Saturday, January 23, 2016

Crooked Eye Tommy - Butterflies & Snakes


2015 – Plano Road Publishing

By Phillip Smith; Jan 23, 2016

Crooked Eye Tommy, a newer blues band making the scene in Southern California has been turning heads since representing the Santa Barbara Blues Society at the 2014 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee and making it to the semifinals.  The band consists of guitarist/vocalist Tommy Marsh, his brother, guitarist/vocalist Paddy Marsh, bass player Glade Rasmussen, drummer Tony Cicero, and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Calire.  Their debut album, Butterflies & Snakes is a hot mix of roadhouse blues featuring eleven original tracks.

“Time Will Tell” is soulful blues with stellar guitar riffs and tasty B-3 accompaniment from Calire.  This leads into another favorite, “Tide Pool”, an outstanding track I could listen to all day.  It’s mellow and floaty essence feels so good to the ears.  The funk is let loose on “Love Divine”, as they tear it up on guitar and vox.  This one sounds really good.  Love ballad “Over and Over” is beautifully performed.  Calire breaks out the heat on saxophone and when background singer Becca Fuchs steps to the mic, it gets even hotter.           


Crooked Eye Tommy delivers a solid album of blues with a dabble of this and that thrown in for good measure.  In addition to the really interesting music on Butterflies & Snakes, the cover art by Mike Lemos stands out as a definitely favorite as well.     



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