From Blasters To Blood

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer

   Given the unrivaled sibling rivalry between Dave and Phil Alvin, it’s impressive The Blasters got it together to even briefly get back together. The live album document of this event is Trouble Bound. If you weren’t aware of these decades-long bad feelings, you wouldn’t have a clue as the boys rip their way through the Blasters catalogue. “So Long Baby Goodbye” goes down like a double shot from a dirty glass and “American Music” sizzles like a cold steak tossed into a red-hot frying pan. The Blasters still rock and rule.
   “Honky Tonk Maniac From Mars” is about a horny, hard-drinking alien with six hands who’s so unfamiliar with our earthly ways that he hits on a jukebox. This nutty song is on Jason Ringenberg’s All Over Creation. The longtime Scorchers front man is now a sure-footed solo artist. The CD feels like something classic and dangerous, such as taking a spin in James Dean’s car. (The last three words of that last sentence are the title of track five.)
   Speaking of dangerous, Dangerous Darryl and the Mojo Workers play down and dirty electric blues. “Playboy” sounds like an old Isley Brothers song that rappers today would be sampling. While Darryl looks kinda like Arthur Lee back when his band Love owned The Sunset Strip in the 1960s, Blue Baby sounds like Mr. Jimi Hendrix from that same era. L.A.-based Darryl and his Mojo Workers have got attitude and soul to burn.
   In Roots Of Our Nature, Norton Buffalo, crackerjack harmonica player for Steve Miller, makes a third album with first rate guitar master, Roy Rogers. “Deny And Down The Distance” tells the story of a guy who ran out on everything and finds himself surrounded by fellas in the same boat: “They got barrooms full of singers who’ve all misplaced their bands/Talkin’ bout their struggles and their five-year plans.” (Most musicians I know don’t have five-day plans.) Another lost soul surfaces in the third track who’s swept all his problems under his rug —- including (literally) himself. Buffalo and Rogers are a two-headed, four-armed animal genetically engineered to play harmonica and guitar at the same time. Call them The Creature From The Blues Lagoon.
   Finally, it takes no small amount of nerve to sing a famous singer’s song. Which means it’s an act of colossal chutzpah to cover an entire album —- but that’s just what New York’s Mary Lee’s Corvette did by recording every note of Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks. This one-night only, live concert was done at the wonderfully named Arlene Grocery in New York City. Mary Lee (whose last name is Kortes) hadn’t even planned to make a tape of the show but a technician luckily did. It’s a gripping, passionate performance. Mary Lee is in the studio now to make an album with one of the best producers around, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel. (Their first joint effort was 1999’s True Lovers Of Adventure.) I can’t wait to hear the result of their next collaboration and you have a treat in store when you hear Mary Lee’s heartfelt, stunning version of this album about love on the rocks. And if you ever felt that girls can’t sing Dylan as good as guys, you’ll never entertain that thought again.
Miles Of Music has Trouble Bound for $15, All Over Creation for $14 and Blood On The Tracks for $16.50. Amazon has Roots Of Our Nature for $13 and CDBaby has Blue Baby for $15.
   * The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is …Polkacide.