Ian Siegal

You gotta love an album that leaves you with a big beaming smile on your face and there are some moments on this set from Ian Siegal that gave me as big a smile as the man hisself is sporting on the back cover – 10 gems of Blues and Boogie.

Siegal has more funk in his music than is decent for a Brit to muster – ‘Hard Pressed’ has a New Orleans bounce and roll to it that The Meters would be happy with and his Dr John-esque vocal is just the grits. ‘Quarantine’ swings and reverberates with surfer-guy guitar lines and clever lyrics and then gives way for ‘Kingdom Come’ with the best line of the year – “You can live like a King just as sure as you’re born / Or you die like Elvis all alone on the john”.

He can slow it down for an Americana number like ‘The Bleeding Cowboy’s Lament’, all gentle slide and Mexican guitar lines and then he gets right back in the groove with a super-funky number ‘Like Hell’ with huge rolling Hammond and great couplets.
‘Stealing from the Queen’ is a dark voodoo, swamp Blues with all the humidity and denseness of the bayou and he follows that with a Bo Diddley riff on ‘Little Paranoia’.
‘Take A Walk In The Wilderness’ is probably the best number on the album with a fine vocal performance and understated playing creating a gospelly mood like The Band at their best.

There just isn’t a weak song on the album and with the bass of Andy Graham and drums of Nikolaj Bjerre moving the music at a pace plus some stunning keyboards from Jonny Henderson and occasional guitar from producer and friend Matt Schofield adding to Siegal’s gruff vocals and delicious guitar the album is a treat musically as well.

I can see me listening to this one for ages to come for the sheer pleasure of it – knockout.