Oli Brown

Oli Brown’s debut album ‘Open Road’ was one of the best debuts from any British Blues guitarist for a long while and I have been looking forward to the follow up with bated breath.
In the event he has produced a real cracker of an album and shows real development from the early stuff.

He is writing good songs and sounding a lot older than his years would suggest. ‘Evil Soul’ has a really wired sound and some fine guitar work from Oli while ‘Speechless’, altogether more subtle and emotive, shows the way that his vocal style has developed as well as his songwriting.
He is perfectly happy covering classic numbers in his own way too. ‘Fever’ sounds waaay different to the old Brenda Lee classic and his version of ‘No Diggity’ is funkier and more sassy than should be allowed for a young Brit.
When he slows it down and moves into classic territory as on ‘Love’s Gone Cold’ – albeit one he wrote himself - he shows again how much his playing and his singing have grown as he lays down a spare and soulful Blues with a superb chiming solo in the middle.

The production is by Mike Vernon and it is a symbol of the regard that Brown is held in that one of the great British Blues producers came out of retirement for this album but the result is a really fine album that does not just sound like a clone of the Yardbirds or Manfreds.

Oli Brown is a real talent in the making and on the evidence of this album he ain’t far away from the complete article.