Wintertijd

King King.

Every now and then people make albums that seem to render the rest of the genre obsolete or superfluous, and the 1992 live recording by The Red Devils, "King King" pretty much does that for blues, blues-rock and most rock. It is a hard-hitting set of 12 songs recorded at the King King club, 6 years before the demise of their harp player and lead singer, Lester Butler. He died of an OD in 1998, which to me seems kind of fitting for a blues man.

In spite of these guys all being white, they deliver in spades. The band is tight, the sound original yet familiar, the harp playing is inspired and gritty as hell. In fact this whole album is made of pure grit, grime, sweat and smoke, just like it ought to be. It may be strange to quote Radiohead in a Blues review, but the Red Devils offer you no alarms and no surprises here. It's blues, man. Unadulterated and unpolished as anyone has ever recorded it. Once you buy it, there are only two things you can do to this album. The first one is kind of elaborate, so bear with me.

You take this album and fly down to the deep south of the US. Find yourself a small town with a drug store, a local mechanic and gas station and a juke joint. You go to the local mechanic and pick up a greasy, beat up American vehicle with a V8 engine, a leather couch for a front seat, an automatic gearbox attached to the wheel, an ash tray and a decent CD system. Then get yourself a hot looking woman with an attitude, a short dress and no shoes, a cold six pack of beer and a pouch of tobacco.

Next you wait for one of those cindering hot summer days where the cotton is high and the only things that move are the heat tremors above the tarmac and the alligators looking for lunch. You take your CD, woman, six pack and tobacco, and put them all in the car, roll a cigarette, light up and then you drive that car 500 miles down backwater roads with the windows down, the woman cuddled up to you with her naked feet on the dash, cooling her neck with a can of ice-cold beer and the system as far up as it can go.

Or you can just stick it in your stereo and play the damn thing. I guarantee you, the feeling will be all the same. Please enjoy No Fightin' by the Red Devils.

Posted by Chris at March 30, 2008 12:35 PM