Willie J. Laws is a blues journeyman. Laws has learned the blues by playing and singing the blues all over the country. His education has paid off in spades. Along the way, he has learned a little more than he knew before, and now he stands before us as an electrifying vocal and electric guitar presence. Laws gives off as much spark on his new Cornbread Moan album as he does in his vibrant live shows. Willie J. Laws Band also features bass guitar man Malcolm Stuckey, drummer Osi Brathwaite, and sometimes organist Bruce Mattson.
Laws glides right into this album with a smoother than smooth lead guitar phrase. His notes on blues classic “Boogie Man” ease their way over a full, almost melodic bass line, tasteful drum work, and soulful organ swirls. Laws and his men soon take things to an even higher level. Laws’s guitar phrase begins scorching its way forward while his band mates punctuate it with tremendous heft. Don’t make the mistake of thinking Laws is just a monster guitar player. He has one of the most powerful, soulful voices this side of the Mississippi. He takes the ‘come on’ lines of “Boogie Man” and turns them into meaningful howls of vocal expression with his muscular full throated belt.
Written by Laws, “Love Letters” boogies its way forward with deep feeling and macho swagger. Laws is a musical forth to be reckoned with here. He makes you feel what he’s feeling in the song with his commanding vocal work. Meanwhile, his lead guitar phrase pokes it way into the grooves and swirls with lean, mean persistence. His men put the punctuation marks into his song with precise timing, striking it when the guitar is at its hottest.
Another Laws original “She’s In Houston” finds the man soulfully moaning about his lady spending her nights in another city. Witty, streetwise observations abound as Laws puts his listener’s right into his bad situation. His lady is having too much fun on stage in a strip club getting noticed by Houston locals while her suffers quietly. The vocalist’s soulful desperation is mirrored by the passion in his guitar phrase. He presses out a hot line, one that expresses frustration as it tap dances around the spaces in the groove, a pulpy rhythmic sensation beneath him. Substitute drummer David Fuller puts a persistent bop beneath it all. Listening to the passion in the vocal and guitar leave no doubt that this scenario is based on true feelings. Fans need not worry about his emotional state in real life. Folks say he has a much nicer lady friend these days.
Slowing things down to a mellow groove, Laws and his men serve up a slow boil of soul on Dennis Walker‘s “Brother Go Ahead And Take Her.” Laws’s vocal gravitas brings this song to three dimensional life, the heft in his voice dominating the wide, expansive sound put across by him and his band. He’s full of advice for his ex’s new man, advice he learned the hard way by this devilish woman who put him through the ringer. Laws exudes a tenderness, though, as he presses his tasteful, nuanced phrase out his axe and through the stereo speakers. The musician says as much with his six string as he does with his voice, and that is a sign of a true musical artist.
Laws wrote the music to a dark, suspenseful song about “Smugglers.” He makes you feel the fly by night tension of what these outlaws must feel when they’re bringing their wares across the state lines. He sings of these fearless marauders like they are outlaw heroes, people who stand outside the law and live by their own code. One can almost picture a movie when the smugglers ride out with their camouflaged merchandise. Laws delivers lyrical descriptions in cool vocal emissions while Mattson‘s organ percolates with danger and the rhythm section pushes it along at highway cruising speed. This song gets by on its criminal theme, dark musical colors, and tight ensemble work.
Title track “Cornbread Moan” is a lilting blues boogie number. Laws presses out a nervous, fiery phrase while he talk-sings about his favorite dish. He takes his notes down low, makes them thicker, then raises his pitch to make it sound like his guitar is crying out the melody line. Some of his listeners will wish they were in Laws’ kitchen when he’s serving up his cornbread. He and his men pump this one full of guitar swagger, rhythm section oomph, and organ gravy.
KD Bell’s “Something’s Wrong” rolls forward like a big truck with heavy horse power. Laws croons this cover with one of his most emotive expressions. While he and his band mates play it like an up tempo rock and roll number, Laws sings it with the passion of an old blues man. Listener’s can feel the wrong in “Something’s Wrong.”
Another Laws original, “Too Much Blues,” is influenced by the best Texas blues that the guitarist grew up listening to. Listeners can picture all of the Texas BBQ juke joints he has played in in the way Laws tosses about his nimble guitar picking style. He throws in a line of soul drenched notes in a conscious random way and they find their place, seemingly on their own, inside the groove and alongside shiny piano bar tinkling. He loads “Too Much Blues” with a lot of blues in his dynamic, showboat vocal style. There is a bit of circus barker in Laws’ vocal approach, and it’s one of his best features in this song.
A secret hidden bonus track between tracks eight and nine is a fun, clever marketing ploy. Likely the invention of his sly publicist, it will likely get people to talk about and listen more closely to the album. “Trying To Lose These Blues” finds Laws crooning soulfully over a string of organ swirls and many other fine touches. Laws injects a lot of old time blues feeling into this modern recording of a slow burner torch song. Pressing out a refined, self-restrained guitar phrase, Laws communicates his feelings on the level of sublime musicianship. This one will stir up a lot of emotions and memories in long time blues fans as they try to unravel Laws’ myriad of influences.
Laws closes out his album with a duo number written by piano player Bruce Mattson. Titled “Wake Up, Moses,” Laws sings in a strong gospel style as Mattson plays a New Orleans flavored stride piano. Singing about Hurricane Katrina, Laws calls on all his own spiritual oomph and puts it across beautifully in this Big Easy colored number. The tune showcases another form of blues and it allows Laws to shine vocally without his hard charging guitar filling in the space around him. Laws is surely a first rate singer as well as first rate guitarist.
Willie J. Laws and his band mates certainly offer a lot of good blues styles on Cornbread Moan. Aside from a collection of good blues material, this recording is a fine document of what Willie J. Laws Band can accomplish. Look for Cornbread Moan and the Willie J. Laws Band to rack up rave reviews, best local blues album, best blues guitar, and best blues vocals awards. Greater-Boston/New England blues fans should start buying up copies of this album right away.
