PhillyCheeze’s Rock & Blues Critiques: #647 : 11 Guys Quartet

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11
Guys Quartet

11 x 11

2023 – Vizztone Label
Group

By Phillip Smith; Nov. 25, 2023

 

Launch Date : Nov.
17, 2023

 

Unique supply : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

Forming in Boston
round forty years in the past as
11th Hour Blues Band, guitarist Paul
Lenart
, bassist Invoice “Coach” Mather, drummer Chuck Purro, and
harmonicist
Richard “Rosy” Rosenblatt performed the native membership and bar scene
there earlier than chopping their first album
Sizzling Time within the Metropolis in 1985.  Now generally known as 11 Guys Quartet, their
newest album
11 x 11 has grabbed my consideration in an enormous method.  This follow-up album to their critically acclaimed
2020 launch
Small Blues and Grooves, packs eleven unique tracks into
one disc for a implausible blues listening expertise.
 

The file kicks in with a
truck load of
Lenart’s swampified guitar topped with an explosion of Rosenblatt’s
blues-soaked harmonica, making “Lightning Street” a riveting instrumental opener.
  The highly effective juju of “Black Cat Bone” is generously
acquired because it follows up subsequent.
  This bodacious
observe is certainly a favourite.
 In a type of
‘Home of the Rising Solar’ trend,
11 Guys Quartet masterfully assemble
a tremendous anthem referred to as “Blues Past Midnight”.
  Lenart and Rosy dig deep as their
licks are splendidly traded backwards and forwards.
 Slathered with slide, “Possum Blues” steals my
coronary heart with its carefree and country-fried sound.

Every observe on this album is
an instrumental besides for 2 songs: “Drivin’ a Quick Automobile” that includes
Purro
on vocals and “He Ain’t Obtained You” that includes
Lenart on vocals.  “Drivin’ a Quick Automobile” hits the scene with the rate
of a moonshine runner barreling down the street at breakneck pace.
 The band performs this tight and with a tremendous
finesse.
  “He Ain’t Obtained You” is a searing
new twist on the traditional
Jimmy Reed tune “I Ain’t Obtained You”.  The intoxicating groove pulls me proper in.

I take pleasure in each word performed as 11
Guys Quartet
showcase their considerable expertise and collective expertise.  11 x 11 certainly sits amongst my favourite albums
of the yr.
          

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