Mojo Minefield – Watch Your Step
Self-Released
10 Tracks – 46 minutes
Mojo Minefield is led by Tyler Fry, a guitarist and vocalist from Kitchener, Ontario and includes Scott Carere on bass and backing vocals with Ethan “Big Geno” Meyers on drums. The group first formed in Mississippi in 2018 for a tribute to blues man Mel Brown and have been together ever since performing primarily in southern Ontario. Scott says he initially got into heavy rock music with a particular interest in Led Zeppelin, but that led him to pursue an interest in the blues, and particularly in the harder sound of the Delta Blues. In determining the name of the band, Scott says that Mojo gives a tie back to the early blues roots and the band has all kinds of mojo, which is like a minefield.
Notes from the band describe their music as “an aggressive three-piece blues rock group carrying on the power trio sound that came to be in the 60’s and 70’s. With gritty vocals and cranked up guitar tones, they dance around the line between full throttle, psychedelic garage rock and in your face blues and roots music. Kind of a Black Keys vibe, but heavier.” Scott has said that he hoping to push music back into a phase where there are truly musicians playing their own instruments instead of the electronic, artificial sound of so much of today’s popular music.
The title song opens the album with advice given by Tyler’s father “It’s a minefield out there. You better watch your step” with bit of funk with Tyler’s guitar standing out. Tyler declares that “Since You Left Me” “I Have been in a funk.” “You will be sorry pretty baby, there won’t be no second time around.” Tyler pulls out the harmonica for this song. Jonathan Knight guests on mandolin on “Quiet Little Place”, which calms the music down with a tinge of country in the mix as he seeks a place “where I won’t miss you no more”.
He states, that “I got a dollar in my pocket and not a worry o my mind, you threw me out and shut the door” “Dying might be easy, but “Livin’ Ain’t That Hard”. Tyler really lets loose on the guitar again on this one. He then tells her that the stories she is telling are “Not Yer Tale” to tell”. In the next song “They say it starts with a kiss, love making love like matrimonial bliss or is it all a myth” ” I know love will find you somewhere “Down the Line”.
Tyler notes that “You cannot “Change the World” if you cannot even change yourself.” with his guitar again roaring through the song. “Forget You Blues” is the story of the formation of the Mojo band as he went to Mississippi to “forget about you”. On “Can’t You Hear Them” “calling for some help. He’s just some kid that lost his cool and never cared to follow rules. He was the victim of her crime and now he is serving all the time. Unholy sacrifice, lifetime of pain and strife, one choice that cost his life”. They conclude the album with “Ain’t One to Gamble” as Tyler declares that she “is not the one I’m searching for”.
Tyler’s vocals are strong and somewhat soulful. His lyrics are paintings from a seemingly personal level and demonstrates an expertise on the guitar that rises above the norm. Scott and Ethan also offer a solid rhythm section that adds to the total sound. This is solid blues rock. A stated above, Tyler seeks to re-create the music of the 60’s, but the band has delivered their own sound for the 21st century.
