Blue Coltrane - Messin`With The Blues

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1997
Time: 57:02 
Size: 131,3 MB 
Label: Tower Records/Wolf Records International GmbH
Styles: Blues/Chicago Blues
Art: Front 

Tracks Listing:
 1. Murder In The First Degree - 3:59
 2. Goin' To Chicago - 4:24
 3. Somebody's Been Sleepin' In My Bed - 3:12
 4. Southside Shuffle - 2:47
 5. Back Door Man - 3:33
 6. Rockin' Chair Daddy - 3:07
 7. Don't Cut Me Off Again - 2:53
 8. One Dat The Blues Will Hit You - 5:15
 9. Chicago's Still Burnin' - 4:03
10. I'm Gettin' Down On You Baby - 3:00
11. I've Got My Doors Open Baby - 2:42
12. You Burned Too Many Bridges - 5:06
13. Woke Up In Chicago - 3:19
14. Goin' Up Your Alley - 5:51
15. Too Many Drivers - 3:45

He grew up in Fresno, California, and cut his blues teeth performing in predominantly all black blues joints while still in his teens.His vocals are solid and fairly distinctive. Messin' With the Blues is billed as "Blues With a Jazz Fuse". Most of the songs are backed by a full horn section. The band is tight and talented, though the horn section gets a bit overbearing at times. Guitar is not heavily featured, but there are a few good slow blues guitar solos scattered here and there. There is also the occasional harmonica fill. My favorite songs from the CD are the three slow blues numbers, Somebody's Been Sleepin' In My Bed, One Day the Blues Will Hit you, and Goin' Up Your Alley. These songs are each individually unique, and are the CD's strongest offerings. Also noteworthy are Murder In the First Degree, Goin' To Chicago, Don't Cut Me Off Again, You Burned Too Many Bridges, and Woke Up In Chicago.
The balance of the songs are in the OK to good range. For me, this CD hovers between a 3.5 and 4.0 rating. I gave it a 4.0 on the strength of the three excellent slow blues songs, and the fact that there aren't any truely poor songs on the CD. The make or break factor for this CD may be whether or not you enjoy blues backed by a fairly up-front horn section.

Messin`With The Blues