Thursday, April 26, 2012

American Idle reviewed by Steve Jones


American Idle
Mudcat
Self-Released
www.mudcatblues.com
12 tracks

This is the second CD I’ve reviewed by Mudcat.  While I once again would not  call this traditional blues, it hearkens to the roots of Americana, perhaps more folk than blues, but roots music with some flair it is.  They hail from Atlanta and play an interesting brand of music, ranging from sing song to psychedelic, with layers of horn, piano and other interesting sounds, multi-tracked a la George Martin..

Mudcat is Daniel Duceck, whose vocals, piano, organ, banjo, ukulele, Mayan bird whistle and glockenspiel grace this CD.  Eskil Wetterqvist is on drums and percussion, Lil Joe Burton is on trombone and Shannon Kirk is on bass.  Seven others join the fray from time to time, adding to this diverse and interesting CD.

The opening track is “Born Perfect”, with a lilting Caribbean beat yet it wanders from the Caribbean a bit with the trombone soloing. The band rocks it out a bit more on “Picking Up the Pieces” , yet plays a simpler, acoustic sound on “The Light” and “Dream of Green”.

“Mean World”  (an original cut, not the classic with “Old” in between) begins as traditional blues, but winds into a bigger and  more deep sound. “Never Done This Before” has a heavy does of the whistle making it haunting  at the start, but then it, too shifts.

This is interesting stuff.  It blends the blues with a lot of other sounds.  It was a fun listen– I bet they put on a helluva show!

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