Guy Verlinde & Tom Eylenbosch – Promised Land Blues
Bandr Music BANDRCD01
11 songs – 40 minutes
Guy Verlinde and Tom Eylenbosch captured top duo in last year’s Belgian Blues Awards with a sound buried deep in tradition. But they hold nothing back on this sweet, swinging album, speaking their minds through socially critical originals that work perfectly with tunes culled from the American songbook.
With 17 previous albums to his credit, Guy’s in his late 40s and had been a major figure in Europe for decades because of his unique ability to connect with audiences through live performance. Headlining major clubs and festivals, the guitarist/percussionist has shared billing with B.B. King, Tony Joe White, Santana, Canned Heat and dozens of others.
Tom is only in his mid-20s but has been teaching piano professionally since his mid-teens and delivers intricate melodies and vocals to the mix. Nicknamed “Brittle Bones” because of health issues in childhood, he found solace in the music of Otis Spann, Jerry Lee Lewis and Dr. John. He doubles on banjo and washboard, too.
They’re joined by guest appearances by harp players Olivier Vander Bauwede and Steven Troch and upright bassist René Stock with Tammy J. and the John Olus Gospel Choir providing backing vocals.
A straight-forward blues with timeless appeal, the original opener, “Heaven Inside My Head,” finds Verlinde shedding all his doubts, fears and more and finding peace of mind at last. Eylenbosch’s runs on the 88s reflect his joy. Things go immediately go south from the downbeat with the slow-blues “Tears Over Gaza.” Guy emulates Spann at his emotion-packed best as Tom describes “watching genocide on TV…they’re killin’ innocent children and letting the murderers go free.”
Troch joins the action for a traditional reading of Blind Boy Fuller’s “A Worried Man Blues” and shines on the positive, uptempo original, “I’ve Got You,” which celebrates the fact that that’s all Verlinde has to know. Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move” – about the inevitability of death – darkens the mood despite it’s sweet, finger-picked delivery as does “Reckonin’ Blues,” which foretells of a storm coming – whether barometric or political — and the need to take action in order to survive. Bauwede shines mid-tune.
Things get quiet and somber as Eylenbosch’s extended keyboard solo opens “Gotta Let You Go,” which mourns the end of a relationship and the necessity to move on, and dovetails with the uptempo country blues, “Hard to Admit,” in which Guy confesses to his lady that he’s not correct all the time. Eylenbosch’s two-fisted barrelhouse delivery helps ease the pain of making the admission.
The original, stop-time “Do That Boogie” finds Tom driving the action, and it would have fit perfectly in a playlist in the ’50s, but brings the happiness in this disc to an end. “Pursuit of Happiness” deals with “life being a bitch, I confess,” before Eylenbosch’s gentle runs on the keys support “World Goin’ Wrong,” a stark warning about our troubled times.
Sure, there’s darkness here, but there’s plenty of fine, fine musicianship, too. A winner on all counts!
