Dion’s Tank Full of Blues
Spurred on by conversations with music journalist Dave Marsh, who stated
that Dion is the only first-generation rocker of the 1950s who remains
artistically relevant today, and with his wife Susan daring him to live up to
Marsh’s claim, DiMucci dove headfirst into a creative frenzy that resulted in
Tank Full of Blues. The last leg of a blues-n-roots trilogy that began
with 2005’s Grammy® Award-winning Bronx In Blue and continued through
2007’s Son of Skip James, Dion’s Tank Full of Blues is a
stunning musical statement delivered by an artist who has lived and breathed
the blues for decades.
Unlike those aforementioned albums, the
former of which was a collection of classic blues covers, the latter mixing a
handful of originals amidst sturdy old warhorses,
Tank Full of Blues offers up a slate of mostly original material, the
result of a divinely-inspired songwriting jag that provided Dion with a wealth
of material. The title track is a vintage-sounding throwback to the 1950s with
a Chicago blues lilt and finely-crafted fretwork, while “I Read It (In the
Rolling Stone)” evinces a swamp-blues menace with appropriately dark-hued
guitar paired with topical lyrics.
Dion’s “Ride’s Blues” is his
tribute to Delta blues legend Robert Johnson, the lyrics weaving an enchanting
tale while the sparse, atmospheric, guitar-driven soundtrack adds steel-coiled
muscle above a steady pounding drumbeat. The “Two Train” medley welds Muddy
Waters’ “Still A Fool” with Johnson’s “Ramblin’ On My Mind,” evoking a spirit
of wanderlust with a wonderful, nuanced performance. The
stream-of-consciousness “Bronx Poem” is a talking-blues tone-poem with elegant
fretwork and insightful, autobiographical lyrics.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Throughout Tank Full of Blues, Dion’s powerful vocals are matched
by his fierce, unbridled guitarplay and an uncanny songwriting sense. Those
who dismiss Dion as yesterday’s news display their own ignorance, as
Tank Full of Blues is one of the most soulful blues albums that you’ll
hear this year…or any other. (Blue Horizon Records, released November 14th,
2011)
Review originally published by Blues Revue magazine,
2012
Buy the CD from Amazon:
Dion’s Tank Full of Blues
