Rating 4.5
Not just another old soulMaybe it takes a musician to really "get" Nick Curran, the Horton brothers ability as producers and immensely talented Nitelife rhythm section. More accurately, maybe it takes a musician who has done his or her homework both on their instrument and on their stereo. If "Doctor Velvet" was released by any other blues artist it would be considered a master work. Nick has his best years ahead of him so I hesitate to refer to it as such. Not since Jimmie Vaughan strapped it on with the Thunderbirds has there been a guitarist so confident of his ability that he doesn't need to play ridiculously long and pointless solos to validate his place in the blues world. Like Jimmie, his playing is perfectly appropriate for the arrangement. Tone, vice speed serves as his foundation. Speaking of the arrangement, Nick's skill as a composer, student of many regional styles, and bandleader will most likely be overlooked by the casual listener. Maybe that is his flaw. Who is going to see the originality in his take on the Hank Williams classic "Cold, Cold, Heart" or appreciate the sparse arrangement ala the Otis Rush Cobra sides on "Driving me Crazy?" Who but Gatemouth will be able to appreciate "Midnight Hour" and "Stopmin' at the Fort?" If the arrangements and guitar playing weren't enough, Curran is the single best young blues singer on the scene - his recent Handy Award serves as a testament to that. Nick is clearly the most talented artist on Blind Pig. He is not some poser sporting a baggy suit and clinging to the promise of the immediately unimportant neo-swing movement. He is clearly above that and I hope the label (as Blue Note did with Nora Jones) realizes what they have in him. Obviously Nick Curran did not originate this music but why is it acceptable for jazz musicians to play straight-ahead but not ok for blues or country players to? Why does the industry and the public want to homogenize every aspect of American music? Give the kid his propers, he really is the best out there right now... and like it or not he will be for a long, long time. Besides, if Kim Wilson, Junior Watson, Jimmie Vaughan, and Preston Hubbard believe in this kid that's enough for me. He's playing blues people and doing it well!People who insist on lumping Nick into retro swing circles should consider buying some 1950's sides from T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Gatemouth Brown, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, just to name a few. While you're at it, try some Jimmy Reed and a splash of Magic Sam. (Now I know why Nick pulled the grease out of his hair.) Yes, Nick does jump with the best of them (Wynonie Harris and Jimmy Liggins would be proud, T-bone and Pee Wee Crayton too), but he'll turn around and whack you with a spot on Ike Turner if need be. Seen any retro swing bands pull of a Wynonie Harris vocal lately? How about Little Richard? Jimmy Reed or Otis Rush? Then again, nothing cries retro swing quite like opening a set with Magic Sam's, "Lookin' Good". Hold onto your "Go, Daddy, Go", your purple, tiger striped, bowling shirts, and your vacuous associations and criticism, based solely on CD cover art, and do your homework. Nick has.It's 2003......not 1953. The music is well played and conceived, but I'm tired of these period costume get-ups performers of Nick's ilk
are dressed up in. Pompadours, baggy suits and the like went out with the Eisenhower administration...get with it, cats! |
