Joel Astley – Seattle To Greaseland
Blue Heart Records – 2023
11 tracks; 46 minutes
Joel Astley is a new name and this is his debut album release. He hails from Seattle where he has won several awards for his songwriting, singing and harmonica playing since he started out in 2014. For his debut he took eleven original songs to Greaseland Studio where Kid Andersen engineered, recorded and mixed the album, as well as co-producing with Joel. Naturally, Kid plays a variety of guitars and keyboards across the album, together with Randy Bermudes on bass and June Core on drums (Charlie Musselwhite’s rhythm section), Johnny Burgin on guitar: Jill Dineen and Marina Crouse add backing vocals to three tracks.
Joel’s natural vocal style makes all the songs clear and easy to appreciate from the first listen. The opener is a great example, a gospel-fueled view of the human condition which equates the blues with every human being, as we all are “Born Cryin’”: kudos to the rhythm section here, giving an outstanding performance, as they do throughout. Showing us a different style, “Candy Shop” is a jump blues with Kid on sizzling organ and Johnny playing some sweet licks, highly appropriate for a tale of a girl with a sweet tooth! Joel then puts on his best Johnny Cash impression on “Just Right”, the tune barrelling along with stinging guitar, a song about a guy who revels in adversity: “I ain’t happy unless I’m in misery; when the going gets rough it’s getting just right for me”. On “Karma Wheel” Joel warns that “it may take a while but you will reap what you sow”, a relaxed tune on which the two guitarists play well together, Johnny on slide, before Joel gives us the amusing tale of the “Secondhand Kid”: “I wrecked a car back when I was a kid, they thought I was going to die and I almost did, but the doctors topped me off with some blood from a donor; seems even the blood in my veins had a previous owner”. The lyrics are well written and deserve a careful listen, plus Joel blows some excellent harp here too, a fine cut.
Bright harp then introduces a song about the after-life. Is there heaven or not? Joel has his doubts, so decides that he is “Takin’ It With Me”, intending to take a few things he might need, given the uncertainty! The tune swings like crazy before the band shows its Rock n’ Roll credentials on “Hot As Hell”, Johnny’s guitar ringing out over the rhythm section’s hard-driving work, Joel adding a hot solo late on. Kid’s piano fuels another rocking tune as Joel sings of burning the candle at both ends though he sounds pretty determined to carry on and drive things “Down To The Rims”. The ladies add their choral vocals to “Work With What You Got”, a stop-start rhythm and more sage advice from Joel before Johnny’s slide and Joel’s harp provide a gritty backdrop to a fine tribute to 88 Keys, a club in Seattle where Joel started out, but known to all as “Bobby’s Place”. In another change of style Joel closes the album with “No Brighter Gold”, a song that celebrates finding true love, combining Country rhythms with a gospel-fueled chorus to great effect.
This is a genuinely impressive debut disc which shows off Joel’s songwriting, vocals and harp, supported by a great band. Brilliantly recorded and produced, this is an album that you will return to often and should figure in awards for new artists in due course. It certainly comes highly recommended by this reviewer!