Christina Crofts – The Best of Bottleneck
Self Released
12 tracks/46 minutes
Christina Crofts is an Australian blues rocker with four albums/EPs to her credit, This is a collection of her best original slide guitar tunes from those releases and her live shows.
Crofts is based in Sydney and won the 2022 Sydney Blues Challenge and then participated in the January 2023 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. She performs as the Christina Crofts Band and previously as Croftstown Traffic. Her guitar style is vibrant and heavily rocks. The album is a dozen rockers with lots of slide guitar licks to enjoy.
Appearing on the album with her are her husband, mentor and guitar teacher Steve, Stan Mobbs, Ian Millard, David Millard, Ian Pritchett, Peter Heckenberg, Steve Melville, Paul Scott, Tony Boyd and Ty Coates.
“Voodoo Queen” starts things off. Crofts wails on her guitar, demonstrates her slide prowess amd sings with a distinctive attitude. “Breakaway” continues the onslaught, a hard rocking midtempo cut. Crofts talks about her ex-love in “Lookin’ Back on You” as she watches him fade in her rear view mirror. Another big, driving, and rocking number. Then in “Someone Younger” she sings about someone who was looking for someone younger whose next conquest will release he’s not what he claims to be.
“Midnight Train” is a blazing, hot tune. “Gonna Find a Way” then slows things down but remains heavy and driving. Next is “Lucy,” a bouncy and fun cut about a woman who needs to come home and make amends. “Like We Used To” follows, another cut with a bouncing groove and fun approach.
“Stone Cold Tomb” has a more ethereal and dark feel to it, showing a different side to her music. “Can’t Take It” is another song about a relationship gone bad, this one partly to her own doing. Then it’s “See You Stumble,” another cut with some haunting guitar and a dark mood to it. She concludes with “Escape to Blue,” a massive instrumental cut.
The album really focuses on the rock side of her music. There’s not a lot of pure blues here, but if you are looking for a hard rocking album of driving tunes with attitude, then this is something you will enjoy!
