The First track is taken from the CD "A Stringer Full of Blues" The copyright to this recording is owned by CMO Bluestar Music Group LLC. © CMO Bluestar Music Group LLC, all rights reserved. "The Skillet" Streaming Realaudio | Low-Fi | Hi-Fi | "Big City Hillbilly" Streaming Realaudio | Low-Fi | Hi-Fi | "Big City Hillbilly" MP3 (3.5 Mb's)

Stringer Full of Blues First Track "The Skillet" is taken from the album "Stringer Full of Blues".

"Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Motor City Josh Ford is turning into a first class blues artist before our very ears. This is an extremely impressive debut disc. If you have the cassette that he recorded at the Blue Goose a while back, you have the teaser. You don't have the goods. This is Josh at his best. The opening cut, "Real Love", with backing vocals from Cathy Davis and Booker T-style organ-fills from David Mathis, is about as good as songwriting gets. Talk about atmosphere, this is an autumn day in the park compressed into three minutes. "Bar Life", even though it reminds a bit of Willie Nelson's "Night Life" in places, is another song that says this is a major talent. On the other side, I don't like "Shut Up Woman". I have a hard time with anything that sounds even remotely like a lack of respect for others and this is not a woman-friendly song. That it's the only song of 12 that I don't like sure hasn't kept this out of the CD player, though. The instrumental "Gas Station Sandwich", with Al Brown's coronet and Mathis' electric piano, is closer to a 1980s jazz fusion piece than to a blues, but whatever it is, it works. "Day Shift/Night Shift" sounds closer to the New Riders of the Purple Sage than to the blues, but it works, too. And you gotta love his take on "Goin' Fishin"; one of only two covers here. Our boy Josh is hardly one-dimensional. If you come to this with an open ear you'll be better prepared to have a good time. Josh sounds like a son of the blues by way of rock and blues bands like the Allman Brothers and Elvin Bishop rather than a stylistic offspring of Muddy Waters. None of which is to say he doesn't know his stuff. The closing, "Another Man's Woman", is as died-in-the-wool as the blues gets. Motor City Josh is an original. A master guitarist and a first rate vocalist and songwriter, he's got as much enthusiasm as chops. And, yes, he's got a truckload of enthusiasm. One of the local releases of the year. Get a couple while they're still warm, and rest assured it'll always sound cool."

It's All the Blues - Florida's Space Coast Blues Newsletter

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