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Things get real funky with ‘Long Gone’ whilst ‘Better Of Me’ has a more rock and roll feel
something along the lines of the Faces or the Rolling Stones. Things slow down with ‘I Wanna
Give It’ followed by the title track, ‘Heartbreak & Last Goodbye’ which the vocals reminded me
a little of Phil Collins. The album closes with some great bluesy riffing on ‘Keep Myself Clean’.

This band have really got it together. The rhythm section is tight, the vocals are strong, the
guitar work is great and the subtle essence of the keys really underpins and enhances the
overall sound.
You can probably detect all kinds of musical influences here, but they have an uncanny knack
of putting it all together and creating great songs and catchy tunes. You could argue this is not
strictly a blues album but I’m sure it is one that will appeal to blues fans. This is a great album
and a band that is going from strength to strength. Go check them out.

Ged Wilson

Various Artists—Antone’s: 50 Years Of The Blues—Anto-
ne’s Records ASIN : B0F4QN8CMJ

This 41-track 4 x LP collection celebrates the club established
by Clifford Antone in Austin, Texas in 1975, which served as both
a place for established blues acts to play as well as young up and
coming acts (like The Fabulous Thunderbirds) to get their start.
We kick off with a great version of Freddie King’s ‘Going Down’
by Bobby Rush and Jimmie Vaughan and talking of The Fabulous
Thunderbirds ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout My Friends’ features Kim Wilson
and the latest version of the band, plus Kim also delivers a
fabulous solo version of Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson’s ‘Don’t Touch
Me Baby’. We also get performers from Texas like Ruthie Foster with ‘Lead Me On’, Doyle
Bramhall II with ‘Bad Boy’ and ‘The Things I Used to Do’ by Marcia Ball, as well as Sue Foley,
Barbara Lynn, Lavelle White and Doug Sahm.

Neighbouring Louisiana is represented by C.J. Chenier with ‘Willie the Wimp’ and Lazy Lester
with ‘No Special Rider’. And Chicago isn’t forgotten with Muddy Waters associates Pinetop
Perkins, Jimmy Rogers, John Primer, James Cotton and not forgetting his son Big Bill Morganfield.
Plus, we also get live tracks from Chicago players like Otis Rush with ‘Double Trouble’, Eddie
Taylor ‘Bigtown Playboy’, Buddy Guy ‘Look Over Yonder’s Wall’ and Sunnyland Slim with ‘Built
Up from the Ground’. Also, in the spirit of Antone’s there are some younger artists featured here
like Kam Franklin and McKinley James, plus we get a fabulous live recording of ‘Catfish Blues
by a 20-year old Gary Clark Jr. I’m always a sucker for Los Lobos and their version of Howlin’
Wolf’s ‘Three Hundred Pounds of Joy’ is definitely one of my highlights.

There is some great music here - both the studio and the live tracks - and although the comments
by Clifford on some tracks are quite interesting, I’m afraid that for me they don’t stand up to
repeated listening and I wish they’d been left off or included as separate tracks. However, at
£171.65 from Amazon I definitely won’t be buying this coloured vinyl box set any time soon.

Graham Harrison