Gorgeous slowhand blues from a true blues talent
Teenage blues guitar evangelists are ten a penny these days. Brought up on a heady diet of Clapton and Jeff Beck records, many of these young screamers sound like they could sing about the blues as convincingly as Ringo could sing about the realities of living in an octopus’ garden. But when Peter Frampton decides that you’re good enough to have him produce your album and play alongside, you’re looking at someone pretty special.
It’s a far cry from Back Door Slam’s 2007 debut ‘Roll Away’. Back Door Slam now include Frampton, Heartbreakers’ alumni Benmont Tench, and sound man Bob Clearmountain (Springsteen, The Who, McCartney). The impressive reinforcements do wonders for the 22 year old prodigy’s credibility. Not that his axe-bending ability was in doubt; Knowles manages to wring out soulful screams and gentle melancholy riffs from his guitar in the same way that made Clapton and Frampton themselves so famous. And his voice sounds far more mature than his years, with hints of Jack Bruce or Robert Cray in the inflections.
It’s hardly an explosive and immediate record, but more a smouldering exercise in restraint and minimalism when it comes to laying down guitar tracks. With the organ work perfectly mirroring the wailing guitar, it lifts tracks like George Harrison’s ‘Hear Me Lord’ into shining, glorious life from the potential depths of “yet another blues noodle”. Heavily based on the traditional blues lyricism of lost girls/trains and roads… it still manages to give a slight new twist on old themes without straying too far from the roots of the music. In places it’s a little too sedate and blues-by-numbers, without implying that the musicianship is in any way compromised, it lacks some of the immediate grit and fire of an instant classic. But it’s tracks like ‘Tear Down The Walls’ and ‘Country Girl’ that breathe life into the sound.
You can hear echoes of David Gilmour (no pun intended) or Mark Knopfler on the restrained strum of ‘You Can’t Take This Back’ and ‘Mistakes’. Compare this album to modern blues offerings from Joe Bonamassa, Aynsley Lister or Joanne Shaw Taylor and it stands alongside them proudly declaring that the era of the preacher and his guitar are far from dead and buried. Burning with a devoted flame, ‘Coming Up For Air’ is a controlled and thoughtful leader of the Brit-blues pack.