Showing posts with label Damn Good and Ready. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Damn Good and Ready. Show all posts

Saturday, August 12, 2023

#628: Chickenbone Slim - Damn Good and Ready (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 


2023 – Vizztone Label Group

By Phillip Smith; Aug. 12, 2023

 Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

San Diego-based musician Larry Teves aka Chickenbone Slim has returned to Greaseland Studios to record his fifth release Damn Good and Ready.  The album is a cocktail of all-original blues and rockabilly with a cool-as-hell vintage sound.   It is quite obvious why he was awarded the 2022 San Diego Music Award for “Best Jazz/Blues Recording”.  With Christoffer Kid” Anderson engineering, mixing, and mastering this twelve-track recording, Chickenbone Slim is joined by Laura Chavez (2023 Blues Music Award winner for Best Blues Guitarist) on guitar, Marty Dodson on drums/percussion, Justice Guevara on electric and stand-up bass, and Kid Anderson on everything else.

Loaded with a fistful of musical badassery and a searing blues riff, Teves’ homage to the wonderous lifeforce H2O has me hooked with “Drink Me”.  “Rather Be Up” follows up with sweet twangy tones and a western delivery.  It’s a beautiful song, and draws me in tight.  From the first smokin’ guitar lick Chavez drops, title-track “Damn Good and Ready” is pure unadulterated blues, and sounds absolutely wonderful.  With a fearless vocal delivery, Slim belts out “Ice in My Whiskey”.  Chavez truly shines on this favorite track.  It is songs like “Ty Cobb’s Chiclets” which put a spotlight on Teves’ songwriting mastery.  This suspenseful tale of a baseball legend and his false teeth unfolds with a splash of surf guitar, and I dig it immensely.

Chickenbone Slim’s Damn Good and Ready is a one-of-a-kind album and I highly recommend it. 

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Note: 

I caught Chickenbone Slim live in Memphis this past May performing at Rum Boogie CafĂ© on Beale Street for the Vizztone Blues Music Award Showcase, and had the opportunity to speak with him a bit while we were waiting for Uber rides at the end of the evening.  That was very cool.  The next evening, I attended the Blues Music Awards where Laura Chavez was awarded Guitarist of the Year.  Being the first female to be honored with that prestigious award in the forty-four years they have been held, will hopefully begin a new trend.  It was a special moment, and I am very happy she won.   

         


Visit Chickenbone Slim’s webpage at https//chickenboneslim.com to purchase Damn Good and Ready.