Delta Generators have just released their third modern blues album, Get On The Horse, and it’s every bit as feisty, gritty, greasy, and driving as their previous two. The boys have expanded their sound but are just as every bit enthusiastic to bring their aggressive take on delta blues to the masses. Mixed by producer David Z at House Of Blues Studios in Encino, California, Get On Your Horse has a clear, crisp, distinct sound on every song.
Delta Generators start out strong with “Whole Lotta Whiskey,” an electric guitar delta phrase pressing its way forward like a man in a crowd. Charlie O’Neal’s lead phrases still have that way of being greasy, crunchy, and rangy all at once. Vocalist Craig Rawding puts heart into his assertive belt and swaggering personality. It’s only their first track and you can feel the party has started.
Title track “Get On The Horse” finds Rawding crooning assertively over fuzzy guitar, rich organ chords, and a muscular rhythm section. Each verse Rawding belts is like a personal anthem, telling off not only the person he wants to run out of town but also everyone of that ilk. It’s the way we all feel toward someone at some point. O’Neal’s guitar is, again, a focal point. His incisive leads cruise over the hefty bass runs from his brother Rick O’Neal and the pump action drumming of Jeff Armstrong.
The boys take it slow on “It’s Been Hard,” an acoustic guitar driven, take your time contemplation of life during hard times. Charlie O’Neal keeps his electric phrase understated, tasteful, expressing himself no heavier than the lead vocal. This one gets its strength from its woven fabric of instrumentation and Rawding’s expressive rasp. He sings it like a man who has had a lot on his mind for a long time. This song is a blues release, letting go of the pain and frustration through music.
“Hot Tickets” finds the boys grinding out merciless guitar phrases, bossy bass lines, and persistent drum beats. The groove is a masterwork of crisscrossing drums and bass, simple stuff put together to thicken things up with funky feeling. Rawding doesn’t sing as much as he exuberantly announces his lyrics. This one conjures images of action among rough and ready types.
“Spider Bite” is a hard charging blues number. Rawding doesn’t just belt this one. He catapults his voice over the top of this grinding, funking, pumping number. Beneath him are mass movements of fuzzy bass, pushy drumming, and frenetic electric guitar lines that jump all over the groove, landing in just the right spaces. This is blues music that could go over well with any serious rock and roll fan. It stays true to the greasy, moaning genre while applying primitive early rock and roll energy.
The slow burning “Night Of The Johnstown Flood” turns down the tempo but not the flame. Rawding beautifully sustains his world weary, mournful lyrics in the most pain filled places in the song. This singer also tells a very lyrical story, imagery abounds and carries the concerned listener through actual and personal devastation. Listeners will feel this one as Rawding bares his soul amidst a tasteful, considered unfurling electric guitar from Charlie O’Neal, floating organ chords from guest musician John Cooke, and a respectful rhythm section that holds up the fort with sublime, understated grace. A stirring, emotive vocal line from Rawding announces itself as the music quiet downs, a dramatic moment in this music that makes you feel something huge has just played out.
“Against The Cold” delves into the prettier side of blues. Rawding eases up his timbre and tone here to make you feel he’s having a conversation with you as he sings to you. The acoustic guitar and banjo gives this a gritty, homespun roots feeling, and Rawding’s harmonica whistles a warm melody to you as the Delta Generators show they can be gentle with us too.
“Rose For Rosa Lee” brings things back up to mid-tempo cruise in which the boys add tasteful rustic flavorings. Inspired by vintage country blues, this one gets its warmth from harmony vocals, carefully picked country guitar, and a warm cruising speed groove from a sensitive rhythm section.
Continuing their easeful grooves on “Bulldog Sick Of Rain,” Delta Generators spice things up with delta inspired guitar phrases, slide phrases, swirls of organ chords, and a snappy rhythm section. You can fell the band’s roots influences more clearly as they take their time unfurling them.
Speaking of roots influences, “Home Of The Rustling Chain” is pure Americana and it just may make listeners feeling the same earthy storytelling motion they get from a William Faulkner novel. A slide guitar phrase takes it sweet time, pressing out a line that keeps you following it length by length. Primitive percussion, gritty banjo, and Rawding’s huskier, raspier timbre makes you feel the slow torture of living out life as a plantation slave in the 1800s American south.
After getting all of that tender roots oriented melody out of their systems, Delta Generators jump into the fuzzy guitar drive of “Diablo Rock.” This one makes you see the gunslingers walking toward you with steady purpose and unflinching eyes. The rhythm makes you feel you’re being pushed down the dirt road toward the town border, for your own safety. An irresistible loping groove makes you tap your toes as you listen to the bracing drama playing itself out.
Rawding turns his timbre up high and smooth on the 1970s funk inspired “Blood Sugar Baby.” This number definitely could have been performed on Saturday afternoon’s Soul Train. Jumpy beats, organ sustains, funky bass lines, and zigzagging guitar lines make you want to move to this one. Rawding will definitely do things for the ladies with his sensual voice here. This one should have been a hit song back in the day. It would have pushed Earth, Wind, And Fire, The O’Jays, and even Stevie Wonder out of the number one chart position.
Another fine slow burner adorns this album at the end. “The More I Find Out(The Less I Want To Know)” gets a friendly push from bumpy, hollow percussion instruments and a persistent guitar phrase. Back into truer blues form, this piece finds a singer bemoaning his fate over a backdrop of easeful instrumentation, peppering the soundscape with multitudes of light touches. Rawding moans out his story’s pain with sublime sustains that help teach the true meaning of the blues.
Delta Generators continue their career of releasing and performing great local blues music. With albums like Devil In The Rhythm, Hard River To Row, and now Get On The Horse, these musicians may one day get the recognition reserved for truly great pioneers in the blues genre. Let’s hope it comes to them long before they’re dead and buried.