Waiting On the Light

Poor Blue spent over a year in Catalyst Recording in Charlotte with engineer Rob Tavaglione, recording their debut album "You're Welcome". Most tracks were recorded on analog 16 track tape and transferred to digital for overdubs and mixing. We tried to keep the live-in-the-studio feel of the band playing the songs and used as few overdubs as possible. Most songs are first or second takes. Here's a review from Simon Phillips in Whisperin' & Hollerin's magazine. He gave the album 9 out of 10 stars and called it "Blues album of the year"

http://www.whisperinandhollerin.co.uk/reviews/review.asp?id=12473

Review: 'Poor Blue'
'You're Welcome'

- Label: 'Shipibo Records'
- Genre: 'Blues' - Release Date: '31.1.15.'

Our Rating:*********
This is the first contender in my review pile for the Best new Blues album I'll hear this year and to be honest it's pretty much the winner of that title unless something totally stunning arrives before years end. Not bad for an album that came out in January, yes I only got my copy a month or so ago as the European release is behind the USA one.

Poor Blue are the Current band of Mick E who used to be in the well-known Northern Irish band The Mighty Shamrocks. He has relocated to the musical hotbed of Charlotte North Carolina and formed a new band and well it's a great album.

From the opener Glory Of Rome I was struck by the way it has a similar feel to Charlie Lankesters album Songs In A Minor Key, it's slightly languid with that feel of a slow train coming round a bend just drawing you into the rural setting that suits the blues so much.

Worth your time is a love letter to the woman he loves or is it loved as he explains what's gone on over some very tightly played bluesy rock that is a bit reminiscent of Otis Grand with some really nice Hammond Organ in a 60's John Mayall vein. The sort of song you want to hear over and over especially as the backing singers come in near the end to let us know that real love takes time. It certainly does.

Walking With the King is an imagined or is it a real memory of seeing Elvis at Caesars Palace that has a mellow feel to it and a slight connection to Marc Cohn's Walking In Memphis but hopefully this won't get covered by Cher as the vision this conjures up would certainly be ruined if it was.

The song with the band's name in the title Poor Blue could be a love song to a dog or to a human lover either way it takes the blues into almost jazz fusion territory like they want to sound like John McLaughlin as they wonder if they can take care of Poor Blue while suffering some hard times. It's sad and doleful and I was hoping for a happy ending.

Waiting On The Light about cleaning up your act and well also getting obliterated listening to The Outcasts while sounding nothing like how I remember the Outcasts sounding it also has a nice guitar solo that is just fiddly enough.

Good for you Daddy is a mainly acoustic strummed song asking is it good for you daddy, this could be taken in more than one way especially the stuff about smoking some evil weed so what kind of daddy is he, this song may make you think of all sorts of scenarios to go with this song not all of them that pleasant. It's still a very cool slow blues song.

Pineapple Pussycat has a casual and easy feel to its blues picking that would well being used as an instrumental bed on something like the tv show Fargo as they drive towards some back woods shack.

In The Spirit is as Neil Young like as they are going to get as if they have slowed down After The Gold Rush and are aiming for some real spiritual enlightenment. Things then get a little bit more upbeat on Amanda, as they go to Tiger Bay in search of Amanda, looking for some sort of absolution or is it reconciliation you'll have to listen to find out which one it is.

The Death Of Arthur Lee is as elegiac as the title suggests downbeat and slow but still a nice send off for an old legend.
The album closes with the title track You're welcome/Funky prayer and as the title suggests it's a set closing thanks for coming kind of a blues song with slight gospel hints in the happy clappy rather than hellfire style, yes you will want to thank them for making as great a blues album as this.

Find out more at https://poorblue.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Poor-Blue-719787061441295/timeline/