Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:00
Size: 169.4 MB
Styles: Rockin blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front
[ 4:37] 1. Show Me That You Want It
[ 3:20] 2. Yes, It's You
[ 4:58] 3. Take Me Now
[ 8:19] 4. A Dollar Down And Feeling Low
[ 5:45] 5. I Bucked It Up
[ 4:05] 6. Outta My Way
[ 7:08] 7. Leave My Soul Alone
[ 4:17] 8. Sweet Little Girl
[11:12] 9. Lazy Afternoon
[ 4:06] 10. Can't Shut Me Out
[ 8:45] 11. Blue Jean Outlaw
[ 7:23] 12. Carelessness
An impressive and fiery Texas blues guitarist, Chris Duarte's latest album, My Soul Alone, was recorded at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, California with Aaron Haggerty on drums and Steve Evans on bass; Mads Tolling adds violin on one track (the final cut, "Carelessness"). Earlier in his career, Duarte was often compared to fellow Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Johnny Winter's name was tossed around, as well, but Duarte has been at this professional blues thing for a couple of decades now, and while he quite likely will never escape the Vaughan/Winter cul du sac, it's obvious at this point that he has his own varied spin on the whole modern Texas blues thing, spicing it up with, at times, a jazz feel, and he even pushes into light psychedelia now and then. This newest release doesn't break much new ground on that template, but it does spotlight Duarte's songwriting (he wrote each of the dozen tracks here), and his guitar work shines like it always does. Highlights include the upbeat and almost pop "Yes, It's You," the slow blues "A Dollar Down and Feeling Low," the smooth and flowing "Blue Jean Outlaw," and the set closer, the edgy and almost eerie "Carelessness." ~Steve Leggett
My Soul Alone
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:16
Size: 163.2 MB
Styles: Rockin blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front
[ 3:37] 1. The Best I Can Do
[ 3:57] 2. Satisfy
[ 5:54] 3. Slapstak
[ 4:46] 4. More Boogie
[ 5:43] 5. Troubles On Me
[ 3:21] 6. Let's Have A Party
[ 4:47] 7. The End Of Me And You
[ 4:11] 8. Blow Your Mind
[ 6:39] 9. She Don't Live Here Anymore
[ 6:26] 10. Babylon
[ 4:37] 11. Woodpecker
[12:08] 12. Blow Your Mind (Extended)
[ 5:04] 13. Troubles On Me (Extended)
Now six albums into his career, it doesn't seem likely that Chris Duarte will ever quite shake off comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan and, to a lesser extent, Jimi Hendrix -- not because those comparisons are lazy critical shorthand but because Duarte continues to find more to mine in the tones and licks of those twin Stratocaster gods. On Vantage Point he relies rather heavily on Texas shuffles and slow, elongated 12-bar blues, so the scales are tipped slightly in SRV's favor, but Duarte does manage to fuse his two inspirations on "She Don't Live Here Anymore," which comes across as a Stevie Ray spin on "Voodoo Chile." Of course, Vaughan covered that on Couldn't Stand the Weather, finding his own voice within Hendrix, and Duarte follows his idol's lead here, creating his own sound out of his inspirations. At first, the similarities to Stevie Ray can be overwhelming -- Duarte loves that big, clean out-of-phase sound that SRV did -- but that fades away as you concentrate on how Duarte spins away from that, either in the funky, Jeff Beck fusion of "Woodpecker," or how liquid his leads on "More Boogie" are. Throughout this record, Duarte's playing is this exceptional, but the best moments here are when his writing is up to his playing, as it is on the old-style roadhouse shuffle "Satisfy." These are the moments that suggest his growth as a writer is starting to match his growth as a player. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Vantage Point
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