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About Chicago Country Blues
Chicago Country Blues are hand-clappin' and toe-tappin' music -- they're a hoe-down without the
row to hoe -- and we listen to 'em just because they're fun, and that's reason enough. But in seeming
contrast, they can also be an expression of sadness -- a sweet sadness that touches the soul
-- that touches the soul and releases the power and beauty of deep emotion.
That sweet sadness evokes memories of bittersweet emotion -- emotions that are irrevocably tied to
longings, and to strivings, that have often-times gone unfulfilled. But these are emotions that are a
delight to behold, because we possessed love enough to have cared deeply in the first place.
And so, reaching down to touch the soul, Chicago Country Blues can lift us up in a crescendo of beautiful
memories -- even if they are bittersweet memories -- because those experiences still represent everything
that we hold dear -- and dearly enough that, if we were to do it all over again, we would indeed,
do it all over again.
About the CD
Opening with a vocal rendition of the title song, Sound of the Blues seeks to express the beauty and
appeal of Chicago Country Blues, as the music is compared to the sound of a "night train passing through."
Like the sound of the night train, the music is both solitary and wondrous in its emotional power.
With metaphorically succinct lyrics, the song's theme is further expressed through the melody of the guitar
-- in a complementary way that lyrics alone, or guitar alone, could never express. The first passage of the
lead guitar is an elegant and engaging solo in itself, yet it builds toward the melodies that follow it.
Continuing in the center passage, the understated and poignant sounds of the bending strings
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foreshadow a dramatic conclusion -- in which the heart-felt melody actually departs from the chord structure
of the song. These passages contain almost tearful phrases that capture the depth of the song's sentiment
-- the unrealized longings and desires that can characterize the loves of a lifetime. Together, the
combination of lyrical expression, with an instrumental of sheer, dramatic power, leaves each listener with
a uniquely personal experience of the song.
As the title song fades into the night, I Can See Around The Bend opens with a spacious and nearly
minute-long guitar solo. Although played on a conventional electric guitar, the bending strings and ringing
overtones of consonant notes have a sound that is delightfully reminiscent of a slack-arm guitar. Bend
is a unique composition with its combination of a bright tempo and its contrasting, plaintive expression of a
"sweet love fading away."
Following the introduction, and accompanied only by the driving rhythm section, the vocal tells a story of the love
that is slowly, but irreversibly, slipping away. Accentuated by a brief but moving solo, the singing
resumes at the bridge of the song, approaching the album's theme with the lyric, "I'm not sorry that I
loved you, just sorry for what might have been." After a reaffirmation of the song's chorus, the music begins
to pause, but the acoustic guitar continues forward -- and the drums ensue, as the song moves into
an emotional, upper-register guitar solo. And a memorable solo it is -- like
the solo in the title song, the lead guitar in Bend is an extension of the lyrical story,
expanding upon it in a way that words alone could never have.
A Fortune In Blues kicks off with a guitar boogie -- clearly, the album's contribution to all of the
country and blues guitar riffs that have ever been played. Deftly simple and catchy, this rhythm
figure is played low, near the open strings of the guitar. And then with a sprightly 'crash'
of the drummer's cymbal, the song's vocal launches into the light-hearted but earnest story of an untrue
love that is indeed a bounty -- albeit, a bounty in heartaches.
Lyrically ironic, the song just gets better and better as its story moves along to the instrumental break,
which begins with an alternate phrasing of the guitar boogie -- and this then gives way to an expansive,
steel guitar sounding solo. Still not ready to call it quits, a subsequent guitar passage fulfills the
character of the song -- the song itself is like 'Rockabilly revisited', with a Chicago accent. This
subsequent guitar solo is a strumming, melodic pattern of chord voicings that have a rhythmic, 1950's
quality to them -- one can almost hear the shout of "Go Cat Go!" during this passage. It brings together an
instrumental break of unique proportions, as each passage sounds like a different player. Of course, all
were accomplished by the same musician, merely using the different tone colors present as the hand moves up
to different places on the guitar neck. With the drive and ease that seasoned musicians are capable of,
Fortune takes varied stylistic elements and puts them together in a recording that sounds like a
newly-discovered classic.
Speaking of "classics," No Place To Call Home is performed a lot like classic honky-tonk, and it
adds to that one of the most infectious grooves in memory. Upon repeated listening, it seems that no single
musician is to credit for the rhythmic pulse of the song -- indeed, it seems that it was no one and everyone
-- just a great ensemble sound created by all four musicians. And this rhythmic pulse drives some wonderful
lyrics forward -- words which aptly describe the difference between a house and a home, as
the lyric finds the singer elaborating, "I listened for your footsteps, momentarily -- alone in
vain I listened, solitarily." And shortly there-after, the guitar solo kicks off with a punchy
'triple-triplet,' accompanied by the drummer's cymbal crashing enthusiastically. Lo and behold, this very
electric-sounding solo is played like the flat-picking of a flat-top guitar -- it is sheer old-time,
but with the power of honky-tonk. And then when it seems that the solo is about to take the song home, the
solo changes directions on the turn-around and establishes its own melodic 'call and response.' It
calls out from smooth and understated low notes, and then advances shimmering high notes in return.
No Place To Call Home may be a song about an empty home -- but it is also a real marriage of classic
writing and dynamic playing.
Closing the album is a beautiful electric guitar instrumental of the title song, this time called
Sound of the Blues Reprise. And what an instrumental -- at times it is cleverly interpretive of the
vocal melody, while for the most part it is completely its own musical expression.
Reprise opens with skillful and sentimental finger-picking of emotionally evocative ninth and
minor-seventh note-chords. They are variously nostalgic and bluesy -- and they progress toward a
vibrato-laden, wonderful turn-around which is adeptly played, and is reminiscent of the most
expressive of mandolin figures. Patiently and elegantly stated, Reprise is approached in a
way that is consistent with the guitar playing throughout the album -- drawing upon just the
right amount of time and space to set the stage.
As the finger-picking of Reprise fades out, and is then muted by the player's picking hand, the
thumb-pick is poised and strikes the first ringing note of an equally powerful second half of the song. The
first passage here plays off of the vocal melody in a complementary fashion, dynamically adding
embellishments, and also taking full advantage of the one-octave step up from the vocal melody. Then in
contrast, but with a seamless transition, the next passage introduces cascading note-chords that possess
the fluidity and phrasing of a weeping steel guitar. The melodic finale of Reprise returns closer to
the vocal melody, but it does so by way of alternate-picking -- and it is wonderfully reminiscent of the
cross-picking of a mandolin, while also adding the ringing overtones and singing sustain of
an electric guitar. Utilizing emotive variations in chord voicings, the finale brings Reprise to a
touching conclusion that captures the expressive theme of the entire album.
Lyrically, vocally, and melodically a beautiful album, the entire Sound of the Blues album
demonstrates the power of the musical instruments in expressing and expanding upon that which even the
finest of lyrics could never say alone.
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