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Howlin Wolf here. The album closes with some good old rocking piano and spoons for percus-
sion to accompany Duwayne on ‘Lord Have Mercy On Me’.

Don’t expect any slick production or clever recording tricks here. There’s no sign of E.Q. or
compression or indeed any sort of enhancements at all. This is more of a field recording, the
blues played on the front porch with friends and family enjoying the vibe in the background.

The guitar and vocals are raw and true with plenty of rhythm and drive in the North Missis-
sippi hills blues tradition ensuring that the Burnside legacy lives on. This is the real blues—
please give this album your full attention!

Ged Wilson

Bison Hip—Mid Life Crisis—Bad Monkey Records

Bison Hip are a blues rock band from Glasgow and have start-

ed to build up some momentum on the back of their excellent
debut release, ‘Dear Greens And Blues’. The boys are back
with a follow up EP; ‘Mid Life Crisis’.

The opening track is indeed the title track, ‘Mid Life Crisis’
which has great appeal and you can see why they chose this
song as their single. As the title suggests it neatly taps into us
guys of a certain vintage and our mid life quandaries, wheth-
er that be getting a new tattoo or buying a big red motorcy-
cle, or even contemplating 50 as the new 49, it’s all here! This blues song uses a variation of
the ‘Riot Going On’, ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ type vibe that gives it a new lease of life, but it’s the
clever turnaround and vocal technique they have used here that really makes this song a kill-
er for me.

‘Low’ mellows things out a little and there is a hint of Jamie Cullum in the vocal whilst ‘Oh
Lord, Let Me Be’ has a great opening riff that brought to mind fellow blues rockers, the mighty
King King. ‘The Grafter’ has a nice acoustic guitar opening and the lead vocal has a hint of Paul
Rodgers about it. There are some lovely backing vocals here that carry this song through to a
nice gospel handclap outro. The EP closes with ‘New Town’ a cool soulful tale of trying to get
over a break up that is really enhanced with some tasteful lead guitar.

As per their previous release the instrumentation and musicianship here is first class. The
songs are both well constructed and well produced and really lend themselves for Paul Slo-

way’s excellent seasoned vocal delivery. Bison Hip are a first class band that write great songs
and are certainly a band to watch out for, go check them out.

Ged Wilson