Ian Siegal Meets Johnny Mastro – Easy Tiger
Continental Blue Heaven Records
13 Tracks – 48 minutes
Guitarist and vocalist Ian Siegal was born in Portsmouth, England and has been at the top of the blues scene in England for the past twenty years. After spending some time busking in Germany and touring around Europe, he released his first album, Meat and Potatoes in 2005. Mojo Magazine selected his album Broadside as blues album of the year. His band was selected in 2010 as Best Band at the British Blues Awards. He has subsequently received the awards for Best Solo Artist, Male Vocalist, Best Album, and Best Song and became one of the first inductees into the British Blues Awards Hall of Fame. In 2012, he recorded Candy Store Kids with the Mississippi Mudbloods, which was produced by Luther Dickinson and included Garry Burnside, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Lightnin’ Malcolm among others. In 2016, he recorded Wayward Sons with Jimbo Mathis.
Johnny Mastro was born in Geneva, New York but now is based in New Orleans where his harmonica playing is well recognized. Johnny’s band has toured Europe many times over the past twenty years.
The two were signed to the Nugene record label many years ago, which is where they first met. The teaming of Ian Siegal and Johnny Mastro delivers a powerful, muscular driving blues rock. The album was recorded live in New Orleans in a studio that uses all retro equipment from the 40’s and 50’s to provide an old-school vibe recording all-analog, straight to tape. In addition to the two leads Josh Kerin joins on bass, Chris Davis on drums, and Smoke on guitar. This combined album is the fifteenth album release for both of the performers.
The album kicks off with a driving beat as Ian declares “Rosey came down to my door, said she wanted just a little bit more, Billie went out make a score, and now we are hitting it “Four on the Floor”. Next up, “Balling the Jack” is a song deeply grooved out of the Mississippi Delta with Ian’s wailing guitar and Johnny’s harmonica with Ian declaring he is “hungry for love”. He tells her “I’m Coming Home”, “Baby’ You Can get Your Gun”, “I’ve been out doing wrong”.
On “No Mercy” Johnny will get your head bobbing in a slow blues with Ian sailing along on the slide guitar noting “She threw me out like I was one of her old toys”. “Now I live my life in misery”. Next, he advises my “Dog Don’t Hunt” and “My cat don’t scratch, darling you know you met your match”. They slow things down somewhat as he describes his girl as a “Skinny ass girl in tight ass jeans…she’s “Tall and Tight”. “The girl’s all right.”
They jump back to another rock ‘n’ roll number with “Miss Your Cadillac” in a shouting, slightly distorted vocal. Slowing things down again, it is questioned what is wrong in the world today noting everyone is “Quick to Gun”. In a slightly laidback song Ian says, “The stars align on a stage, I see it all in a blinding light / notes flurry in a rage, something don’t sit right…see the blues ain’t in its dying throes and it has always had its friends and foes… everybody always chose the man in the “Emperor’s New Clothes”.
Ian pulls out his slide guitar again as he talks about his “Wineheaded” baby who “used to be so fine”. Next he states, “now goddammit I am in trouble, don’t know which way to go…and I’m sweating like a “Who’re in Church”. He tells her “I Won’t Cry No More” and “you ain’t gonna wreck my life no more”. “Oedipuss” is listed as a bonus track as he explains “She’s got no angles on the curves. Don’t try to wrangle, you’re gonna get stirred” with a touch of double entendre with the title.
The selected recording method certainly gives the intended raw edge to the music, stripped down to the essential guitar and harmonica with some excellent rhythmic backing and growling vocals. Well -written lyrics sometimes with tongue firmly planted in the cheek makes for a fun listen particularly if you are a fan of an old-school approach to the blues. Notes for the album says it “is like a 5 AM wake-up call in a sleazy motel – jarring, but ultimately necessary” and “feels like a sweaty musical hug”. Ian’s guitar is described as having ” stank that evokes distorted late night AM radio” and Johnny’s harp “which sometimes feels so dirty your ears might need a shower”. I can offer no better clarity than that.
