An Existential Journey of Blues and Revelry

New Blues Revolution CD “To Hellendale and Back”

Music Review by Joseph Timmons: IndiePulse Music Magazine

The album “To Hellendale and Back” is the type of Rhythm and Blues album the Devil himself would produce with the contract signed in blood, and New Blues Revolution has figured out the Loophole and won the race.

As stated by members of the band New Blues Revolution “Sometimes the album writes you.  Like a Haiku.  As a body of work, the CD concept began – or better said, these songs wrote themselves while the New Blues Revolution band was on tour.  A personal voyage intertwining personal experience and that of family members – like ancient biblical characters sent to the desert to roam for years – to exile in Helendale.”

“Originally, the body of work had working titles of “Blue on Black”, then “Exile in Mojave” and finally, the current title was suggested because of the shared experience of our family graphic designer, who herself had been unwittingly trapped in Helendale many years earlier (and later we all made that trip – the band AND our loved ones to Helendale and back).”

The name of the City in the CD was changed to “Hellendale”.  There’s a kernel of truth in every good joke.  Done as a tribute to the feeling of desolation, yet to convert loss and pain into victorious absolution, that’s what this body of gallant ad artistic work would represent.

Once launched on this mission, this vision quest, this forced march, was it an existential quest: a search for meaning or love – to reflect and meditate on what really matters, or was it merely daily bread, or was it Bourbon.  The journey begins like a newborn heartbeat, peaks and then the denouement is left to each listener.  Many of songs have desert references or motifs – that was the unifying experience – and metaphor.

Listening to “Whiskey Town”, a low moaning but robust track, it’s an image of a lone soul at the bar counter, wondering just exactly where his life went wrong, het regrets nothing, because it was a hell of a ride. Take that image and place it against “Souls on Fire” and you travel deeper into the spirits soaked abyss of a man desperate to escape the fate sealed by his own hands, of the silvery strings of a cursed Gibson hollow body, crafted by the dark lord himself. With “Baby Blue” the Idea strikes – “do what you gotta do” if you’re gonna go, go for the biggest bang you can, to “yourself you must be true”. But be careful, your “Baby Blue” may just turn into a “Black Widow” and what you desire most could be your downfall, a fatal kiss of the dark blues that steal your breath away.

The one song that seems to be out of place is “Sunset Psycho Twang”, now, don’t get me wrong, musically, it is INCREDIBLE, an auditory feast for the inner eye, however, the Vocalists heave and menacing voice, absent from the track, leaves a bit to be desired. It does pale compared to the other musical offerings, but, on its own, it stands tall and is homage to the quality and skill of the artists that together comprise New Blues Revolution. It is a surf / swing piece which has a subtle sultry romance to the rhythms and is definitely sexy.

New Blues Revolution is a blues inspired journey through the form of Robert Johnson meets Quentin Tarantino via Pink Floyd.

New Blues Revolution’s latest CD is the result of yet another stop on the road to create the music they want us all to hear.  Each song/story tries to inspire a hypnotic state via strong grooves and a variety of emotion, from dark revelation to fun intrigue then romantic reflection.  It’s fun, rocks hard and really grooves.

New Blues Revolution has a motto: “We hit hard, dance bravely and paint our music bold.  That’s what we do.”

NewBluesRevolution.com
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