Dustin Douglas & The Electric Gentlemen – Black Leather Blues
MoMojo Records – 2023
10 tracks; 40 minutes
Black Leather Blues is the latest album from Pennsylvania trio Dustin Douglas & The Electric Gentlemen: Dustin Douglas on guitar/vocals, Matt ‘The Dane’ Gabriel on bass and Tommy Smallcomb on drums. Co-producer Paul Smith adds keys to several tracks and Nyke Van Wyk violin/strings to one. Music is by the band, lyrics by Dustin, with Bret Alexander, and is firmly at the rock end of the spectrum, typified by the opening blast of “Why Would You Say Such A Thing” with its pounding drums and powerful riffs and “Burnin’ Down” which finds Dustin hitting the wah pedal hard. Add to those elements Dustin’s rock singer vocals and you have some heavy duty rock here. “Good Love” has a bit of a ZZ Top feel, “Broken” is slower-paced and adds swirling keys to the muddy core riff, Dustin sounding overwhelmed by the relationship: “you got me burned down and weak, I can’t even speak”.
A more melodic approach comes with the acoustic intro to “Change” and reference in the lyrics to the blues: “Same old story, same old news – same old guitar that plays the blues”. The tune builds over organ washes before a cathartic guitar finale. The band rapidly returns to heavy drums and coruscating riffs on “What You See”, Dustin clearly double-tracking the guitars, as he does on most tracks. Both “C’est La Vie” and “Gonna Take This Train” are heavy rock numbers and “Do What You Gotta Do” has a tricky little riff at its core and reminded me of vintage Aerosmith, especially the chorus. The final track “Barely Holding On” is a rock ballad with acoustic guitar, strings and keys, well sung by Dustin who adds a blistering electric solo to the extended coda, making an impressive end to the album.
There is little or no actual blues here but the band plays well on an all-original program of music, so if you like Rock and plenty of guitars, this may be one to check out.
