Page 53 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2024

Curtis Salgado—Fine By Me—Little Village

This new album from Curtis was recorded in eight different
studios – four in his hometown of Portland, Oregon and four
in California, including multiple overdubs in Kid Andersen’s
Greaseland. Consequently it includes a bewildering regiment
of musicians including Robert Cray, Anson Funderburgh, Jim
Pugh, Kid Andersen, Jerry Jemmott, Tony Braunagel, Jimi Bott,
Lisa Anderson, Terry Wilson and Teresa James. The
humorous song ‘My Girl’s a Nut’ starts us off with long-time
collaborator Alan Hager on guitar and there’s more humour
on the title track, a co-write with long-time Bonnie Raitt
guitarist George Marinelli, with Curtis imagining meeting
Jackie Onassis, Muhammad Ali, Iggy Pop and Malcolm X?!? Curtis first came to fame as
vocalist/harp player with the Robert Cray Band and his old boss joins him on O.V. Wright’s ‘I’m
Gonna Forget About You’ which appeared on their first album in together in 1980.

Anson Funderburgh joins Curtis for the final two blues songs ‘You Give the Blues a Bad Name’
and ‘Under New Management’, both with a three- piece brass section and the latter including a
really expressive harp solo from Curtis. It’s not all blues though - ‘Better Things to Lie About’
is swinging soul with Kid Andersen on guitar, ‘Niki Hoeky’ is strange Roger Miller-style country,
‘Hear the Lonely Hearts’ is gospel with The Sons of the Soul Revivers adding their backing vocals
and ‘The Only Way Out’ has a Spanish feel. This is a very good album with lots of variety, Curtis
has a wonderful emotive voice and he is also a fine harmonica player and he wrote or co-wrote
nine of the twelve songs here – many of them with quirky humorous lyrics.

Graham Harrison

Eden Brent—Getaway Blues—Yellow Dog ASIN:
B0D3FJDGRD

I’ve been a fan of Mississippi-based Eden ‘Little Boogaloo’
Brent for a number of years now and was therefore surprised

when I learned that she’d recorded this album (her first new
material in ten years) at London’s Fish Factory Studio.
However, apparently she’s married to British-born jazz
trombonist Bob Dowell and the couple recorded the album in
just two days while back on holiday in the UK, with the album
then being mixed in Memphis by Matt Ross-Spang. Bob used
his connections in the UK to get studio musicians Rob
Updegraff (guitar) and Pat Levett (drums) to play on the
album with Eden doing the vocals and keyboards and Bob playing bass. We get underway with
the title track a rolling boogie with some nice tasteful guitar from Updegraff and ‘Watch the
World Go By’ is a poignant, cool Mose Alison-style slow blues, while with ‘What You Want’ we
move to New Orleans.
‘You On My Mind’ is a melodic Norah Jones-style country song with electric piano and more

great guitar from Updegraf, ‘He Talks About You’ is jazzy and reminded me of BB King’s
‘Hummingbird’ and ‘Just Because I Love You’ is dazzling in the way that it swings – both Eden’s
singing and her very busy piano. We’re back to a slow blues with ‘Mississippi Got Me Crying’
but this is a romantic, melodic nod to Eden’s home state and with ‘Rust’ we have more slow
blues with Eden howling the lyrics which describe how “her man sticks to her like rust…” and

finally the electric piano shuffle ‘Gas Pumping Man’ is full of automobile-based double-entendres.