‘Falling Down’ is the debut album from BURGESS AND SLIDE. The band is an East Bristol trio consisting of Gary Burgess (the singer/songwriter) who also blows a mean blues harp, Crispin ‘Slide’ Hambidge on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and Bill Crampton on upright bass.
The band plays acoustic country blues and folk blues. As a debut album, one thing really stands out, and that is the storytelling. Each track is an epic which sits head and shoulders above the majority of recent songs in the same genre by other artists.
Opening with the awesome ‘Bill Richmond’, a lovely country blues track punctuated with some excellent harmonica work, this is a tale all about the African American bare knuckle boxer who was born in 1763 who was known in the boxing trade as ‘The Black Terror’. Born a slave, he was at one time working for the Percy family, who to this day own Alnwick Castle and the title Duke of Northumberland: “He was born in poverty; his momma gave him to the room/ Learned how to bow to men and money, he learned to see what they do/ He was the bare knuckle champion of the world.”
This is a brilliant story which tells of his fight with Tom Cribb, who finally beat Bill in the 60th round!
Following this tale is ‘Around The World’, a more introspective track with Gary lamenting on his current situation to a poster of James Bond pin up girl, Ursula Andress: - “Lyin’ here in my bed, lyin’ here for a week/ Aint getting’ no sleep...Room here’s such a mess, just me and Ursula Andress.” What I really liked about this one was the upright bass solo and the harmonica playing, reminiscent of early Bob Dylan.
Other tracks that really grab the listener include ‘Slow Down’, a lovely folk blues which is augmented by Stew Jackson’s pedal steel guitar. This is quite a love song: - “Followed you round the mountainside, followed you through the rain/ You led me through green valleys, gal/ I followed you again and again/
|
Please slow down.”
‘I’m Leavin’ is a lovely acoustic folk blues with some country overtones. Certainly the lyrics follow one of the blue and country music’s favourite themes that of relationship splits: -
“Woke up this morning, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes/ Turned around to my lady friend, said “This’ll come as no surprise”
That I’m leavin’, I’m leavin’/ I’m leavin’ for a place where the river runs deep and wide.”
The album titles finish with ‘I’m Leavin’, but there is a twelfth bonus track which is not listed, and this is the perfect track to go out on, a raunchy harmonica and guitar blues that has a crackle on the track making it sound like a 78rpm record from the 1930s. I can't define what it’s called, but with lines like “My street shoes full of holes” and a chorus of “Aint nothin’ gonna stay this way no more”, it’s a real killer.
This album has to be up there as one of the essential purchases this year, don’t miss out on this. Burgess and Slide should be due to hit the big time real soon!
Listen to Burgess and Slide at Bandcamp
|
