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soulful blues, roots rock, and old school R&B. And excellent it is too, relying rightly on Jenny’s

outstanding vocal skills.

The title track ‘Sweet Thing’ is a mid paced blues channeling a ‘Mannish Boy’ / ‘I’m a Man’ vibe,
with Jenny giving it all she’s got in a Koko Taylor style. Nice harp playing too. ‘Come on Home’ is
more laid back, reminding me of Sam Cook’s ‘If You Ever Change Your Mind’. Horn section too.
Fabuloso!

‘Biscuits, Bacon and The Blues’ is a fun track with wonderful lyrics. Terrific guitar solo too. My
favourite track too, I think. Covers include a delightful rhumba version of Ruth Brown’s ‘Mama He
Treats Your Daughter Mean’ and Etta James’s, ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ underpinned by some
restrained keyboard work. Right in the groove as we used to say.

This is an outstanding record by a band who have promised to come to the UK when the pandemic
allows. I’m in the queue! Did I mention she’s got a fabulous voice?

Ian K. McKenzie

Mike Brookfield—Hey Kiddo!—Golden Rule Records

Mike Brookfield’s golden rule is the music should follow “A
Buddy Holly ethic, in that they should be short, catchy and
played with youthful energy.” This, unusually, is a full album of
instrumentals celebrating the ‘surf music’ genre; the music of

Dick Dale, The Chantays (‘Pipeline’) and the Surfaris, their tune
‘Wipe Out’ perhaps one of the best known ‘surf-hits’.

The instrumental form of surf music preceded the vocal stylings
later created by the likes of the Beach Boys and was echoed to a
lesser extent in the UK by the Shadows. The instrumental form is
characterized by the extensive use of the “wet” spring reverb incorporated into Fender amplifiers

from 1961, and which was meant to emulate the sound of waves. Reverb with a wet “drippy” tone is
to the fore and guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm (whammy bar) on their guitars to bend
the pitch of notes downward; electronic tremolo effects and rapid (alternating) tremolo picking.

Well, Brookfield has it all here. Twelve outstanding (and short) instrumentals with titles like, ‘Aqua
Cat’ - ‘Bikini Robots’ - ‘Diamond Beach’ - ‘Guitar Angel’ - ‘Hey Kiddo!’ - ‘King Strut’ - ‘Surf Punk’
and ‘Wave Shaped Moon’, this stuff is about as far from the blues as you can imagine but

nonetheless, is fabulous music and for those of us of ‘a certain age’ allows you to wallow in a
nostalgia which is both soothing and blissfully reminiscent of days gone by.

Ian K. McKenzie