Tom Buenger - Blues From Caucasia (2023)

Tom Buenger spent a decade in military service and another decade in corporate business before deciding that music was really what he wanted to do with his life. On his second album the multi-instrumentalist plays acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica and handles all the lead vocals, assisted by a few friends from his base in the Pacific North West: Chris Eger on guitar and bass, Teresa Russell on electric guitar, Rafael Tranquilino on electric guitar, bass and drums and Richard Williams and Cyrus Zerbe on drums. There are ten original compositions and one cover here; for each track Tom registers what percentage of the music is his own, a figure that drops as low as 60% and reaches 100% on the four solo acoustic cuts.

“Above The Sun” races out of the traps in rockabilly style, hand-claps and Tom’s harp adding a fervent campfire feel. In “Start A Fire” Tom states that “you light me up like crazy, I burn slowly but I burn steady”, the tune enhanced by some striking guitar from Teresa; clearly a love song, the dramatic nature of the song is slightly diminished by too much repetition of the title. “That Ain’t Right” is an acoustic tune, Tom playing guitar and buzzing harp over a steady drum beat and bass from Richard while “What You Gonna Do” is a guitar duo performance, Tom playing slide on the acoustic and using a foot-stomp, Rafael adding electric guitar to a catchy refrain. Tom’s gentle acoustic picking on the blues “Mean Things” is impressive, Chris adding a little bass and electric guitar. Tom adds kazoo to his repertoire on “Get With Me”, the fast-paced drums suiting the country accents on the tune while the relaxed “Feel Alright” is the tune on which Tom reckons that he only contributes 60% as Rafael plays electric guitar, bass and drums, a good contrast with “Get With Me”.

The four solo tracks are placed towards the end of the album, starting with “Don’t Stop”, just Tom and his acoustic. There is a gospel feel to this one, perhaps enhanced by the background vocals which are presumably overdubbed and may well all be Tom’s, as he has already shown that he has a wide vocal range, from deep to falsetto. Harmony vocals are also overdubbed on “Fight With Me” as Tom’s guitar adds a Spanish flavor to the tune and “Talk To Me” shows another side to Tom’s playing with a country blues feel. To close the album we get Blind Willie Johnson’s much covered “Soul Of A Man”, Tom producing a richly layered version with harmonizing vocals and harp over Tom’s gentle picking, a well produced version of a classic song. Modestly, Tom attributes 0% to himself here, leaving all the credit to Blind Willie.