Seven Acres Band
Seven Acres
Seven Acres

Howard Glazer and the EL 34s
Brown Paper Bag
Random Chance RCD-23

"Blues had a baby, and they called it rock 'n' roll," Muddy Waters once noted. Certainly the blues and R&B have been integral parts of creating first, rock 'n' roll, then rock, and have been a part of these genres' history since the mid-1950s, responsible for the genesis of blues/ rock hybrids that have ranged from the sublime to the ripoff. Rock is heavily indebted to the blues, and contemporary blues also indebted to rock, as these two CDs show.

I first became aware of the Seven Acres Band when I heard them play in Indianapolis in 2006. Originally from the Midwest, the band members now live in scattered geographical areas, and are more likely now to play elsewhere than Indiana. Still, this debut CD, the self-titled Seven Acres, did get deserved airplay in Ft. Wayne, and as with so many other U.S. bands of quality, the Seven Acres Band gets extensive exposure in Europe and Australia rather than in the United States. The Seven Acres Band describes itself as "Formed as an underground recording collaboration between rising upstarts and 'Jam Scene' legends," and is comprised of vocalist Zack Salaz, who still lives in Indy, along with guitarist Neal Galloway, drummer Jake Winebrenner, and bassist Chris Chew of the North Mississippi AllStars. The CD also includes guest artists John Keefe on bass, and Rick Cruz on guitar, and if the reader hasn't heard of any of these guys, it's certainly not because they don't make great music!

All the songs on Seven Acres, except one, are band originals, with strong, bluesy lyrics that partake of real life on the melancholy side that are emotively delivered by Zack Salaz, while the words intermix with Neal Galloway's rock-inflected blues guitar that he likes to play with his foot frequently on the wah-wah pedal. John Winebrenner drives with insistent drumming. The music is solidly based in blues tonality on the first eight tracks, with a lyrical acoustic guitar introduction given to the ninth track, "Dreaded Red," that's reminiscent of the Piedmont blues. There are actually ten tracks on the CD, although only nine are listed, for following "Dreaded Red" is a hard-driving, uncredited rock number that brings the CD to a rousing close. All this makes Seven Acres a vibrant blues-rock CD with an even distribution of slow blues with medium- and fast-tempo numbers that examine life on the downside. Four tracks are slow blues, the above-mentioned "Dreaded Red," the moody, ruminative "Make Your Way to Memphis," and two songs of mournful despair, "Never Again" and "Leavin' It All Behind," while the remaining six are faster tempo expressions as well of the darker shades of blue. The lyrics and musicianship are all impeccable, and if Seven Acres can be significantly faulted, that fault lies only in the exclusive preoccupation of the song lyrics with the downside of life and love.

Seven Acres is available from the Internet CD Baby, which can also be accessed from the band's website, www.sevenacresband.com.

Howard Glazer is originally from Detroit, then moved to Chicago where he learned the blues, then returned to the Motor City. Glazer's band, the EL 34's, is just the elemental—Bob Goodwin on bass and Charles Stuart on drums, while he plays electric and acoustic resonator guitars and sings. The notes to this CD, Brown Paper Bag, say that Howard Glazer and the EL 34s "have opened up 'full throttle' for an approach that promises to deliver in the uncompromising matter that the Motor City is known for" while still "maintaining…blues integrity" throughout this 13-track CD of 12 Howard Glazer originals and a final short instrumental, "Freedom," written by all the band members.

Detroit blues is similar in form to traditional Chicago blues, only rawer, less separated from its Southern roots. Howard Glazer hews closely to this traditional Motor City style, putting Brown Paper Bag closer to a traditional blues CD than to a blues-rock one. Certainly it is much more directly bluesy than Seven Acres, which owes its particular sound, reminiscent of 1960s and 1970s rock, to a straightforward fusion of rock and blues. Where blues-rock enters into Brown Paper Bag is in Glazer's extended guitar solos, which generally take up half of each song. This is more of a rock-style playing than a blues one, but even here, Glazer's solos are much more akin to traditional electric blues than they are to rock. Long guitar solos can often detract from the overall continuity of a song, and sometimes even bore when hearing them on record rather than live, but, most felicitously, this is not the case with Howard Glazer. His extended solos remain taut, disciplined and invigorating throughout.

More thematically varied than those on Seven Acres, Howard Glazer's songs adhere to the standard AAB blues lyric structure on Brown Paper Bag, with only two exceptions. (For those unfamiliar with the blues, the AAB lyric structure means that the second line repeats the first line, with the third line following from this repeated line.) Glazer intermixes three vocal/solo guitar tracks here with the ten band ensemble numbers, with "Streamrollin' Baby" and "Full Moon Blues" played on acoustic resonator guitar, while the third, "Start Again" features solo electric guitar á là John Lee Hooker's early work. "Don't Love You No More" joins Glazer with Maggie McCabe and Stephanie Johnson as background vocalists on the song's chorus, who also do the same on "Smokin' and Drinkin'," a rousing celebration of getting stoned in the classic manner of George Thorogood's "I Drink Alone" and Albert Collins's "I Ain't Drunk." Maggie McCabe and Howard Glazer share vocal duet honors on "Going to Chicago."

"Don't Love You No More" opens with a Jimi Hendrix-style rock-blues intro, while on "Going to Chicago" Glazer incorporates the wah-wah pedal into his otherwise standard blues guitar playing. "The Dogs They Bark at Midnight" is heavily rock-like in Glazer's guitar approach that incorporates not just the wah-wah pedal, but also use of reverb and feedback. This rock approach here works quite well, with results that don't detract at all from the overall blues feel of the song. "Mean Hearted Woman" is the most contemporary-sounding track on the CD, a nine-minute-and-19-second extended, jazz-like romp that features both bassist Bob Goodwin and drummer Charles Stuart on solos along with, of course, Howard Glazer. The album ends on a jamming note in the short (under two minutes) blues-rock instrumental, "Freedom." Howard Glazer opens the all-too-eerily present-day "Radioactive Woman" with a brief spoken introduction, "Well, I used to live right next to a nuclear power plant, and that's why I wrote this song," which is a love paean to his mutant woman, "Man, you ought to see her glow"!

Both Brown Paper Bag and Seven Acres are vibrant, satisfying albums with appeal to blues and rock fans alike. Moreover, given the dearth of interesting popular music nowadays, both are a welcome throwback to those more halcyon days of pop, mid-1960s to mid-1970s, when creativity could be commercially rewarding, and FM radio was both open-ended and open-minded, with fluid, eclectic playlists. Today, such musical creativity exists almost solely on small, commercially struggling indie labels, such as Random Chance for Howard Glazer and the EL 34s, or else on self-produced efforts that depend on live concert and Internet sales for exposure, such as for the Seven Acres Band. But, dear reader, don't let the obscurity of Brown Paper Bag and Seven Acres deter you from buying and playing—for you will be amply rewarded for your effort by earfuls of great listening!

George Fish can be reached at georgefish666@yahoo.com.

Emanuel Young with Howard Glazer and the EL 34s
Live in Detroit
recorded live at The Halligan Bar, Detroit, Michigan
Random Chance RCD-35

Howard Glazer and the EL 34s
Liquor Store Legend
Random Chance RCD33

Detroit blues vocalist/guitarist Emanuel Young is described in the short biography included on the sleeve notes to Live in Detroit as a "living Detroit legend." He's been playing the blues in the Motor City since the end of the 1950s and held one of the longest runs in Detroit musical history as host of blues night at Cooley's Lounge from 1978 until the place closed in 2005.

He's played with many of the greats of Detroit blues, including a year-and-a-half stint with John Lee Hooker, and has also played with Albert King, Jimmy Reed and Martha Reeves, lead singer with the Motown soul group Martha and the Vandellas.

Detroit has long been among the major hubs for electric post-World War II blues, because of the large number of African Americans who came to the North to take good-paying industrial jobs. Although more sophisticated in its sound than the electric blues of Mississippi and other primarily rural Southern states, it is rawer than the polished Chicago blues that history's made famous. Nonetheless, it has always possessed a hard rockin', infectious sound that has captured the blues imagination and moved people to the dance floor.

John Lee Hooker started his blues career in the Motor City, and it was also home in the 1950s for Sonny Boy Williamson II. Detroit blues masters such as Eddie Kirkland and Johnny "Yard Dog" Jones, along with many others, have long kept the blues alive here, and that doesn't include those major Black artists from pop genres who put Detroit on the musical map, such as the many stellar talents who recorded for Motown (which started in Detroit in 1958 and stayed there throughout the 1960s, drawing international attention to Detroit's substantial local talent). Detroit was also called home by R&B and soul greats Hank Ballard and Wilson Pickett.

Live in Detroit captures an electrifying performance by Young at The Halligan Bar, where he's backed by one of Detroit's hottest young blues groups (and national recording artists on New York City's Random Chance Records), Howard Glazer and the EL 34s.

The 11-track Live in Detroit CD features two Emanuel Young instrumental originals, "Lucky Lucy" and the onomatopoeic "The Train," along with an array of classic blues from artists as diverse as Ivory Joe Hunter, Howlin' Wolf, Hound Dog Taylor, Albert King, Hank Ballard, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King.

To each of these songs Young gives his own unique approach, adapting to each, from the rawness of John Lee Hooker and the elemental sounds of Chicago blues to the sophisticated renderings of Albert King and B.B. King, a basic fast-or-slow Detroit boogie shuffle with extended guitar solos (except for rhumba-based styling on "Lucky Lucy" and Howlin' Wolf's "I Should Have Quit You").

And guess what? It works, and works well, every time! Even when one wouldn't expect such a basic sound to work backing such sophisticated sounds as those of Ivory Joe Hunter, Albert King and B.B. King. But it does; and more, it even gives a new impression to their renderings.

Glazer, an excellent guitarist himself, and his band, the EL 34s, know enough to just lay down the solid underpinnings and let Young be up front doin' his thing. Glazer complements Young's excellent lead playing with excellent rhythm playing and train-chugging onomatopoeia on "The Train."

Young demonstrates an insistent virtuosity in his guitar playing and clear, yet emotionally vibrant and enthusiastic vocals. Especially demonstrated here is his masterful way of putting together multi-faceted extended guitar solos that hold the listener's attention throughout, and never get boring.

Young also displays creative ingenuity in adapting a song's lyrics to fit him, noticeably on his rendition of "I Should Have Quit You" (based on Wolf's "Killing Floor") and B.B. King's "Poor Boy" (based on King's "Sneaking Around"), along with originality in approach on his two instrumentals and his way of "vocalizing" the guitar to imitate the human voice.

And also, 48 seconds of delightful banter from Young introducing Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man" that includes the truly memorable line, "See, the police don't put you in jail for stealin'. They put you in jail for gettin' caught."

All 10 of the musical tracks on Live in Detroit are long, ranging from 4 minutes and 37 seconds for B.B. King's "Poor Boy" to 8 minutes and 46 seconds for Hank Ballard's "Tore Up Over You." All of this making Live in Detroit a most memorable display of contemporary Detroit electric blues from a master who's backed up by a really solid band steeped in the genre.

Live in Detroit was released in 2008. The year before, Howard Glazer and the EL 34s released Liquor Store Legend, the band's latest release on Random Chance. Liquor Store Legend is 13 tracks of original blues, rock and blues-rock written by Glazer, with plenty of creative lyrical twists and adapted musical inflections that range from Chuck Berry, Creedence Clearwater Revival and 1950s rock 'n' roll to a variety of traditional and modern blues styles.

Howard Glazer and the EL 34s is a full-sounding trio of Glazer on electric, acoustic, resonator and lap steel guitars; Bob Godwin, electric and acoustic basses; and Charles Stuart, drums, congas and percussion; with the addition here of Larry Marek, organ on three tracks (especially powerful on "Wonder Why") and on background vocals of four tracks.

The opening title track is an unusual braggadocio of being a real pro at buying alcohol at the liquor store, while "Power" is a psychedelic blues-rock protest that calls for speaking out on injustice that reminds this writer musically of the Doors. "Gas Pump Blues" is another protest song that was composed in those "halcyon" days of 2007, when gas was only around $3 a gallon -- made even more timely and relevant today when gas is over $4 a gallon and predicted to go much higher!

Glazer's lyrics on these last two songs are eloquently left wing, and are adapted well to their musical forms. Indeed, Howard Glazer is a poet who works within the blues, rock and blues-rock genres, something demonstrated throughout on Liquor Store Legend.

The 7-minute, 9-second next-to-last track, "Bar Fly Boogie," is a display case for the band's excellent playing, a resonator guitar-driven rocker built around the Z.Z. Topp "Lagrange"/John Lee Hooker "Boogie Chillun" riff with a wah-wah pedal elecritc guitar solo from Glazer, electric bass solo from Bob Godwin, and drum solo from Charles Stuart. Then, moving from this display of prowess from the whole band, Liquor Store Legend ends simply but appropriately on a resonator guitar-and-vocal traditional blues solo from Glazer himself, "Next Train Out."

Glazer is a masterful guitarist whose deep-voice vocals are expressive and solidly done, and complemented nicely by the rhythm section of Godwin and Stuart. Further, every song on Liquor Store Legend is different from the others. A substantive exercise throughout in blues and rock that demonstrates that Howard Glazer and the EL 34s have taught that old blues dog some nifty new tricks.

So, from backing the traditional blues of Young to laying down top-notch contemporary blues-inflected rock and blues-rock, Howard Glazer and the EL 34s present us with the delightful musical side of the Motor City in two memorable, listener-friendly CDs that demonstrate compelling all-round artistry, versatility and soul. Good blues news indeed!