Heavy, sweaty growling two-man punk-blues

As on their first two albums, Black Diamond Heavies crank out a lot more sound, and a lot more musical mass than one could imagine from a two-man blues band. It’s all the more impressive on this set for having been recorded live. John Wesley Myers plays the Fender Rhodes and provides bass via pedals (ala Ray Manzarek), and Van Campbell provides the drums. Their jamming actually does evoke the instrumental jams of the Doors, but heavier and grittier. The tone of Myers’ Fender may also remind you of Ray Charles, but it’s a guttural keyboard sound that Charles never laid down on tape. Myers plays both melody and rhythm on his keyboard, freeing Campbell’s drums to add a lyrical voice on top of their primary mission as the group’s timekeeper. Myers’ vocal growl still sounds like Tom Waits, but with distortion added to his piano, there’s a heavier punk-rock quotient, and the warble in the ‘50s-styled ballad “Bidin’ My Time” suggests a down-and-out Louie Armstrong. The roadwork that followed their studio releases solidified the interplay between Myers and Campbell, leaving little room for another instrumentalist and no sense that there’s a guitar missing. Recorded on a July night in a Covington, Kentucky Masonic lodge, the humidity clings to their performance, thickening it from the primal density of their studio work. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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