of mid-tempo blues-rock, with echoes of Little Feat to these ears, mixing fierce, dirty electric slide with a dobro and a cooking rhythm section.
By this time I’m eagerly scanning the track listing and wondering just how they’re gonna tackle the remaining ten tracks...And they don’t disappoint: a pulsating Walking Blues, a driving Travelin’ Riverside Blues, a loose Malted Milk, a grooving, Elmore James-ish Steady Rollin’ Man. Every track indeed a winner...
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