Delta
Moon
Clear Blue Flame
Jumping Jack Records
Run Time: 40:28
Delta Moon is one of those road tested southern
rock & blues based bands of old. They’ve had their highs and lows
and are still pluggin’ away after all this time. Delta Moon, like
all bands with a good story, formed with a chance meeting by Mark
Johnson and Tom Gray a few years back in a music store. Mark tried
to sell Tom a dobro. He didn’t sell him the guitar but they
exchanged phone numbers. After Ry Cooder and Dave Lindley perform
together, Mark gave Tom a call and the rest spiraled together.
Their
unique dual-slide guitar approach to a band is unique and almost
unheard of in the blues world. Playing around the South and in
Atlanta GA they picked up a female singer Gina Leigh and took off,
winning the International Blues Challenge in 2003. Gina left the band in 2004 and was
replaced for all of 2005 and part of ’06 with Kristin Markiton.
Since then Tom and Mark decided it was time to pursue their musical
careers as a quartet with Tom at vocals.
Here we are in 2007 with Tom’s gutsy gravel
voiced approach, reinventing Delta Moon into almost an entirely new
band from what the blues community heard in 2003. With sometimes a
progressive blues-rock feel (as demonstrated on the album’s title
track that hearkens a bit to Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road”) or to
some latent country stylings a la Ry Cooder. Delta Moon serves up
some hungry southern rock for those starving to relight the flame of
the genre that some say passed on with the onset of the 80s. “Cool
Your Jets” though offers a taste of the blues of old from this band,
copping the ever famous “Spoonful” from Howlin’ Wolf and spinning it
into something entirely new.
The band doesn’t completely depart from
straight ahead down home blues. Feeling a bit disjointed, almost
like a bonus track to the album is the final track “You Done Told
Everybody” that has some gritty Mississippi Hill Country stomp to a
completely acoustic track (which is the only acoustic track on the
album). And because it is the only acoustic track and what some
purists would consider the only completely “blues” track on the
album, it offers a glimpse into the band that was and affirms that
two slide guitars can work in the acoustic blues form and work well.
To me, this last track is what I would’ve liked to have heard more
of out of this disc. If you like bands like Devon Allman’s
Honeytribe or JJ Grey and Mofro, this is the band for you and I
would highly recommend picking up this highly unique dual slide
guitar heaven.
Visit Delta Moon on the web at:
http://www.deltamoon.com/ or
http://www.myspace.com/deltamoonrocks Delta Moon’s “Clear Blue Flame” is available at
all major record outlets and on CD Baby.
Ben Cox is a Blues Songwriter, Musician, DJ and Journalist. |