T-Bone Kelly

This is a debut with as much class and confidence as any this reviewer has heard for years.
Kelly is a genuine talent with voice and guitar, playing a mean slide and Hawaiian style with equal aplomb.
But it is with his treatment of songs that he stands himself away from the thousands of other bluesmen out there. Everybody knows Ewan MacColl’s 'Dirty old town’ is about Dublin or Manchester but T-Bone makes you think that the town in question resides somewhere in southern Tennessee or possibly Hawaii. He takes the Stones 'No Expectations’ and manages to make you forget that there ever was an original version while his workover of Muddy Waters classic 'You’re Gonna need my help’ is as moody and gritty as the original.
He plays Hawaiian origin material sweetly and with obvious love for the state and his original songs are also fine whether it is a 'rocker’ like 'One-Two Jump’ or a piece of swamp-majik like 'Centrum Amsterdam Purples’.
My expectations of this album were as low as the albums title but from here on in I will be looking out for Mr Kelly.