Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Chicago is a city built on several distinct sounds, the echoes of the past at times which reverberate and regurgitate over and over again, a beautiful, vibrant city but one caught arguably in its own musical demise and with only a few choice new names brave enough to try and tear that down.
Ryk Mead & The London Blues Band’s Chicago on the other hand is a place filled with opportunity in which 11 songs offer a fresh almost tantalising sound of innate pleasure and in which, whilst steeped in the Blues, is not overawed by the past association of a genre that has stepped out of its own terminal pre-21st shadow and become a vivacious and almost flamboyant beauty once more.
Whilst there are others that will take the greater plaudits in the ashes of a genre being blown away and the small shoots of musical recovery being seen in the right places to cause careful nurturing and the beast of Blues being seen a huge force once more. For groups such as Ryk Mead & The London Blues Band, their part has been played to a state of near perfection, they have added the building blocks and the scenery to acts such as Joe Bonamassa, they are in truth, the absolute heroes in the resurgence.
Chicago though is more than just a celebration of new Blues numbers by the band and one very cool cover of Skip James’ Cyprus Grove, it is a way of life, it is the dream of the merging Rock, Blues and that other once former power house undergoing its own revival, Jazz, and seeing the potent mix flourish under scrutiny.
The songs on Chicago are earthy, they are not attention seeking, they are bruisers and stand out without the need for fluff to be added into the equation. The Blues is not just a state of mind, it is a place all of its own, a city of desperate longing filled with the sound of a guitar that just doesn’t know when to quit and in songs such as I’m Not Afraid, Blues Latino, Put Away Your Blues and Running Out of Time, that guitar never lets go of the one true fundamental in life, belief.
Some Blues albums celebrate the past, others live very much in the present, Chicago lives in a state of genuine appreciation; Ryk Mead has made sure of that.
Ian D. Hall 2015