| 8 Ball Aitken — Swamp Blues (Feb 2, 2018) |
8 Ball Aitken — Swamp Blues (Feb 2, 2018)
✹ „Jsem vypravěč a mám smysl pro humor,“ říká 8 Ball Aitken. Úvodní „Apple Tree“ se dostane do vaší hlavy. V tom je jeho velikost. Myslím, že je důležité, aby první písnička na albu byla hook. Je to jako první odstavec románu. Může vás dostat nebo vás může nechat vychladnout. „Six Stringer“ mě nutí přemýšlet o Eric Claptonovi a JJ Caleovi, ačkoli i jiní umělci přicházejí do úvahy též, ovšem zmíněni můžou být už jenom mezi průměrnými pickingovými a bluesovými stylisty. Samozřejmě, o Stevie Ray Vaughanovi (Oct. 3, 1954~Aug. 27, 1990) může tu a tam být zmínka taky. „High Water“ je píseň pro ty z vás, co už zažili záplavy. Je to píseň pro každého, kdo kdy byl po krk v povodni. Není omezena na určité místo, ačkoli tato má Deep South sound. „Love Makes The World Go Round“? Pěkná a easy bluesy veranda.
✹ Jeho desáté album „Swamp Blues“ ztělesňuje charismatický, zábavný, hypnotizující blues~beat, který promítl umělce do úspěchu. Odkudsi z New Orleans inspirované melodie od „Sugar in my Coffee“ až k „Sweet as You“ jsou to písně o muži, který zakopává ve svém domě, opilý po ztrátě své ženy. To je ten tragic magic humor. Vyrůstající v tabákové boudě v dalekém severním Queenslandu, hrál 8 Ball Aitken po večerech v neslavném John’s Blues Bar v Cairns, když mu bylo pouhých 15 let. „Musíte jít tam, odkud pochází zdroj hudby,“ řekl a popsal své rozhodnutí přesunout se do Spojených států, aby se soustředil na psaní a skládání. Ví, že diváky vzrušuje právě ta zvláštní jamming audience hudebníků.
✹ Australian songwriter & slide~guitar player.
Born: 8 June 1981
Location: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Genre: Rock, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Blues Rock, Country, Bluegrass
Album release: Feb 2, 2018
Record Label: Red Rocker Records (Austin, Texas, USA) & WJO Distribution (Australia)
Duration: 40:54
Tracks:
01 Apple Tree 4:18
02 Lindy Loo 2:47
03 Six Stringer 4:14
04 Iron Horse 3:23
05 High Water 3:39
06 Sugar In My Coffee 3:40
07 Drop On By 2:45
08 Mama’s Cookin 3:45
09 Say You Love Me 3:41
10 Sweet As You 2:58
11 Drunk And Stoned 1:48
12 Love Makes The World Go Round 3:56
℗ 2018 Red Rocker Records
About 8 Ball Aitken
✹ The Aitken family, originally from Scotland, settled in the Atherton Tableland area of Queensland’s Deep North and felt no reason to leave for several generations. 8 Ball Aitken inherited the family's distinctive shock of bright red hair, but not that desire to stay in the one place. At the age of 19 he gave up his life picking fruit and living in a tobacco shed, and hitchhiked south to the city of Brisbane with his guitar to make it as a country musician. At an early gig in a rowdy pub a fight broke out over a pool table and the 8 Ball was knocked onto the stage, leading the band to give him his nickname and the title of his first recording, Behind the 8 Ball, released in 2004. Its acoustic mix of country, roots, and distinctively Australian subject matter made Aitken the choice of Brisbane’s mayor to head the inaugural Grass Roots Music Festival. Aitken also won a grant in the form of one of musician John Butler’s JB Seeds, which he used to travel to Sydney and study pedal steel with legendary session guitarist Michel Rose. His second album, Odd Ball In, was released in 2006, followed by Rebel with a Cause in 2008. ~ Jody Macgregor
Review
✹ If you don’t like guitars played every which way — including loose — then don’t even think for a second about playing this album. However, on the other hand, if you do like your guitars played every which way, then plug in your air guitar and get ready to groove.
✹ I own every 8 Ball cd, and a dvd too, unless he is hiding one that I haven’t heard yet! 8 covers a lot of musical ground. He can pretty much find a song to suit everyone and some of us who like a bit of everything can handle the whole bloomin’ lot.
✹ Swamp Blues is a very apt title for this album, it is easy to displace yourself from your everyday environment, whether it is working in a skyscraper in a major city to digging holes on the road, to being a chef in a restaurant or driving the tractor in a paddock to even being a librarian. 8 loads you on the blues train, meanders you down a tree lined river in a row boat, puts you behind the wheel of a truck heading south and takes you flying above the clouds.
✹ 8’s music always takes you on a journey, usually to a world outside your own. There will be no prizes for those who guess my favourites on the album, with Drop on By being my absolute favourite. What can I say, I am a mellow old chick. Safe to say, it is Kazzie Award nominated bound at the end of the year…..for sure.
✹ I think that a fan said today on Facebook that Apple Tree gets inside your head. That’s about the size of it. I think that it is important that the first song on an album is a hook. It is like the first paragraph of a novel. It can get you in or it can leave you cold. I think that this might be one of my shower songs…It is one of my favourites on the album and a great way to kick it off.
✹ Lindy Loo is another groovy track. It reminds me a bit of that twangy 60’s sound. I can imagine those surfer chicks shifting sand on the beach to this one. Adam West’s Batman may have even been tempted to do the Battusi to this one.
✹ Six Stringer makes me think of Eric Clapton and JJ Cale though other artists are mentioned amongst the mean picking and bluesy stylings. Of course Stevie Ray gets a mention.
✹ Iron Horse will get you rockin’. High Water is a song for anyone who has ever been in a flood area. It is not restricted to a particular place, though it does have that Deep South sound.
✹ I don’t have sugar in my coffee (sweet enough!) but this is a hip little tune. It may be a shower song too. It almost has a reggae sound to it…..definitely a funky little number.
✹ Mama’s Cookin’ will make you hungry for more…..toes will be tapping, heck, I smell that fried chicken.
✹ Say You Love Me is one to get you on the dance floor. I’ll just sit here with my air guitar and watch you guys dance, but Hell, eat it up.
✹ Sweet as you is a bit Claptonish too, and there is nothing wrong with that. I like the drums in this one too.
✹ Drunk and Stoned — probably the most up tempo song on the album. It is a rowdy old bluesy number with lots of percussion. There’s even a kazoo in it if I am not mistaken.
✹ Love Makes The World Go Round — A nice and easy bluesy verandah/porch sitting song. Thankfully not the song by the same name that I grew up with….nice way to wrap things up.
✹ When 8 said that it was available in cd or cassette, and soon on digital, I had to laugh…what no 78s for my Ma’s old wind up? Get down to the swamp and play that music loud cowboys and cowgirls, 8 has ridden into town again. ✹ https://countryas.wordpress.com/
Website: http://www.8ballaitken.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/8ballaitken
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/8ballaitkenmusic
_____________________________________________________________
| 8 Ball Aitken — Swamp Blues (Feb 2, 2018) |
✹ Jeho desáté album „Swamp Blues“ ztělesňuje charismatický, zábavný, hypnotizující blues~beat, který promítl umělce do úspěchu. Odkudsi z New Orleans inspirované melodie od „Sugar in my Coffee“ až k „Sweet as You“ jsou to písně o muži, který zakopává ve svém domě, opilý po ztrátě své ženy. To je ten tragic magic humor. Vyrůstající v tabákové boudě v dalekém severním Queenslandu, hrál 8 Ball Aitken po večerech v neslavném John’s Blues Bar v Cairns, když mu bylo pouhých 15 let. „Musíte jít tam, odkud pochází zdroj hudby,“ řekl a popsal své rozhodnutí přesunout se do Spojených států, aby se soustředil na psaní a skládání. Ví, že diváky vzrušuje právě ta zvláštní jamming audience hudebníků.
✹ Australian songwriter & slide~guitar player.
Born: 8 June 1981
Location: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Genre: Rock, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Blues Rock, Country, Bluegrass
Album release: Feb 2, 2018
Record Label: Red Rocker Records (Austin, Texas, USA) & WJO Distribution (Australia)
Duration: 40:54
Tracks:
01 Apple Tree 4:18
02 Lindy Loo 2:47
03 Six Stringer 4:14
04 Iron Horse 3:23
05 High Water 3:39
06 Sugar In My Coffee 3:40
07 Drop On By 2:45
08 Mama’s Cookin 3:45
09 Say You Love Me 3:41
10 Sweet As You 2:58
11 Drunk And Stoned 1:48
12 Love Makes The World Go Round 3:56
℗ 2018 Red Rocker Records
About 8 Ball Aitken
✹ The Aitken family, originally from Scotland, settled in the Atherton Tableland area of Queensland’s Deep North and felt no reason to leave for several generations. 8 Ball Aitken inherited the family's distinctive shock of bright red hair, but not that desire to stay in the one place. At the age of 19 he gave up his life picking fruit and living in a tobacco shed, and hitchhiked south to the city of Brisbane with his guitar to make it as a country musician. At an early gig in a rowdy pub a fight broke out over a pool table and the 8 Ball was knocked onto the stage, leading the band to give him his nickname and the title of his first recording, Behind the 8 Ball, released in 2004. Its acoustic mix of country, roots, and distinctively Australian subject matter made Aitken the choice of Brisbane’s mayor to head the inaugural Grass Roots Music Festival. Aitken also won a grant in the form of one of musician John Butler’s JB Seeds, which he used to travel to Sydney and study pedal steel with legendary session guitarist Michel Rose. His second album, Odd Ball In, was released in 2006, followed by Rebel with a Cause in 2008. ~ Jody Macgregor
Review
✹ If you don’t like guitars played every which way — including loose — then don’t even think for a second about playing this album. However, on the other hand, if you do like your guitars played every which way, then plug in your air guitar and get ready to groove.
✹ I own every 8 Ball cd, and a dvd too, unless he is hiding one that I haven’t heard yet! 8 covers a lot of musical ground. He can pretty much find a song to suit everyone and some of us who like a bit of everything can handle the whole bloomin’ lot.
✹ Swamp Blues is a very apt title for this album, it is easy to displace yourself from your everyday environment, whether it is working in a skyscraper in a major city to digging holes on the road, to being a chef in a restaurant or driving the tractor in a paddock to even being a librarian. 8 loads you on the blues train, meanders you down a tree lined river in a row boat, puts you behind the wheel of a truck heading south and takes you flying above the clouds.
✹ 8’s music always takes you on a journey, usually to a world outside your own. There will be no prizes for those who guess my favourites on the album, with Drop on By being my absolute favourite. What can I say, I am a mellow old chick. Safe to say, it is Kazzie Award nominated bound at the end of the year…..for sure.
✹ I think that a fan said today on Facebook that Apple Tree gets inside your head. That’s about the size of it. I think that it is important that the first song on an album is a hook. It is like the first paragraph of a novel. It can get you in or it can leave you cold. I think that this might be one of my shower songs…It is one of my favourites on the album and a great way to kick it off.
✹ Lindy Loo is another groovy track. It reminds me a bit of that twangy 60’s sound. I can imagine those surfer chicks shifting sand on the beach to this one. Adam West’s Batman may have even been tempted to do the Battusi to this one.
✹ Six Stringer makes me think of Eric Clapton and JJ Cale though other artists are mentioned amongst the mean picking and bluesy stylings. Of course Stevie Ray gets a mention.
✹ Iron Horse will get you rockin’. High Water is a song for anyone who has ever been in a flood area. It is not restricted to a particular place, though it does have that Deep South sound.
✹ I don’t have sugar in my coffee (sweet enough!) but this is a hip little tune. It may be a shower song too. It almost has a reggae sound to it…..definitely a funky little number.
✹ Mama’s Cookin’ will make you hungry for more…..toes will be tapping, heck, I smell that fried chicken.
✹ Say You Love Me is one to get you on the dance floor. I’ll just sit here with my air guitar and watch you guys dance, but Hell, eat it up.
✹ Sweet as you is a bit Claptonish too, and there is nothing wrong with that. I like the drums in this one too.
✹ Drunk and Stoned — probably the most up tempo song on the album. It is a rowdy old bluesy number with lots of percussion. There’s even a kazoo in it if I am not mistaken.
✹ Love Makes The World Go Round — A nice and easy bluesy verandah/porch sitting song. Thankfully not the song by the same name that I grew up with….nice way to wrap things up.
✹ When 8 said that it was available in cd or cassette, and soon on digital, I had to laugh…what no 78s for my Ma’s old wind up? Get down to the swamp and play that music loud cowboys and cowgirls, 8 has ridden into town again. ✹ https://countryas.wordpress.com/
Website: http://www.8ballaitken.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/8ballaitken
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/8ballaitkenmusic
_____________________________________________________________