After releasing a trio of independent albums on the Hotwire label, Clark’s association with the blues-rock legend led to a major label deal and the critically-acclaimed The Bright Lights EP, which has spent the better part of the last year hanging around the upper-reaches of the Billboard magazine blues chart alongside such heavyweights as Joe Bonamassa, Bonnie Raitt, and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. So, is Clark the 21st century savior of the blues or just another pretender to a long-vacated (and largely imaginary) throne? He’s certainly no pretender, and while the book has yet to be written on his lasting influence on a blues scene that often refuses to budge easily, this much is certain – Blak and Blu is a stunning, ground-breaking work.
Gary Clark, Jr.’s Blak and Blu
For Clark’s newfound fans – who have waited better than a year for his
full-length debut album – it’s unlikely that they’ll be disappointed by the
guitarist’s magnificent Blak and Blu. Not even
The Bright Lights EP could have prepared listeners for the stunning
depth of songs like “Ain’t Messin’ ‘Round,” which seamlessly blends brassy
old-school R&B with a Memphis soul groove and a rock ‘n’ roll heartbeat to
one-up the Black Keys at their own game (including the tasteful Steve
Cropper-styled guitar licks). Clark enjoys his Jimi Hendrix moment with the
bold, bigger-than-life blues-rock dirge “When My Train Pulls In,” the song
mixing a Delta blues spirit with an undeniable Stevie Ray Vaughan vibe,
Clark’s tortured solo leading out of the song sending shivers down the spine
of any true guitar fan.
Clark is no two-trick pony, however,
venturing beyond blues and soul and onto avant-garde turf with the chilling
title track, a tear-jerking tale of abuse that displays a jazzy edge in its
sampling of the great Gil Scott-Heron, the song firmly rooted in the blues as
it also picks and chooses from Albert King’s classic “As the Years Go Passing
By.” The result sounds like early Prince and achieves more, via its eclectic
instrumentation, than anything the Purple One has done in the past decade. On
the flip-side, “Travis County” is a Bruce Springsteen-styled poop-punter with
rockabilly leanings and an infectious backbeat. The doo-wop flavored “Please
Come Home” comes fully-packed with strings and vocal harmonies, like an old
Etta James joint from the late 1950s or early ‘60s, Clark showing off his
singing chops with elegant Smokey Robinson-styled vocals, but his lively
guitarplay evinces a later, more emotionally fraught time and place.
Third Stone From The Sun
The insightful lyrics of “The Life” are matched by a melodic amalgam of
neo-soul, hip-hop, and funk while the heavy “Numb” is a snarling beast armed
with molten riffs and tusk-gnashing rhythms. Clark’s mash-up of Hendrix’s
“Third Stone From the Sun” with Little Johnny Taylor’s “If You Love Me Like
You Say” (best known from Albert Collins’ Frostbite LP) provides plenty
of cheap thrills, jumping off with the crash and rattle of ringing guitars and
sporadic drumbeats. The swirling psychedelic blues-rock instrumentation (sans
vocals) quietly and quite suddenly evolves into “If You Love Me Like You Say,”
Clark’s approach to the song adding a bit of sly Southern funk to Collins’
original reading of the song.
Clark changes directions one last
time with the acoustic-blues stomp ‘n’ stammer “Next Door Neighbor Blues,” the
song itself a sort of dichotomy, its contemporary lyrics gussying up an
undeniably Delta-influenced soundtrack. Clark’s voice is altered
electronically to mimic the echo found on those old 78rpm records, maybe even
rising up a notch in pitch to sound more like an old Tommy Johnson side, but
there’s no arguing with the result, the guitarist’s spry fretwork chiming like
Son House, the song riding a razor’s edge between modern chic and authentic
Mississippi throwback.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Music lovers are going to rejoice over Clark’s debut even as blues
purists are gonna hate, but the truth is that Blak and Blu marks the
emergence of a major talent who is bringing his love of blues and soul to
mainstream audiences. Regardless of whether or not we’ve heard it all before,
we’ve never heard it quite like this – as Gary Clark, Jr. puts his own unique
stamp on the familiar, he walks further down the path blazed by Clapton,
Hendrix, Vaughan, and few others, venturing beyond their footsteps to mark a
direction for others to follow in the future. Blues, welcome to the 21st
century! (Warner Brothers Records, released October 22, 2012)
Buy the CD from Amazon.com:
Gary Clark, Jr’s Blak and Blu
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