Dave Keyes - Roots In the Blues - Keyesland Music 2009

Keyes and Popa Chubby start things off strong with "Blues Bearing Down," filled with hot piano and organ solos from Keyes, incindiary guitar from Chubby, and a strong vocal effort to kick the disc off right. The fast-paced follower, "Lovin All the Time," had my feet tapping instantly. There's almost a honky tonk feel to it. I love the slide guitar on the track, performed here by Larry Campbell. Drummer Frank Pagano does a great job here, as well, handling the skins and chiming in with background vocals on the chorus.

Keyes enlists the help of some noteworthy friends on Roots In the Blues, with Campbell playing guitar, dobro and pedal steel on four of the album's tunes, the afore mentioned Popa Chubby playing guitar on three of the tracks, and Dave Fields handling the six string on a pair of songs.

"Bye Bye Baby" is the first of several tracks on Roots In the Blues featuring the horns of Tim Ouimette (trumpet) and Chris Eminizer (saxophone, Eminizer also arranged the horns along with Keyes). Randy Andos comes along on "Down To the Bones" and "You're My Party" to add trombone. The horns really add depth to the Soul Blues "All Black and Blue," one of the CD's standout tracks built around some stellar organ work and great songwriting.

"Down To the Bones" kind of captures a lot of the previous little highlights from Roots In the Blues and plops them onto one track: Eminizer's sax solo, slide guitar work from Fields (who makes his first appearance on the disc here), and strong piano and lyrics from Keyes.

"Didn't It Rain" is the first of the album's two covers. The Marie Knight/Rosetta Tharpe composition is a nod to Knight, who Keyes had the pleasure of performing on tour with. Keyes has a strong connection to Gospel, and proudly shows it with "Didn't It Rain" (which features some mind blowing piano work that gives you the impression there's actually two players) and the disc's other cover, Thomas Dorsey's "Angels Keep Watching Over Me." Keyes performs both tracks solo with piano and vocals, also lending organ to "Angels."

"Inside You" is a cool, inspirational tune made more poignant by Campbell's dobro. Keyes then heads to the swamp with "The Crawl," filled with Keyes' accordian and percussion from Larry Eagle that includes rubboard and pots and pans; and puts a dash of Dixieland flavor on "You're My Party," which also features an up front bass line from Lincoln Schleifer, and pedal steel from Larry Campbell.

Overall, Roots In the Blues is a positive CD, and you can call this a positive review. The songs are upbeat, meaningful, and at times, really fun. Keyes thanks Popa Chubby in the album's liner notes "for his encouragement" in the album making process, and fans should thank him, as well, for what turned out to be a very good record.

Standout Tracks: "Angels Keep Watching Over Me," "All Black and Blue," "Didn't It Rain," and "The Crawl"

Click On the Album Cover Below To Check Out Dave Keyes' New CD, Roots In the Blues, & Hear Clips.