BB And The Blues Shacks: Businessmen

Businessmen

BB And The Blues Shacks

Having notched up 3,000 live shows over a 25-year period, BB And The Blues Shacks understand the importance of adding ''energy'' to ''performance''. Businessmen, their seventh album on the CrossCut label, is a fitting demonstration of their powerful brand of the blues.

Track List

Out Of Tears
Gimme This, Gimme That
Take My Name
Businessmen
Buckle Up
Lovin' Might
Pardon Me
Rain All Down My Way
Who's Crying Now
It Was A Dream
Hot Pants
Green Eye
I Overpaid My Dues
Blues Shadow
Goodbye Everybody

The opener - Out Of Tears - is a great scene-setter, with the organ's introduction linking up with the horns via a quick roll on the drums. It's a toe-tapper that ticks the basic boxes of the blues; songs about bad things happening that make the listener feel good!

As the album progresses, a sense of style and continuity soon develops. It's the horns that make the difference, setting Businessmen aside from most of the blues albums reviewed here in recent times. The horn section pushes the inherent blues of the band through the jazz barrier and into the world of soul; not as far as Gospel, but just enough to lift the music into a pleasing mid-genre place of fusion music.

Elsewhere, the harmonica - on, for example, Businessmen and Pardon Me - keeps the blues anchor firmly in place.

Personnel

Michael Arlt - harmonica and vocals
Andreas Arlt - guitar
Dennis Koeckstadt - piano and organ
Henning Hauerken - electric bass guitar and upright bass
Jocehn Reich - drums

The No Blow No Show Horns

Tom Muller - tenor and baritone saxophones
Stefan Gossinger - trumpet
Martin Grunzweig - trombone

Goodbye Everybody is a show tune, designed to give all personnel a last chance to shine before the musical journey draws to a close - fittingly, with one final blast from the horns.

For further information, head for the BB and The Blues Shacks website.