Harp-playing vocalist Harmonica Shah pours a lifetime’s experience into his own Detroit blues.
He evokes the classic Chicago blues era, but refreshingly adds lyrical substance. On the mighty, riff-led Baby, You Have Got To Change, he sounds like he’s been waiting all his life to cut this album. He also extends the emotional depth of his lyrics with expressive harp tones alongside guitarist Jack De Keyzer’s imaginative playing.
Shah is at his best on the emotive She Used To Be Beautiful (on which his edgy, Buddy Guy-style vocal oozes pain and disappointment), while a defining harp solo seals the perfect blues of Walk That Lonesome Road. He shuffles elegantly on slide-inflected Two Legged Grey Mule and explores a back door man persona on the rumba-style She May Be Your Woman. Old-school blues never sounded so fresh.
