Lonnie Knight is one of those musicians who has been around for a long time and played with a diverse range of people and on numerous albums and CD's. As a singer songwriter, he has penned seven out of the fourteen cuts on his latest solo release. This is a collection of guitar and keyboard based blues songs, which sound like something you might hear during a typical night in a blues club. Most of the songs are slow to medium tempo and lean towards Midwest blues in overall style. Even the faster songs have a laid back feel to them. Generally the songs share musical duties between guitar, harmonica and keyboards with none particularly featured over the other.
The opening track 'One Apple', one of the more up-tempo songs on the CD is a fairly fast rocking blues. Track two, 'Blues Attack', continues the rocking tempo with plenty of guitar leads which lean towards Texas blues territory but never quite gets there. 'Miss Claudia' changes the whole feel to a swing style blues leaning towards Brian Setzer Rock-a-Billy style. 'King of The Jungle' sounds like something that Elton John could
have done. Vocally Lonnie Knight sounds similar to him on this song. 'The Dark Side' changes styles again, into the acoustic folk/blues arena of music. 'Sweet Little Mystery' is a lazy ballad with an early 60's vibe to it. It reminds me of the songs that the early 60's solo singers might have done.
Bottom Line: Listening to this CD, I know that a lot of these songs would be killer in a live venue. Vocally and musically there's little to criticize on this release. The overall production is good and the variety of styles is always good. It's always better to have a wide range of musical styles represented and Lonnie Knight has accomplished
that here. If you like your blues a little laid back, without overpowering guitar work, then you would probably like this release.
Lonnie Knight - Vocals, Guitar
Reid Papke - Bass
Marcus Bohn - Drums
Scott Greenwood - Keyboards
Web sites:
www.LonnieKnight.com
www.AquariumRecords.com
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This review is copyright © 2002 by Robert T. Murphy, and Blues On Stage at: www.mnblues.com, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without written permission.
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