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5 things to know about Open Road by Colin James

Where so many blues-based rock acts never seem to move beyond guitar heroics, Colin James has always focused on the song above all.

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Colin James

Open Road | Stony Plain Records

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Genre: Blues rock

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Key track: Leave This House

It’s said that blues musicians don’t really hit their stride until they’ve been playing for decades. Long a fixture on the Canadian music scene, Colin James experienced long overdue international success with his acclaimed 2018 album Miles to Go.

That release hit both the Billboard Blues Charts, iTunes Blues Chart, scooped up six Maple Blues Awards and earned the artist another Juno. Down At the Bottom, his 20th studio release, continues showcasing this talented player at the peak of his game.

Where so many blues-based rock acts never seem to move beyond guitar heroics, James has always focused on the song above all.

This isn’t to say that he can’t shred with the best of them, he just appreciates how much more those lead guitar licks land when the tune has room and space to groove. Mixing classics by such legends as Tony Joe White, Bob Dylan and Albert King with originals, the 14-track release covers a lot of ground that fans are sure to embrace.

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Here are five things to know about it:

1: As The Crow Flies. The session starts off with a very tasty take on Tony Joe White’s classic. Rather than the more acoustic style of the original, James opts to go full slinky boogie with the keyboard driving the groove alongside his clean guitar. The swamp rock vibe is carried along with some really biting solos.

2: Down On the Bottom. The lead single is the kind of easy-flowing roots rock track that finds a wide audience. Sparse production adds a dynamic sheen to the song and James gives a powerhouse vocal. It has elements of classic seventies Southern rock on the chorus that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Tom Petty album. Big props to the bassist for being so in the pocket throughout the tune.

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3: I Love You More Than Words Can Say. Taking on a classic by the late, great Otis Redding can be a daunting task. You need to nail that soul sound no matter what direction you choose to take the track. James plays it very straight on and pours himself into the lyric. When he drops the line about living without you being so painful, you believe it. Killer keyboard solo around the three minute mark. This song could really explode with horns.

4: Leave The House. You can’t have a blues rock album without a classic barrelhouse boogie tossed in and this is it. Honky tonk piano, chicken scratch-meets-Chuck Berry riffing and a pace that just begs your foot to start keeping time. The understated, almost country, picking James lays down here is some of the best guitar on the entire session.

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5: There’s A Fire. James tends to always include a song on every album that mines the territory the late Texas legend Stevie Ray Vaughan called his own. In other words, a moody, reverb-laden guitar workout that rips up the room. This closing number is that track, letting the musician cut loose with fiery intensity. More than half the tune is solo, sweet.


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Astrocolor

Paradise | Amelia Recordings

Genre: Psychedelic groove

Key track: Aperitif

This Vancouver Island unit keeps producing slick, funky jams that are like so many ear worms after only a single listen. The opener Mile High blends spaced-out vintage keyboards against near-Afrobeat vamping into a dance break. The single Paradise featuring singer Cayley Thomas sounds like some missing tune from a swinging sixties Island caper film, and Catamaran could be the post-party chill out soundtrack. Clearly, this group’s Paradise is a tropical dreamscape of cool cocktails, lazy instrumentals and hot, steamy fun.


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Gold & Youth

Dream Baby | Paper Bag Records

Genre: Electro pop

Key track: The Worse The Better

Like some time machine back to the heyday of eighties new wave, Vancouver quartet Gold & Youth turns up the big beats, soaring keyboards and oh-so-coy lyricism into an album of quite addictive to-the-point pop. That the sound is so familiar might not make for long-lasting listening, but it’s hard not to want to punch the air to the driving The Worse the Better, or appreciate the nonchalant detachment of the soaring chorus of Dying in L.A. Matthew Lyall, Louise Burns, Jeff Mitchelmore and Murray McKenzie are definitely on to a good thing.


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The Aubreys

Karaoke Alone | AWAL

Genre: Pop

Key track: Karaoke Alone

A dozen short, breathy songs from the latest band to feature Vancouver actor/musician Finn Wolfhard and longtime friends Malcolm Craig. Less Pixies-ish than his previous band Calpurnia, The Aubreys have a decidedly more psychedelic bent as the title track ably demonstrates. The songwriting duo certainly know how to come up with catchy hooks paired with slacker vibes, as the wonderful Kiss A Cross demonstrates, while they can even venture into Velvet Underground territory as on Face To Face. Fun and loose, The Aubreys will certainly appeal to fans of everything from Animal Collective to Tunng.


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Spectres

Hindsight | Artoffact Records

Genre: Post-punk

Key track: Remote Viewing

If there is one sound that never goes out of style, it’s the taut, angular drive of Joy Division. That is certainly the first band that comes to mind hearing the latest by this long-running Vancouver group. But the lyrical content of ragers such as the opener Cold War take on a far more hardcore bent with their mention of how easy it is to believe in revolution when you are young, rich and white rather than the underclass. These themes keep on getting explored in songs such as Visions of a New World, Crosses and Wreathes … and others. That said, the band can get airy and chirpy too, as Provincial Wake proves. Based on how good the live Remote Viewing sounds, this is a group to see in concert.

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

twitter.com/stuartderdeyn

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