J.P. Reali – Blues Since Birth
Reali Records
9 Tracks – 30 minutes
J.P. Reali, who is originally from New York, moved to Washington D.C where he spent 40 years performing in the area. He represented the D.C. Blues Society at the 2010 and 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. He released his debut solo album, Cold Steel Blues in 2007. Three more albums followed with the most recent, A Highway Cruise, released in 2019. During the COVID pandemic, he moved to Newark, Delaware where he began working on songs for this his fifth solo album, all while maintaining a burgeoning guitar instruction program.
J.P. provides all the vocals on the album and plays the guitar, harmonica, bass, piano and on “Eileen Left” plays the banjo. Jim Larson plays drums and percussion and on “Eileen Left” plays the mandolin. The twosome first met in 1968 during the Freshman Orientation week at the American University in Washington where both were enrolled in the audio technology program. They formed a band their sophomore year and became regulars in the Washington music scene. But as is common, the band broke up, although the two maintained a friendship and got together regularly to jam. Two years ago, J.P. let Jim hear some of the new songs he was working on. Jim suggested that after a twenty-year separation as band mates, they should get back together for this album. The album was recorded at Jim’s home studio in Marietta, Georgia in July 2024. Josh Borden joins on keyboards and Gill Glass on bass.
Eight original songs and one cover opens with “The Devil’s Take” which was co-written with J.P. by his brother, Chris Reali, who plays bass on the cut. The song is a boogie as the devil “tempts me to go to a juke joint”, but “he teaches the devil how to play the blues” with a Booker T. style keyboard backing. “The Virus Blues” recites the things you could not do while the pandemic raged and that resulted with ” I stayed in place every night. I get so drunk I can’t tell wrong from right. Every morning I’m drinking by ten, the way it’s going, I’m down for rehab again.” All of which probably deliver at least a feeling of that time of isolation that many had.
The sole cover is Bob Dylan’s “It takes a Lot to Laugh, It takes a Train to Cry”, featuring slide guitar and a bit of honky tonk piano. “Drunk and In the Way” kicks off with slide guitar and J.P. declaring “I like to stay up late and drink whiskey every night, but when it’s time to go to sleep, my baby starts a fight. I always get drunk, pass out on the couch”. “Blues In a Minefield” is noted as lowdown blues with Albert King overtones.
“The Bad Dog Blues” is a shuffle and was written as a tribute to Magic Sam as he sings, “My baby done left me, and I have no food to eat, guess I am lucky to have shoes on my feet.” “Eileen Left” with the combined mandolin and banjo gives the song a country folk feel. It is a story of his wayward lady love and perhaps a follow-up to his previous song. “Cold Steel Blues” follows the line of many train-based stories as he asks the train “to come and take me home”. The album concludes with the autobiographical “Blues Since Birth” with the slide guitar ripping along and J.P. revealing that “on the day I was born, my mama and papa had a fight. Papa gave me his name, mama said that is not right”. And the fight has continued to this day, his name being his curse.
J.P. delivers stories with a message ranging from the pandemic to marital issues, thoughts about his own name, or even dealing with the devil all with some tongue in the cheek comments or revelations.
