Cascade Blues Music Reviews Open Rod Price Music Review Index

Music Review Reprint from the
November, 2000 BluesNotes
By Greg Johnson

• One More Time

• Bluebird Blues

• Walking BLues

• Sitting On Top Of The World

• Key To The Highway

• Long Distance Call

• The Stumble

• Got Love If You Want It

• Elevator Woman

• Dynaflite

    Wailing slide and howling harmonica. That was the expectation of Shakey Vick's Big City Blues Band as they tore up the clubs in England in the late `60s and seems to be the pattern once again as two original members rejoin forces more than 30 years later.  Guitarist Rod Price, who found international fame as a member of the Blues-based Rock outfit Foghat in the 1970s, has returned to his true love for the Blues and he's brought old pal Graham Vickery along for the ride. It's almost hard to believe that these two ever stopped working together because they blend with each other so well.  They've certainly brought back that old powerhouse feeling that British Blues bands did so well from that earlier time on this debut release from Burnside Records.

    It's easy to vision Savoy Brown, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Ten Years After, or Fleetwood Mac cutting a record of this nature during their heydays. Vickery's harp and vocals make a great impact on this CD, but it's clearly Price's stunning slide guitar that is showcased here.  Howlin' Wolf's, "Sitting On Top Of The World", and Freddie King's, "The Stumble", absolutely thrive under that gliding piece of metal on Price's swift-moving fingers.  He has the ability to soar over the strings allowing them to speak directly to us with a searing, heartfelt intensity.  Whereas, Foghat may have pushed that intensity level to the extreme, Price has toned down to a brilliant Blues recognition worthy of standing alongside any slide player of the day. "Open" is a well-crafted CD and certainly one deserving attention.

© 2000 Cascade Blues Association