{"id":25620,"date":"2023-07-17T05:30:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T09:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25620"},"modified":"2023-07-11T09:11:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T13:11:23","slug":"25620","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/17\/25620\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Ally Venable — Real Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It\u2019s a largely inescapable fact of life that pop and hip-hop are the primary musical genres for the younger demographic. These days, the audiences rock, jazz, blues \u2013 even country \u2013 skews older, to say the least. The exceptions \u2013 both among listeners and even more infrequently among artists stand out brightly against the backdrop of that reality. And one of the bright lights among young blues musicians today is Ally Venable. All of 24 years old, the Texas-born guitarist, singer and songwriter already has five albums to her credit. Real Gone<\/i> is her latest.<\/p>\n

Mentored by Buddy Guy and Joe Bonamassa, Venable has enjoyed chart success with her previous releases; Her 2018 sophomore release Puppet Show<\/i> entered the Billboard<\/i> Blues chart in the Top 10. And as part of the Ruf Records stable, Venable toured extensively just before the pandemic, logging more than 60 dates as part of the label\u2019s Blues Caravan showcase\/package attraction.<\/p>\n

All but one of the twelve tracks on Real Gone<\/i> are co-writes with either producer Tom Hambridge or Hambrdige and Richard Fleming; the other track is a Hambridge solo composition. But with her core band (drummer Isaac Pulido and bassist EJ Bedford), Venable brushes aside any questions about whose show it is.<\/p>\n

With a clear rock sensibility, Venable\u2019s music has as much in common with, say, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts as it does with ZZ Top. But her rock-solid rhythm work and fiery lead guitar fills set her apart and infuse the music with a Texas blues character. Venable leans hard on the wah-wah pedal on the title track, but knowingly eases off right before it veers into too-much-of-a-good-thing territory.<\/p>\n

And Venable sidesteps the all-power-all-the-time approach that renders too many guitar-fests into two-dimensional affairs: \u201cGoing Home\u201d is a plaintive, slow burn number with a swirling cauldron of Hammond organ. \u201cJustifying\u201d swaggers a la Jeff Beck or Jimi Hendrix.<\/p>\n

Bonamassa guests on the torchy \u201cBroken & Blue,\u201d a track that also happens to feature one of Venable\u2019s most effective vocal outings. Phase shifters and a brass section figure into \u201cDon\u2019t Lose Me,\u201d with Venable\u2019s vocals treated through some electronic filters approximating a Green Bullet. Venable takes a page from Bonnie Raitt\u2019s style \u2013 with good results \u2013 on \u201cAny Fool Should Know.\u201d The song\u2019s saxophone response lines are tasty, too.<\/p>\n

At first blush, the title of \u201cTexas Louisiana\u201d might not make sense; listen and it will. The song is a spirited duet \u2013 with good-natured back and forth \u2013 between Venable and Buddy Guy. The backing is hard and heavy on this one, as the song demands. A rare weak spot on a solid album, \u201cKick Your Ass\u201d is standard-issue blooze-rock, with changes and guitar riffs that are too familiar by half. The obligatory semi-acoustic \u201cBlues is My Best Friend\u201d is better than its shopworn title might suggest. Venable\u2019s guitar spits fireworks here.<\/p>\n

\u201cGone So Long\u201d is an exemplar of subtlety, showing Venable\u2019s musical gifts in understated fashion; it could well serve as a crossover for potential listeners who might not be predisposed toward the blues. \u201cHold My Ground\u201d is a statement-of-purpose song with an appealing arrangement, and \u2013 as ever \u2013 excellent singing and playing from Venable. \u201cTwo Wrongs\u201d ends the collection as it began: on an arena-style rocking note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a largely inescapable fact of life that pop and hip-hop are the primary musical genres for the younger demographic. These days, the audiences rock, jazz, blues \u2013 even country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,62,65],"tags":[3767],"class_list":["post-25620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-ally-venable","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25620","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=25620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25623,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25620\/revisions\/25623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}