Doug Duffey & Badd - Play The Blues (2019)

Doug Duffey and BADD’s sophomore album, “Play The Blues,” is deeply rooted in regional blues and flavored with a pinch of Memphis Rock-N-Soul. Duffey’s vivid lyrics tell stories from his real-life experiences of lost love, spirituality and Voodoo, and even nosey neighbors. The grooves are infectious, the solos soar, and the singing cuts deep into the soul of the listener. Duffey is joined by Ben Ford, Adam Ryland and Dan Sumner, who also co-wrote some of the songs. Together they form the rhythm section of the ‘award-winning’ Louisiana Soul Revival featuring Doug Duffey and they are the house band at Fort Sumner Studios in Monroe, LA. There they tracked their new album as well as their 2018 debut “Funkify Ya-Self.”

The nine original tunes from the Louisiana quartet open with a classic blues shuffle, ‘The Things We Used To Do,’ borrowing from the 1950’s Guitar Slim standard. Duffey puts his own spin on living through hard times and looking back on the good old days setting the tone and delivering the message that these veteran players are indeed here to “play the blues.” The radio ready track ‘Evil’ finds Duffey professing his love for a Black Magic Woman over a smooth Louisiana R&B groove that flows into the mournful twelve-bar ‘Big Easy Street Blues,’ delivering pure barrelhouse piano, soulful vocals, and sweet guitar leads from Sumner. Duffey then demonstrates his lifelong study of Professor Longhair and Dr. John on the rolling ‘Have You Ever.’

As the title suggests, ‘Drink It On Down’ is a swampy bar room rock party anchored by Sumner’s gritty guitar. The shifting groove and jazz overtones flavor the tense view of a troublesome world in ‘My Driving Wheel.’ Duffey then takes time to rant about the nosey neighbors, who are jealous about his clandestine love affair that is the ‘Talk Of The Town.’ He lists all the virtues of his lady “that make an old man feel young” on the uplifting ramble ‘You Got That Something.’ The closing track, ‘A Memory Left To Lose,’ begins as a sparse piano and guitar duet that builds into a soaring fully orchestrated ballad full of emotional intensity and harmonic artistry.

Born in Monroe, Louisiana, in the Mississippi Delta, Doug Duffey has been singing, playing piano, and composing professionally since childhood and has recorded over a dozen albums since his first single in 1970. This fine collection of rockin’ blues, soul and classic R&B adds to that legacy and continues to prove he and his BADD cohorts were indeed born to “Play The Blues.” ~Rick J Bowen