Krissy Matthews
RUF
All-star blues love-ins don’t turn heads like they used to (and Krissy Matthews’s friends don’t exactly have the paparazzi camped out on their doorsteps). But this double-album is a gem, its ego-free cast eating up their tracks and the British-Norwegian bandleader generously delegating some of the best originals he’s written.
That the three-hour run time feels pacy and low on flab is down to Matthews’s genre-blind approach. Lead single Queen (featuring a seething Kim Jennett vocal) is a battle-cry opener, our host playing a guitar solo that sounds like a scalded polecat. But it couldn’t be further from the sweet, soulful run-out for Chris Farlowe on Ain’t Got No Troubles On The Road. Likewise, it’s hard to join the dots from the ghostly Why Are You Ashamed Of Me? to a cover of Clawfinger’s Do What I Say.
A few years back, Matthews was working as a pizza delivery man and seemed close to hanging it up. This epic, year-long project deserves to put him at the head of the pack.
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Jesse Dayton
HARDCHARGER/BLUE ELAN
Texas journeyman Dayton has spread his talent so wide – with collaborators spanning from Johnny Cash to Rob Zombie – you’d assume he has no material left to feed his solo career. But The Hard Way Bluesis prickly and powerful, exemplified by Dayton going out to bat for a disenfranchised US workforce on Talkin’ Company Man Blues.
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Troy Redfern
RED7
Herefordshire guitarist Redfern wrote much of Invocation while meditating, and his subconscious
