The award winning rhythm section from The Wired Band has teamed up with old friend guitarist and singer songwriter Virgil Brown to release their third album Goodbye Guitar released June of 2014. The twelve song collection represents a new direction for the veteran outfit as they explore darker grooves and a more laidback approach to a highbred sound of old and new school blues and roots rock. Brown is a sardonic storyteller with a mellow tenor and straightforward picking style complimenting the less is more style of drummer Rick Jacobson and bass man Keith Bakke.
The album opens with the soft shoe shuffle ‘Life In The Slow Lane,’ that features some tasty Rhoads from guest Hugh Sutton and Brown editorializing on the State of the modern world. A little greasy slide guitar introduces the history lesson ‘Where The Blues Were Begun,’ name checking the pivotal characters from the Delta to Chi town. Light hearted rockers’ Monster Truck Driver, ‘and ‘Stone Cutter,’ lead up to the albums first real blues tracks ‘Voodoo Spell,” which barrows its riff from Freddie King’s ‘Let The Good Times Roll, ‘and a reinvention of The Beatles ‘Help!,’ cleverly turning it into a deep, pleading twelve bar blues. The title track is a quirky swinging tale of man so down on his luck he must sacrifice his most prized possession; an all too familiar story. The track that could be a radio hit for the new outfit is the infectious ‘High Heel Shoes,’ with the ingenious juxtaposition of heavily distorted guitar over an easy going groove played with brushes by Jacobson and the line “I lost the legal right to sing the blues, on account of them High Heel Shoes.” The album closer ‘Folsom Prison,’ provides another great reinvention of a classic, much like the Wired Band itself.
Virgil Brown and the Wired Band
Goodbye Guitar (Self)
http://www.wiredbluesband.com/
Rick J Bowen
