Misty Blues - Silver Lining (2024)

We only discovered Misty Blues Band; and their enigmatic singer Gina Coleman three years ago; but they’ve been going a lot longer as this magnificent 25th Anniversary celebration proves.
Most acts would cobble together some form of Greatest Hits package; but not the prolific Ms Coleman …. we get another 11 new songs for our delectation, and as usual it’s ‘all killer – no filler!’
The album opens with Gina crooning Seduction By The Blues over a haunting harmonica, making it sound like a Gospel Song of sorts, and maybe it is; then halfway through the band kick in with a vengeance …. the drumming is like a missile strike, the guitar – a machine gun and the saxophone is a musical instrument of mass destruction all of its own!
Thankfully things slow down again for track #2, the soulicious title track, Silver Lining where Gina makes her voice bounce around the octaves in a way I don’t think I’ve ever heard before, and at one stage guitarist Early Times channels his inner Prince on a scary solo.
Obviously there’s a clue in the bands name, Misty Blues Band that tells you that these cats (and kitten) are a Blues Band; but after all these years they know when and how to add Soul, Funk and even Boogie to the package while never diverting to far from yer actual Blues, 21st century stylee.
For such a prolific songwriter Gina Coleman can still take a universal theme and turn it into something dynamic and even fascinating, which is where I will direct you to Enough Loving For Two, The Upper Hand and the mellifluous Nothing’s In Vain (Steve Beastie’s Song) which nicely dips gently into Aretha territory.
A few months ago Gina sent me a copy of her son and resident drummer, Diego Mongue’s latest album under his own name and I liked it a lot; so was nicely surprised to see a collaboration between the Mother and Son here on the co-write Blues Never End a neat blend of olde American Blues and charming African rhythms while Gina virtually chants the chorus like a Queen.
As regular fans will be pleased to hear; there’s still plenty of classic Rhythm and Blues here to satisfy even the most pedantic of her followers; with Shake These Blues and the swinging How Will I? Taking us on very satisfying journeys at opposite ends of the contemporary spectrum.
To some degree I could stick a pin into the track listing and pick a song that I could argue was ‘my Favourite,’ sizzling Sofrito My Blues is a prime example; but there are also another two very special songs here; or at least I think so.
Chasing Gold, featuring Matt Cusson adding some extra special keyboards to the already heady mix, is the type of song when played live could easily stretch for ten minutes or more and they would go by in the blink of an eye.
The other, That’s My Cross that felt like a punch to the heart the first time I heard it as it could easily have ben written about an experience I had in my life several years ago; and I guess will resonate with many other listeners too; which more or less tips the balance for it to become my Favourite Song on a really special album.
A ‘special album’ it indeed is; it would be all too easy for a band like this to go through the motions and use some kind of template for an album 25 years after forming; but that certainly doesn’t apply at all as this is as exciting and interesting as if it was their collective debut album.