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Seth Lee Jones aims for a live-in-the-studio vibe on Flathead<\/i>, and the Tulsa guitarist hits the bullseye. Leading a trio that features bassist Bo Hallford and drummer Matt Teegarden, Jones tears through nine tracks \u2013 mostly blues classics \u2013 and captures the sound and spirit of live performance, coupled with the sonic clarity of a studio session.<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 vocal quality is characterized by a soulful growl, and that gives the music a seething, slightly dangerous air. Backed by a rock-solid (if deliberately unflashy) rhythm section, Jones leans into his guitar work, presenting a style that combines lead and rhythm parts. That approach to the guitar keeps things lean and mean, so when the lead licks present themselves, they fit into the overall sound, taking on the role of sparring partner with Jones\u2019 voice.<\/p>\n
The hypnotic signature lick at the core of \u201cDriving Wheel\u201d is a nod to Jimi Hendrix\u2019s Band of Gypsys-era number, \u201cChanges.\u201d And Jones\u2019 fretboard fireworks split the difference between Hendrix\u2019s style and something closer to Billy F Gibbons\u2019 work with ZZ Top.<\/p>\n
But Flathead<\/i> isn\u2019t all high-powered blues-rock. The plodding, sinister vibe of \u201cIt Was Rainin\u2019\u201d provides a musical canvas upon which Jones splashes subtle slide work. The trio feels like it\u2019s holding back through the vocal verses, and even when Jones takes a solo, he exercises restraint. The trio\u2019s approach here seems like a buildup to a frenzied release that never comes, though.<\/p>\n
Multi-tracked guitars on \u201cMoving Me (Way Too Fast)\u201d traffics in standard blues changes, but Hallford\u2019s bass thunders in a way it hadn\u2019t on the cuts that came before. And the band takes an uptempo approach to the lead guitar workout \u201cDesiree.\u201d Jones\u2019 guitar lines alternate between following his vocal melody in lockstep, then diverging from it in call-and-response fashion.<\/p>\n
The loping \u201cYou Gonna Wreck My Life\u201d starts out with Hallford\u2019s bass in tight synchronization with Jones\u2019 cyclical guitar parts, establishing a musical mantra. Then, when Jones cuts into searing slide work, Hallford holds down the bottom. Where \u201cIt Was Rainin\u2019\u201d finds the trio perhaps holding back a bit too much, here Jones is a man unleashed.<\/p>\n
Save for a quick accent here and there, drummer Teegarden rarely breaks out from his simple, unadorned approach to the back beat. His timing is precise and assured, so it stands to reason that his meant-and-potatoes approach is by design, not limitation: it certainly serves to keep the focus on Seth Jones\u2019 voice and guitar.<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 reading of \u201cTulsa Time\u201d \u2013 a song popularized twice in 1978, once by country star Don Williams and almost simultaneously by Eric Clapton \u2013 mines the blues feel within the tune. And the sexy shuffle of \u201cMary Ann\u201d showcases the best playing \u2013 by all three musicians \u2013 on the entire set. The arrangement unexpectedly switches gears, making it the most interesting cut on the record as well. The trio\u2019s skill at changing things up is surely a highlight of their live shows. And at its core, that vibe is what Flathead<\/i> aims to capture and communicate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seth Lee Jones aims for a live-in-the-studio vibe on Flathead, and the Tulsa guitarist hits the bullseye. Leading a trio that features bassist Bo Hallford and drummer Matt Teegarden, Jones […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[4666],"class_list":["post-21796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-seth-lee-jones","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\/21796","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=21796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21798,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21796\/revisions\/21798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}