Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Blues cannot be simply ignored. For quite a while and in the dim and now thankful long since past, it could and had to be, for it was in serious danger of developing a skin so thick that even the greatest and most respectful of criticisms were dealt with by purists as being a snide remark on the whole historic genre. Thankfully the armour has been dropped with the appearance of musicians such as Joe Bonamassa, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Danny Bryant and incredible and numerous others, that the genre is to the lay person and the keen amateur vital and full of passion once more.

Thrown into that heady mix is The BlueBones, a group of musicians from various parts and who come together in such a way that the listener cannot help but wonder, if only they had been around when the genre was disappearing up a certain creek quicker than a canoe with power steering and a V8 engine, quite simply Saved By The Blues would have been an anthem for a lost generation of potential listeners.

Saved By The Blues, no matter the time of day and the mood, whether dispassionate and unsettled or vigorous and playful, will all come under the same no nonsense passionate framing as The BlueBones dig deep under the skin and deliver an album of exceedingly good quality and value.

With Nico De Cock’s rasping, rampaging and fruitful vocals beating in time to Step Paglia’s towering guitar, Dominque Christen’s drums, Ronald Burssen’s Bass and Edwin Risbourg’s Hammond organ, there is no place for the mind to scurry to, it can only accept the fact that Blues, which has been gratefully proved so many times since the turn of the century, has invested so much life into being nothing other than supreme again.

Tracks such as Find Me A Woman, Devil’s Bride, the anguish and undisguised anger that infects brilliantly in I’m Still Your Man, Crazy and the title track of Saved By The Blues, rip through the heart, beats it around for a while as it pumps harder to compensate and then relaxes in faith as the songs soothe its ache away.

Blues matters and there is perhaps arguably not a single day that goes by where a fan of modern Blues doesn’t say thanks for being Saved By The Blues.

Ian D. Hall