This is no ordinary blues album. For a start Jony James has the kind of voice that oozes a life of struggle and reflection. His long linear Albert King style guitar lines are not the stuff of a dazzling guitar player with a million licks in his locker, but rather an adjunct to some of the most soulful and low down bluesy material it’s been my pleasure to hear for a very long time.
The whole album is a curious affair with enough raggedy moments and unconventional musical progressions to keep you guessing as to his next move. But such is the naked honesty and emotional turmoil of the material that really Jony could have cut this album completely on his own. The fact that his accompanying band have added much to arrangements of some beautiful material, speaks volumes for a line-up that reputedly gigs over 200 shows a year.
The opening “Hit The Street” asks the question ‘ are you a lonely lonely soul’? , and drips pure emotion. On the following slide led groove, “I Don’t Know Love”, Jony suddenly goes off into a different key and a seemingly oblique musical tangent but it’s a slow burner that after repeated plays makes sense like the missing piece of a jigsaw.
The band offers fine support throughout as Jony plays beautiful slide, and guest Mark Nanni adds some lovely piano embellishments. As with all this album, Joni leans into the groove and digs up some wonderful guitar tone colours, and expressive vocals. Three cuts in, he delivers a soul classic “Time Is All I Got (or haven’t got)”, a smoking soulful piece that redefines the notion of space between the notes, and he tops the whole piece with an achingly beautiful, soul drenched vocal delivery. Not since Wolfman Washington has a blues artist got so low down with his demons.
On “Don’t Let It Blow Your Mind”, Jony adds some Duanne Allman sounding slide, as his peerless rhythm section of bassist Rod Horning and Ken “Boom Boom Leech swing, oh so gently. Perhaps this is the track that has people mentioning Hendrix as an influence, but vocally it’s closer to Luther Allison. Jony hails from Buffalo and after a couple of decades in Chicago – including being mentored by the likes of JB Hutto and Eddie Taylor – he’s returned back home, and in truth established his very own unique style.
For while the rest of the blues world is straining at the leash to present itself as a meaningful contemporary package, Jony is proving himself to be the real deal with an album that quite simply oozes soulful blues.
“Time Flies” is a flighty shuffle on which Jony’s croaky voice is a neatly counter pointed by the cleanest, solo’s imaginable, while Rod lays down a superb walking bass line, as Kent nails down the groove. JB Hutto would surely have smiled at his pupil’s raw attack.
The final cut “In This World” is almost a coda of the opening “Hit The Street”, in terms of its delicate soulful vocal delivery and emotional honesty. To these ears Jony James is a real blues find, imbued with every facet you could ever ask for ranging from an all too rare ability to convey his feelings in both his lyrics and his playing. Credit to Kim Simmons for engineering the session with real feel, and label boss Greg Spencer for running with the project. This is one of the most moving blues albums of the last few years.
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