Page 42 - BiTS_04_APRIL_2021

Georgia Randall—Hound Dog—Independent

Now living in Florida, singer/ guitarist/ songwriter Georgia told
her story in September 2020’s edition of BITS, from early days

singing in church and listening to rock and roller Gene Vincent
and his father playing guitars at a house just down the street.

Her fourth album, Hound Dog is a very fine set of blues and
roots music – the title track is of course the Big Mama Thornton
number that helped a certain Mr. Presley start his career, and
Georgia updates it tastefully, though keeping the flavour of the

50s. She shows a fondness for the music of the 60s too, with a
contemporary re-working of Buffalo Springfield’s anthemic ‘For
What It’s Worth’, and subtle Indian shadings on the otherwise soul-styled ‘She Likes It’.

The old folk-blues staple ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ gets a strong re-imagining as a slow blues ballad
with soul touches, and the set opens with the catchy blues-rock groove of ‘Isolation Blues’. ‘Fever’ is
an older original of Georgia’s, here present as an excellent sultry blues, as is the slightly sprightlier

‘VooDoo’, with wah wah guitar, before Georgia invites the listener to her ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Party’, with
the music certainly appropriate, and ‘Ms Sadie’ falls somewhere between the blues grooves of The
Rolling Stones and the sassiness of Tina Turner.

So, chalk up another good-timin’ blues and roots winner for Ms Randall. Recommended.

Norman Darwen

(www.georgiarandall.com)

Ajay Srivastav—Innocent People—Scion Records

Ajay often mixes the Mississippi blues with his Indian heritage
extremely successfully, and this single is another example of just
how well he can do it. Here he comments on the unfairness of
the world, sung passionately and convincingly with even just a

hint of vintage Bob Dylan to the track, accompanied by his
excellent slide playing on his steel guitar, and with tabla also
prominent, and he manages to remain positive. Ajay is always
well worth a listen and this pointedly political track is no
exception. His second album “Powerless” is another set, due
later in the year.

Norman Darwen

(www.ajayhq.com)