Nigel Mack – Back In Style
Blues Attack Records
12 Tracks – 47 minutes
Canadian Nigel “Mack” Mackenzie unloads a powerful fourth album of all original contemporary blues. His previous three albums received critical acclaim and his 2012 album Devil’s Secrets was the number one blues album in Canada that year and was the number one album on Galaxy Radio (Canada’s equivalent of Sirius/XM). Nigel is a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and subsequently moved to Vancouver in 1988. In 2003, he moved to Chicago where he has become a regular in the blues clubs, has appeared six times at the Chicago Blues Festival, and tours regularly throughout the US.
Nigel is the sole vocalist and plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, does foot stomps and developed all the horn arrangements for the album. He enlisted a huge array of musicians to assist in his recording featuring eight different keyboard players, six drummers and multiple other instrumentalists.
He opens the album with the rousing “Traveling Heavy” with his harmonica and Daryl Coults’ B3 and piano driving the way. He then pulls out the slide guitar for another tale of “Highway 69”, a well-covered section of roadway pivotal to the Crossroads. He declares he is going to have some fun, pick up a jug of wine and find him a shady spot along the road with his lady. The slide guitar again dominates “Damn You Mr. Bluesman” who “made me fall in love again”. Daryl Coults adds some B3 runs in the song.
He moves to Las Vegas for a love story between a singer in a band for a three week stand and a chorus line dancer who is too enticed by the dice in “Cold Comfort”. Nigel’s guitar rings out and keyboard great Marty Sammons who passed away last year plays the B3 and piano on the song, which is reportedly Marty’s last song recorded before his passing. Contrary to the title “Graveyard Gate”, the song is another love story gone wrong as he is on the road, and she is out running around. Hee wants to get back together with her before they enter the graveyard gate. Nigel wails on the harmonica while Victor Garcia’s trumpet and Lise Gilly’s sax add to the tune before an actual squeaking gate ends the song.
Nigel’s harmonica and guitar both share the spotlight on “Back in Style” as he says, “I will be a lover man to my dying day.” and loves “the girls shaking to the music and the guys looking”. “Redemption” is an instrumental ballad featuring his guitar with a slow, slightly country feel to it. He immediately jumps to the horn driven “A Place to Call Home” with his slide guitar again dominant. Nigel then goes solo playing a 1929 acoustic National steel guitar on “Blues Enough for You”, lamenting the times “…on the road paying dues” and “…drinking all the liquor they can serve”.
He turns up the heat as he states that “Shangri-La Girl” “really rocks my world when the moon is high in the southern sky” and notes “that she really caught my eye playing her saxophone”. Lise Gilly on sax and Neal O’Hara on piano drives the sound. Next he says the woman is “smoking hot wearing that tight red sweater” while eating “Jalapeno Peppers”. Nigel’s slide guitar gives the song a swampy feel. On the last song he notes “It is 2:00 in the morning and I am just getting my second wind”. “She is moving on over and hot in her high heel shoes” and states he is “Just One Man”. But “In the morning the party is all over”.
Nigel aptly proves he is a master of all of his instruments. His voice is constantly engaging, and he certainly pulled together some excellent musicians on this fun, friendly album with an easily identifiable theme of chasing women.
