Medford & Main
Blue Bella
For those who like Willie Mitchell, the Mar-Keys, Booker T. & the MG’s, the Bar-Kays and that 1990 self-titled album by the Memphis Boys, Stubbs comes highly recommended.
He, too, has that instrumental Memphis soul-blues thing going. While there’s no organ (or any other keyboards), there are tenor sax, baritone sax and trumpet on most cuts, complementing his vintage guitars played through vintage amps.
And he loves to mix it up a lot. On “Pistol Whip,” he veers into spy/surf territory. “Sleepy Eyes” is a soporific, southside Chicago blues vamp. “Double N” flat out rocks, with plenty of reverb and vibrato. The sultry “Tube Top Temptation” is like a slo-mo “She’s About a Mover.” For a gently tropical number akin to something from Ry Cooder’s California trilogy, try “Mangos.” Stubbs even dishes out some down and dirty funk on “Yikes Ike.”
The disc’s best pair of songs, hands down, are “Rug Burn” and “Fazzo Beans.” The former revels in a West Coast, fast-lane groove and features a Doc Severinsen-like solo (albeit about an octave lower). The latter is a speed-blues number that borrows — in spirit — the rhythm track to ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” the melody of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Rude Mood” and the horns from the second half of the Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.”
Tracks
1. Medford & Main
2. Pistol Whip
3. Uncle Sonny
4. Sleepy Eyes
5. Double N
6. Tube Top Temptation
7. Yikes Ike
8. Mangos
9. Rug Burn
10. Waffles
11. Fazzo Beans
Total time: 35:29
External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store
