The Racky Thomas Band – Live At The Yardrock

This is Racky Thomas’ third outing on this imprint so they must think it’s worth sticking with him.  Cant’t say I blame them as on the evidence of this release this outfit cerainly have to be ranked up there in the premier league of Stateside white boy blues bands.  Their style is the currently fashionable West Coast swing approach coupled with down-home Chicago with a side step to Longhair New Orleans style on ‘Don’t Treat Me Like That’

Thomas is a convincing vocalist and good old-fashioned harp blower and in guitarist Nick Adams they have a superb musician, equally at home swinging it out T-Bone fashion, or laying down a tight rhythm workout.

Material is a blend of decent covers and originals penned by Thomas and bass player Todd Carson.  Tenor sax man Gordon Beadle guests on a couple of cuts and the rest of the band comprises Jeremy Berlin on keys and Jon Ross on drums.

Standout cuts:  ‘The Hustle Is On’ and ‘Oh My’; the instrumental harp workout ‘Rack ‘em Up’; the slowie ‘Can’t Win For Losin’ and the West Side-styled closer ‘Blues Keep Me Troubled’.

But my fave cut is a track I never thought I’d see on a blues album, it’s jazz tenor sax man Sonny Rollins’ composition ‘Tenor Madness’, which he first cut for Prestige back in 1956.  With a swing guitar intro, Beadle doing the sax bit and Berlin’s jazzy piano solo, it’s West Coast swing meets fifties post bop, solid man!

If you were impressed with Racky Thomas’ previous outings then this offering is sure to please all you hep cats out there!

Phil Wight

I don’t know much about Racky Thomas, there is no bio with this CD and a perusal of his website didn’t tell me much either.  The singer/harpist apparently hails from the New  England area nad has been around for a decade or more.  He is a tough harp blower with a suitably ‘lived in’.  An authentic sounding outfit who play strictly blues and r&b provides support!  No bastard child blues rock to be heard here!  Apart from the last cut, all material is original by Thomas or Thomas and bass player Todd Carson.  Maybe a tad derivative, but he has some good material.

            Cutting directly to the chase, ‘Troubled All The Time’ is a set of excellently rendered retro blues.  Influences run the gamut of 50’s Chicago, ‘Ain’t It Lonesome’, ‘Angel Child’; Kansas City swing ‘Ordinary Dame’; West Coast jump ‘Oh My’, ‘Robbing Peter To Pay Paul’, and Memphis soul ‘Your Love To Me’.  Add a couple of acoustic outings (‘Eyes Like Diamonds’ nods in the direction of John Hurt) and a solo vocal only reading of ‘John The Revelator’ obviously influenced by Son House.

            Mention must be made of Nick Adams and Troy Gonyea on guitar, and pianist Jeremy Berlin.  Todd Carson on the dog house bass provides that much needed bottom line and Gordon Beadle on Tenor and Doug James on bari augment several cuts with their saxophonic excellence!

            Ok, the competition ‘cross the pond is pretty strong and Racky Thomas has his work cut out for him to make it to the top of the pecking order.  But on the evidence of this CD, he has all the attributes to get there.  Live, I’ll bet he really can blow the house down.

Coming out of the ‘Live Free Or Die State’ (that’s New Hampshire to us folks!) George Radcliffe Thomas was born in 1969 but sounds as if he’s been playing the blues and r&b since the late Forties.  Thomas and his boys cut this set in the summer of  1998 in Brookline, MA. – Not exactly down-home blues territory, but that don’t matter, this is a top notch outfit.

                As with the UK’s own Big Joe Louis, Racky Thomas has th ability to recreate the sound and feel of Forties, Fifties, and Sixties blues and r&b.  Not only that, he is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, plays guitar, National steel, and harmonica.  Racky’s main influences include T-Bone Walker, Clifton Chenier, Tiny Grimes, Hollywood Fats, Louis Myers, and Wynonie Harris.  So you have a good idea of what to expect.

                However, the real difference with other blues contenders is that he writes his own material, very much int the late Forties and Fifties bag.  He switches between West Coast jump, New Orleans shuffle, and early Fifties Chicago, and for good measure turns in an exquisite ‘Death Letter Blues’, complete with National Steel and many of Son House’s licks and phrasings.

                Best songs on the set include; ‘Sweet Dough Baker’, a nice Chicago styled number, the title track, a Crudup take on ‘These Lowdownd Blues’, ‘Tears Fell Down Like Rain’, as well as a fine version of Clifton Chenier’s ‘Standin’ On A Corner’.  Thomas also tackles Sixties soul on ‘Just A Fool’, and does it real well.

                An artist to watch out for- remember where you read it first.  For more info check out www.therackythomasband.com or www.cdfreedom.com.