The Right Man<\/i><\/a>. A musical statement of purpose, that album was a near-perfect balance of power and taste. The release augured big things for the guitarist, still in his twenties. In the time since that album\u2019s release, Harrell has wowed concert and festival audiences with his precise and deeply soulful guitar artistry and authentically passionate vocals.<\/p>\nAgain working with guitarist-producer Christoffer \u201cKid\u201d Andersen\u201d at Kid\u2019s Greaseland Studios, Harrell now returns with Talkin\u2019 Heavy<\/i>. And while Andersen\u2019s signature organic approach to production is a feature of the new record, some subtle changes in priorities are evident.<\/p>\n
Those changes are apparent right out of the gate. The album opens with \u201cA Little Taste,\u201d a searing and catchy uptempo blues number that showcases Harrell\u2019s voice and clean, single-note guitar runs. But the tight horn section that added even more muscle to the opener and title track of his debut are dialed back here. They do their job and do it well \u2013 no question there \u2013 but Andersen\u2019s mix makes certain that the listener knows that it\u2019s Harrell\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
That aesthetic is applied throughout the disc. On \u201cGrown Now,\u201d Harrell employs the patented B.B. King voice-and-guitar dialogue, but he makes the style his own. The superbly funky support ensemble on this and all of the record\u2019s dozen buts is Andersen on rhythm guitar, bassist Andrew Moss and the endlessly expressive Jim Pugh on keys. Moss lays down bass lines that are interesting enough to merit attention, yet always rock-solid and in service of the songs.<\/p>\n
Lovers of melodic guitar work will find much to savor on Talkin\u2019 Heavy<\/i>. But Harrell\u2019s skills as a songwriter are on par with his instrumentalist and vocal gifts. The lyrics strike a knowing balance between authenticity and adherence to blues conventions. The title track in particular is another in the long line of this-is-what-I\u2019m-about blues tracks, but Harrell delivers it from an honest place.<\/p>\n
Harrell isn\u2019t afraid to break out of the standard blues changes box; \u201cPTLD\u201d is a brisk shuffle with some tasty (and judiciously applied) backing vocals that imbue the tune with a pleasing soul-disco flavor. Derrick \u201cD\u2019Mar\u201d Martin lays down a kinetic beat on this and five other cuts; the remaining tracks feature June Core on drums.<\/p>\n
In sum, balance is the primary defining characteristic of Talkin\u2019 Heavy<\/i>. With excellent support from his musical associates, Harrell delivers fresh, original material rooted in tradition. Never too much of this, always enough of that: Talkin\u2019 Heavy<\/i> defies any music business notions about that so-called sophomore slump; D.K. Harrell\u2019s second album is the real deal, start to finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this era of \u201cblues lawyers\u201d \u2013 dilettante guitarists who can afford pricey gear and private lessons, but who possess no true feel for the blues \u2013 the emergence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[5209],"class_list":["post-29703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-d-k-harrell","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\/29703","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=29703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29705,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29703\/revisions\/29705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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In this era of \u201cblues lawyers\u201d \u2013 dilettante guitarists who can afford pricey gear and private lessons, but who possess no true feel for the blues \u2013 the emergence of a true talent such as D.K. Harrell is cause for celebration. This Ruston, Louisiana native got his introduction to the blues through immersion in the music of the three Kings (especially B.B.), Elmore James and Muddy Waters. And he applied the lessons he learned about sound, feel and presence to his original \u2013 yet traditionally grounded \u2013 songcraft and style.<\/p>\n