Lucky to Be Living

Album Review

The Arizona-based tandem of guitarist/vocalist Dave Riley and harmonicist Bob Corritore sure sound like they are having a lot of fun when they get together to play the blues. Between them, they have all the bases covered to entertain their audience, and stay true to an authentic, 12-bar Chicago blues roadhouse style. Riley plays a competent guitar, leaving flashy pyrotechnics to glam rockers, adding a slightly gravelly and soulful voice to the proceedings that is never mealy-mouthed or incoherent. Corritore is an excellent harp player, working well off the tradition of his predecessors, while adding his own brand of vigor and stone-round grit. This program features four tracks written by the late Frank Frost, single cuts by John Weston and Fred James, and four more by Riley, all in the urban electric style from the southside of Chi-town. The grand vizier of Texas blues piano, Henry Gray, plays on three tunes with the same gutsy vitality of his earlier days, with Dave Riley, Jr. on the bass for half the album, and drumming duties split between three players. The music is as solid as it gets, original within standard blues parameters, and just as much fun to listen to as these musicians have playing it. The four Frost tunes include the sly, choogling, get-down anthem "Jelly Roll King" with deference to the ultimate womanizer, the title track in a slower Muddy Waters style, talking about being "shot with a pistol" and agonizing about post-fight "broken bones." "Ride with Your Daddy Tonight" features steady and clean, two-fisted chords from Gray, while "The Things You Do" is pure good-time blues, featuring the sandpaper vocals of Riley. Among the tunes from Riley himself, there's the basic, under-three-minute "On My Way," the midtempo, baby-is-gone blues "Back Down the Dirt Road," and the duet with Corritore, "Country Rules," warning that those who "abide by the country rules" should also be aware that they are strictly "for fools." Weston's slow, six-minute "Sharecropper Blues" is also a soulful Riley/Corritore duet about slave drivers, while "Automobile," penned by James, is still relevant in that his woman likely "cares more about a car than me." This recording is unique for contemporary blues in that Riley and Corritore play in an acoustic style, but with electrified energy. There's no need to turn up the amps and peg the meters into the red, for this band is more than capable of cranking it up without touching a volume control. This recording, one of the best traditional and contemporary blues CDs of 2009, is beyond reproach in relation to any of the big-name blues stars you'd care to name. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi