{"id":31782,"date":"2026-07-27T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31782"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:18:11","slug":"album-review-eddie-blues-man-kirkland-its-the-blues-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/album-review-eddie-blues-man-kirkland-its-the-blues-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Eddie \u201cBlues Man\u201d Kirkland \u2013 It\u2019s the Blues Man!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Though he released a string of solo singles in the early 1950s, Jamaica-born Eddie Kirkland earned his stripes touring with John Lee Hooker for more than a decade. Right around the time his run with Hooker concluded, Kirkland recorded and released his debut album, It\u2019s the Blues Man!<\/i> on the Tru-Sound label. That record initiated a long and creatively fruitful album career that would continue until 2010\u2019s Last Train Home<\/i>, made in collaboration with British blues acolytes Foghat. He passed in 2011.<\/p>\n

Remastered and pressed onto heavyweight vinyl in 2026, It\u2019s the Blues Man!<\/i> is now reissued by Craft Recordings. Straightforward instrumentation, ensemble playing that falls neatly between tight and sloppy, and some impassioned vocal work are the primary highlights of the album. There\u2019s a hypnotic vibe to \u201cDown on My Knees,\u201d and at times it feels like King Curtis\u2019 band doesn\u2019t know the tune, much less when to make the changes, but it still moves.<\/p>\n

Better is \u201cDon\u2019t Take My Heart.\u201d Reminiscent of Chuck Berry\u2019s style, the tune \u2013 like everything on the set \u2013 is totally guitar-driven. A spirited sax section adds tonal color, and the arrangement switches things up in inventive fashion. And Curtis\u2019 band seems to know how to play the song, laying down a solid rhythm for Kirkland\u2019s solo work.<\/p>\n

The saucy \u201cDaddy, Please Don\u2019t Cry\u201d folds in a bit of piano along with the sax; to this point, the album\u2019s sequencing is almost conceptual, what with more instruments added to each successive track. This one even adds female vocal accompaniment. And a proper solo makes an appearance. The languid \u201cHave Mercy on Me\u201d traffics in familiar blues tropes, but within that framework it\u2019s still a scorcher. The same can be said about the kinetic instrumental \u201cSaturday Night Stomp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Gonna Forget You\u201d doesn\u2019t attempt to offer anything new, but as a showcase of Kirkland\u2019s lead work, it\u2019s certainly a treat. Some appealing effects applied to Kirkland\u2019s guitar on \u201cI Tried\u201d add interest. \u201cMan of Stone\u201d blurs the lines \u2013 if they ever really existed \u2013 between blues, r&b and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. And it does it all while hanging on one solitary chord!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Goin\u2019 to Keep Lovin\u2019 You\u201d benefits from an appealing and nuanced arrangement. Kirkalnd\u2019s blues harp comes to the fore on \u201cTrain Done Gone.\u201d As a song, it\u2019s a bit underdeveloped, but as a harp showcase, it\u2019s worthy of admiration. \u201cSomething\u2019s Gone Wrong in My Life\u201d puts some beefy sax work out front while Kirkland belts out a powerful, impassioned lead vocal. \u201cBaby You Know it\u2019s True\u201d closes the record in a slightly jazz style; Kirkland\u2019s overdubbed guitar licks are tasty indeed.<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t may examples of Rudy Van Gelder\u2019s jazz aesthetic being applied to blues with a King Curtis foundation; this album would be worthwhile if only for the fact this it serves that function. But It\u2019s the Blues Man!<\/i> stands on its own merits as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though he released a string of solo singles in the early 1950s, Jamaica-born Eddie Kirkland earned his stripes touring with John Lee Hooker for more than a decade. Right around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,64,65,73],"tags":[5973,2604],"class_list":["post-31782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-eddie-kirkland","tag-king-curtis","cat-9-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31782","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=31782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32020,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31782\/revisions\/32020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}