Rufus Huff - Rufus Huff (2009)

The extremely retro sound of Rufus Huff's self-titled album reaches back to the heyday of blues-rock in the early '70s, particularly British acts in the bluesy hard rock/nearly metal style like Led Zeppelin, Free, and Jeff Beck's early groups. This CD came about nearly 40 years after that heyday, but it sounds very much like it could have been cut way back then, Jarrod England's vocals in particular bearing mucho similarity to Robert Plant at his most macho. Greg Martin of the Kentucky Headhunters is by far the most celebrated of the musicians, playing feisty hard rock guitar and co-producing. The effect is very much like hearing a bar band whose members have really studied the form cold, but happen (unlike many bar bands) to write most of their original material, though this disc does have covers of the old Chicago blues classics "Good Morning Little School Girl" and "I Ain't Superstitious." Does it add anything to the tradition (which was itself a bit of a bastardization of the American blues tradition)? No; it's well-executed but formulaic, and the constant high-octane boasting tone of most of the tunes can grate if this kind of stuff isn't your main diet.