Jay Aptt And The MaliCaminos present hard charging, blues rock on their new album From The Woodshed Looking Out. Soulful lyrical images of our nation as well as engaging descriptions of the people in our world make this a deep, meaningful listening experience as well as a fun, foot-stomping, beer swigging grand old time.
Opening track “Makin’ My Bed In The Morning” features plenty of fiery guitar and saxophone dovetailing each other, making a thick gruel of mean rockin’ sound. Jay Aptt’s gruff rasp makes the perfect companion to the rowdy melodic phrase he plays on guitar and what Jason Miele mightily achieves on sax. It’s like the toughest guys in the bar gathered in a back corner. Hanging together with a fierce vibe.
“Spundown” finds Aptt and his boys taking things down low, down tempo, a pace that lets Aptt spread his rasp well over a sonic landscape of sandpapery guitar and sax. Drummer Dana Brown and bass guitar player Ben “OBI” Ferrini put a solid thumping action beneath the upper registers and the four have no trouble switching their delivery uptempo while maintaining the palpable soul of this piece.
“Best Of You” feels more rootsie as Aptt puts his hearty grit into his acoustic six string. Aptt’s vocal swagger reminds of the best mysterious, rugged cowboy enters the saloon for the first time scenes. His macho sprawl fits well over his unfurling guitar flag melodic phrase. He presses out serious, fuzzy tones as the bari sax injects another tuft of feisty sound. Toss in a rhythm section that knows how to punctuate what is in Aptt’s soul, and this song can reach people on many levels. You can follow the story of the conscious man or just enjoy how these rough boys rock out in an slower tune.
Using palpable low end notes, Ferrini briskly ushers the listener into “Tryin’,” a tune that moves with a honky tonk dancers’ attitude. One can picture a young lady strutting the dance floor in her Daisy Dukes to this festive rocker. The rhythm section keeps the groove a motion filled gallop as Aptt presses out a raw, raucous guitar phrase, zig zagging his line like his fingers will catch fire if he doesn’t move it. Aptt’s saxophone companion Miele keeps his bari in motion alongside it with a thick rich sauce of feisty soul. All playing together, it’s one fine, spicy gumbo.
Mellowing out a bit in terms of dynamics and tempo, “Inside” shuffles along an amicable rhythmic v. A thick throng of sax seesaws over that groove and Aptt’s guitar buzz saws through all with a flinty electric guitar sassiness. Aptt’s coats his deep lyrics well with his slippery rasp, his voice reminding of the sandpaper on a sanding disc, moving the grittiness around.
“East Coast Blues” feels old-fashioned in its bouncy bari sax riff. It’s like walking into a music venue in the 1950s with surfers, rockers, and studious types all moving their feet to this new thing called rock and roll. While the bari leads the tune along, there’s plenty of fun riffs from Appt who, aside from switching from riffs to a greasy melodic phrase, lays his rasp well over the surface of this nightclub stomper.
By this point in the album, it’s clear that these players can play with attitude. Dancing it on a solid backbeat, bari-sax laced groove, “Wastin’ Time” becomes an attitude filled lyrical number. Its small but pushy sax notes, brittle guitar riffs, and self-restrained rhythm section soon switch gears. Sax notes get longer as the sax phrase colors this piece with more soulful assurance. A bucking chorus makes for a boisterous segue into the previous mood while letting the guitar expand into a more phrasing line. These segues are all part of the same attitude, like someone who has been having a bad day signaling with body language, fierce eye contact, and abrupt throat clearing that this is not the time to mess. Speaking of attitude, Aptt stretches his rasp into something tougher, an assertion more than just a colorful spread. That extra touch wraps this piece up neatly into something special.
Close out track “ Fishtown III” comes in with a smooth Ferrini low end run. His thick bass notes make the groove that this song swings around, and I do mean swing. Drummer Brown plays around the beat which adds to the intrigue of this number. Aptt’s freewheeling lead guitar phrase seems to jump with the bass grove while the sax swings around the bass as much as the drum fills do. The tough guy tone Aptt sings in and the thick Miele bari fills this song with a sense that something is about to go down on the streets, on the docks, all of the places where things go down, not all of them good.
Jay Appt And The MaliCaminos offer a fine sample of their bluesy, soulful, driving rock with this From The Woodshed Out album. Its hard hitting grooves and fiery guitar and sax lines feel like they’re about to explode out of the listener’s stereo speakers. It just keeps moving into more smoldering, smoky, soulful sounds with Aptt’s world weary lyrics and the ruggedly handsome vocals he delivers them with. Recorded and mixed by the very busy Roger Lavallee at Wachusett Recording in Princeton, Massachusetts, and, mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston, Massachusetts, this album packs a wallop with every vocal line, every guitar part, every low end line, and every drum beat and fill.
