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REVIEWS

Pete Robson—Nobody Wins—Self Release

Pete Robson is a solo acoustic blues artist from Dorset UK and is
well known on the blues circuit in that region. “Nobody Wins” is
his second album release.

The album opens with ‘I Don’t Know (What The Hell Is Going On)’
a driving foot stomping blues. ‘Always Find A Drink’ has a great

resonator guitar vamp with some subtle slide work thrown in. It’s
not very often I hear a tale about false teeth in the lyrics but ‘The
Mushroom Song’ has it all! There is a much more upbeat twelve
bar blues feel to ‘Jeans’ as he compares them to his troubles that won’t go away.

‘Frank’ is a dark tale with a more country blues feel to it whilst ‘Passionate Fool’ has a more
minor blues edge. ‘Journey To The Grave’ as the title suggests is a story about life that is carried
along nicely by the driven upbeat backing. The album closes with a tale of living the hard life
with ‘Bastards Still Want More’.

This is an album of stripped back acoustic blues, just a resonator guitar, foot stomp and vocals.
The recording and production delivers on the stripped back vibe. Pete has a deep rich voice
which at times reminds me of Dom Martin. He has an almost conversational style of singing
which at times has hints of an American twang in there. His guitar playing is solid with touches
of slide without over cooking it. The foot stomp helps to drive the songs along in that old rural
blues style.

Most of these songs are based around a one chord vamp and with having only a guitar, foot

stomp and vocals to work with can at times start to sound a bit ‘samey’, not really a criticism as
such but more of a challenge that faces solo artists and this might be something Rob should
consider for his next album. He writes interesting lyrics and has a certain style about him and if
you like rural blues say something in the style of R.L. Burnside then you should enjoy this album.

Ged Wilson

John Emil—Timeline—Self Release

John Emil is a solo acoustic blues artist from Florida USA and has
gigged many times in the UK over the years. His new album
“Timeline” contains 26 tracks no less!

The album opens with ‘Payday’ a strong slide driven tune fol-
lowed by ‘Plum Branch’ a very short bluesy instrumental. ‘Our
Number One’ is another short slide guitar led instrumental whilst
‘The Day Is Out’ has a rather gentle mellow vibe but once again
another brief instrumental.