Blues Power
Surprise, surprise, surprise -- I got the
new AudioQuest CDs and right away I noticed big changes. First off, AudioQuest Music
doesn't seem to be associated with the cable company any more; it's a division of Valley
Entertainment, the record distribution company that publishes Schwann these days.
(Producer Joe Harley and engineer Michael C. Ross still use AudioQuest cables exclusively
in these recordings, so some things do remain the same.)
The second thing I noticed was that all three have been
recorded with Sony's Direct Stream Digital[TM] System (DSD), utilizing Ed Meitner-designed
custom A/D and D/A converters. Well now, how's about them apples?
All three discs share superlative sound, as we've come to
expect from Harley and Ross. Once again, we're getting warm, detailed analog-like sound
from the dynamic duo -- only this time out it's not analog at all.
But high-quality analog is precisely what DSD would
appear to sound like, judging from these releases at any rate. Each disc captures the feel
of the venue beautifully: Bearsville Studios' down-home big-room acoustic for the Joe
Beard and Bruce Katz discs and LA's clean OceanWay Recording studio sound for Doug
MacLeod.
And all three discs share an almost frightening physicality
-- you don't hear a sonic image so much as have an almost animal-like feeling of bodies
being present in the room with you. Not that these discs lack imaging specificity, they
have that a-plenty.
Joe Beard's Dealin' is atmospheric to a fault. It
opens with Jimmy Reed's "The Bitter Seed," redolent of a smoky after-hours club,
with its straightforward I-V-VI progression and thick harmonica impasto courtesy of Jerry
Portnoy. Beard takes the basic Jimmy Reed riff while Duke Robillard romps all over the
guitar with his signature chiming galloping style. The interplay between the steady
guitar-work of Beard and the playful, exuberant excesses of Robillard makes the album a
thing of constant joy -- this isn't the nasty blues, it's fun, upbeat blues.
Oh, you think that's an oxymoron? It's not. Despite the
best efforts of certain musical reductionists, the blues is bigger than any box you might
choose to put it in. Joe Beard is the real thing, a working, urban blues musician -- he
just doesn't happen to be miserable, so his blues is a joyous celebration, not a litany of
miseries.
But that doesn't mean he can't turn in a muscular
performance. Take "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble," another basic walking blues with
a gritty, tight performance that sounds like it could have taken place in a State Street
basement in 1947. Beard pushes the band forward with a slashing rhythm as he sings
"My eyes keeps me in trouble/I wants every woman I see/Sometimes I wonder what on
earth is wrong with me …." Meanwhile Robillard is soloing strongly below the
lyrics, nudging into and off of the beat with a clanging, ringing power that makes you
wonder whether Beard is complaining or bragging. It's been done before, seldom as well.
Possibly the highlight of Dealin' is Beard's solo
turn on "Holding a Losing Hand," where his reedy tenor and unaccompanied guitar
conjure a true 3:00AM of the soul. But even here, the tone is more of an introspectively
sleepless night than of hopeless despair. That's okay by me. It rings true -- as does
everything about the recording.
Bruce Katz' Three Feet Off the Ground is his
strongest recording yet, not least because he plays so much Hammond B-3 on it. I like his
piano playing just fine, but the pieces written for the organ just have more bite to 'em.
And, really, you've never heard a Hammond sound like this.
Part of that's due to Michael C. Ross' fine recording, but Katz credits his Goff
Professional Leslie #145 in the notes, and it's obviously a corker -- complete with a tube
driven (6550s!) amp powering rotating speakers in a tone-cabinet. Katz takes advantage of
all the growls, roars, crunches, and clanks that the old trusty B3/Leslie combo is
renowned for, and even exploits the delicate vibrato options that have long since broken
down in the vintage cabinets. Tonally, he does it all here.
And his band is up for the ride. Drummer Ralph Rosen is a
wonder, kicking the band forward with a hard driving beat, while guitarist Julien Kasper
solos his chops off. He's a mighty tasty picker, whether the band is grooving a deep blues
or scatting hot jazz. Blake Newman's acoustic bass anchors the proceedings firmly, not
with a deep, solid bottom, but with a warm woody presence that reinforces the spaciousness
of the recording.
It's good stuff -- all of it. And it never strays far from
the blues roots that have become an AudioQuest signature. If you love organ -- and who
doesn't? -- and you've been disappointed with the recent jam-band-insider's-joke feeling
of the last few Medesky, Martin & Wood outings -- and who hasn't? -- this is the one
for you.
The most personal sounding disc of these three is Doug
MacLeod's Whose Truth, Whose Lies? No surprise there -- MacLeod is the past master
of the confessional blues album. All of his records feel as though you're getting
the straight poop from a guy who has been there.
This time out, it's as personal as if he were whispering in
your ear. The sound echoes that intimacy, too. MacLeod comes across relaxed and
comfortable -- if the concept of comfortable applies to a guy possessed by the notion of
taking personal responsibility for the world he lives in.
But better than that, the instruments ring free in a quiet,
largish resonant room -- especially MacLeod's beloved Taylor model 712 and Denny Croy's
acoustic bass. MacLeod's a remarkable finger-picker and he can coax tones out of his
Taylor that are as expressive as any note he's ever sung. And on "Goin' Down
Country" he runs it through a "nowhere near vintage, beat up, second-hand Fender
Princeton amp" to obtain a clanky pure-blues moan so unlike his normal sound that I
had to check the notes to be sure nobody had snuck an electric dobro into the sessions.
But it's not just the sound of this disc that has me
listening to it over and over -- although you sure won't find me complaining -- it's the soul.
MacLeod sings and plays like a man possessed. I believe he is possessed -- by the
sincere need to communicate some of the hard-learned knowledge that a life in the blues
has taught him, not by the hellhounds Robert Johnson had on his trail. Yet his need to get
across is just as vital as any inspired by a look into the abyss.
Thank you AudioQuest. You got any more like these?
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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