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400 Bears—400 Bears—Independent Release

Paul Wilkinson is an artist from Modena Pennsylvania USA steeped
in the tradition of American music. Paul has just released a solo
album, self titled and under the name, 400 Bears.

‘Borderline’ opens the album with a lovely easy going country feel
blues that has slight shades of Donovan’s ‘Colours’ in there. Next
up is ‘Memories’ a laid back jazzy blues. Paul has a lovely gentle
voice with a subtle richness about it with echoes of Chris Rea.
There is some fantastic jazzy organ to be had on this track, this is
my album favourite.

It’s back to Paul’s country roots with ‘Holy Place’ and ‘Take It Slow’ which ironically has an up
tempo rootsy bluegrass feel about it. There is some cool laid back bluesy guitar to be had on the
slow blues ‘Cold Situation’. Paul pays homage to his old automobile on ’80’s Mercedes’ with some
funky guitar and that lovely jazzy organ once again. There are hints of Robben Ford here, I really

liked this one.

There is some spirited bluesy acoustic slide guitar on the instrumental ‘Good Bear’. The album
comes to a close with the only non self penned song on here, the traditional ‘Take This Hammer’.
Paul’s version puts a different spin on this old work song in that the gentleness within his voice
coupled with some smooth lap steel from Brad Hinton makes this quite soothing to listen to. This is

just as well as this song lasts for nine minutes, alas the final two and a half minutes seem to
meander off instrumentally which is a shame because it didn’t quite do it for me, but hey this is but
a minor gripe from yours truly!

Paul has clearly invested his experience and love of American music here to come up with such a

fine album. This album is well produced and the band pulls together to support these well
constructed songs. I particularly liked Paul’s voice which really suited this style of music. I’m also a
sucker for some great sounding jazz organ and Scott Coulter delivers in spades. If you like your
Blues with a Country, Americana vibe then this could be the album for you.

Ged Wilson

Linsey Alexander—Live At Rosa’s—Delmark Records

Linsey Alexander was born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis

Tennessee but has been a stalwart of the Chicago Blues scene for
two decades. Back in 2005 I was in Chicago with my then Blues
band, ‘No Money Down’ and was fortunate enough to get to see
Linsey play at The Kingston Mines club so I was looking forward to
hearing this live album recorded at another of Chicago’s legendary
Blues clubs, Rosa’s Lounge. This will be his fourth album for the

Chicago label, Delmark records.

The album opens with ‘Please Love Me’ that gets straight into the
groove with some great organ sounds that helps swing this blues along. Then it’s into ‘My Days are
So Long’ which is a bit more funky with an Otis Rush vibe about it.

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