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suggests is a great foot tapping sixties style blues shuffle. ‘Snowy Mountain’ has a real prog rock
vibe to it before we move onto the short guitar led instrumental ‘Drifter’.

The drums are upfront and to the fore driving ‘Living Is For Loving’ forward whilst ‘Lazy Bones’
is a short instrumental that morphs into some blues riffing. ‘Crying’ is a blues rock with a punk
edge. ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ hits prog rock territory once again with some nice synths in the
background. ‘Rich Man’s Song’ is a rocking blues that reminded me of the Sensational Alex
Harvey Band. ‘Fourteen Wheeler Man’ is a Rolling Stones style blues rocker whilst ‘Time Is
Running Out’ is a jazzy blues with echos of T Bone Walker. There are alternative takes on
‘Snowy Mountain’ and ‘Lazy Bones’ before the album closes a reprise of ‘Rich Man’s Blues’.

There is lots to go at here with 20 original songs on the album. This album is very much guitar
oriented with some great fretwork playing from both David Conner and Barry Stones. Mick
Wheatley does a fine job on drums and band leader Pat Rowbottom really drives and moulds
this band together with his fine bass work as well as sharing vocals with Barry Stones.

This album still has that feel of the 1990’s about it both in style and sound, such as the touches
of hard stereo panning and gated reverb snare drum, for example and though the remaster
adds to the quality, it still manages to carry the essence of the original.

If you are a fan of guitar led blues rock with a hint of prog then you are sure to love this
collection of songs that started Cold Flame on their forty years journey.

Ged Wilson

Jontavius Willis—West Georgia Blues—Strolling Bones
Records ASIN : B0D5W9Q2L8

As a 19-year old Jontavius Willis was praised by both Taj Mahal
and Keb’ Mo’ (who both know a thing or two about blues!) and
this is now his third album, it was recorded at Capricorn Stu-
dios, Macon, Georgia and starts with the title track an unac-
companied ‘field holler’ about his Georgia home - “my folks
been right here since 1823”. ‘Charlie Brown Blues’, ‘Broken
Hearted Moan’ and ‘Rough Time Blues’ are all authentic coun-
try blues with just Jontavius and an acoustic guitar but the very
catchy ‘Keep Your Worries on the Dance Floor’ features a band
and electric guitar. The driving blues ‘Lula Mae’ also features a band but ‘Ghost Woman’ is a
haunting ballad which just features Jontavius and his guitar with double bass. ‘A Lift is All I
Need’ is another band song, albeit a sparse band of just guitar (Jon Atkinson), bass (Rodrigo
Mantovani) and delicious piano (Ethan Leinwand), which borrows the tune of Robert Johnson’s
‘Last Fair Deal Gone Down’ but really brings something new to it.

‘Too Close to the Finishing Line’ also has echoes of Robert Johnson with its slide guitar and
‘Earthworm Basement Blues’ features two guitars, while ‘Squirrlin’ Mama’ (“I’m nuts about that
girl…”) is another authentic blues that sounds like it could have been recorded anytime from
the 1920s to the 1950s. ‘Time Brings About a Change’ is a restrained blues with just Jontavius

and his guitar that reminded me of Skip James and ‘Lost Ball’ is another band song with electric
guitar and piano and we finish with ‘Jontavius’ West Georgia Grind’ a throwaway instrumental