Julian Sas: Bound To Roll

Bound To Roll

Julian Sas

New Year, new music. Bound To Roll is the first of three new albums I will be reviewing this week.

Bound To Roll is largely up-tempo blues, heavy on catchy guitar licks; rough and ready, without superfluous trimmings. Ideal for blasting the first musical hole into 2013.

The album hits the ground running, with the first three tracks kicking in with a thoroughly restless pace. The tempo only slows temporarily with How Could I Have Been So Blind (Burnin' Bridges and Ain't Backing Down are the only other slower, more traditional blues numbers).

This is the Dutch blues-rocker's eight studio album and he is joined by Tenny Tahamata (bass) and Rob Heijne (drums). Guest Willem van de Schoof occasionally fills out the sound with the Hammond organ.

The album took two and a half years to make. It is, confirms Sas, ''a very personal record. This album is about pleasure, enjoyment, love, loss, pain and sadness. About real life, about the blues, about experiences that, I hope, made me stronger and a better human being. For me making this album was a way of dealing with my emotions.''

Three covers rub shoulders with the nine original compositions, namely:  Shadow Play (Rory Gallagher), 30 Days In The Hole (Steve Marriott) and Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan).

Track List

Life On The Line
Mercy
Bound To Roll
How Could I Have Been So Blind
Shadow Play
Swamplands
30 Days In The Hole
The Blues Won't Stay
Tear It Up
Burnin' Bridges
Ain't Backing Down
Highway 61 Revisited
Life On The Line (Radio Edit)

Stand out tracks are Life On The Line, Mercy and The Blues Won't Stay. If they don't get your toes tapping, then Bound To Roll is not for you. Otherwise, slip the CD into your music player of choice, turn it up loud and enjoy the ride.

Find out more over at Julian Sas's official website.