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REVIEWS

Travellin’ Blue—Take the Edge Off—Donor /
Naked NP 099
www.donor.company/naked

This experienced Belgian five-piece had a major
update in 2023, changing their name from
Travellin’ Blue Kings. They open this set with some

blues-rock in ‘Better Left Unsaid’, before ‘No
Gooder’ takes a somewhat grittier approach, with

JB Biesmans’ vocal adding a slight air of menace
and Luke Alexander’s guitar break pretty mean-
sounding. The next couple of numbers have
contrasting sixties sounds, with ‘The Closer Is King’ slower and thoughtful, and

‘Down The Rabbit Hole’ jazzy, with some fine organ playing by Patrick Cuyvers.

JB sings and plays harp and sax on the modern-sounding, bluesy pop of ‘Death Smiles
At Us All’, ‘Come Hell Or High Water’ has a throbbing rhythm, a tough sound and

another menacing vocal and was the first single from the album, whilst the track
‘Take The Edge Off’ itself is a controlled rock-blues and at one time would also have

made a strong single (good sax solo again too).

The positive ‘After All’ is the mellowest track here, and leads into the straight-
forward initially sax-led blues shuffle of the suitably titled instrumental ‘Hellhole

Shuffle’. This listenable set then closes with the funk and blues inflected ‘Lay Down
Knuckle Under’ introduced by some fine Albert King-styled guitar licks.

Norman Darwen

Early James—Medium Raw—Easy Eye Sounds
www.earlyjames.com

Producer Dan Auerbach’s admiration for the
(literally) in house recordings of people like
Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi Fred McDowell

by Arhoolie Records’ Chris Strachwitz, made him
look for a similar setting for this set, the third
album from Birmingham, Alabama singer and

guitarist Early James. He found it in Nashville,
Tennessee.

Fredrick James Mullis Jr. a.k.a. Early James was

accompanied on most numbers by long-time bassist Adrian Marmolejo, drummer
Jeff Clemens, and percussionist Sam Bacco, with each man in a separate room. The