Saturday, December 14, 2019

#421 : Jay Gordon's Blues Venom - Slide Rules!



2019 - Shuttle Music

By Phillip Smith; Dec. 14, 2019

I was first introduced to Jay Gordon’s Blue Venom when I reviewed the No Cure album for Blues Review Magazine in 2011.  It appeared on their online web-zine BluesWax.  That was one of my favorite discs that year.  Slide Rules!, Gordon’s latest release is even more spectacular, as his heels dig deep into the Mississippi delta mud for thirteen ferociously outstanding electric slide blues.  Gordon, one of the best guitarists/vocalists around fronts the band with bassist Sharon Butcher and drummer Tom Parham making up the rhythm section.

Gordon opens up with one of his originals “Dripping Blues” which definitely lives up to its name.  The slide-work on this is covered in grease and cooked to perfection.  He follows with another astonishing track “Pain”.  It is packed with more tantalizing guitar, and topped with his trademark fearless, gravelly vocals.  I positively dig it.  “Dockery’s Plantation” is an absolutely fabulous seven-and-a-half minute experience.  It’s ambrosia for the blues lover’s soul. 

The cover songs they choose for this record are brilliant.  First we get Elmore James’ “Stranger Blues” with its unavoidable driving rhythm.  They do this one just right.  Hearing Robert Johnson’s “Travelin Riverside Blues” puts a big smile on my face.  But their version of “Train Train”, that badass song released by Blackfoot in 1979, is a killer indeed.                             

So, like the first album from Jay Gorden I reviewed, Slide Rules! is definitely among my favorites from the year.  I highly recommend it.    

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For more information about the artist, visit this website : bluesvenom.com     

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