Play that funky music, white boy…
This is a strange one, as I recently reviewed the first single off of Mr Petit’s second album, however we now have the re-release of his debut album. Stephen Dale Petit is a true bluesman. Well, as true a bluesman as a white Brit can be. He is a clean and heartfelt guitar player and this album does showcase that and his overall musical capabilities.
First song, ‘Sacramento’ is a gentle mid-tempo plod of a blues song that has a nice rhythm in the background whilst Stephen glides nicely over the fret board. However in, ‘Alexis Korner Says’ which starts off as a gentle plod, it soon turns into a showcase of guitar skills, and it is about this time that you realise that this album is going to be short on vocals. ‘Crack Whore’ is pretty much a Rock song but without vocals, and these could easily be laid down, which if I could be forgiven for saying would complete the song. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good instrumental, it’s just that here we have around 10 instrumentals that on average are around 4 to 5 minutes long.
We then have an instrumental version of the classic Bill Withers song, ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’, which is clean and tuneful, whilst things speed up a few notches with the Rock’n’roll flavour of, ‘Surf City W10’ before things slow right down for a Shadows-esque song in ’10 Year Reflections’. Then, ‘Percy’s Thumb’ sounds like it was recorded in the fifties before the song kicks up into a real foot-tapper. Then we have the classic sound of one man and his guitar in the heavily blues driven tune of, ’69 Duke Street’, that could be recorded off the cuff by a blind blues player in New Orleans….
‘Told You So’ is a slow number with a jazz club feel in the background that is perfect as a semi-anonymous soundtrack of a dinner party, which is slightly amusing when the raw vocals of, ‘7 Cent Cotton’ kicks in, giving a great song, but of total contrast to the one before. It’s a mix and match song that sounds great, and actually it’s so loose and random that it’s brilliant. Then we have a moonlight serenade in, ‘Pure’ that is bursting to have some gentle vocals and be played in a romantic movie whilst two lovers dance around holding each other close, and think about things they want to say, but are too nervous to say them.
’10 Year Blues’ has a country feel to the music and lyrical content whilst the vocals are chilled as a piano plays in the back, and the harmonies flow like the emotions overwhelmed with the least guitar work on the album, that only shows in the solo. I guess therefore we can let Mr Petit off as he fans his peacock feathers in the rock-tastic, ‘Blues From Mars’. Then we have the raw blues song of, ‘Bad Road Blues’ with husky vocals and a fist full of attitude. Then in last song, ‘Better Answer’ we have a great song that is part blues, part 60’s pop and part 70’s rock. Great finish!
I don’t think that there can be any doubt that Stephen Dale Petite is a great guitar player. It’s easy to see why Guitar Magazine had this album voted ‘Album of 2008’, however personally, I’m not a fan of instrumentals, although granted a quarter of this album have some songs with vocals on, and these are very good. I think that what I object to the most are slow instrumentals that plod a long for a while, and there are 4 or 5 here, which I think is too much. I like the fact that there are a whole host of influences and we see the full spectrum of blues guitar playing, and in all honesty this is one of the best guitar albums I’ve heard for a few years.
I have to say that I really enjoyed the single off the new album, and it will be interesting as to what the sound of the rest of the album will take. The new album ‘The Crave’ is due for release any time now so we will wait and see…