The Crossroads Band

The Crossroads Band

review by Robert Horn

One of the catagories in the BB Awards for 2003 will be Best New Blues CD for this region. And this CD will be one of the nominees. There are many reasons why. First of all, it is simply one of the best CD's that came out of the Northwest this year. There are a number of BB Award winners and nominees featured on this one. And then there is the ghost who came back to take over here. It is dedicated to Isaac and Dave, two blues legends from Seattle who died last December. Dave came back to be on this CD. Previously unrecorded cuts from Dave appear on this recording, showcasing his vocals and slide guitar playing that is superhuman, with a note lingering in the air beyond anything instruments have been known to do before. I had tears in my eyes listening to this, not sad ones, but awe-struck ones. There are some songs here that show off the sax of Dennis Ellis as well as his vocals, and Steve Bailey's vocals as well as his guitar and harmonica work, with the bass of Mark Dalton and the drums of K.T. (Kirt Tuttle) providing a solid underpinning. Pat McFarland also appears on this CD on vocals and guitar. The above-mentioned roster of talent is reason enough for me to rest my case about this recording, but I will add a few more comments. If anyone out there is in a swing dance class, take this CD to your instructor. The instructor will thank you and offer whatever pleasures or discounts you desire in exchange for some of the songs included here, like "The Train Kept-A-Rollin" and "Don't Do It," to name a couple. You get to hear songs written by Elmore James, Willie Dixon, and our own Steve Bailey, among others.

I still love to hear the vocals of Dave Conant, and this CD is where you can hear them, too. I may nominate this for Best New CD to be produced in the State of Washington in 2002 unless we get some great new surprises soon. That's always a possibility, and would be just fine, but this particular CD is great, and I think it is leading in that category as of this writing.