Cotton picking country blues – born on the Bayo poor boy fingerpickin’ dreamy roots rock and roll.  There you go if you were looking for a Genre to hang your hat on that should just about cover it.  Lonesome Shack starts off with the first couple of tunes picking the blues out of his geetar.  But wait this isn’t a solo album Lonesome Shack is a trio. Lonesome Shack is Ben Todd (guitar/voice), Kristian Garrard (drums), and Luke Bergman (bass).  and this record gets really interesting by the time ‘New Dreams’.  Then ‘Lonely’ builds on a repetitive hypnotic riff that rolls and rolls gathering pace on the snare drum but the vocals are kept to a fairly distant dream-like level.  Its a primitive journey you’ll take with Lonesome Shack that’s for sure.  There ain’t nothing modern or hi-tech jiggery pokery happening here my only complaint is the song perhaps outstays its welcome clocking in at almost five minutes.  However, saying that this album takes on a different feel when you add volume there is an earthy tone that is totally engaging and that’s ramped up on the highlight of ‘Only One’ with its darkness and sparse arrangement.  Had this been from the pen of say the Urban Voodoo Machine we’d all be raving about it and rightly so.

I was quite surprised to see they’re based in London via Seattle and not from some crossroad down on the Delta. ‘Too Bad’ is a batton carrying rhythmic affair from the bluesmen of many moons ago and has a wonderful rhythm and hypnotic feel to it. Its not always about what you play sometimes the magic is what you leave out and sometimes the minimalist arrangement and delivery is the strength of a song ‘The City Is A Dessert’ is one such tune as it thumps the chord and rhythm over and over as if they’re forging the tune on a smoking hot day it gets inside your head and you drift off with the rhythm.  Lonesome Shack has a gift and on this record, they’re leaving the best till last as the title track is a splendid slice of Bluesy rock n roll and Keith ‘n’ Ronnie would approve I’m sure of it.  Great stuff.

Cool as drinking Tequilla on a hot hot day check out this piece of urban delta blues its refreshingly good.

Author: Dom Daley

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