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the best front men in the business, the album should definitely establish the band in the front rank

of U.S. blues acts.

Graham Harrison

Robben Ford—Pure—Absolute—ASIN: B09483MB8K

This is an instrumental record recorded at Casey Wasner’s
Purple House studio, with Wasner co-producing and
engineering. There are six different drummers - including

Patrick Ford, Nate Smith, Shannon Forrest and Toss Panos, four
different bassists - including Dave Roe and Steve Mackey - and
Bill Evans and Jeff Coffin blow sax on a few tracks, Ford himself
plays all the keyboards except on ‘Ballafon’ where Russell
Ferrante plays electric piano.

We begin with ‘Pure (Prelude)’ a short taster for the title track

that blends middle eastern influences with jazz, then it's ‘White
Rock Beer 8 cents’ a classy 12-bar blues with some nice riffing saxes and Robben wailing away out
front. ‘Ballafon’ is a mellow ballad with a real jazz guitar sound (this is a man who's played with
Miles Davis and Larry Carlton) and ‘Milam Palmo’ has a beautiful guitar tone and a very unusual
riff, with some unpredictable changes, while 'Go' is a bit Weather Report - built around unison

guitar and sax riffs but managing also to be funky. ‘Blues for Lonnie Johnson’ is yer actual blues -
with Robben doing his stuff over organ and sax and ‘A Dragon's Tail’ is drowning in reverb with a
twin drum drive from Panos and Forrest, with Forrest banging all over Robben's guitar solo which
I found a bit annoying. ‘Pure’ is the full length (4.15 minutes) title track elaborating on the themes
of the earlier prelude and ‘If You Want Me To’ is a bit nothing - most memorable for Brian Allen's
sudden bass solo. If you are a fan of Robben’s guitar playing, especially his more jazzy stylings,
there is plenty here for you to get your teeth into but I suspect that this isn't really one for the

casual listener.

Graham Harrison

Southern Avenue—Be The Love You Want—BMG—ASIN:
B094T2Z2ZT

We get off to a rip roaring start with the title track with Tierinii
Jackson's vocals going from a whisper to a scream and the band

locking in behind with a big drum sound, ‘Control’ drops the
pace initially but then picks it up - with added horns and ‘Push
Now’ keeps the party going with a nice guitar solo from Ori
Naftaly and more subtle horns. With ‘Fences’ we go into soul
ballad territory - like something from one of the Stax stable but

with a modern twist then ‘Heathen Hearts’ has even older nods
to the past - this is a modern take on the field holler/work song
with just vocals and percussion, with a writing credit for Cody
Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. The album was co-produced by Ori Naftaly and Steve
Berlin of Los Lobos and also sees Jason Mraz and Michael Goldwasser guesting, with the band
being Tikyra Jackson (drums, backup vocals), Jeremy Powell (keyboards) and Evan Sarver (bass).