Kevin Breit et al, John and the Sisters (Northern Blues, 2004)

Kevin Breit made one of the best guitar albums of last year with Jubilee, a duet recording with Harry Manx. The music was brilliant, mellow, crisp and calm. Now he has turned his sights to something a little more. . . relentless. Breit's Sister Euclid Band joins with John Dickie (blues singer extraordinaire) to play some of the wildest urban gospel blues you've ever heard. It's a bit like those garage-band albums Los Lobos make that they call the Latin Playboys. . . except John and the Sisters are way more fun to listen to.

Breit is one of those guitar players who get the calls. He appears all over the place. Touring with Norah Jones, recording with Cassandra Wilson and Bill Frisell, making music with the Sister Euclid Band, the guy is everywhere. Apparently they turned the recording studio into a garage to record this masterpiece of spooky blues. Live off the floor, only two takes per song, grungy guitar, big bottom bass, organ, loose but solid drums, and then the supreme vocals of John Dickie. This stuff rocks.

The Sisters Euclid are Breit on guitar and vocals, Ian Desouza on bass and shovel, Rob Guseys on assorted keyboards and percussionist Gary Taylor. These four are fronted by Dickie (who also plays harmonica) and backed by almost a dozen friends offering extra vocals, horns, woodwinds, clavinet and a variety of additional percussion. . . even another shovel! Put it all together and you have some of the most outrageous sounds I've heard this year. No longer the inside music of Jubilee, this is outside noise, outside the house, outside the head, outside the planet! Loud, haunted and invigorating. Try to imagine Muddy Waters Band on steroids jamming with Aerosmith, using Spinal Tap's equipment. You know, the amps that go to 11! Well, they don't sound anything like that, but it gives you a sense of the direction they're going!

Seventeen original songs, composed by Breit and/or Dickie, or some combination of guests plus hosts. A riff appears, a voice intorduces a melody, the instrumentalists play, harmonies arise, solos come and go, all on top of killer rhythms. Sometimes the lyrics are totally reduced. . . "Never, no no no never, caaaarrrryyy a gun. . . " while spidery guitar sounds float along. That's "Gun." "LA" is a slice of funk; "Praline" begins as a piano workout, Dickie singing about his favourite nut, a "trailer park queen!"

This is powerful fun blues. Summer driving music. . . just in time for putting the top down and cruising.

[David Kidney]

Northern Blues has a Web site here.