The Boogie Sinners – Time To Roll | Album Review

theboogiesinnerscdThe Boogie Sinners – Time To Roll

EMCE 2014

www.reverbnation.com/theboogiesinners

7 tracks; 36 minutes

This is the debut album from Greek rhythm and blues band The Boogie Sinners.  The band consists of Theodore Alexiou on guitar and vocals, Kostas Tenezos on harp, Dimitris Georgopoulos on bass and John Dimoulas on drums.  The music is all original (four instrumentals and four songs with lyrics) with Theodore taking the major share with six credits as well as writing the lyrics to two songs.  One instrumental is credited to the whole band, one to Kostas and two of Theodore’s songs use lyrics written by Dimitrios Epikouris, taken from his book “Blues Lyrics.

The opening instrumental “Rolling The Juke Joint” sets a strong pace with plenty of busy rhythm work and guitar and harp taking solos.  “At The Post Office” is also very much a rhythm-based track with Kostas’ harp adopting a keening style that reminds you of those old Clint Eastwood westerns, the lyrics (by Dimitris) describing the wait at the Post Office for a reply to his letter to his girl.  Theodore’s vocals are OK with just a trace of accent which does not interfere with communication. Theodore’s “I Ain’t Your Fool No More” is a shuffle in Jimmy Reed style with a solid guitar solo.

The whole band is credited on “Dream Weaver”, a slower number with more of that eerie harp sound and echoey guitar.  The longest track is “Desert Cry/Stop Messing Around”, the first part of which is an instrumental with lots of atmospheric slide.  “Stop Messing Around” is not the Fleetwood Mac song but Dimitrios’ lyric which makes great play out of rhyming ‘bread’, ‘head’ and ‘dead’ over some slow-burning and rather over-the-top slide work.  “Rock N’ Roll All Night long” is another familiar title but is an original as Theodore’s lyrics take full advantage of some well-worn clichés like the title, ‘whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on’, ‘shake your hips’ and ‘till your daddy comes home’.

The album closes with Kostas’ “KT Boogie”, obviously a feature for his harp playing, the number rocking along in pretty frenetic manner.  There is a ‘hidden track’ at the end entitled “Wagon Hill”, an appropriate title for a tune that has quite a country/western feel to it.

As ever, it is good to find that the blues is alive and well in a different country but it was difficult to find anything on this disc to distinguish it from many others.

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