Page 47 - BiTS_06_JUNE_2024

REVIEWS

Billy Price—Person of Interest —Little Village LVF 1065
(www.billyprice.com)

Singer Billy Price has led his own band, and has worked with
people like Otis Clay, French guitarist Fred Chapellier and Swamp
Dogg during his long career. However, for many readers he may
still be best known for his stint with guitar ace Roy Buchanan.
That could be a little misleading though - in the nicest possible
way - as Billy is a more than rather accomplished blues and
blue-eyed soul singer - and this release captures that perfectly.

Label boss Jim Pugh - yes, he of Robert Cray band fame - plays
on this set, as do many others, with even Joe Bonamassa putting
in an appearance on one track. It is a good example of the kind of respect Billy commands.
Listening to the album does put all this into context though. The first two tracks are respectively
a fine slab of wailing soul, and a strong modern blues, with Billy’s vocals correctly right out front
and excellent arrangements. They make an impressive start, but the standard just keeps climbing
as the album progresses.

Try the funky title track or the southern soul-tinged ballad ‘Mercy’, or ‘Change Your Mind (In
Memory Of Roy Buchanan)’ - the latter with Mr Bonamassa also paying homage to the guitar great
- but really you can just pick any track at random. You may get classy blues, top-notch soul, or a
combination of the two. But I guarantee what you will get is great music.

Norman Darwen

Anthony Geraci—Tears in My Eyes—Blue Heart BHR 060
(www.blueheartrecords.com)

Boston, Massachusetts based piano player Anthony Geraci will
be familiar to many readers from his work with such stellar blues
outfits as Sugar Ray & The Blue Tones and Ronnie Earl & The
Broadcasters, as well as a lot of very fine session work. This
release has him with a strong band and some fine guests and was
recorded partly in Massachusetts and partly in Prague in the
Czech Republic. Just to keep things cosmopolitan, I’ll note it was
mastered in the UK - Malmesbury in fact, so within the BiTS
catchment area!

It is a very fine and listenable release too. Anthony’s old boss
Sugar Ray Norcia provides his usual first-rate vocals on three fine blues (‘Broken Mirror, Broken
Mirror’ sounds like Muddy and his band with Otis Spann on piano), the pianist sings one himself
- and does it well, I have to add - whilst his guitarist Barrett Anderson sings on the modern
sounding title track and rock-inflected ‘Witchy Ways’.

There are also five varied instrumentals, from the cool soul-jazz of ‘Oh No’ to the mood piece of
‘Memphis Mist’ with Anne Harris supplying the violin playing. All in all, this is a rather diverse
set, documenting the considerable talents of an important figure on today’s blues scene.
Norman Darwen