24 Pesos

Great stuff – big, rollicking Blues and just a touch of Mexicali magic - 24 Pesos are on the rise and this album demonstrates why. It also makes a big statement about the quality of the Blues in Britain today – healthy, very.

All the songs on this album are originals but there is a history lesson in just about every track. They touch on so many influences – no surprises for acknowledging Freddie King and Howlin Wolf as influences but not too many can get the funk feel of the Meters or the dirty raunch and nastiness of James Brown into their sound without outright copying and these guys really can – hell, they even get some Louis Jourdan swing in on the title number.

Underpinning the guitars and some gorgeous Dobro slide is what sounds like a genuine Hammond B3 and those rolling chords give the sound a fat and rich tone that most bands don’t get near to.

You can hear the live sound of the band and I would hazard a guess that they are a brilliant live act but the production is very tasty and it avoids squashing the life out of the band.

Favorite tracks are probably the opener, ‘Maxwell Street’; ‘In The Summertime’, a rap over a slide and harmonica groove-tune; the closer ‘Neckbone And Gumbo’ with a real N’Orleans Meters/Allen Toussaint funk to it and the title track – a real piece of rock ‘n’ roll sass.

This isn’t saying anything that hasn’t been said before but they sound as though they are having a great time making the music they love and the end result is on of the best Saturday night albums of the year.