Stretch

Those of a certain age will remember Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera who produced a stunning rock/psych album in the late '60's. Elmer Gantry then went off and surfaced on what was supposed to be the new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac before Mick Fleetwood disowned the project and put together his own new Fleetwood Mac without Gantry. Gantry then got together with Kirby Gregory, late of Curved Air, and formed Stretch who are themselves famous for their 1975 hit 'Why Did You Do It?' - a direct attack on Fleetwood but also one of the funkiest songs ever to have been released by a white band and featuring Gantry's growl at its best.

So now, it is 2012 and 'Unfinished Business' is released. Fleetwood Mac are dead and buried along with the careers of many of the original band and Stretch have issued an album that features a re-recording of Velvet Opera's finest, 'Flames', and a rerecording of 'Why Did You Do It?' along with half a dozen+ Blues classics.

So, why has this album been released? I would have to say that it has found its time. Gantry's vocals have some weak moments but he has huge reserves of vocal power while Kirby is a much-underrated guitarist. Raunchy Blues has come back to the scene courtesy of guys like Seasick Steve, Thunderbird Kingsley and the youngsters like Oli Brown and Virgil MacMahon are turning on a whole new generation to hard Blues.

The album offers a terrific version of Willie Dixon's 'Down In The Bottom' as well as a kick-ass 'Can't You Feel It' but the version here of the classic traditional Blues 'Please See My Grave Is Kept Clean' is positively chilling.
The howling harmonica on Willie Dixon's 'I Just Want To Make Love To You' ushers in a belting vocal but |Gantry doesn't really do subtlety and I'd much rather listen to Lydia Pense's version in the raunchy stakes.
Closer 'Got My Mojo Working' is simply funky and fab and does what Stretch are best at.

There is a companion album out at the same time - 'That's The Way the Wind Blows' which collects the best of the original albums and there ain't nowt wrong with having both but if you can only have one then this is a cracking example of Blues in the current idiom.