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A prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Danish harmonica star Lee Oskar (of \u201870s funk-rock-soul group War), Canadian musician David Rotundo sings, plays harmonica and occasional guitar, and writes all of the music on So Much Trouble<\/i>, his fifth album.<\/p>\n
Toronto-based Rotundo launched his first band in 1997, and was first heard on record when he released Blowin\u2019 for Broke<\/i> in 2001. After extended runs with the Blue Canadians and the Jack de Keyser Band, Rotundo put together his eponymous group in 2003; that same year the new aggregation released Blues Ignited<\/i>, featuring guitarist Enrico Crivellaro. A well-received 2007 set, Live at Roc \u2018N Doc\u2019s<\/i> served as a document of the band live onstage. After 2009\u2019s No Looking Back<\/i>, fans of Rotundo\u2019s music would have to wait more than a decade for a follow-up.<\/p>\n
So Much Trouble<\/i> is a showcase of the breadth and depth of Rotundo\u2019s musical vision. Co-produced by Oskar, the 12-song set features swinging, uptempo blues \u201cShe\u2019s Dynamite\u201d), searing, soulful, slow jams (\u201cI Must Be Crazy\u201d), stripped-down country blues (\u201cHard Times Coming\u201d) and more.<\/p>\n
The record\u2019s title track is highlighted by Ron Weinstein\u2019s lovely Hammond organ and dialogue between Skylar Mejhal\u2019s arena-rock lead guitar and Rotundo\u2019s blues harp. While vocals on most of the album\u2019s first half feature only Rotundo, the second half folds more voices into the mix, to good effect. Of special note is Annie Jantzer\u2019s singing and occasional wordless vocalizing on \u201cToo Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the record, Rotundo\u2019s harmonica work is spot-on, and the song arrangements work it skillfully into the mix, allowing space for the other musicians to shine (and occasionally spar) with it. Cellist Phillip Peterson sounds like a full string section on the deep groove \u201cFunky Side of Town,\u201d one of the strongest and best-arranged cuts on the set.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrinking Overtime\u201d is either live-in-the-studio or designed to sound that way. Loose and limber, it\u2019s a rollicking good-time number about beer, replete with solo turns on organ and harmonica \u2013 and then, after another verse \u2013 more harmonica. Saxophone makes a welcome appearance on the smoldering and understated \u201cThat Thing Called Love,\u201d one of the album\u2019s eleven originals (the album closer \u201cTrouble in Mind\u201d is public domain).<\/p>\n
But the undisputed standout tracks on So Much Trouble<\/i> are the two that find Rotundo, his band and guest players pulling out all of the stops. \u201cTrying to Find It\u201d won\u2019t ever be cited for deathless lyrical content, but musically, it exemplifies what the David Rotundo Band is all about, and documents the group in the best possible light. The tune and its arrangement may remind some listeners of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.<\/p>\n
After an elegiac, piano-centric number (the gospel-flavored \u201cFoolish Love\u201d), Rotundo and band launch into \u201cLong Road,\u201d a song that builds from a simple start into a soaring, wide-screen production featuring tabla, Latin percussion and no less than ten vocalists. The song itself is a cross between a field holler, gospel, country blues and world music (with a string section). Listeners who stick around through the already quiet enjoyable first ten tracks are richly rewarded with \u201cLong Road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Danish harmonica star Lee Oskar (of \u201870s funk-rock-soul group War), Canadian musician David Rotundo sings, plays harmonica and occasional guitar, and writes all of the music on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21083,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21081\/revisions\/21083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}