DEVON ALLMAN'S HONEYTRIBE

An interestingly titled album, ‘Space Age Blues’. A modern and futuristic take on traditional blues you might think? Well, not so much musically as you might initially think, but Devon Allman (son of Allman Brother Band frontman Gregg Allman) and his Honeytribe (George Potsos and Gabriel Strange on bass and drums respectively), consider this to be a concept of “Darth Vader meets B.B. King”, with a solid blues led base and lyrically discussing modern life and the future of mankind. Lyrically, it’s not quite the thought-provoking and inspirational effort that I was expecting, but is adeptly written, and once you’ve put this aside, musically you’re left with one pretty enjoyable album. The harmonica-led intro track ‘Could Get Dangerous’ (featuring Huey Lewis – but without ‘The News’) in its laid-back funky-wah-blues-rock style, provides a good grounding for the rest of the album, which is laced with variety and outstanding blues musicianship, interspersed with violin and saxophone and providing heavy riffs, seemingly effortless powerful and soulful vocals, great solos, quieter acoustic moments and plenty of funk bass. A fairly true-to-the-original cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Sir Duke’ makes for an interesting but possibly questionable addition to the album, especially as the Honeytribe don’t make much of their own mark on the track, aside from a smattering of wah-wah and more gruff, powerful vocals, and when you compare it with the likes of Marco Mendoza’s recent take on Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living in the City’, it does rather pale in comparison. However, whilst technically having its roots solidly in the blues genre, ‘Space Age Blues’ variety, great production and songwriting and audibly excellent musicality, makes for a particularly enjoyable nugget of modern blues and southern-style rock.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Provogue Records

Album

SPACE AGE BLUES

Review by Hannah Sylvester

RUNNING TIME:

45:37

RELEASE DATE:

27th Sept 2010

TRACK LISTING

1) Could Get Dangerous
2) Space Age Blues
3) Salvation
4) Sir Duke
5) Endless Diamond
6) Bleu Est Le Vide
7) Warm In Wintertime
8) New Pet Monkey
9) I’m Ready
10) Take Me To The Bridge
11) Insh’ Allah

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

USA

"...a particularly enjoyable nugget of modern blues and southern-style rock."