Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is the relentless and well deserved swagger that can be observed and felt when watching a band from New York City play out their songs on stage in one of the myriad of venues, bars and music halls that light up the brightest place on Earth.
It is a swagger that is not born of boastfulness or the anger of arrogance, but one that infects the artist with just cause; play in New York and you can put reservations down anywhere because the spirit of the city has got inside you and shines vibrantly. It is a with pleasure to see that vibrant intensity pushing the strut, the flag flying high parade of Jane Lee Hooker as they release their new album Spiritus.
It could be down to the sense of raw that comes across, the spirit of the live show that could be caught inside The Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village as the beers are served ice cold and the bluster from the clientele and the off duty bar flies reaches a crescendo of noise of appreciation that makes Jane Lee Hooker’s Dana Athens, Tracy Almazan, Tina Gorin, Melissa Houston and “Hail Mary” Zadroga’s music such an experience to wallow in when you are so far from the lights that go down on Broadway and the memories of dancing to the sound on 77th Street’s serenade.
Spiritus is a boozy rampage driven by stone cold sober passion and the force of five women taking down the signs that suggest with absolute erroneous deceit that the Blues is a young man’s game; this is passion in strength delivered with a howl from the guitars that make the listener beg for more and in a vocal that makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end.
In God we trust, so displays the bank notes of the United States of America, in the songs on Spiritus we revel. How Ya Doin?, Mama Said, Be My Baby, Black Rat, Ends Meet and the sloe burning cool finish of The Breeze all fire up the engine, it purrs like a panther, all sleek and lithe, and soon takes you where you need to go; into the land of the New York Blues and one that truly is still a fascinating place to be.
Jane Lee Hooker score highly with this set of original songs, wickedly rich, fiendishly cool, this is the spirit in which made American Blues such a powerful and creative scene.
Ian D. Hall