(Blind Pig)

www.blindpigrecords.com

Blues guitarist Albert Cummings isn't as well known as some of his peers, but in the decade since his self-released debut album, he should have become a household name. Often unfairly compared to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cummings has his own sound and musical direction. Although both guitarists deliver hard-rocking six-string performances, Cummings' material has more of a British blues-rock feel, informed, perhaps, by Clapton and Rory Gallagher rather than Vaughan's touchstones of Albert King and Otis Rush.

Cummings' Feel So Good was recorded in March 2008 in front of a raucous hometown crowd in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, but I suspect that Cummings could get a rise out of just about any blues-loving audience, whether in New England, the Mississippi Delta, or deep in the heart of Texas. As Cummings' first live album, Feel So Good provides the perfect showcase for the fiery guitarist's axe-handling skills and enormous onstage charisma. Backed by his top-notch road band, Cummings and crew create high tension, and then blow it away with crackling energy and finely-tuned dynamics.

For instance, Delbert McClinton's "Why Me" is provided an upbeat mix of electric blues and roadhouse twang guaranteed to keep the crowd on its feet, while a Cummings' original, the menacing "Sleep," is a slow-burning blues that rolls in like the fog across the bayou, and features some downright dangerous Stratocaster pyrotechnics. B.B. King's "Rock Me" is blown-up, larger than life, into a strutting, posturing thing of electrifying, terrifying majesty while a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll" is delivered as an anarchistic, no-holds-barred clash of white light/white energy as Cummings' guitarwork slashes through the thick, industrial roar of the instrumentation.

If you prefer your blues with a taste of rock & roll on the side, then Feel So Good is just the sort of meat-and-potatoes feast that you've been hungry for...Cummings is an impressive blues guitarist, and Feel So Good is as good a place as any to discover his talents.  

Standout Tracks: "Sleep," "Blues Make Me Feel So Good," "Rock and Roll" REV. KEITH A. GORDON