Mark Wenner and the Bel Airs

Mark Wenner and the Bel Airs
Mama Tried
Right On Rhythm – ROR 011
2002
(38 : 35)

Doesn't Mama Tried ring a bell ? Come on, it was a country hit by Merle Haggard, a song made famous to a whole generation by its presence on a very well known live album by hippy band Grateful Dead ? Remember ?
Now, you know Mark Wenner, right ? Of course you do : the singer & harp player of the Nighthawks, a rockin' blues combo from Washington DC Jimmy Thackery left a few years ago to start a solo career ? There you go, now you see ? Ok, you know the Bel Airs ? C'mon ! This fabulous trio from Columbia, Missouri, featuring the Pruitt brothers, Dick on bass and Dave on guitar, and Michael Cherry, from James Harman's band and also the Paladins, on drums ? These three had set the Fifty on fire, you know, this blues bar in the flee market in Paris ? Now go figure : after a few recordings together, sometimes only a couple of titles, another time one side of a LP and even a whole album once, these 4 guys are back together for a rocking blues treatment of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Berry Gordy, Bob Dylan, Johnny Otis, Jimmy Reed and a few others songs plus 2 original compositions : If Glen Would Swing et Howie's Hammer, all for the pleasure of those who see music as time to party rather than an matter for university studies. Cause one thing's for sure, this is a team that does not generate moodiness ! They don't bother to know if their music fits in pre-established categories and its rigid criterias, its dogmas and other more or less arbitrary barriers. Wenner and his pals throw it in like they would in the backroom of a smoky bar on a Saturday night with no other purpose than to enjoy and share their pleasure with their audience, connoisseurs or not, but definitively conquered. But don't fool yourself, even though they can play any kind of american popular music, the Pruitt brothers, Mike Cherry and maybe even more Mark Wenner are blues musicians above all, and if they don't mind a little country or rock & roll riff at the curve of a song or as a basis to another, this is a blues album. Nothing we, at R & T, would complain about !
Anyway, here's a CD that's more than honest : no cheating about anything since it sounds exactly as it it's supposed to, which is : a bunch of pals meeting to share the pleasure of playing good ol' songs. So if you'd like your share of this pleasure too, you know what you got to do.
René Malines