Year: 2002
Time: 52:52
Size: 121,3 MB
Label: Doc Blues
Styles: Blues/Texas Style
Art: Full
Tracks Listing:
1. Muddy Waters - 2:39
2. Blues Clair - 2:34
3. I Thought I Heard the Angels Cryin' - 4:55
4. Good Boy - 2:57
5. Down in My Soul - 3:17
6. Pay Attention Blues - 3:36
7. Wah Wah Blues - 5:01
8. J.R.Blues - 4:40
9. Take it Easy Baby - 3:47
10. Blue Mood - 3:16
11. Flim Flam - 3:02
12. Backstroke - 3:36
13. Somebody Been Talkin' - 2:13
14. Left Eye Jump - 4:09
15. Make It Snappy - 3:02
Jeff Ross, a veteran of many bands in many styles, recorded a blues album, not a combo platter. Sure, there are tracks that offer varying shades, but if you bought this album, a) you?re probably wanting to hear some blues, and b) you?re into (and might even play) guitar. And so, a blues guitar album you shall get.
AUSTIN, TEXAS---The connection between classic cowpunk creators Rank & File and the cosmopolitan creativity of the Gypsy jazz unit Club Django is not an obvious one, unless, of course, you're familiar with guitarist JEFFREY P. ROSS, a veteran virtuoso who delivers all hues of blues on his debut disc as a leader.
Ross and his guitar have been involved in all manner of inventive and unusual musical situations but after a couple of decades of brightening up the sound of others he's finally stepping into the spotlight in his own right with a sparkling collection of enlightened blues.
Ross has recorded with California guitar-slingers the Hellecasters and Austin's eclectic roots aggregation the Asylum Street Spankers, as well as working with a trio of distinctive, if admittedly dissimilar, female vocalists; bawdy blues belter Candye Kane, rockabilly rebel Rosie Flores and alt-country angel Kelly Willis.
And, befitting a guitarist who chose the blues as the context for his first solo outing, Ross naturally has deep and diverse blues experience, including work with West Coast blues stalwarts such as hard-blowing James Harman and the late William Clarke.
But all those musical affiliations---and they're by no means the full extent of Ross's career accomplishments---serve merely as a provocative prelude for "My Pleasure", the first recording to feature Ross's guitar work under his own name in the service of his own tunes.
"My Pleasure" features an outstanding cast of Austin musicians, including multi-talented bluesman Guy Forsyth, string wizard Erik Hokkanen, T-Birds pianist Gene Taylor, and vocalist Major Burkes, for starters, but it is Ross who is---at long last---front and center throughout.
Much of the material comes from Ross and all of it is sonically tailored to his specifications, making the album's title a simple statement of fact. "It's exactly what I wanted to do," Ross explains. "I was allowed full freedom to please myself musically, so it's the tunes I wanted to do and they're done the way I wanted to play and record them."
What brought Ross his musical pleasure was playing the blues. His expansive definition of blues, however, takes the music in a multitude of musical directions. Each is intriguing and all are interlaced with uniformly excellent instrumental innovation but "My Pleasure" is not just a guitar showcase.
Ross has written and assembled solid songs and he and several guest vocalists, including Seth Walker, Mark Goodwin, Nick Curran and J. Jaye Smith, in addition to Forsyth and Burkes, meld them to the music with superlative results. It is undoubtedly blues straight from the heart but its stylistic range and deft delivery create new hues as enjoyable as they are exciting.
So, make "My Pleasure" your own. Give it a listen and the odds are good you'll give it another. And another.
My Pleasure
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