Owen Sound based blues band The Mackenzie Blues Band have a whole lot of soul on their colourful new CD “ Slam Bam.”
They band has some impressive achievements to their name already including twice making the semi- finals in the Memphis Blues Challenge and winning the 2014 Maple blues award for best new artist based on the strength of their 2012 their CD “ Back Road Revelations.”
They struck while the iron is hot by releasing “Slam! Bam!”
The cover itself is a thing of beauty, designed like a 1950s pulp detective comic book, which while is difficult to read, is fun to look at.
Tara MacKenzie has a powerhouse voice, belting out a mixture of influences including jazz, a touch of gospel and quite a bit of jazz.
The songs on the CD range from upbeat foot stompers lime the highlight “ Up Up Up” which combines most of their influences in one song, to spookier numbers like “Bone Cage.”
There is some excellent horn playing and some super harp playing from Rod Ramsay on tracks like the gothic sounding “Burned When you Play With Fire” and on the groovy “Down With Love.”
“Down With Love” is one of my favourite tracks with a subtle guitar groove from Trevor MacKenzie and excellent bass and organ from Joel Dawson.
The Cd also features extra help from the likes of folkie James Keelaghan and blues singer Coco Love Alcorn.
The CD is all about the groove which comes out on the R and B flavoured “Higher Road” which has one of many beautifully tasteful guitar solos from Trevor Mackenzie.
He plays a rough, tortured, dissonant Neil Youngish solo on the eight minute long, haunting ballad “ I Feel a Storm Coming.”
While I like the crunchy rockers like “ Move On,” the slower material like “ On the Other Side” really allow Tara MacKenzie to show off her voice.
She shows off some beautiful gospel influence on “Spiritual Power” on which the band is backed by a choir and some moving electric piano.
The more straight ahead blues of “Sweet Stuff” is another highlight marked by some pretty harp playing and that saxophone.
Band: The MacKenzie Blues Band
Genre: soul/ blues