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well represented here with ‘Keep The Faith, Have Some Fun’. The magical foot-tapping, jangling
brass is provided by the splendid Mudbug Brass Band. The distortion of vocals, fuzz guitar and
harmonica is well suited to the melancholic ‘Albion Blues’. A starkly clear, brooding piano only
adds to this slow burning blues. Texas Blues is also well represented here with ‘Counting The
Days’, a raw animated harmonica leads stomping percussion, while a claustrophobically wailing,

striding guitar dominates. A suitably incandescent vocal from the Reverend tops it all off!

Greatly endorsed!

Brian Harman

Steve Howell, Dan Sumner & Jason Weinheimer Long Ago
Out Of The Past Music OOTP 014

Here, on this his ninth album, Steve continues on his journey of

delving into the vastness of American music, to deliver a
splendid collection of fine tunes. Steve takes lead vocals and
plays archtop and flat top acoustic guitars, as does jazz guitarist
Dan Sumner, while Jason Weinheimer provides bass.

The mixture of blues, jazz and easy listening numbers that is
contained within these eleven numbers, fully reflect Steve’s
love and affection towards the music of the first half of the 20th
century. His measured, softly lilting, relaxed baritone voice effortlessly merges with the crisply
picked guitars to produce a cocoon of warmth and comfort.

This is very evident on the Percy Mayfield penned ‘Please Send Me Someone To Love’, where the

rich mellow bass allows the guitar to gently underpin Steve’s vocals. On the evocatively spacious
and emotive ‘Angel Eyes’, Steve remains true to Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition. ‘Do Nothing ’Til You
Hear From Me’, is intentionally similar to the Mose Allison version and is all the better for it, and
features a splendidly rich solo from Dan.

The Horace Silver jazz standard, ‘Song For My Father’, has Steve extolling his love and respect
for his dad, as his restrained but heartfelt feelings pour gently from the speakers. The rich,
luxurious guitar tones that are found on the Bossa Nova instrumental ‘Dindi’, evoke thoughts of a
low tide gently lapping a sandy shore. Duke Ellington’s ‘Nothing But The Blues’, is quite simply
delightful, laidback vocals, gentle picking and a relaxed attitude. What more could you want?

Greatly endorsed!

Brian Harman.