Son Henry Band

Glenn Highway Blues
Front Porch Records
2005
(37'35")

Heartache And Trouble
Front Porch Records
2006
(42'26")

With a big fat saturated tone that goes so well with the singer's voice, this trio delivers a basic, efficient blues. It's constituted of Son Henry on guitars, lapsteel, harmonica on Glenn Highway Blues, and vocal, John Clark on drums and percussions, who was compared to a blue Charlie Watts : efficient, clean, with never one too many hit of a stick, just what is needed, when needed, where needed, and Joel Lockman on double bass, plus harmonicist Otto "Ottomatic Slim" Lenz and vocalist Blue Lisa Monroe on their latest album. To them, subtlety resides in softer performances, rarely in useless ornaments. Second Glance, a beautiful blues ballad from the Glenn Highway Blues album, is a good example of this. But their aim always is to go for the essential. As if an unnatural union between Howlin' Wolf and Creedence miraculously gave birth to the band. Add some rural gospel in the background and you may start to get a fair picture. Nevertheless, flowing sophisticated playing lovers won't be dissapointed either. Some of Son Henry's licks on slide, even more on the lapsteel he seems to have made his main instrument, should fullfil such a need. If the strange instrument tone may sometimes remind of Sonny Landreth, with some Elmore James, maybe not as wild though, in Henry's playing, the whole thing also has very nice reminiscences of root country. There is swamp blues too in Son Henry's music, just check out the instrumental Granite City Shuffle that opens Heartache and Trouble, a song that could have been a Slim Harpo or Lonesome Sundown original. On the same CD, Richer Than A Sheik showcases the artist's talent to mix his influences such as Chicago blues shuffle and Chuck Berry. As for Muddy Waters, his ghost haunts both albums entirely. But if these musicians influences came from different sources (there 's even a jump blues on the latest album), it's their tone, their sound, that gives the Son Henry Band its strong, mature, and most of all highly recognizable identity. Son Henry may hail from Alaska, his blues is far from being cold. Don't hesitate to warm up to it by visiting www.sonhenry.com.

René Malines