Ross Harding - The Blood & The Blues

Bitrate:320K/s
Year:2025
Time:36:20 
Size:83,7 MB 
Label:Self-Released 
Styles:Rock/Blues 
Art:Front 

Tracks Listing:
 1. A Thousand Snakes - 4:12
 2. The Blood & The Blues - 5:32
 3. Me & Lucifer - 3:38
 4. Revelator Blues - 3:09
 5. No Rest For The Wicked - 4:22
 6. Dark City Blues - 6:18
 7. Black Rose - 4:43
 8. A Thousand Snakes - 4:23

It starts with A Thousand Snakes (Deluxe Version), which sets the tone well for the rest of the album. His voice reaching out of the darkness, telling us he’s been to hell and back, with a tone, richness and roughness you want from a tormented buesman. An acoustic start with some rich electric notes raising up from the abyss, intoxicating and magical. Black Rose is up next, and this branches out from regular blues and brings some Jimmy Page inspired acoustic guitar picking into the picture. Following this is Dark City Blues which pulls out some pain dripping notes from his electric guitar. It reminds me in tone and feel of Eric Clapton’s Edge Of Darkness TV theme. It certainly paints a picture of empty city streets in the middle of the night.Me And Lucifer hits next, this being one of the two singles. A rockabilly slide fest with more admissions of nefarious practices, talking of which, No Rest For The Wicked follows hot on it’s heels, with an electric riff which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres, or even Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, and contains some dexterous guitar work, which just sends tingles up my spine.Then we have Revelator Blues, the song which seduced me some months ago, and it’s not lost any of it’s allure. I love acoustic blues, I love slide blues, with a kick drum to keep the beat. This song delivers all with such attitude, you’ve got no choice but to stomp your foot and nod your head.The title tracks follows next , an electric work out of gargantuan proportions. Quite unrelenting in it’s aural assault. It picks you up, drops you down and picks you up again, leaving your brain crying out for more as it finishes.And more there is with the last track, a non deluxe version of A Thousand Snakes, more electric and less acoustic but no less enthralling.The thing which sets Ross Harding apart from his contemporaries, is the primal and primitive feel of his songs, his voice and his playing. He really does sound like he is playing and singing to save his soul.

The Blood & The Blues