The Majestic Jaywalkers – Madrid/Texas
Rockestatal Records
8 songs time-33:37
A Spanish blues-rocker covering a Jethro Tull song-you can’t make that up. Guitarist-vocalist Jorge Salan And The Majestic Jaywalkers make no effort to pass their music off as the blues. They just jump right in with all strings blazing and all cylinders firing. Jorge’s guitar technique is fluid and sleek with much twiddling and note bending. His vocals only suffer a little from his accent, at times making a few lyrics hard to comprehend, but not enough to detract from the listening experience. The keyboards are mainly low in the mix.
Howlin’ Wolf’s “Who’s Been Talking” has some fluid blues-rock guitar with a nice tone. A song associated with Albert King and British rock group Free, “The Hunter”, is delivered in a nicely slick version. A riveting take on B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” features a great guitar tone. Jethro Tull’s “Teacher” features the female vocal and backing vocals by Gema Vau and her accent makes it sound sexy over the familiar heavy riff.
Jimmy Barnatan shares vocal duties with Jorge on Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues”, but their accents get kind of tricky as they run some phrases together. Jorge does plenty of shredding on John Mayall’s “So Hard To Share”. Rebeca Rods’ vocal on Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” sounds sort of kitschy in a New Wave way while Jorge supplies plenty of wah-wah guitar sounds. Jorge closes things out with his fleet-fingered guitar technique applied to Elmore James’ “The Sky Is Crying”. At one point in the song he gets downright bluesy.
Jorge and company have accomplished a powerful if slightly flawed demonstration of blues-rock power on this CD. He can surely burn up the strings while swooping close to blues territory at times. The Majestic Jaywalkers are with him at every curve holding on for dear life. If you crave an injection of blues-rock energy you’ve come to the right place.
