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At last a British blues act
with the style, panache, song-writing ability and multi
instrumental talent to do justice to the blues.
That is not to say that
there aren’t a raft of great players in either the UK or
London in particular, but lets face it, the amount of
strong song writers in the genre can be counted on one
hand.
No such problems with
Eddie Martin whose confidence in his own playing ability
is transferred into 10 songs that are topped and tailed
by the bar room tale of ‘Contrary Mary’ and the
magnificent road narrative ‘Ingolstadt’. |
Described by Get Ready To Rock
as ‘A slide guitar tour de force played with style and
panache by an essential player’, ‘Contrary Mary’ finds Eddie
Martin making his move as a contemporary crossover artist with
this classy guitar driven rootsy exemplar, full of peerless
playing, well honed grooves and a glossy production on a superb
album by one of the top UK blues artists of the last decade.
Of course it has to be noted
that Eddie did spend some considerable time in the States both
honing his playing style and soaking up a Texas blues feel as
evidenced on ‘Something about You Baby (I Like)’. But ultimately
as this album thrillingly demonstrates he has produced something
uniquely his own
The cd’s real strength lies in
the sum of its parts which never lose sight of the greater
whole. Thus while the album neatly defies outright
categorisation, outside of its obvious rootsy feel, there is
enough magnificent playing, and magical moments to keep even the
most jaded contemporary music palate interested. Eddie plays
some low down harp on ‘Watching the Weather’, which turns out to
be a powerful rocker that The Fabulous Thunderbirds, or at least
Kim Wilson, would have been proud of. This track alone
demonstrates Eddie’s ability to turn something almost down home
into a slice of contemporary rocking.
On ‘Beautiful Miracles’ he
returns to his trademark dirty slide, and rocks out on a meaty
shuffle ‘Give It Time’, which is a master stoke and another
example of the light and shade of an album that deals in hues
and tonal colours. ‘Give It Time’ is in fact the first shuffle
on the album, and it is as dynamic as it is brief, before Eddie
teases out some of his most delicate notes, as the rhythm
section of Marion Dalton on bass and Michael Wiedrich on drums
do their stuff in exemplary fashion.
From there on in Eddie proves a
master of his craft delving into a compelling mix of gentle
shuffle boogie on ‘Better The Devil You Know’, slides all over
the place on ‘Strong For You’, and saves the best for last with
‘Ingolstadt’ a quite beautiful account of life on the Bavarian
road. The latter like much of this album should at the very
least be destined for lots of radio plays.
Pete Feenstra
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www.feenstra.co.uk
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