Blues Music Review: Rick Taylor - Lucky Room - Volunteer Records 2010

The CD opens with Taylor bouncing through Big Bill Broonzy's "By Myself" on resphonic slide guitar. Ironically, he is accompanied on the track by Fats. It's the first in a line of covers on the 11-track set. That resphonic rings so beautifully behind Rick Taylor's gruff vocals, providing an excellent combination of sounds on the album's lead-in. That's followed by some wonderful acoustic, finger-style guitar on Arthur "Big Boy" Spires' Chicago Blues classic "Murmur Low." Taylor's press release describes his playing as "guitarnastics," and when you listen to the guitar solo on "Murmer Low," you understand why.

"Six Cold Feet of Ground" is Rick Taylor's electric take on a recording from 1920's pianist Leroy Carr. His harmonica bellows in the background, while the electric slide guitar solo is soaring. Taylor breaks the resphonic back out to rip through Elmore James' "I See My Baby," and you can hear Hensall Fats scratching the washboard well behind his friend.

"Tough Times" is a John Brim number done electric with a crunchy Rock edge. It's the first of two appearances by John Brim songwriting, as Rick Taylor shakes off Brim's "Rattlesnake" during a medley with it and Jimmy Rogers "Going Away Baby." The most recent piece of songwriting on Lucky Room is a wonderful take on 1960's Pittsburgh Folk artist Eric Anderson's "Blind Fiddler." The song is a standout for me, done on resophonic, and featuring some beautiful slide at times. Taylor's vocals are much smoother here, interestingly, and sound just as wonderful, if not moreso.

Taylor picks out Mississippi John Hurt's "Monday Morning Blues" on acoustic, then grabs his electric to chug through the afore mentioned medley of "Rattlesnake/Going Away Baby." I'm not sure if it's a triangle, some sort of bell, or something else, but Hensall Fats' chime is well placed, and caused a smile to creep across my face as I shook my head. It's so refreshing to know that such a small addition to a song can make such a big difference.

"You Can't Live Long" is an ominous sounding slide number originally written by post-war Chicago artist Floyd Jones. This leads into Lucky Room's closing numbers, Sleepy John Estes' "Drop Down Mama," and the timeless "Baby Please Don't Go" by Big Joe Turner. "Drop Down Mama" sounds cool with an almost Rockabilly slant. Taylor's electric version of "Baby Please Don't Go" is arranged a la John Lee Hooker or ZZ Top.

Lucky Room is an album of Blues covers, mostly from the first half of the 20th century, with the majority of these artists coming out of predominantly the 1920's and 1950's. Rick Taylor serves the songs well with his minimalist approach, putting the emphasis on killer guitar playing to serve as a backdrop to some great songwriting. The most fun aspect of listening to this CD is being able to run down the list of artists that Taylor covers, and go back and rediscover them. I had a ball looking up all of these greats online, and even discovering a couple artists I hadn't previously been aware of. It's a very good disc, for sure.

Standout Tracks: They're all good, but for me, "Blind Fiddler," "Drop Down Mama," "You Can't Live Long," and "Six Cold Feet of Ground" stand above the rest.

Links:
RickTaylorMusic.com

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