Studebaker John & The Hawks
 Tremoluxe, Blind Pig Records CD BPCD5031, 1996, (54:01)

Hard-driving slide guitar blues

This is straight-forward, hard-driving slide guitar blues, but what makes the CD stand out is John's especially fine muscular harmonica work. All 14 songs are written by John Grimaldi (the Studebaker that he is), and on "Missing You," he best demonstrates his ability to write and perform a fine blues ballad. It is also where his guitar sounds sweetest. The Chicago blues musician's raw and husky voice fits especially well with his slow, whiny guitar plucking. On a couple of tracks, John sounds as if he's singing into a tin can, which has an interesting echo effect. On "Voodoo Woman" his harmonica playing is especially satisfying as it overlaps his vocals and hovers slyly above the guitars. John is backed by a good rhythm section providing just enough accompaniment to his lead, and the band really cooks on the rockin' "Last Night." Good fun. -  Mark Craemer

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