THE HARDEST WALK - The Soledad Brothers (Alive Records )
Bands can be together for 20 years and not sound as great as the Soledad Brothers, the Detroit-via-Ohio trio (now expanded to a quartet for studio purposes) who vaguely sound like a dozen other bands but 
unlike any of them. This is Album Number Four (are we counting the live nine-tracker on short-lived Aussie imprint Smash Records?) and arguably their best yet.
If the Stones are a touchstone for most great music to have come out of America in the last 30 years, the Soledads carry a torch than burns brighter than most. Like Mick 'n' Keef, they have an innate "loose-tightness" and ingrained blues hue that can't be transfused. Johnny Walker (guitar-vocals) and Oliver Henry (organ. sax. vocals and seemingly anything else he can lay his hands on) are at the heart of proceedings, but drummer Ben Swane's work around the kit is particularly tasty. Think of this as an album that tackles the same varied stylistic turf as "Exile" and you won't be far off the mark.
This is sometimes fuzzy, often scuzzy stuff, but there's also a real bite to songs like "The Hardest Walk", "Downtown Paranoia Blues" (my personal pick) and "Mean Ol' Toledo". Blues done well can't be bad (except in the non-literal sense of the word) and the Soledad Brothers are bad (if you get my drift).
There's blues and there's soul and the Soledads do a great line in soulful blues, with the downright whisky-drenched R & B groove of "Truth or Consequences". It's the opener and sets you up for the rest of the trip. It's a varied one. Rippling guitar, congas, vibraphone and sitar are amongst the aural supplements these medicine dealers prescribe.
Johnny Walker's vocal tones are languid and liquid and if I'm still scratching my head about him being asked to join the revolving merry-go-round that was DKT-MC5 I have to admit he seems at home here. Fate has a funny way of picking what hands you're dealt but can you really rate fellow Detroiters The White Stripes over these guys? Your results may differ of course.
Can you do much new with the blues? Possibly not but bands like the Soledads (and their Detroit neighbours/labelmates the Howling Diablos) sure as shit prove you can give the toothless old bugger a shake-up and come up with something that sounds fresh and exciting. –
The Barman
