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Opening with Leon Russell\u2019s \u201cI\u2019d Rather Be Blind\u201d underscores the point that King Solomon Hicks is no blues purist. His reading of the song \u2013 first cut by Freddie King in 1972 on his Russell-produced Texas Cannonball<\/i> \u2013 owes a debt to the kind of blues played by the Mad Dogs and Englishmen aggregation. And Hicks\u2019 cover of the blues chestnut \u201cEvery Day I Have the Blues\u201d suggests the manner in which Derek & the Dominos might have played it.<\/p>\n
The lyrics of the dramatic \u201cWhat the Devil Loves\u201d may be preachy, and Hicks renders the tune in a gospel-blues style, but his light touch means that the song never feels overwrought. And its chorus may just move the listener to sing along.<\/p>\n
Hicks isn\u2019t a prolific artist; in a decade he\u2019s only released three albums. And only two of the 11 cuts on Harlem<\/i> feature a Hicks co-writing credit. But his infectious \u201c421 South Main\u201d is an instrumental guitar workout that strongly evokes Freddie King\u2019s best work. And when he shifts gears into a jazz-blues bag for Al Kooper\u2019s \u201cI Love You More Than You\u2019ll Ever Know,\u201d he does so credibly. Hicks\u2019 three guitar parts on the track are a study in contrasts: there\u2019s a tantalizingly brief introduction in a Wes Montgomery style; an impassioned fuzztone-laden lead that subtly reinforces the song\u2019s emotional content; and some gentle, barely audible rhythm work.<\/p>\n
But then Hicks shifts gears slightly uncomfortably. Going from Kooper\u2019s love song to the don\u2019t-want-to-see-you-again sentiments of \u201cHeaded Back to Memphis\u201d may not be an example of inspired track sequencing, but the latter\u2019s instrumental work is appealing.<\/p>\n
A horn-heavy deep funk instrumental reading of Gary Wright\u2019s \u201cLove is Alive\u201d takes the song in a direction radically different from its original all-synthesizers arrangement on Wright\u2019s 1975 LP The Dream Weaver<\/i>. Hicks scores points for inventiveness here; venturing far beyond the blues, he nonetheless pulls the material back in that direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave Mercy on Me\u201d is one of two Harlem<\/i> tracks written by Frankie Vinci. Vinci\u2019s tunes make little pretense of being blues numbers. But once again Hicks and his sidemen bend the material to their will, infusing it with enough blues to satisfy the faithful and enough pop to appeal to a wider audience.<\/p>\n
Hicks\u2019 second co-write on the album is \u201cRiverside Drive,\u201d a slow blues that recalls Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac as much as anything else. The manner in which the song fades out suggests that the band kept on playing. But while \u201cIt\u2019s Alright\u201d has its charms (including Hicks\u2019 dependably fiery guitar work), in the end it evokes memories of rote \u201870s power-blooze a la <\/i>Foghat, Bad Company and the like. Happily, Harlem<\/i> ends on a powerful note with a heartfelt cover of Willie Dixon\u2019s \u201cHelp Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For listeners who find blues too bluesy, King Solomon Hicks\u2019 Harlem<\/i> could serve as a listener-friendly entry point into the genre. An album that occasionally seems designed to play to the widest possible audience, Harlem<\/i> still manages to avoid too many missteps, resulting in a solid collection of songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opening with Leon Russell\u2019s \u201cI\u2019d Rather Be Blind\u201d underscores the point that King Solomon Hicks is no blues purist. His reading of the song \u2013 first cut by Freddie King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[4254],"class_list":["post-19145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-king-solomon-hicks","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19147,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19145\/revisions\/19147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}