BLACK STONE CHERRY-Black To Blues

Mascot Records

The guys from Black Stone Cherry have released a bunch of excellent rock albums of which ‘Kentucky’ was the latest but their first for Dutch label Mascot. ‘Black To Blues’ is an in between release where the four rockers pay homage to some old blues heroes of them. It may be a surprising step from the band around singer/guitarist Chris Robertson but a nice one. With the energy that is so typical for their albums the band recorded six old blues songs from artists like Freddie King, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. The recordings only took two days which explains the explosiveness and rawness of the CD, elements that are very welcome indeed. ‘Black To Blues’ is a spontaneous combustion. Take for instance ,,Built For Comfort’’, a song covered by loads of other bands like for instance UFO or ,,Born Under A Bad Sign’’ (covered by Pat Travers). By speeding things up a bit and playing it forceful Black Stone Cherry has managed to put new live in these evergreens. This EP only has 20 minutes of music but every second on it is raw, intense and bloody good indeed. According to Robertson this blues outburst will have an effect on the next studio CD. Already looking forward to that one!