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uniform excellence, particularly impressive to these ears are the Albert King-inspired ‘I Believe I
Got Off Cheap’, the humorous and funky ‘Hush Money’, the autobiographical slow Blues ‘Born to
Play’ and the Gospel-inspired Soul ballad ‘Down on the Ground’. None of the tracks outstays its
welcome, the longest being 4:38 mins. long.

Cain is superbly backed throughout by his excellent, ultra-tight road band, and the album is
enhanced by first-class production values. Do your ears a favour and buy it.

Pete Harris

Aris Paul Band—Ghosts—Independent

(www.arispaulband.com)

Aris Paul is a singer, a monster guitarist, a band leader and
songwriter from Pittsburgh, PA, and on this, his second album,

he leads his three musicians (organ, bass, and drums) through a
set that mixes blues and soul with classic rock. Some of these
songs are out-and-out rock (try ‘Burn’ with its nods to vintage
Black Sabbath); on other tracks they can be extremely bluesy.

For a strongly blues-inflected track, lend an ear to the slow ‘One
More Time’. He has The Soulville Horns (sax, trombone and

trumpet) helping out on the title track and adding a definite Stax
feel to this soul-influenced song. In the rocker ‘Little White Screen’ he even interjects a minute or
so of ‘Hey Joe’, Hendrix-style, and it works well.

For the most part Aris leans towards the rock side of things – this is more of a rock-blues approach
than blues-rock, if you get my meaning. It is a sound that often crosses over onto the blues scene
these days, and if that is what you go for, you’ll definitely go for this.

Norman Darwen

Katie Knipp - the Well - Independent

California-based singer/ songwriter/ keyboardist and dobro
player Katie covers a lot of ground on this five track release, but
it all remains close to the blues. Her impressive vocal range is
well-presented throughout, though none more so than on the

closing ‘Bullet Train’, which also features blues harp by Mick
Martin, and the sultry, gospel-steeped southern soul of ‘The
Gospel Of Good Intentions’, with its quiet organ cushion and
gentle horns.

There’s almost an alt.blues approach (though with a hint of New
Orleans jazz) on the opening ‘Sad Eyed Lover’, whilst
‘Chamomile And Cocaine’ is self-descriptive - and certainly not promoting anything - with a subtly

funky edge and a blues-rock break. ‘Better Me’ sounds like something from the 60s, with an almost
work song like arrangement that also includes a flute - I can’t decide whether it is jazzy or
psychedelic (probably both).

That just leaves me to advise you to check out this bluesily eclectic set, and express a hope that
Katie gives us a full-length album soon!