Page 46 - BiTS_09_SEPTEMBER_2022

Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters—Mercy Me—Stony
Plain ASIN : B09R7ZW6DX

This is the new album from guitarist Ronnie Earl - ex-Sugar
Ray & the Bluetones and Roomful of Blues and as usual it's a
mixture of blues, soul and jazz with Ronnie's tasteful guitar
fronting a band of Diane Blue (vocals), Dave Limina
(keyboards) Paul Kochanski (bass) and Forrest Padgett
(drums). We also have guest appearances from Anthony
Geraci (keyboards), Mark Earley (sax), Mario Perrett (sax),
Peter Ward (guitar) and Tess Ferraiolo (vocals). We begin
with a 7-minute version of Muddy Waters' 'Blow Wind Blow'
containing a 3-minute guitar solo from Ronnie and then we get a stunningly dramatic take on
John Coltrane's moody 'Alabama' and 'Blues for Ruthie Foster' is an acoustic instrumental
with guitar from Ronnie and Peter Ward, while 'Blues for Duke Robillard' is another
instrumental this time a restrained blues ballad.

I'm afraid that like most of Ronnie's albums there are just too many instrumentals here for me
- don't get me wrong they are all immaculately played with both great guitar as well as
keyboards, saxes and rhythm section. I preferred the vocal offerings like Dave
Mason's/Delaney and Bonnie's 'Only You Know and I Know' and Percy Mayfield's 'Please Send
Me Someone to Love' but even here the songs have to be extended so we get a longer
instrumental section. Another vocal offering is 'The Sun Shines Brightly' a kind of answer song
to Elmore James' 'The Sky Is Crying' and then we check out with a great version of Jackie
Wilson's 'Higher and Higher' with vocals from Diane, Tess Ferraiolo and Ronnie himself and a
lovely honking, tenor solo. I'm sure if you're a guitar player you will like this album with
Ronnie covering most styles of blues/R&B guitar playing and the rest of the band backing him
up superbly but I found the plethora of instrumentals just too distracting.

Graham Harrison

Bernie Marsden—Trios—Conquest Records ASIN:
‎B0B4H28SBQ

Amazingly this album was originally recorded in 2007 (way
before his recent 'Kings' and 'Chess' album releases) and it
continues the 'Inspirations' series with more of Bernie's
versions of songs that influenced him by guitarists such as
Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix and Eric

Clapton. The band is David Levy (bass) and the late Jimmy
Copley (drums), the original songs from 2007 were
engineered by Steve Rispin and then recently remixed by
Bernie and Jamie Masters. We blast off with Don Nix's 'Black
Cat Moan' as done by Jeff Beck but Bernie doesn't try to replicate Beck's guitar sound, this is
very much his own take, with both powerful lead guitar and slide and it's a similar story for
his version of Peter Green's 'Driftin' Blues' where he conjures up the spirit of Peter without
actually copying him. His vocal on this track is also very good - as it is on all the tracks here.