Chris Duarte – Ain’t Giving Up
Provogue Records
12 Tracks – 50 minutes
Texas guitarist Chris Duarte was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1963. He gained notoriety in the early 1990’s in the Austin music scene and exposure at the South X Southwest Music Convention. Riding the heels of Stevie Ray Vaughan in those early days and playing in a style that was compared to Vaughan, Chris’ career took off with the release of his first album Texas Sugar / Strat Magik in 1994, which in turn led to Guitar Player Magazine naming him the “Best New Talent” in their 1995 Readers Poll and placed fourth in the magazine’s 1995 list of “Best Blues Guitarists” behind Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and B.B. King.
Ain’t Giving Up is Chris’ 15th album release. He stresses that for him, “music must evolve”. Over the years, he has dabbled with jazz and various tempos within his tour sets and even from one song to the next on his albums. It is noted that Chris sometimes plays so hard that his fingers bleed, which has photographed evidence. Dennis Herring, who produced Chris’ first album returns for the first time to produce this album. He is joined by Jessica Will on bass and Brannen Temple on drums and used a Univox Rhythm Machine to create some loops. All of his guitar solos were recorded live. He said with this album, he wanted “to explore beyond hard-driving blues”, which is what he is known for.
Chris comes blasting out with an all-out rocker on “Nobody But You” which tells a tale of a green-eyed redhead who “can’t behave” but he notes that “I’m a bad boy too”. An experiment in changing tempos and feedback with hints of Hendrix finds Chris telling her “I don’t want have a “Big Fight”…, take your stuff out of my face”. “Bye, Bye, Bye” is a throwback song to early rock ‘n’ roll and a move to get people up on the dance floor.
“Can Opener” is an instrumental blues shuffle pointing back to his early Texas roots and featuring some very tasty guitar licks. “Gimme Your Love” preaches that “you must be strong for each other while you can” in a slow blues run. Another slow rocker “Come My Way” cites, “Ever since I was a young boy, I had a lot to learn. Good luck and a bad choice, no one had my turn.”
Chris moves into a boogie as he explains “I will never find another woman “Half as Good as Two” and definitely wants two women to replace the one bad woman in his life. She tells him “Lies, Lies, Lies” in another rocking number where he says, “she never looks me in the eyes, trouble coming to my door”. “Ain’t Giving Up on Us” finds the blues shuffle again as “everything I say goes in and out the other ear”.
“Look What U Made Me Do” returns to an older rock ‘n’ roll sound with a pounding drumbeat and a blazing guitar. “The Real Low Down” identifies “It has been a long, hard year. I’ve had my face on the ground, but in a bumpy year I’m coming back around. He closes the album with the seven-minute “Weak Days”, which starts with a noodling guitar run and moves into a quiet “rainy Tuesday morning” which is an obvious tap towards “Stormy Monday Blues” and proves a strong change of pace from the rest of the album.
The album title obviously references the love song in the middle of the album, but Ain’t Giving Up could also reference a musician’s position in making a recording in today’s market. But Chris specifically says the album is about “pushing his music forward” “I’m here, and I’m not giving up on my blues or my career. And I’m not playing it safe either.” As shown above, Chris still finds his way in the blues, but reaches out for other sounds that moves his music in new ways. As ever, his guitar work is raw, but certainly palatable.
