Big Dave & The Ultrasonics - No Sweat!

Album: No Sweat!
Size: 156,3 MB
Time: 67:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1996
Styles: Blues, jump blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. Jump, Jive And Wail (3:51)
2. Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm (3:41)
3. Hold It Right There (9:23)
4. Cross-Eyed Cat (4:54)
5. I Need An Angel (11:36)
6. If I Don't Jump (4:31)
7. No Sweat! (6:12)
8. I Feel So Bad (4:58)
9. I Stand Accused (7:23)
10. Letter From St. Louis (4:42)
11. Rocket 88 (6:22)

Don't be fooled by the title of Big Dave and the Ultrasonics' latest effort. No Sweat is likely to stir the juices of even the most sedentary, rhythmically challenged listeners. Just ask the hundreds who were on hand - and no doubt sweating - in January 1996 when tape was rolling at the Easy Street Cafe in Bowling Green, Ohio, and the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In the follow up to the highly-acclaimed Love & Money, Big Dave and the Ultrasonics continue to emphasize individual musicianship without jeopardizing their tightly integrated swing/blues/jazz sound. The solo work is generous and tasty throughout the album's 11 tracks, yet never tedious or over-indulgent.

No Sweat is contemporary blues at its finest - a fusion of delta passion with urban panache. The magic of Big Dave & The Ultrasonics lies in the grey area between the sum of the parts and the whole - the place where blues, swing, jazz and jump come together at the speed of sound. Never did such a high-speed collision sound so smooth. /Excerpt from the liner notes by John C. Bruening

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Big Dave & The Ultrasonics - Big Dave & The Ultrasonics

Album: Big Dave & The Ultrasonics
Size: 164,1 MB
Time: 70:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1999
Styles: Blues, jump blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. She's The King (4:17)
2. Jump Street (5:16)
3. Black Coffee (5:51)
4. She Can't Keep A Secret (6:15)
5. A Month Of Sundays (4:06)
6. Back In The Hot Seat (4:57)
7. I Hear Your Voice (5:14)
8. Everybody Wants A Cadillac (3:47)
9. Escuchame (3:43)
10. Phone Fun (3:12)
11. My Baby's Sweater (5:00)
12. Big Bad Blues Train (4:12)
13. Junkman (3:21)
14. I Can't Fly (3:29)
15. Ooh My My (7:54)

On their third album, "Big Dave" Steele and his four Ultrasonics gravitate to historic black music styles without coming across as copycats. Rather, the Ann Arbor-based band, led by Steele from its inception in 1990, brings freshness to its sound by streamlining elements of house-rockin' swing, jump-jive boogie, gospel, jazz, Memphis soul-R&B, and Chicago and Texas blues.

Steele's blues guitar playing, always technically competent and often jazz-inflected, has the capacity to flame up with inspiration, as when he pursues his muse into Bo Diddley territory on roots-rumbler "Black Coffee" or chooses just the right notes for his feature spots on the stylish shuffle "Big Bad Blues Train." And the band is fortunate in having two other capable soloists: Dave Morris on harmonica and Ben Wilson on keyboards. /Frank-John Hadley, Amazon

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Big Dave & The Ultrasonics gofile

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Big Dave & The Ultrasonics - Love & Money

Album: Love & Money
Size: 153,5 MB
Time: 66:20
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1994
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. I Used To Be Free (3:25)
2. Midnight Shift (2:53)
3. Money And Love (5:03)
4. Full-Time Lover (6:32)
5. I Feel So Bad (5:02)
6. Walking The Beat (6:07)
7. 12 O'Clock Jump (3:29)
8. Full Grown Man (4:27)
9. Just Move On (5:49)
10. Mean Old Frisco (4:03)
11. That's What Love Will Make You Do (5:50)
12. Empty Pockets (3:09)
13. Two Wrongs (4:57)
14. Too Late (5:28)

As its title suggests, "Love & Money," the debut album by Big Dave and the Ultrasonics, is inspired by themes as old as the blues itself. The Ann Arbor-based band, however, manages to keep things interesting with an approach that's alternately cool, kicking and cunning. After opening with "I Used to Be Free," an original jump blues laced with leader Dave Steele's sly guitar work and David Morris's searing harmonica, the sextet unveils a solid assortment of new songs and cover tunes. The latter include a funky revision of Chuck Willis's "I Feel So Bad," a chugging version of "Mean Old Frisco" that celebrates the impact its author, bluesman Arthur Crudup, had on the emerging sound of rockabilly in the '5Os, and a tastefully updated version of the Little Walter hit "Too Late," which serves as the album's resonating coda.

All of the band's tunes - save for Morris's exhilarating harmonica workout, "12 O'Clock Jump" - were composed by Steele, who wields a clever ("Empty Pockets") and sometimes philosophical pen ("Just Move On"). His unaffected vocals and a forceful, no-nonsense rhythm section also help push most of the performances well above the norm. /Mike Joyce, Washington Post

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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Love & Money gofile

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