BlooGaLoo!

Album Review

Austin isn't a town that takes its blues lightly, much less its blues guitar heroes, so the fact that Austinite Johnny Moeller not only cut his teeth at legendary Austin blues club Antone's, but was mentored and touted as the next Stevie Ray by club owner Clifford Antone himself, should speak volumes. Moeller also happens to be the guitarist for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, who have no small reputation in Austin themselves, but he ventures out on his own on BlooGaLoo!. Moeller gets vocal assists from a couple of Texas blues titans as well — Thunderbirds singer Kim Wilson and LouAnn Barton. Wilson rips it up on supercharged versions of East Texas bluesman Frankie Lee Sims' "Well Goodbye Baby" and Jesse Anderson's ‘60s Chicago blues nugget "Got a Feelin'," while Barton burns in a sassy duet with Moeller on "I'm Stuck on You" and Earl King's "Everybody's Got to Cry Sometime." Moeller takes a few lead vocals on BlooGaLoo!, but he doesn't pretend to be an earth-shaking singer — his guitar is the real star of the album. One of Moeller's greatest gifts as an axe slinger is his tasteful, economical phrasing. Having learned from the best, he understands that you can say more with one well-placed note than a feverish flurry of misfires. Add to that a visceral tone that seems to give Moeller's every riff a sense of urgency, and you begin to understand why he's emerged as a six-string hotshot in a town that's been all about guitar heroes for decades. ~ J. Allen, Rovi