With guitars and their wielding very much on my mind, I tossed the new Chris Duarte Group (Duarte, John Jordan - bass, Ed Miles - drums) CD on the player and let it rip, er romp.
Romp is the hairy, Band O Gypsies-clad, Austin-based fret-feeler's fourth album, and if you want to hear to what extremes Texas blues-based electric GEEtar can go, this is the disc for you.
The most astonishing track is the very first, Junior Kimbrough's "Do the Romp," a distorted, snarling, stomp through Mississippi Delta psycho-blues with Duarte wringing his beloved Strat for every vicious overtone Leo Fender gave it. At what point does juke joint blues become monstrous grunge rock? After Duarte inhales to begin "Romp." The Black Keys would be proud to claim this one.
Next, Duarte modulates the distortion, emphasizes the percussive, sinewy Fender tonality, and riffs, trills and wah-wah's his way through an overt instrumental Hendrix tribute, "101." Frank Marino, Robin Trower, Steve Ray or any of the other Sons-O-Jimi got nothing on Duarte.
With Duarte in a tributary mood, he does an uncanny Eric Johnson, a fellow Austonian on "Like Eric," complete with closed-wah tone and end-of-measure connecting runs. Duarte would appear to have the ear and the technique to be the Rich Little of electric guitarists (in the manner of Chris Spedding's "Guitar Jamboree").
The huge decaying sonics of "Romp" returns for "My, My," as Duarte grooves slow and hard over a tough trip-hop beat, vocals distorted to match the ominous mood. He busts out unnatural roaring and squealing worthy of Dinosaur Jr. as the track lumbers away. Yowsa.
Making a sharp turn toward the mythic, Duarte, whose smallish, thin voice is the only chink in his armor, tackles Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee" (also done brilliantly in the '70s by an obscure British group, Nutz) gamely in a coiled, brooding shuffle tempo that shows off his mastery of a stinging, clean-toned, reverbed lead style - a brilliant chameleon.
"B-flat Blues" shows off Duarte's best Vaughan brothers, T-Bone Walker, Texas blues shuffle, and the final three tracks show Duarte in a reflective, bluesy light with the emphasis more on his voice and songcrafting than guitar, a brave but diminished choice.
Article comments
1 - Chris Arabia
Back in 97-98, a friend of mine gave me a tape with parts of Hendrix's last album on one side, and Chris Duarte on the other. Great stuff. Thanks for the info.
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Chris, I heard the last one, but this one is much better, really rocking.
3 - Jerry Craig
Chris continues to evolve as one of the best guitarists, and live band, I've ever seen. "Like Eric" brings back memories of me driving down those dusty kansas roads circa 1991 blasting the "Official Boot" demo tape. It's good to hear old gems resurface. "One More Cup" is just as classic as Dylan's. Chris and John Jordan continue to amaze me. I'm glad to see Ed Miles still with the group. Drummers are not usually a consistant fixture of the CDG. This disc kicks ass and tears new ones. Get yourself a copy.