Al Lerman – Country-Fried Blues
Self-Release – 2024
13 tracks; 48 minutes
Initially inspired by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Canadian Al Lerman has had a long career in music, both as a solo artist and with the band Fathead which he founded in 1992. He has four previous solo releases, nine with Fathead and a slew of guest appearances on other people’s albums. His latest release Country-Fried Blues is an apt title as Al blends acoustic and electric blues with elements of country in an unfailingly pleasant album. Al handles all lead vocals, harp and guitars, aided by Alec Fraser on upright bass and B/V’s, Jimmy Bowskill on mandolin, fiddle, guitars and B/V’s and Chuck Keeping on drums; Steve O’Connor sits in on six tracks on keys and accordion. The album is very much an in-house affair, engineered by Jimmy, mixed and produced by Alec and featuring nine of Al’s originals, plus four covers.
“The Backbug Song” borrows the core guitar riff from Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”, overlaid with mandolin and acoustic guitar, making an attractive start to the album. The relaxed pace of “How High Is Up” finds Al in reflective mood: “I’ve been so high I’ve touched the sky”, Steve’s twinkling piano adding considerably to the tune and Al blowing some high register harp, but he gets more serious with “How Much Longer Can A Broken Heart Last”, a slow blues with good electric guitars and backing vocals.
The title really says it all with the instrumental “Summer Strolling”, a feature for Al’s harp over gentle Caribbean rhythms before a familiar title, but another original, “That’s What Friends Are For”, this one an acoustic blues shuffle with more of that high register harp. The album concludes with a run of four originals: “You By My Side” is a warm tribute to the love of the author’s life and the only track here to exceed the four minute barrier; the band heads south of the border for “Lowdown Just The Same”, the accordion adding the right touch of Tex-Mex to the song; “Too Bad For You (Too Bad For Me)” returns to country blues with the mandolin to the fore and “Last One To Leave The Party” closes the album with the most uptempo number on the album with Jimmy playing up a storm on his fiddle and at least one line in the lyrics that might offend the censors!
The four covers are distributed across the album. “Big Bill’s Blues” is given a relaxed treatment with the fiddle adding an old-timey feel to one of Broonzy’s best-known tunes. Robert Johnson’s “Come On In My Kitchen” is transformed into a country romp with mandolin and harp strongly featuring, whilst, in contrast, Hank Williams’ “I Heard That Lonesome Whistle” is turned into a chugging blues. The least well-known of the covers is Bobby Charles’ “Can’t Pin A Colour” which is driven along by the piano.
Overall this is an enjoyable album of mainly relaxed tunes that reflect the “two snowy days” spent in an old Ontario farmhouse converted into a studio. Warm and enjoyable, as the sessions undoubtedly were.
