Damon Fowler Group - Roots And Branches (2001)

The CD opens with 'Your Gonna Do Me Wrong', which reminds me a lot of Robben Ford in style. It has that tasteful jazzy blues type of groove going for it. 'Didn't Seem To Miss Me' is a little funky blues tune. 'I Do What I Have To Do' is driven by a heavy sounding guitar lick which sort of stomps its way to the heavy guitar lead. The guitar switches from Fender strat to slide in the middle and then gets mellow before crashing into the heavy guitar again. 'Tall', the first instrumental on the CD is dives into blues/jazz territory. It's a very laid back tune with a pretty cool bass line that clocks in just over two and a half minutes. 'Jack' is one of my favorite songs and it could be a blues song or part of the new music heard on your average new rock station. It has soft verses and heavy chorus's and works real well in a live setting. 'Stirling' is another instrumental, which runs from jazzy blues to soulful blues to county double stops. This one is all over the place and keeps your interest. 'Red Headed Woman' is the shortest song on the CD at 2:21 and is a straight-ahead, just plain fun, rock-a-billy song that reminds me of something Brian Setzer could have done. Following the shortest song is the longest song, 'Pride', which clocks in at just over 12 minutes. This is a slow blues number that has soulful licks with tons of feeling to screaming guitar. This on always gets a big applause when played live. 'Sugar Lee' sounds like something from Robert Johnson with a vocal sound that's raw with a slide guitar backing. This is very stripped down, raw and basic blues. 'The Last One' is a short acoustic toe tapper and reminds me of Leo Kottke. Stick around for about 40 seconds after the last song and you get the 'secret song' on the CD. I'm not quite sure how to describe this one, except that it sounds totally different than anything else.