13 years after his debut album, accomplished bluesman Chris O’Leary releases The Hard Line on which the many facets of blues are explored with a major focus on electric harmonica playing and gutsy vocals.
Release Date: 12th January 2024
Label: Alligator Records
Format: digital / CD / Vinyl
Regular visitors to the ATB website will know we enjoy some harmonica-based hard-rocking blues especially when linked to the quality blues stable Alligator Records. They’ve latched on to this fresh-sounding and exciting talent and released his first album for their label.
When you are associated with the likes of Stones sideman Bobby Keys, Jeff Healy, Albert Lee, Dave Edmunds and James Cotton then the mouth waters! If the name Chris O’Leary doesn’t trip off the tongue so easily (yet), his latest album The Hard Line might be your initiation to this gifted blues man and a deep dive into his previous material is going to follow naturally.
Opening with No Rest indicates exactly what you‘ll get for the opening gambit. A hundred miles-an-hour rampant fury, the rocking blues juices are certainly fired up. If you want smoochy slower-paced blues then that’s here too. Lost My Mind and I Cry At Night are heart-wrenching, soul-seeking blues numbers to tear your heart apart. Traditional 12 bar blues is added to the rich palette of Chris’s repertoire.
Each track shines with O’Leary’s versatility and the wide range of harmonica moods he can rip out. When his harmonica is rested as it is on the jazzier honky tonk of Things Aren’t Always What They Seem or the sultry Lay These Burdens Down, the keyboards or guitar are brought more to the fore.
Accolades were poured on him following his debut album Mr Used To Be in 2011, but he’s become rather an accomplished musician-songwriter with half a dozen albums under his belt. It might be a tad late with this mid-January release for New Year resolutions but why not break with tradition? Make the promise to seek out Chris O’Leary’s earlier material. You won’t be sorry.
Chris O’Leary online: Website / Facebook
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