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Ally Venable—Money & Power—Ruf Records
ASIN :B0DSYRWYH7

Like her previous album 2023’s ‘Real Gone’ this
new one (her sixth) was produced by Tom
Hambridge, with Mike Greenberg also back on
guitar but the rest of the band are all new - Luke
Mosely and Tim Lauer (keyboards), EJ Bedford
(bass/keyboards), Rob Coreton (bass), Isaac Pulido
(drums), Jorion Dawson (sax) and Jason Grant
(trumpet). When I reviewed her first couple of
albums I thought that she was an unlikely blues
guitar star but each album has been better than
the one before and “Real Gone” was very good –
including as it did great collaborations with Buddy Guy and Joe Bonamassa amongst
others. We blast off here with ‘Brown Liquor’ a moody, rocking number featuring
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram on guitar, followed shortly by the title track an anthemic
riff-y rocker with a wah-wah guitar solo but I wasn’t too keen on the vocals.
The album features 11 original songs written by Ally, Hambridge and Richard
Flemming and one cover - a heavy rock take on Janet Jackson’s ‘Black Cat’ and
‘Heal Me’ has a similar heavy rock feel with slashing chords and distorted slide
guitar. I did enjoy ‘Stopper Back Papa’ a fun cod-reggae song “I get frisky when
the whiskey goes to my head…” with a nice guitar solo and both ‘Legends’ and
‘Keep Me in Mind’ are also pleasant, melodic songs but a long way from the blues.
The dramatic power ballad ‘Unbreakable’ features Ally sharing the vocals with
Shemekia Copeland and unfortunately it just highlights Shemekia’s vocal superiority
– don’t get me wrong, few vocalists could come anywhere close to Shemekia!
‘Stepping Stone’ is a nice, melodic bluesy ballad and ‘Feel That Sting’ ups the pace
and reminded me a bit of ‘Spirit in the Sky’. I’m afraid that I didn’t think that this
album was half as good as “Real Gone” - mainly because it wasn’t as bluesy - she
seems to have moved much more into mainstream rock, almost Sheryl Crow
territory – nothing wrong with that and I can see that it may bring her more sales
than a more blues-based album.

Graham Harrison
Hans Theessink—75th. Birthday Bash—Blue
Groove ASIN :B0DWG26B53

Hans Theessink – the Dutch Ry Cooder! - celebrates
his 75th. birthday with this 2 CD set recorded live
at concerts in Vienna in 2023 and 2024 with
material from throughout his career and featuring

artists that he has collaborated with over the years.
Openers ‘Bridges’ and ‘What Will the Children Play’
feature Austrian pianist Roland Guggenbichler, who
also appears on several other tracks on CD 1, as

do Insingizi a Zimbabwean vocal group in the style
of Ladysmith Black Mambazo and also Douglas
Linton & the Plan Bs. Eric Bibb and his wife Ulrika join Hans on ‘Send Us Brighter