The Voodoo Sheiks: Borrowed & New

Borrowed and New

The Voodoo Sheiks

The new album by The Voodoo Sheiks is released today. Borrowed and New takes the unusual approach of adding five new songs to seven cover versions. As they themselves put it:

''We rocked up at Platform Studio with a plan which was simplicity itself:  Record five brand spanking new tunes and then have a bunch of live covers recorded, mixed and mastered at the same time. After sprinkling voodoo dust over the mix, a musical cocktail of studio-creativity and live urgency would breathe and take form...''

The Voodoo Sheiks is a four-piece band, consisting of the following personnel:

Slowblow Dave: Vocals, harp

Adrian Thomas: Guitar, backing vocals

Andy Pullin: Bass

John Coombes: Drums

Their genre is firmly in the rhythm and blues department, as the track list happily confirms.

Track List

The New

Spirit
Lone Star Groove
Lucky So and So
Bitter (and then some)
I Wouldn't Treat A Dog That Way

The Borrowed

Boogie Man
Don't Lie To Me
Boom Boom
She Does It Right
Hog For You Baby
Looking Back
I Can Tell

Of the new songs, Spirit and I Wouldn't Treat A Dog That Way are the highlights. Both are fast-paced blues rockers that tear along very nicely.

The covers are all of well known songs, played at a fast pace, complete with drumstick count-ins to emphasise the live status if the recording. The pick of the bunch is She Does It Right, admirably capturing the authentic Dr Feelgood sound and offering a timely tribute to the song's writer - the great Wilko Johnson - who last week underwent a ground-breaking nine hour operation in his ongoing battle with cancer.

The balance of songs doesn't seem quite right. The new songs are outnumbered and generally overshadowed by the covers - a sort of ''starter'' before the ''main''. Offering more of the New and fewer of the Borrowed would have given the original songs more room to breathe and helped to give the Voodoo Sheiks more of an opportunity to showcase their own creative talents.

Nevertheless, this blast of good old British rhythm and blues, while breaking little in the way of new ground, will blow away the cobwebs and keep the toes tapping.

For further details regarding The Voodoo Sheiks, please head for their official website.