There was a time when nearly every second CD I reviewed was a blues recording. While I never tired of listening to the wide variety of sound the genre encompasses, I noticed my writing on the subject was all beginning to sound the same. Whatever the reason for it, I decided it wasn't fair to the people sending me discs to review to continue on in this vain, so I took a break from writing about the blues. So it seems appropriate the first blues disc I've reviewed in a while is a release from Chicago-based Delmark Records, the oldest independent record label in North America, if not the world. Not only have they brought the world recordings by some of the biggest names in blues over the years, but they also go into the neighbourhood bars and clubs which are the life blood of the genre to find and record artists who play the blues for the love of the music.
These are the people who will probably never be household names or even known beyond the boundaries of Chicago. However, it's people like Linsey Alexander pouring their hearts and souls into the music who ensure the blues not only survive but grow. Listening to his newest release, Been There Done That, you not only hear the passion which has always been the strength of this type of music, you get a sense of how music in Chicago has cross-pollenated. For on this disc Alexander not only plays the straight ahead electric blues the city is famous for, you'll also hear how soul, R&B, and funk have exerted their influences on his sound.
Like many other blues musicians, Alexander is a transplanted Southerner. He moved up to Chicago in the early 1950s and has been playing the blues since 1959, sharing stages with the likes of B.B King, Bobby Rush, and Buddy Guy. At the same time he's also carved out a solo career for himself which has seen him not only playing Chicago, but beginning to get recognition in Europe as well. For this disc he's put together a hot band of local blues players including the ubiquitous and immensely talented Billy Branch on harmonica and the LA Horns (Ryan Nyther trumpet and Bryan Fritz tenor saxophone) to fill out the sound on those occasions he ventures into more soulful territory.
No matter what he's playing the first thing you're going to notice about Alexander is his voice. It's like it was made to sing the blues. Raw, raspy and powerful (you don't want some smooth as silk balladeer singing the blues), he is able to effortlessly project over his accompanying band without ever sounding like he's straining. On tracks like the disc's opener, "Raffle Ticket", and the other straight ahead blues numbers, his voice takes on a world weary, seen it all and had it all done to me tone that suits the music perfectly. Yet at the same time he also gives the impression he's dropping you a wink, letting you know it's all in fun and preventing him from sounding like he's feeling sorry for himself. It also helps to take the edge off the "girl done treat me wrong" type of songs by making them sound playful rather than hateful. For while there's nothing wrong with a blues song celebrating a love gone bad, I get sick of songs about the bad things women do to men.
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