Life is short, that’s a fact. So I won’t waste your time. Crazy Joe’s latest album (the first one in five years) is an absolute must. And he deserves all the credit for this success. He wrote it, played all the instruments (but piano and organ), sang lead and background vocals, produced it and engineered the whole thing.
Show Me Around is a superb opener with sharp guitar and warm bass (electric that is!). The slower tempos like the Greatest Scam and I Don’t Believe evoke a mix of the early 60’s recordings of Gene Vincent with Sam Cooke. Wasted remains in the 60’s territory too but adds a good dose of rhythm’n’blues and funk that suit Joe very well. Next is Right There In My Lap, an electric blues that features a superb solo by Ricky Nye on Hammond organ. After the doo wop “Please Don’t Call me” which makes you think, in case you hadn’t already, that he’s a terrific singer too, comes H-Bomb a garage/ Kinks type of rocker. She’s My Baby also shows some British influences but on this one, they’re to be found near the River Mersey. Snakebite is an instrumental tour de force that could be best described by “Les Paul took too much acids”. The poison of the snake gave him too much hallucinations or is it the beverage of the same name? The album ends on a high note like it begun with a great rocker backed by a Johnny Johnson piano.
Did I tell you that this album was perfect?
Also available on vinyl.
www.crazyjoe.org/store.html

Fred "Virgil" Turgis