Kid Andersen - Greaseland (2006)

Tracklist

01. It's Dark In Herre
02. C'mon Johnny, Let's Hit That Town
03. I'm Tired
04. Jennifer, Jennifer
05. Devil Got My Woman
06. The Dirt People
07. Brandy!
08. Strange Land
09. Slimy Town
10. The Bender
11. Mexico Kid!
12. Greaseland Boogie
13. Jumping At Shadows (Duster Bennet)
14. Conclusion
15. Whiskey!

Kid Andersen is an ambitious young Norwegian guitarist who arrived in California in 2001 and has since become the guitar player in Charlie Musselwhite's road band, has replaced Charlie Batty in the Nightcats and also played with harp players R.J.Mischo, Mark Hummel and John Nemeth.

This is his third solo CD and is a concept album no less, "describing the life of a broke, disillusioned drunkard musician who loves to have a good time but is often overtaken by the blues". This concept would seem to describe any blues record and in practice comes down to mentioning 'Greaseland' in the lyrics of several of the songs. There is much traditional Chicago-style blues here featuring excellent harmonica by Norwegian Richard Gjems but Andersen's guitar and the production manages to bring something different to every track. We get off to a fine start with the atmospheric "It's dark in here" and the rocking "C'mon Johnny, let's hit that town" both featuring great guitar and harmonica. Andersen displays a whole range of guitar styles from straight blues, swamp, jazz, funk and surf-rock and his huge vibrato recalls Otis Rush and Danny Kirwan. Added to this, his production creates some wonderful soundscapes, particularly on the eerie Skip James song "Devil got my woman". However, I don't think he really adds anything to Peter Green's definitive version of the Duster Bennett song "Jumping at shadows", which includes some nice late-night organ playing and is pleasant enough in its own way.

Anderson is a very competent guitarist and an able producer/songwriter but I'm afraid that I find his Scandinavian accent is just too much of a distraction - although in truth he is a better singer than Charlie Musselwhite. I think that he is probably best suited to just being a guitarist/sideman - check out his playing on the Charlie Musselwhite CD "Delta hardware". That said, this is an interesting, varied record that contains some really nice playing and is better than many run-of-the-mill modern blues records - three and a half stars.

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