[rating=8.00]
Not since the late-career heyday of RL Burnside has the contemporary blues market been as exciting as it’s been over the past couple of years.
And right alongside Gary Clark, Jr. in the march to bring some soul back to the age-old American art is none other than fellow Austin Texan Black Joe Lewis, whose blend of gritty funk and scorching blues helped render him one of the most exciting and promising acts to emerge from the city’s local club circuit.
But where Clark incorporates the teachings of Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and Albert King into his particular cocktail of Lone Star guitar blues, Lewis evokes a more primal scream spurned from the likes of early Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Gun Club that reaches a fever pitch on his excellent Vagrant label debut Electric Slave.
Having shed that stupid Honeybears handle from the group’s proper name, Black Joe Lewis the band really shows off their fire across this 11-song collection, fueled by the likes of such blistering cuts as “Come to My Party”, “Make Dat Money” and “My Blood Ain’t Running Right”.
Recorded in Dallas by veteran indie rock producer John Congleton, who brings the same shrapnel-sharp edge to these tunes as he has to the works of Explosions in the Sky, Modest Mouse and Baroness, Electric Slave is the kind of pure punk blues goodness that only seems to come around once in a generation.
