There’s plenty to like here, if you’re a fan of the blues.
Clinch! is the new release from Danish quartet The Blues Overdrive. A follow-up to the band’s 2012 debut (which was awarded Debut Album of the Year by German music magazine Wasser Prawda), the new album has ten songs which cover a number of blues bases – the classic Chicago grit, the Mississippi delta groove and atmospheric swamp blues.
“Pistol Blues”, “Rolling Thunder”, “Woman Of Love” (see clip below) and “Living Here Without You” hit a J.J. Cale-type rhythm, full of reverb, a magnetic channel that just keeps on going (try to stop that foot tapping, if you can!). It’s not fancy and that’s the attraction. “Cherry” has a light touch, almost calypso in feel (with Chicago lap steel player Joel Patterson). There’s guitar muscle on “Three Time Lover” (featuring distinguished blues guitarist Duke Robillard*) and “Lay Your Burdon (sic) Down” and plenty of funk and slow build in “Daughter Of The Devil” (also with Robillard) and “Aurora”.
This is a fine blues album which gets to the essence of the spirit of the genre.
The Blues Overdrive are:
Martin Olsen – vocals & guitars
Andreas Andersen – guitars
Thomas Birck – bass & resonator
Lars Heiberg – drums & percussion
“On this album we have tried to cut to the chase and get the sound as minimalistic as possible. It’s about
getting into the core of the songs. We tease other genres and use fragments from tunes of old masters like
Lightnin’ Hopkins and Robert Jr. Lockwood. That way we can keep within the blues tradition, but without it
becoming a museum act or irrelevant in 2015.”“In blues circles too often there is too much focus on long solos and too little about the overall presentation of the songs! We are trying to avoid this the best we can!“ – Martin Olsen
Track Listing:
Pistol Blues
Rolling Thunder
Three Time Lover
Woman of Love
Daughter of The Devil
Jealous
Cherry
Lay Your Burdon Down
Living Here Without You
Aurora
Album Credits:
Recorded at Cherry Recording Studios
Mixed at Apparat Studio, Copenhagen by Kristian Gadegaard & Lars Heiberg
All songs written by Martin Olsen except “Daughter of The Devil” written by John Németh
Produced by The Blues Overdrive
* Robillard has had distinguished solo career, toured and recorded with Tom Waits, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Bob Dylan. Robillard played a key role on Dylan’s pivotal album from 1998 Time Out of Mind which received three Grammy awards.
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