CD Review
Mudcat
"Mud, Sweat, & Beers"
30 Miles Up Productions (30-CP02)
by Dave Thomas
Review date: March 2000
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1999 KBA Award Winner Achievement for Blues on the Internet Presented by the Blues Foundation
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Well a new name to me and hopefully they will be around for a long time as I really enjoyed this new CD. The album has 10 tracks of which 7 are written by singer/guitarist and leader of the band Daniel "Mudcat" Dudeck. "Rattlesnake" starts this album off with a bang, the song leaps out at a great pace with some fuzzy guitar and gritty vocals from Daniel Dudeck and a nice fiddle break from Keith Stewart. Though most of the tracks on this album are upbeat there are 3 slower tunes which are not overshadowed by the faster tunes. "First Day of May" features a duet between Lori Beth Edgeman and Daniel Dudeck and is a very good laid back song with nice bits of fiddle and harp playing. To be fair this album is a varied patchwork of blues, country and rock which gives the album a broad platform for Daniel Dudeck to show off his songwriting, singing and very good guitar playing.
"Fly Little Bird" has a country feel to it and it chugs along at fair pace. I particularly like "Marie", which is a Louisiana blues type song with some great slide guitar playing from Daniel. Slide guitar is a feature of the Blind Willie McTell, "Savannah Mama" which is played so well by Daniel. "Viper" written by Stuff Smith is a bit of lite fun and is done almost tongue in cheek, I do like the lapsteel solo by Daniel in it. "True Love" has a blistering solo on saxophone by Matt Kearney at the start of this track. "Long Haired Donney" is a lively number with slide guitar, harp and some no nonsense singing, it has a nice swampy feel to it.
Mudcat are a nice surprise and I will certainly be looking out for more things from them in the future.
www.mudcatblues.com
This review is copyright © 2000 by Dave Thomas, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved.
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