Blues Legend James Harman returns with his Electro-Fi Records debut, Bonetime his first new Studio release in 12 years. It's been worth the wait as James lays down his patented vocal and harmonica work on a dozen new and original tracks. Joining James on Bonetime is an All Star crew of artists: Nathan James, Junior Watson, Kid Ramos, Candye Kane, Gene Taylor, Jeff Turmes and Kirk Fletcher. Bonetime is a high water mark in the career of a man who's been singing, playing and writing inspired Blues music since 1962. Watch for Bonetime and James Harman to be doing big things in 2015.
From the minute this records starts with the title track you know that you are in the hands of a master, a great harmonica player and singer with a swinging band, which on this track features guitarist Junior Watson. James is also joined on the album by former members of his Icehouse Band including the wonderful pianist Gene Taylor, guitarist Kid Ramos, drummer Stephen Taylor Hodges and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Turves, not to mention other guests such as Kirk Fletcher, Candye Kane, Sonny Leyland, Alan West and Mike Tempo.
The album features 12 previously unreleased original tracks which all have that immediately recognisable 'Harman sound', featuring his relaxed southern drawl and killer harmonica playing, but also manage to offer variety in the form of different styles of blues and great instrumental contributions from the guests. Many tracks also feature humorous lyrics, as can be seen seen from titles like "Blue Strechmark Tatoo", "Skirt" and "(I Am) The World's Badluckiest Man" - which features outstanding rocking piano from Taylor and slide guitar from Harman's current collaborator Nathan James. Elsewhere Kid Ramos plays Elmore James-style slide on "Skirt", which also features Jeff Turmes on tenor sax, and the 7-minute slow blues "Coldfront Woman" is a standout track, with great piano from Sonny Leyland and stinging guitar from Kid Ramos. "Leavin' Fire" is a nice 'semi-acoustic' track with more superb piano from Taylor and subtle guitar from Nathan James and "Bad Feets/Bad Hair" is brass-led rocking West Coast R&B. This is a really good album from a great artist who has never got the attention he truly deserves.
Review by G.E. Harrison, Amazon.com ---------- The Iceman
Last Edited by The Iceman on Jun 04, 2015 5:14 PM
I've got this CD and if it's classic James Harman your after then this is classic James Harman, humour and quirky human observations! Solid slab of great music from Ol' Icepick! ----------
"those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do
I have the CD too and, to be brutally honest, I find it weak, flat and relatively uninteresting.
Two Sides and Extra Napkins are milestones and absolutely fantastic. A must in any decent blues collection, I feel.
Despite the fact that the new CD has tons of talent on show, it lacks dynamics, cool grooves and Harman IMO just doesn't deliver. He is one of my favourite contemporary blues singers and his harp playing, although spartan, can genuinely deliver the goods. Not this time, I'm afraid. Surprisingly, even the Sonny Boy style number doesn't quite get the job done.
Still, there are some good moments and I don't regret buying the CD. It's also good to support some of these guys, who don't always have an easy financial time of it.
As always, feel free to disagree ;)
R
Last Edited by Little roger on Jun 05, 2015 3:26 AM
That's a fair enough opinion .... it's your ears! Mind you I remember when Icepick brought out Lonesome moon trance a few folk thought he had missed the mark...I liked it. ----------
"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
Icepick's (actually, he refers to himself as the Bone King in this disc's liner notes) superb song writing is intact on this one. Each of his songs are fabulous short stories about life as he observes it. I have to agree with Roger, though, about the dynamics of the music (in particular, the harp tones) missing the mark. He's always been one of my go to guys and this is the only release of his that hasn't bowled me over. Might be a reason that these went unreleased until now. Something's just not there for me. ---------- Ricky B http://www.bushdogblues.blogspot.com RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans available at Amazon/B&N, iTunes, iBook THE DEVIL'S BLUES--ditto HOWLING MOUNTAIN BLUES--Ditto too, now available
