One can never have too much of a good thing. Sugar Ray And The Bluetones have released another fine blues album, Seeing Is Believing. Brimming with powerful blues in all 12 tracks, this winsome album will be playing in many local stereo systems by the end of this year. Most of these songs are originals, as all the band members are songwriters, and that makes this whole thing feel fresh and personal even though this kind of blues music has been with us for generations.
Opening track “Sweet Baby” jumps out of the stereo speakers with a heaving tuft of harmonica notes that grab one by the ears. From there, Sugar Ray Norcia applies his soulful rasp to express his longing for a woman who has her own special sweetness. All of the trademark Bluestone elements are in play. Monster Mike Welch presses out a tastefully brittle guitar line while pianist Anthony Geraci tinkles up some soulful playing.
Title track “Seeing Is Believing” is Norcia at his most down tempo cool. He croons this slow boogie number with his usual finesse and style, letting his talent unfurl at its own pace, his timbre fitting this tune’s somber mood like a glove. Welch and Geraci slap out some fierce chords to punctuate this number well before unleashing emotional fire with a simmering guitar phrase that gets hotter as it moves forward.
“Noontime Bell” is a blues shuffle with ample offerings of frisky guitar phrasing and old time blues piano. With a hearty croon, Norcia makes his case about loving someone on time. His voice is so full of yesteryear’s charm it isn’t funny.
“Keep On Sailing” finds Norcia beginning with only his voice and harp, a two pronged approach that ring out beautifully in the sparse soundscape. And boy, does his voice has a tremendous boom in that open space. His band mates soon join in with spirals of piano notes and twisty guitar phrasing that adorn the fun, rolling pace of this number. Bassist Michael “Mudcat” Ward and drummer Neil Gouvin keep the motivational groove pumping and the upper register boys make a playground out of the rhythm section’s platform.
More jumping, raucous blues fun is had on “Blind Date,” a number thick with harmonica muscle and a swinging groove that makes one want to join the party. Chunks of harmonica notes push their way around while the other instruments grind, jump, and swagger around on their own terms. Geraci’s speedy piano chords are the lettuce and tomatoes on this beefy sandwich and every other ingredient gets its own special notice.
Welch lulls us into his version of B.B. King’s “You Know I Love You” with his gravitational guitar phrasing, a line that anchors the melody as well as the listener into this tugging number. The guitar man’s precision as well as his tasteful, tender feeling make this a line that can reach people on many levels. It’s full of motion and it has a definite sense of direction, even if that direction is toward something sad.
“Misses Blues” is a sly, mid-tempo groove number about a guy who misses his woman as well as a lot of other things. Norcia’s voice is beautifully understated and tastefully restrained. He just coats the lyrics with his handsome timbre and that’s all it takes. His lilting harmonica line has a sweet, take your time feel that wraps around this song like a warm glove. Both the voice and the harp get tremendous lift from a mellow but very wide groove beneath them. Gouvin knows how to keep it movin’ and Mudcat is God.
“It Ain’t Funny” features a lot of fine, flinty guitar picking, piano tapping, and harp blowing. Its tuft of forceful notes impress with their dovetailed intervals and ever increasing fierceness. Welch picks a lot of sudden urgency out of his axe and it’s like he’s setting fires in the backdrop. In the foreground is Norcia’s soulful rasp and its steady contrast to the emergency call music around him.
Bringing things back to a weepy blues ballad mode, “Not Me” unfurls its sad, forlorn melodies with delicate harmonica playing and tender, laid back piano notes. Norcia’s harmonica playing on this one is so stirring, one can actually picture a man walking home by himself after being abandoned by a love. The song also makes the listener feel what Norcia might have been feeling when he wrote this.
“Got A Gal” is a fun gripe song about a woman who is “so mean to me.” Its layers of swaying harp blues and flinty guitar phrasing make this one a thicket of soul-soothing music and the rhythm section drives it home with a dancer’s swagger.
“Two Hundred Dollars Too Long” is a charismatic chunk of bravado blues. One cannot get enough of Norcia’s gripping, bursting harmonica phrase or his ever so cool vocal push. He makes this one roll on with a strong personality and a voice that means serious business.
Norcia and his boys close out with “It’s Been A Long Time.” This peppy number has a bounce in its step courtesy of Gouvin and Ward. Norcia’s sweet harmonica line is like a series of notes that dance around inside the meter, and it fits coolly in between Geraci’s piano grit and Welch’s perfectly accented guitar notes.
Sugar Ray And The Bluetones have certainly done it again. Coming up with perfectly fine blues albums is as natural to them as breathing. Theirs is a musical chemistry that cannot be denied. They also inject their new, original blues with plenty of punch and personality and they come up with material that will be well regarded by future generations of blues fans.
www.sugarrayandthebluetones.com
