Peter Frampton Band – All Blues

Peter Frampton Band

All Blues

(Universal Music)

Frampton faces a loss of dexterity in his hands, so has been in the studio with his bandmates recording material for future release.This particular set finds the group performing blues standards BUT with their own stamp. Peter’s crackling version of Dimples on a recent Cliff Richard album gave a pointer to his approach to a classic number. Hand on heart, the tracklisting here does evoke a third rate pub blues band stuck in the dusty past – an all too common syndrome – BUT what matters here is what the ensemble does with the songs…

I Just Want To Make Love To You gets a very traditional treatment with Kim Wilson harp and what sounds like an early l to lV over a steady beat. Frampton sings with an edge. He plays his Gibson with insistence. She Caught The Katy is the familiar softly swaggering most of us know from Taj Mahal. It’s delivered to the original template. Georgia On My Mind is another warhorse and tenderly performed here with lyrical guitar. But Ray got here first!

You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover has the expected choppy Bo guitar but with slide guitar overlaid, presumably by Frampton. Me & My Guitar evokes Shelter label days of Freddie King at al. Maybe the best vocal here and a lively take. Then we get Miles’ All Blues with guest Larry Carlton another Gibson man. It’s a welcome change of mood and gets the best out of the players. This is late night pensive stuff and I like it a lot.

Then the inevitableThe Thrill Is Gone but Sonny Landreth sits in. It’s a semi-funk version close to the tempo of the original, but these days I can only listen to the Chris Duarte take on this tune. Going Down Slow a slashing slowie, with a decent vocal, almost bittersweet in context. Next up I’m A King Bee which swings on booming bass and rattling snare.

Same Old Blues is not the song I first heard by JJ Cale before falling for the edgy Captain Beefheart version, but a mellow Don Nix composition, sung well by Peter. It’s all a pleasant listen, but does play things too safe for my humble tastes.

Pete Sargeant