Ben Poole

Ben Poole is one of many superb British Blues guitarists on the scene at the moment but he stands out from the rest in the way he plays, with a soulful and ever so funky sound he is pretty unique in the market. The blurb that accompanies this suggests that his fans have been clamouring for a live album for many years and this set definitely captures him on top form.

This was part of the London Blues Festival at the RAH last year, recorded by the BBC and in common with the other albums that have come out of the festival – notably Ian Siegal – the sound and the atmosphere is superb.
His voice is in the higher range and it helps with material like ‘Love Nobody No More’ which has echoes of the soul masters of the eighties but then his guitar sets him aside with a delightful exposition in the solo, yelling a story rather than riffing his tits off.

Otis Redding’s ‘Mr Pitiful’ gets a truly gospelly treatment with some fine piano from Sam Mason before the funk cuts in and it is all you can do to keep from bouncing around the room wondering where a young lad gets vocal chops like those.

On ‘Have You Ever Loved A Woman’ he shows another side to his music, playing an extended unaccompanied opening. The crowd is silent, reverent, wrapt. It is a hoary old Blues and its’ been covered a million times but Poole has enough about him to make the song fresh and meaningful once more. Simply stunning.

There is a bonus track recorded in the studio, ‘Starting All Over’, featuring Wayne Proctor and Steve Amadeo as well as Bob Fridzema on keys which is fine but the best of the album is in the live material and Craig Bacon (drums) and Mat Beable (bass) do a fine job onstage.

A real talent, confident and skilled and with a sound that is fresh and rare today.