John Clifton – Too Much to Pay
Flower Records FCD 077
10 songs – 36 minutes
A veteran road dog who’s been delivering an interesting mix of Chicago blues, West Coast jump and ’50s rockabilly to the world for decades, honey-voiced harp player John Clifton was served a double whammy in 2020. Like all touring musicians, the COVID shutdown was bad enough, but then he was diagnosed with heart failure. Fortunately, however, he’s bounced back in style as this sweet CD will attest.
Based out of Southern California, Clifton was a popular and energetic entertainer beginning in the late ’80s, when he fronted the blues-roots ensemble, The Mo-Fo Party Band, then returned to the stage about seven years ago, fronting his own band and playing up to 200 dates annually across the U.S. and Europe.
His three previous albums on the Rip Cat label have all met with success, earning play on SiriusXM’s B.B. King’s Bluesville as well as stations around the globe. His Nightlife CD spent six months in Roots Music Report’s contemporary blues chart. And he’s also when tragedy struck. He’s also toured and recorded with Big Bill Morganfield, Muddy’s son, too.
The good news is that John bounced back strong as the epidemic waned, and he’s been back to his old ways ever since…so much so, in fact, that this effort was captured in Warsaw, Poland, last summer in the midst of another Clifton foray across the Atlantic and then mixed at Wolfsound Audio Engineering in Fresno, Calif.
He’s backed by The Boogie Boys, a four-piece Polish group fronted by keyboard player Bartek Szopinski, one of the most acclaimed musicians in Europe. Piotr Bienkiewicz handles guitar, Milosz Szulkowski drums and Janusz Brzezinski bass. Active for decades and former International Blues Challenge finalists, they’ve worked behind Joe Bonamassa, Ana Popovic, Chicagoans Phil Guy and Studebaker John, West Coast legends James Harman and Rod Piazza and dozens of others, and they tour with John when he’s abroad.
They’re augmented by guitar and vocals from Chopper Wilson, vocals from Keysha Burns, Haillie Williams, Craig Daniel and Edwin Stovall and percussion from John Shafer.
The hard-driving rocker, “Too Much to Pay,” kicks off the action in style, warning that no matter what his lady is doling out, the price of her affection simply is too dear because she seems to be wanting more each day. The two-step pleaser, “It Wouldn’t Stop Raining,” follows as Clifton announces his tears have been falling down ever since the day his sweetheart left. Bienkiewicz’s solo rocks.
The heartbreak continues in “Long Gone Mama,” a steady shuffle in which Clifton has come to the realization his lady’s here today and tomorrow she’s in arms of a brand new fool. It’s her standard method of operation, and John says goodbye with a biting mid-tune run on the reeds. The rapid-fire “Get Lost” finally puts an end to his suffering in no uncertain terms while allowing space for the band to work out. But the pain remains because he’s still dreaming about her in the medium-fast blues, “Every Waking Hour,” and still wondering what went wrong.
The uptempo “Broke Down Fool” describes another problem lady before the syncopated “One Fine Chick” describes another beauty who’s done John wrong. The cause is simple, he finds, because he states “The Problem” is that she simply can’t control herself. But his love is true, something he expresses clearly in “Swear to God I Do” before the scorching “Bad Trip” delivers one more verbal assault to the woman to close.
Sure, there’s plenty of heartache here, but there’s plenty of terrific musicianship, too. Give this one a listen – and be glad you’re not that guy!
