Showing posts with label Mudcats Blues Trio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mudcats Blues Trio. Show all posts

Monday, July 13, 2015

Mudcats Blues Trio - The Tesla Recordings

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:58
Size: 86.9 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[3:57] 1. Rollin' & Tumblin'
[3:34] 2. Mudcats Blues Trio -You Don't Love Me
[2:53] 3. Flood Water Rising Blues
[3:05] 4. Hideaway
[3:34] 5. You've Been Fooling Me
[4:26] 6. Mannish Boy
[3:25] 7. In My Time Of Dying
[3:11] 8. Blues For Buddy Guy
[4:03] 9. Blinded By The Devil
[5:46] 10. Cat Fish Blues

The genre of blues sometimes gets a bad rep (undeservedly, if you ask me). It’s seen as “dad rock”, self-indulgent and played only by a guy whose claim to fame was to share a wife (and solos) with George Harrison. Like any genre, there’s people playing it by numbers and people who scramble the numbers to create Happy Primes and the Fibonacci sequence. So maybe Mudcats Blues Trio are more into recreational mathematics than straight up algebra. Sure, 50% of The Tesla Recordings are covers, but they are pretty good renditions of classics (check ‘Mannish Boy’, ‘In My time of dying’) and their original offerings aren’t half bad at all, with ‘Blues for Buddy Guy’ and ‘Catfish Blues’ being superb tracks. ‘You don’t love me’ is a great reinterpretation. Gotta admit (with a certain degree of shame) that the version I knew was an infamous dancehall version from 94. Let’s keep the canonic one on this side of the blues scale. Equally ace is ‘Mannish Boy’, originally by Muddy Waters.

What about the originals, you say? Well, ‘Blinded by the devil’ is a sweet grove, ‘Flood water rising blues’ is the soundtrack for my sampling ventures in the River Don and ‘Blues for Buddy Guy’ is both a loveletter and a homage to Mr. Buddy Guy, one of the best wranglers of that beast we call “guitar”.

If any complaint has to be done (and it’s more of a nitpick) is that the album manages to catch half of the energy and passion the band has in their live environment. This is probably more due to the fact that the freedom that blues gives for jamming and improvisation is not always translated into a recording. Solution? Catch them live. One of the refrains in ‘Catfish Blues’ says “call me a rolling stone”. Let’s just call you an unsung champion of blues and keep rocking those instruments, shall we? ~Sam “Screamin’ Rant O’Malley” J. Valdés López

The Tesla Recordings mc
The Tesla Recordings zippy

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Mudcats Blues Trio - Mudcats Blues Trio

Size: 84,5 MB
Time: 36:08
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Blind Willie Johnson (0:35)
02. Breaking Over You (3:22)
03. Times Have Changed (2:38)
04. Where The Cold Winds Blow (3:26)
05. Cruel Hard World (4:26)
06. Drowning In The Flood (2:47)
07. Gates Of Hell (3:55)
08. Can't Cry No More (4:17)
09. Fool Heart Of Mine (2:43)
10. Devil Tortures Me (3:01)
11. Break These Chains (3:02)
12. I Feel Cold (1:51)

The Mudcats play an earthen blues that will be familiar to fans of the aforementioned artists, with added flourishes of Clapton in his Cream heyday, John Mayall, The Allman Brothers (check out the fluid work on ‘burn down the city’) and even Hendrix – a heady combination which the band do full justice to. Here you will find blazing riffs, raw vocals and solos that wind their way through the heart of the song with a sinewy skill that adds to the muscular power the band are capable of deploying and the production captures a grand degree of separation between the instruments, meaning that you can appreciate each band member’s talents and at least get a feel for the band’s searing live sound.

Mudcats Blues Trio

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Mudcats Blues Trio - Burn Down The City

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 43:34
Size: 99.7 MB
Styles: Blues rock, Rock
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:18] 1. Can't Stop Losing You
[3:44] 2. Sweet Blood Call
[3:55] 3. Burn Down The City
[3:33] 4. Only The Blues Remains
[2:04] 5. Mudcat Boogie
[2:52] 6. Friend Of Mine
[3:21] 7. Born To Die
[3:38] 8. Stop Playing The Blues
[3:02] 9. Whiskey And Wine
[2:45] 10. Deeper Than My Grave
[4:54] 11. Ain't Nobody's Business
[2:39] 12. Goodnight Blues
[3:42] 13. Left My Heart In Chicago

The blues, no matter what anybody tries to tell you, is not about technicality (although skill is welcome), wildfire solos or even proficiency (although, once again, a level of skill is always preferable) – it is about feel. That elusive concept is what has fired BB King all these years, an artist who rarely bothers to touch his guitar unless the mood takes him and who forgets as many of the words as he remembers; it is the same concept that made Muddy Waters wild roar quiver with emotion and Hubert Sumlin’s guitar lines shimmer; and (for we’re not having this discussion completely without merit) it is that incomparable sense of feel that makes The Mudcats Blues trio a genuine pleasure to listen to. Not that this rambling monologue is some attempt to apologize for a lack of talent – the band play with a fiery skill that becomes increasingly apparent as the album draws you in – but it does much to explain why, if you’re a blues fan, you owe it to yourself to check this band out.

Burn Down The City