Country, electric blues and adult alternative

Hood’s been making music for the better part of a decade, having released his first album, the solo blues live set 21 to Enter back in 2001. His second full-length (he released a four-song EP in 2004) was produced and arranged by Pete Anderson and originally released in 2007 on Anderson’s Little Dog label. This re-release gives the album a national re-launch, adding three acoustic takes to the ten Hood (and Hood/Anderson) originals. As might be expected with Anderson co-writing and producing, the songs don’t hew to the acoustic blues of Hood’s debut, and as the title suggests, there are several different grooves here. The most notable change is that Hood is now backed by a full band with Anderson picking strings, Michael Murphy on keys and a potent bass and drums rhythm section. Hood sings electric country-blues, singer-songwriter country-folk, and a country-tinged version of the adult alternative mainstream sound of John Mayer. The album’s killer track is the moody country lament “Late Night Diner,” with Bob Bernstein’s pedal steel and Anderson’s laconic electric guitar providing moving accompaniment to Hood’s sorrowful song of broken hearts and broken lives. Accordion and a second-line beat give “Vornado” a toe-tapping Cajun edge and show how moving Hood sounds in rootsier settings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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