Review: Skinny Blue — Skinny Blue
A sweet sadness and refreshing naivete that a well written rock n roll song can change the world fills the songs on the debut self-titled release from Skinny Blue due out February of 2017. The sound quality is top notch and credit is due to the team of engineer Cassidy Peterson and producer Brian Sloss who recorded the group led by guitarist singer songwriter Thys Wallwork at famed Robert Lang Studios after he won a Battle of the Bands sponsored by the studio. That gave Wallwork a full day in the same room that many of his musical idols like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and many others recorded hit records.
The awe of being in that place and the fact that he was born in Cape Town, South Africa and raised in Hong Kong, gives this recording a fresh, inspired and uncorrupted tone. Wallwork has a fine smooth tenor vocal and steady guitar technique that is based in the blues and ready to venture into modern realms. The eight-song collection begins with the gritty blues rock love song “Where Ya Been,” setting the scene of a classic trio of drums, bass, and guitar, tracked live in a big room. Backing Wallwork are Collin Ray on bass and drummer Kevin Blackwood who also plays for people like Sarah Gerritsen and Kara Hesse.
The trio does their best to channel the Hendrix experience on track two “No Surprise,” a groove shifting blend of psychedelic blues and grunge with intertwining melodic lines setting up the vocal. Mournful saxophone from Ron Hill and a sweet Hammond B3 organ bed from Brian Sloss flesh out the modern blues of “You Feel It Too,” a simple tome of unrequited love punctuated by pleading chorus vocals and a yearning guitar solo. You can taste the dust from the highway and smell the diesel on the reverb soaked spaghetti western rumba road song “Hit The Gas,” as if the tune is from a Tarantino film. The trio finally digs deep into a genuine blues shuffle with Wallwork doubling the melody line on vocal and guitar then giving way to a greasy slide solo on the lonesome “Times A Done.”
Blackwood updates the classic train beat into a hyper dance groove for another name checking road song “Tennessee,” with more convincing slide work and hot harmonica from Paul Ingram, lead singer of fellow northwest blues rockers; Garage Heroes. The dreamy waltz “Leave Your Light On,” closes out the band set with Betsy Wallwork joining her man on the soaring chorus vocals. Track eight “You Belong,” is curiously listed as a bonus track but the duet of Wallwork on acoustic and Hill on saxophone on this sweet jazzy love song is far more than a cast-off leftover, the fine number has a timelessness that makes it a ‘dessert facile et bon.’
(You can listen to the album HERE and/or get more info about Skinny Blue at Facebook HERE.)