Shifting Into Gear

Yesterday, whilst washing up, I listened to the "Paul Lamb & The King Snakes" album "Shifting Into Gear". This is one of my favourite albums. I have seen this band twice at a blues club I used to go to on a Sunday night. I enjoyed them so much the first time that I bought their album. I didn't regret it.

Paul Lamb plays harmonica and is absolutely brilliant. Even Mark Knopfler thinks he is one of the best blues harp players around. (There is a quote from him on the back of the album.)

The singer, Chad Strentz, who is also one of the guitar players has one of the most amazing and powerful voices I have heard. I would love to be able to sing like that.

Several of their songs have lyrics that strike a personal chord with me, but probably my favourite lyric on the album comes from a song called "Feel So Good" and I think it really evokes the feeling you get when you first fall in love with someone.

The lyric goes:

I've finally found a woman
who makes me lose my head
Someone who makes the room spin
Every time we hit the bed
I wake up in the morning
She rocks me long and slow
I feel so good
I don't know which way to go

But you really have to hear it to get the full effect because of the way Chad sings it.

This is one of those albums that I can listen to every track and enjoy them all.

I went out to see a band called B'Mused last night. I have known them for a while and am fairly good friends with them. They aren't the best covers band ever, but they are good. I think their main problem is that they play a lot of the "standards" that everyone plays.

A little while ago, just for a laugh, I compiled a list of about 12 songs. The list was a sort of "standards songbook" of songs that all rock covers bands play a few of. When I next saw B'Mused they played 9 out of the 12 songs which was a record that has remained so far unbeaten.

The pub was very empty to begin with last night, but it picked up later. A friend of mine who is always late said he would meet me there at 9:30 so I said to him "Okay, I'll see you at quarter to ten then". He laughed and said that he wanted to be on time now, to prove me wrong. He then proceeded to show up at ten to ten. I guess that showed me :-)