Al Basile – Blues In hand
Sweetspot Records
13 Tracks – 58 minutes
Al Basile was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on the north shore of Boston. He got his start as a writer and was the first person to get a master’s degree in creative writing from the Brown University. His poetry is regularly published in leading poetry journals and has four currently in-print books collecting his work from the 1970’s through the present. Obviously, this translates well into song lyrics.
His life took a turn when he met Duke Robillard in 1969. That meeting led to Al joining on trumpet in the early formation of Roomful of Blues in 1973. The collaboration with Duke continues to modern times with Al playing with and contributing songs to Duke for his various albums. Al’s musical career took off from there and he has since played with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vincent, Red Prysock, Helen Humes, Joe Turner, and Johnny Shines. He has received two Blues Music Award nominations for Best Horns. Al started his own record company, Sweetspot Records, in 1998 and all subsequent albums including this latest were released on that label. He started a teaching career in 1975 and continued that for 25 years. After that period, he started focusing more on his own musical path.
This is the 21st album released by Al Basile. Al plays cornet and provides the lead vocals. Mark Teixeira on drums, Bard Hallen on bass, Bruce Bears on keyboards, Jeff “Doc” Chanonhouse on trumpet, Doug James on trumpet, and Kid Andersen on guitar completes the band line-up for the album with Jhett Black guesting on guitar on “Ain’t What You Say”. Al says this album is more personal than his other releases as the songs are based on some of his recent experiences.
The album opens with “All Your Lies” as he tells “You lie so easy, you lie so plain, it makes me want to believe you all over again. Al’s laid-back vocals slide along moving into a cornet solo and before concluding with a guitar solo. He declares “Blues Is My Roommate” noting “Woke up this morning, blues grinning in my face. Said get used to it partner, cause I’m moving on in your place.” The horns and guitar establish a low emotional pull with a an even keeled drum pulling things along all establishing a lonely man in some depression. The guitar, trumpet and organ all join to establish “Blues After Blues” as Al cries “Blues got drunk, staggered out the door. Right back next morning, looking for more”.
He asks, “How Is It?” “…that I ever let her take me away from you?” His liner notes ask “why do ever prefer the wrong person to the right one, even when we know the difference perfectly well?” Obviously, this is the story of a man who lost his love as a result of a foolish affair. He identifies That “When somebody needs your help, stop thinking about yourself and be a “Good Friend”. On “Leave It All Behind You” he establishes when you have made a big mistake you must “set it down and then move on. Put in the past, because the past is past and gone.”
He concludes it “Ain’t What You Say (It’s What You Do)” in a cinematic tale of a woman that dragged him into some things that was out of his control as h expresses “Well talk is cheap and lies get spread but I could really use a helping hand. Got in so deep got left for dead but maybe you could be my right-hand man. I turned my head, screen went black. I haven’t seen her since that day.” The story continues as he explains, “Part of me is sorry as I’m walking out the door. But I’m getting “Older by the Minute”, and I ain’t your man no more.” “Thank You, Fool” becomes slightly more upbeat and moves into a more soulful approach as he thanks him “for setting the little girl free. You sent her on her way so we could meet one day. Now she’s the best that ever happened to me.”
“Good Rhythm” is another laid-back and slow-moving blues establishing “when she gets to movin’, gonna move her right.” A comfortable piano solo and smooth guitar slip the song along. “My Dearest Dream’ features an easy trumpet and piano as Al says, “you and the devil teamed up to bring me down”. “You seemed to be all I ever wanted, and more than my dearest dream.” but “You turned out to be a phony and nothing like you seemed.”
He declares “You Ain’t That Fine” and tells her “If You think I’m fooled, if you think I’m blind. Think you got me schooled. Well, you’re overruled cause you ain’t that fine.” He finds the hard facts of life “When You Lose Your Money” you “find out your true friends, some will disappear, others stick with you to the end.”
The album as mentioned in several of song is a continuous story of a man working his way through some troubling relationships and times. The songs are low key with Al letting his cornet feature into much of the story. Most of the songs depict a man lost in some despair and lonely. Only at the end does he indicate that there are some true friends that can help him through. The album presents the blues in its rawest form, no screaming high notes, just laidback, slightly jazzy blues with a feel that one should just sit back in a chair with a glass of a smooth bourbon to melt the blues away.
