New England’s perennial bar band favorite Ryan Hart & The Blue Hearts have released another disc loaded with straight forward interpretations of Chicago and West Coast blues. These guys know their genre inside and out and they know how to have fun with. Aside from their impressive talents, this blues band knows how to write music to have fun to.
“Anti-Blues Pill” opens this disc of screamingly good blues. An alluring interval of steady, assertive gritty guitar notes forms the gripping rhythm of the song. When harmonica and rhythm section all play around it, the groove becomes a steady march that can knock down anything in its way. Hartt still has his throaty, whiskey soaked growl in place, and he finesses and caresses each word for all its soulful worth. It’s just one of those thumping blues tunes that makes you tap your toes, bob your head, and feel the depth of its inner turbo charged groove.
The boys switch gears into up tempo rocking mode with “Love At First Sight,” a jump swing number that has rock and roll attitude. Ryan blows a blaring melody as powerful as a whole horn section before guitarist Eric Ducoff takes off on a wailing, bluesy flight of fancy phrase. Fans of this band will be having a lot of fun dancing to this one at their favorite blues rooms. It just carries you away with its enormous swinging swoop.
“One More Night” shows what Hartt and his boys can do when they slow it down and fill the groove with deep meaningful low end, tasteful drum set work, and easeful down and dirty guitar picking. Hartt gets real soulful with his voice pulling the forlorn emotion out of the song. On harmonica, he lets loose a wide path of notes that express the anticipation of tremendous loss and lonely nights. So much feeling comes out of that harmonica.
Hartt and company are good at creating a real deep blues feeling with their songs. “When It Rains” is a case in point. The harmonica and guitar rip the emotion out beneath Hartt’s husky growl about a woman who lives in ivory towers. The harmonica drawls with attitude and the lead guitar punches spiky soulful notes through the surface.
Title track “Call My Name” has the rhythm section kicking it like oldies rock and roll as a brighter vocal approach softens the emotional timbre of Hartt’s sandpapery vocal. This is definitely a fast dance number, thanks to speedy, propulsive smacks from drummer Nick Toscano. It makes you picture couples swing dancing in a club in a bygone era. Ducoff does a fine job of putting his own voice into this with his swift gliding guitar phrase. His chord work is also compelling, making you feel the motion in this title track.
“I Choose The Blues” has the dramatic air of a man choosing his own fate among two opposing forces. Hartt takes his time detailing how the blues has impacted him all of his life as he explains to his lover that he cannot give up the blues for her love. After the finality of the chorus, the band unfolds a brief groove that feels like someone is bringing the hammer down for the first time. There an operatic sweep that accompanies Hartt’s mission statement and it pulls in and carries the listener along with the drama. You’ll have no doubt that someone means business as he leaves his second love behind.
“Real Prince Charming” is a snappy, grooving number with hefty grit in the greasy harp and brittle guitar lines. Bass player Jeff “JB” Berg gives his thumping low end that little extra touch of class, wringing the soulfulness from those fulsome notes. Harmony vocals from Hartt and Ducoff fill up the chorus with an amicable lift, the kind that makes you want to sing along. Guitar, bass, and drums lock into a fantastic groove on the break and it gets even funkier when Hartt plays a chunky harmonica line.
The instrumental number “Kaboom!” has many influences. You can hear blues, rumba, and rock and roll as harmonica lines thicken and pushy guitar chords keep the song chugging along. Hartt’s melodic harmonica line takes many twists and turns while staying true to its sly bluesy roots. There is a hint of espionage and intrigue in the lines leading up to each utterance of “Kaboom!” and it makes you wonder which 1960s spy drama inspired this piece.
“Sleepwalkin’” is a song about being restless around the clock, and the boys bring that sensation to startling life with their sleepy groove and anxious melody lines. Hartt’s harmonica melody is so troubled that you can actually picture a guy sitting up in bed late at night worrying about something until he picks up his harp. It’s hard to tell if Hartt really suffered insomnia but whatever he had to live through sure inspired a good song. Suffering for his art turned into good art for his listeners.
Hartt and the guys keep it bopping along on “New Love, Old Love Part II,” a nimbly played song with guitar melodies stretching out tastefully before returning succinctly to the rhythmical support section. The song is also marked by Hartt’s rippling harmonica notes. He just makes those greasy notes slide down the scale, turning them into something cool along the way.
“Dartboard” is a unique take on the bar song subgenre, with Hartt viewing his favorite bar from his vantage point by the dartboard. He and his band have fun filling it up with smoky harmonica, bumpy grooves, and spicy guitar leads that move the song forward with a plucky grace.
Hartt closes out the CD with a bit of harmonica chord briefly playing in the background of a small bonus track. The sound signals exhaustion and relief, which is likely how Ryan Hart & The Blue Hearts feel at the end of their gigs. Cause these guys play real hard.
