Brad Wilson

It has taken a little while to get into this album but Wilson’s pure guitar tone and sweet vocal style has won me over – as well as some pretty good songwriting.

My initial problem was that this album – his fifteenth – has a misleading title and I expected something a lot more Stevie Ray and a lot less Boz Scaggs. He stays mainly in a soft Blues style with a only couple of tracks hitting the ‘loud’ button.
It isn’t a bad thing: the music is very wide ranging and his talents are definitely there on every track.

His band features the wonderfully named Tumbleweed Mooney on harmonica and he definitely adds to stock numbers like ‘Step By Step’. Kirk Nelson’s keyboards are subtle but the rhythm section of Brian Beale (bass) and Amirk Sandhu (drums) power the music along, especially on the title track which is a rocking Blues.

I would say that the best track on the album is ‘Blue Shadows’, a sublime jazz/Blues with fine piano from Nelson and soft guitar underlying it. Wilson’s vocal is just rough enough to give the song texture but utterly musical as well.
‘Black Coffee At Sunrise’ kicks along in a rock ‘n’ roll stylee – Wilson doing a good Jerry Lee style vocal – while ‘Home’ sees Wilson playing acoustic to a vocal that is dark and resonant.

All told, this is a very good album with Wilson playing a number of forms and a fair few tracks that deserve regular attention. He is new to me but I will be keeping an eye out for him in future.