Bobby Rush – All My Love For You
Deep Rush Records/Thirty Tigers – 2023
10 tracks; 41 minutes
All My Love For You, Bobby Rush’s latest album, features all original songs that, according to Rush, were written while he was “down with COVID” and reflected on where life is going to take him next. These new songs provide insights into a man who loves telling a good story and has fun doing so, while emphasizing the groove—that Bobby Rush funky groove—audiences have adored for more than sixty years.
Over the past ten years, this funk blues icon, now 89 years old, garnered numerous music industry nominations and awards—2 Grammys, a Blues Blast Magazine Lifetime Achievement award and 14 Blues Music Awards—along with countless accolades and other well-deserved publicity, and, in 2021, published an autobiography (I Ain’t Studdin’ You: My American Blues Story).
In an August interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, Bobby Rush was asked about his recent “fame,” his Grammys, and recording more music. Rush responded, “I have fun with everything I do. I have fun every day. Every day I get up is fun because when I think about what it could have been, I’m so thankful for what it is.”
He followed that up with, “Yeah, doing what I want to do and what I wanted to do all the time, was strip my music down to the bare storytelling.”
And much like his friend and current contemporary, Buddy Guy, Rush continues having fun and telling stories the way he knows best.
Bobby Rush (born Emmett Ellis Jr) is joined on this album by Dexter Allen (guitar and bass) and Joey Robinson (drums and keyboards). In addition to the guitar, Rush handles all vocals and, of course, the harmonica. Allen engineered the album, and he and Robinson were responsible for all mixing. This three-man ensemble’s superb musical skills are on display throughout this tightly produced record.
Themes of fun, funk, and love are found throughout the album. “Running In And Out” has that toe-tapping, funk-filled groove that is signature Bobby Rush. “TV Mama” is fun and fresh with Robinson’s grinding keyboard baseline, while Rush sings about loving his woman with the big wide screen. With its slow, steady beat, “You’re Gonna Need A Man Like Me” takes you back to those Delta blues standards from long ago, including a haunting melody, and ends with a terrific harmonica outro.
“I’m The One” touches each one of these themes with its robust story-telling, a driving backbeat, and sensational musicianship from this small studio ensemble. The song might be best described as a Bobby Rush anthem and may soon become a fan favorite wherever Rush performs live.
All My Love For You begins with “I’m Free,” an autobiographical insight into Rush’s boyhood and early years. Solid harp playing and that signature funk provide a strong start to the album. “One Monkey Can Stop A Show” features a standard blues draw with a heavy keyboard rhythm and a brass-inspired beat. Rush’s storytelling prowess is on display for “I’ll Do Anything For You” with its bluesy beat and call-and-response guitar riffs. The album ends with “I Got A Proposition For You,” a barrelhouse-inspired piano and keyboard number, which also highlights this small tight ensembles’ musicianship.
With All My Love For You, Rush proves that he is definitely The One—a gifted and talented artist who continues to bridge the past with the present. A true gift for today’s blues fans, Rush has earned the right to be called an elder statesman of the genre that is the backbone of modern American music.
