The Zac Schulze Gang – Straight To It
11 songs – 39 minutes
The Zac Schulze Gang has been making waves in the UK for a few years now as a raucous blues-rock experience and Straight To It is their debut album, released on the German Ruf label. Comprising Zac Schulze on vocals and guitar, Anthony Greenwell on vocals and bass guitar and Ben Schulze on drums and backing vocals, the band clearly has a bright future. The album, which includes guest appearances from Nigel Feist on harmonica on “I Won’t Do This Anymore” and “High Roller” and Lee Wilson on Hammond organ/keyboards on “Turning To Stone” and “Things Change”, features 11 self-written tracks that display excellent musicianship and fine songwriting skills. Zac, in particular, is a blistering guitarist who lays down a series of fine solos.
With top notch production by Ian Sadler, Straight To It was recorded, mixed and mastered at Really BIG Audio in Whitstable, Kent, England. The performances all have great energy and attitude and no doubt the band is a highly enjoyable prospect live.
Having said that, while Straight To It is an enjoyable listen, it is a long, long, long way away from being blues. This is straight-ahead rock, often at the harder end of the spectrum. Artists like Dr Feelgood or Rory Gallager always remained firmly rooted in the blues, even while playing with an often punk-like attitude. With Straight To It, however, the Zac Schulze Gang appear to be informed primarily by mid-70s acts such as Foghat or Black Oak Arkansas, who were themselves several steps removed from the blues.
The opening track, “The Rocker”, is indicative of what the album contains, with a fast, driving backbeat, heavily overdriven guitars and harmony vocals that wouldn’t be out of place on an Airbourne album. “I Won’t Do This Anymore” features a neat single-note intro riff and smart interaction between Schulze’s guitar and Feist’s harmonica, before the blitzkrieg rush of “High Roller”, which definitely nods towards Gallagher’s heavier moments.
There are some moments that are not full-bore rock, such as the catchy pop chorus in “Betterland”, or the wistful slide guitar in “Angeline”, but they are rare. Even a number like “Running Dry”, which has a riff that could have been inspired from Wilko Johnson, is played at such speed that it lands closer to punk than blues. And “Damaged Man” sounds like somebody has described Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Travellin’ Band” to an AI large language model and asked it what it would sound like if played by the Ramones.
Straight To It has a number of enjoyable moments and clearly the band has huge potential. Blues, however, it most definitely is not.
