The Paul Nelson Band
Badass Generation
(Sony)
Given the exciting album that Paul made with Johnny Winter ‘Step Back’, distilling stellar but respectful contributions from a host of guests embracing Dr John, Leslie West – a favourite round here – Joe Bonamassa – ditto, Brian Setzer, ‘and many others, I was eager to talk music with Nelson. Expect a chat piece here very soon.
In the meantime, here is Nelson’s band with their own release on Sony..and these coves are firing on all six with a 3-D production and a bunch of good songs. Like Kenny Wayne, Nelson entrusts most of the vocal duties to his sidekick Morton Fredheim. Christopher Alexander plays bass, much in the manner of the young guy in Blues Pills ( he even looks a bit like him). Drummer Chris Reddan has the occasional touch of Carmine Appice and never loses the beat.
A very contemporary touch lifts opener ‘Down Home Boogie’ out of the average and sets the scene for the music that follows. The guitars are recorded with edge and fullness of tone, with a touch of that Gibbons mean pinched harmonic tone. A happy go lucky bassline and James Gang style drumwork rock things along, with a neat vocal chorale to boot. The slide shows a trace of J Winter, trading off the regular sixstring.
‘Keep It All Together’ already sound like a Southern Rock-tinged classic performance song, direct and appealing vocal et al. Try keeping your toes still to this one, readers. I wonder whether Paul digs Les Dudek? ‘Goodbye Forever’ is set to twisting riff and a Taj Mahal beat. The singing sounds very cool over the guitar weave and chugging harp. Warnings don’t usually sound this funky..wow, what a fluid guitar solo!
‘Cold Hearted Mama’ is all urgency and tumbling bass runs, another catchy vocal over swift staggers ; syncopated notes and confident kick off the country/psych ‘Please Come Home’ which is a plain delight with a relaxed but tuneful vocal arrangement. A real highlight..impact with minimum fuzztone. ‘Root To All Evil’ takes the boogie route.
‘Swamp Thing’ has a sinister vibe, all shadows and conspiratorial vocal; ‘Out Of Time’ is a steady singalong, pleasant but not earth-shattering; ‘Come With Me’ is a dynamic tour-de-force and again fine singing and an addictive chorus..the guitar spins off into jagged riffs that still makes sense. A really good song and performance from the whole group. ‘Trouble’ is a blues-rocker, the kind that goes over well in Houston or Hammersmith, cymbal action to the fore.
‘Fooled By Love’ has an imaginative arrangement and structure, Fredheim sounds as comfortable on this as when he is belting it out. Best song here along with ‘Please’. Ordinary albums in this genre just don’t have songs this strong. Closer ‘Take It Back’ rocks it up but curiously sounds to me like a set-opener.
The back cover image shows the group trucking through snow in a doomed attempt to appeal to the ‘Frozen’ soundtrack fans…just kidding, chaps
Strongly played, expertly sung, this record has soul a-plenty and a bucket of both-sexes appeal live, I suspect.
You can watch the official album trailer for ‘Badass Generation’ below:
Pete Sargeant
The Paul Nelson Band’s new album ‘Badass Generation’ is released on Friday 5th February 2016 via Sony. For more information visit The Paul Nelson Band’s website: http://bit.ly/1PO98P0
(..thanks John L, you are on the ball)
