Mike Welch/Sugar Ray & the Bluetones - Evening [10/18]

Artist:

Norcia, Sugar Ray

UPC:

649435005220

See Also:

Roomful of Blues James Cotton (Harmonica) - Superharps

Description:

Personnel: Sugar Ray Norcia (vocals, Native American flute, harmonica); Monster Mike Welch (guitar, background vocals); Anthony Geraci (piano); Michael Ward (acoustic bass, electric bass); Neil Gouvin (drums).
Audio Mixer: David Earl.
Liner Note Author: Craig Rusky.
Recording information: Severn Studios, Severn, MD.
Photographer: Sam Holden.
Singer/songwriter/harmonica player Ray Norcia may be a New Englander, born in Connecticut and resident of Rhode Island, but on Evening, the fifth album for Severn Records by his band Sugar Ray & the Bluetones, this Roomful of Blues alumnus sounds more like a Mississippi expatriate living on Chicago`s South Side. He and his bandmates -- "Monster" Mike Welch on guitar, Neil Gouvin on drums, Michael "Mudcat" Ward on bass, and Anthony Geraci on piano -- also make music suggesting that the era is the late `40s or early `50s instead of 2011. The title track, perhaps better known with a dropped "g" as "Evenin`," is a 1934 copyright introduced by Cab Calloway and popularized in the `40s by Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing on vocals; "You Know My Love" was written by Chess Records` Willie Dixon and recorded by Otis Rush; and the leadoff track is Johnny Young`s "I`m Having a Ball." The rest of the songs are newly written by Norcia or members of the Bluetones ("Hard to Get Along With" is by Welch, "[That`s Not Yet] One of My Blues" by Ward), but they might just as well be of the vintage of the covers. Norcia has two different vocal styles. He adopts a hoarse, gruff tone for the more raucous numbers like "I`m Having a Ball" and "I Came Down with the Blues," but he has more of a smooth croon for "You Know My Love" and other ballads. The blues styles vary from slow tunes like the politically -- or at least medically -- incorrect "Too Many Rules and Regulations," in which Norcia rejects modern notions of healthy living, to the R&B/jump blues styles of "I`m Certain That I`m Hurting" and "Dancing Bear (Little Indian Boy)," which surprisingly begins with a Native American flute passage played by the bandleader. Thus, there are a few unusual touches in the lyrics and music here and there, but for the most part this is contemporary blues with a traditional cast from some accomplished veterans. ~ William Ruhlmann

Track Listing:

DISC 1

1. I`m Having a Ball
2. Hard To Get Along With
3. You Know My Love
4. Dear John
5. I Like What You Got
6. Too Many Rules and Regulations
7. Dancing Bear (Little Indian Boy)
8. Evening
9. I Came Down With the Blues
10. (That`s Not Yet) One of My Blues
11. I`m Certain That I`m Hurting
12. XO

Album Information

Release Date:

10/17/2011

Type:

Performer

Genre:

Blues

Label:

Severn Records

Producer:

David Earl; Sugar Ray & The Bluetones

Catalog Number:

0052

Original Release Year:

2011

# of Discs:

1

Runtime:

57 : 55

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