Buenos Diaz – Fox Street Blues
Wormhole Records
12 songs time – 36:50
Mexican-American singer-guitarist-songwriter and Austin, Texas native Nick Diaz and his band Buenos Diaz offer up a rather uneven slice of blues rock. While he is an adept guitarist, the lyrics and delivery come off much of the time as awkward. He also provides bass and percussion while being backed by the keyboards of Sam Powell and three alternating drummers. Nick wrote all but one tune. He is experimenting with sounds here and taking chances, but some of his endeavors are misguided. Hopefully his future projects will have better structure along with a more cohesive sound.
The brief intro track “Hope” consists of twiddling guitars, pounding drums, indecipherable voices and feedback. This leads into the charging rock of “Nothing To Lose” that features no guitar soloing. “Let It Go, Let It Out” nicely saunters along with nick laying down some burning guitar licks over Sam Powell’s electric piano. The vocals and lyrics detract from the tasty groove and guitar skills on “Punch Drunk In Love”
He pulls out some fine blues guitar action on the shuffling “Big Hips, Smooth Lips, Wet Kiss”. This is one of his better vocals as his voice can be appealing to the listener. Some good blues-rock guitar salvages the weak lyrics of “The Blues Live In Texas”. The song has an infectious ringing guitar riff and Jeff Olson’s drums are in the pocket. More guitar fireworks on “Bandito Blues”.
Nick breaks out some nasty slide guitar for “I Got The Blues” along with his energetic vocal. The boys answer the question of “Where’s The Funk In The Neighborhood” with thumping bass, driving drums and wah-wah guitar. The vocals are a bit over-shouted, but they fit the vibe. His slide guitar on “Where Do We Go” is very melodic. What self-respecting blues-rocker wouldn’t include a nod to Jimi Hendrix? They do a good interpretation of the music and Nick talk-sings the words. What sounds like keyboard accents are a nice addition.
The songs here are hit-or-miss, but there is no denying Nick’s way around a guitar. It is the saving grace of this album. The drumming and keyboards add strength to the proceedings. You blues-rockers out there should give this a look-see.
