To some, Josh Smith will need little or no introduction. Another of those seemingly prodigious young US electric blues guitar guys who has already toured extensively with Joe Bonamassa and regularly trades licks back home on the Florida blues circuit with his good ole buddy, Kirk Fletcher, he clearly comes from the loud, wailing guitar school of playing where everybody seems to think they are Jimmy Page roaring aloud on-stage with Led Zep. That said, this release from German label Cross Cut, has some mighty fine tracks of original music and a driving backbeat led by US sidemen Lemar Carter on drums and Calvin Turner pulsatingly powerful on Bass.
There‘s little, however, to surprise in this 12 track offering albeit every track is packed with gutsy, throbbing power and skill. There are occasional flights where the material slows down, and more reflective moods surface but generally it seems like they have to struggle for their survival against a soaring wall of sound that pushes everything before in its wake like a Led Zep-fuelled, musical tsunami. Both Kirk Fletcher and Bonamassa guest onboard, where they are also joined by the wonderful Harp of the legendary Charlie Musselwhite. (Cross Cut Records)
