Mike Darak is something of an unknown quantity. There are no liner notes to help you, but it turns out that Darak is a Chicago based musician and artist. Influenced by blues and roots music, and with a penchant for 1960's/70's rock, Darak has recently released his own CD, "Nineteen Ten."
There is a lilting reggae-like beat underpinning the opening track, "You Do The Same." It shows that Darak has a decent voice, and his guitar playing is crisp and clean. There is an apparent soul influence in there, and on the ensuing "The World Is My Ghetto." The most obvious like with soul music is on "Bring It On Home To Me," though. It is quite a neat arrangement, combining acoustic guitar, harp and piano, but Darak is no Sam Cooke... but then again, you could say that about many singers.
The bluesiest moments come on "Gonna Love You Anyway." It has some raw guitar playing, and manages to capture some of the essence of Howling Wolf. Elsewhere, though, the album has elements of roots ("These Changes"), country ("Do You Know," and "Shine On Me"), and funk ("Sweet Brown Angel"), before Darak returns to tip his hat towards the Caribbean on "Live In Love," which closes proceedings.
On "Nineteen Ten" everything is nicely done, but it was one of those albums that never really grabbed my attention. It is not a blues album by any stretch of the imagination. It does have a few bluesy moments but, if anything, the most dominant sounds are a lilting reggae-like beat that is sometimes combined with a more soulful attack. All in all, though, a pleasant enough way to pass 35 minutes or so.
www.mikedarak.com
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