Always and Never reviewed by Steve Jones

Always and Never

JT Coldfire

Crazy Sun Publishing

www.jtcoldfire.com

10 tracks

Guitar pandemonium is breaking out and it is breaking out right here in the 1’s and 0’s imbedded in this CD– holy cow!  The blues meets rockabilly meets cowboy country meets rock and then some!

This Austin boy is smoking hot.  All original cuts penned by Coldfire, I am very impressed with this effort.  Cool little songs; the accompanying literature calls the mix “eclectic” and there is no denying that!  I really enjoyed this stuff.

It really is country along with the  blues, but it’s both, mixed up and done well, except when he’s at 100 mph doing rockabilly (which is also quite good). “Party Lovin’ Papa” is pure rockabilly and the opener “Get it On (in the Back of the Bar) mixes all three types of music. “it’s Alright With Me” rocks out like a George Thorogood tune, again mixing up genres.

The blues  comes on strong as he opens with hot Chicago licks to open “Rather Die In My Sleep”.  “”Toast to a Bluesman” gives us the blues with some clipped vocals and a slow and cool groove along with another classic intro on guitar.  “I’m the Best Thing You Ever Had” is more hot blues, served up slow and full of spice; the guitar is sultry and sweet here! “Tell me Mama” gives us more of the hot, slow blues, mixing guitar and hot harp licks.

On the country rocking side are “Tired Man’s Blues;” it’s blues but it has some accordion and swagger to the country side of things.
Let’s Go for a Drive” has some great bluesy harp and sultry shared vocals with Anna-Carin Borgdtrom, a nice mix of country and blues. “Feelin’ the Music” is acoustic cowboy country, with too much liquor, hangovers, and a good twang to it.

Also on the CD are Roland “Woe” Guajardo on harp and BG vocals, Magnus Edland on bass and BG vocals, Bjorn Lexelius on organ, Clas-Goran Dahlberg on accordion, Pelle Sundqvist ondrums and BG vocals, Ingemar Rogefeldt on gutar and BG vocals, Per Eric Johansson on piano, and Kaj Sundqvist on sax.  They all add a lot to this gumbo of goodness.

This honky tonk bluesman gives us a mean mix of stuff here, very richly American with his Scandinavian backing musicians.  I highly recommend this one for a good summer car trip to rock out with as you hit the roads to vacations, festivals and weekend fun!