I love blues – that’s taken as read. But I can also turn on to a little rock’n’roll, some sweet soul music and even catch a little glimpse of heaven with gospel.
So the album Family Meeting spoils me rotten by serving up all this and more from the amazing Wentus Blues Band.
The extraordinary Finnish band celebrates its 20th anniversary in some style, with a film that should scoop plenty of music awards – and this all-encompassing double album from Ruf Records that accompanies it.
In short, if there’s nothing on here you like, then you don’t like music at all. The guest appearances on the sessions alone would light up any billboard, anywhere.
For starters there’s my own personal hero, the wonderful country bluesman Eric Bibb. Anything he touches turns to gold. Then there’s the timeless ex-Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, who reminds us what a great blues guitarist he has always been. The Stones’ loss is our gain.
And wherever I turn in today’s blues world, there always seems to be the omnipresent Omar Dykes – a great blues-rock, good-time, rabble rouser guitarist with the earthiest and most charismatic powerhouse voice you’ve ever heard.
Add in the subtle harmonica of Lazy Lester and the guitar skills of blues legends Louisiana Red and Eddie Kirkland and it’s an amazing concotion of talents.
Thankfully, it all ends up as a delicious mash-up of backstage life and passionate stage performances and the whole lot blends together harmoniously when under different circumstances, it could all just be an unholy row.
This is because of the amazing range of talents on show and the empathy and respect between musicians.
Most of the diamond tracks can be unearthed on Disc 2. My own favourite is Eric Bibb’s I Heard The Angels Singing – a classic Rev Gary Davis composition which I feared might get overcooked with a full band backing but ended up as a rollicking good gospel rendering.
Mick Taylor’s contributions should also not be overlooked, with Bob Dylan’s Blind WillieMcTell and the Stones' Ventilator Blues as stand-out numbers.
Raining In My Heart features some sweet blues harp from Lazy Lester and Looking For Trouble rumbles along sweetly just as any rock’n’roll number should, complete with honky-tonk piano, coruscating harmonica and ‘50s-style Fender leads.
The only time the band seems to stop for breath is on the smoky bar jazz-blues number Annie-Lee, featuring Barrance Whitfield.
But Disc One isn’t without its high notes. Funky soul number Since I Been Loving You, for example, is arguably the best track on show of the entire album, with its sparse but tight backing, wavering vocals and hot guitar licks. Slow song Passenger Blues is also a classic while the soul-soaked Pick Up The Pieces, featuring Eddie Kirkland, is very cool and laid back.
Nobody could ever suggest they were being short-changed with what’s on offer here. Many of the tracks last for five or six minutes while the Keith Richards-Mick Jagger instrumental number Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, with Mick Taylor, actually manages to crack the 10-minute barrier and lays down some dreamy sax, guitar and keyboard work.
Timeless and drenched in the sounds of decades, Family Meeting is a spiritually uplifting celebration of music at its best.
- Alan Candy,
GFI-promotions
