Wild Bill Gleason and Chris Fury Rodis assembled an all star cast of local blues players to record their dream album Good Groove: American Roots Music. Good Groove is a tribute to some of the great American roots music from the mid-20th century. All of these tracks are rendered with true feeling and grateful appreciation for the sound that popularized American music.
There is also a high degree of skill involved with the delivery of these songs. It is not showy skill. It is the skill born out of an appreciation for the feeling of blues and oldies rock and roll and blue country. These guys just get into a groove and make it happen.
Willie Dixon’s “Help Me” gets a boost from Wild Bill’s greasy harmonica pushing its soulful notes forward like some kind of feisty blues engine. Ron Levy shows up on organ and does the tune some more justice with a happening organ. Levy makes those organ notes dance. Guitar work from Bob Margolin and Chris Fury keep things snappy. Very fine guitar picking indeed. The rhythm section here is bass player Ted Parkins and drummer Chris Rivelli and those two guys know how to keep a groove grooving’.
The core band move onto “Flip, Flop, and Fly,” and get some more of that harmonica and guitar meat and potatoes. Wild Bill has that heavier harp sound, lower than others, and it is full of tasty notes. You can move your feet to this one. The bass notes of Ted Parkins lock right into place with the drumming of Chris Rivelli. Gleason has fun with this one. You can hear him enjoying the words “Flip, Flop and Fly.”
Mario Perrett comes into the band to play his saxophone on “You‘ll Lose A Good Thing.” The sax finds it soulful place in between Levy’s organ fills and Gleason’s meaningful, emotion-drench harp notes. There is so much coloring that the song gets a lift beyond most renditions of this classic. Perrett just lets those expressive horn notes roll on against the groove. Gleason sings this baby with a smooth, easeful, finesse, his voice just rolls around the groove.
Considered to be the first rock and roll-R&B hybrid, “Rocket 88” gets a straight up blues treatment here. Perretts sax melody is vibrant enough for rock and roll but the feeling he brings is pure blues. Travis Colby of Roomful Of Blues fame turns in a rollicking barrelhouse piano roll. And, of course, Gleason does his own special magic on his harp, keeping those notes thick, zesty, tasty, and full of roadhouse toughness. Gleason must have been singing this tune for a long time. His voice just glides through the verses and chorus. This song functions on two levels of Americana and it might make you picture black night club musicians in matching gold jackets or it might make you visualize Ritchie Cunningham pulling into Arnold’s Drive-in with his father’s Desoto.
“The Things That I Used To Do” gets into a slow groove out of which grows more of the greasy harp and spiritual organ work that graces the album thus far. Perrett increases his sax velocity on this one by putting plenty of vibrant shine into his interval of brassy notes. He takes you to heaven with his brassy shine. Gleason handles the vocal chores with an easy going confidence that seems to widen his timbre.
“Hey Bartender” may be a bar band cliché. But on this CD the Floyd Dixon classic bops its way forward with a stop start rhythmic pattern that makes you move your feet. Rockin George Leh and Cathy Lynes show up to do vocals and guitar work. Leh’s voice has the seasoned grit to make this piece resonate with something real. Colby’s old timey piano rolls keep it in anchored in the period, and Mark Earley’s bari sax blows with gusty lines. Listening to this will make you feel you just stepped into a nightclub from earlier decades.
Bass player Ted Parkins and drummer Chris Rivelli keep “Blues With A Feeling” in the pocket. This version has got a nice thick groove. You can feel the rhythm section moving you around. Over this vibe Gleason lets another gritty harmonica line unfold, a sweeping wave of grungy, lower octave, but full of life. “Big Jack” Ward makes things happen even more when he peels off his sweet, high notes on guitar.
A roots album would be incomplete without blue country, so the boys include a fulsome arrangement of the Johnny Cash tune “Folsom Prison.” Joe Downs supplies the palpable bass line that pushes this forward with muscle. Chris Renna supplies the lap steel guitar interpretation of the original melody line and he gives this extra depth and feeling. That lap steel just resonates with true feeling and makes a good partner to Gleason’s sad, lonely, forlorn, and hopeless harmonica line. Gleason, meanwhile, has a voice full of southern grit. His voice is full of smoke and whiskey, and that makes him sound like a tortured genius who toils undiscovered in local honky tonks.
“Mystery Train” is one of the greatest Americana songs ever written. Just one glance at all who have recorded it informs of its importance and influence. Try going to a blues jam that doesn’t play it. There is just no escaping the reach of this song’s popularity. Gleason jumps right in with a hopping melody line while Chris Renna offers up more of his country blues feeling with his adept, sparkling lap steel work. This version is mid tempo, offering depth of soul rather than speed to keep its listeners glued. Instead of racing across the prairie, the conductor slows it down a bit to take the turns with graceful sweeps. Chris Fury does the lead vocal here, and his gravel voice matches the grit of the whole thing. Downs and Rivelli certainly do their parts to make sure you feel like you’re really riding in a box car, a fun, chugging ride through the quiet southern night.
These guys certainly knew what they were doing when they selected these songs and when they invited the appropriate musicians into the studio. Wild Bill & Chris Fury have outdone themselves with Good Groove: American Roots Music.
Wild Bill Gleason is available on Facebook if you would like to purchase this CD, and you will want to buy it.
Thanx Bill!
Your perceptions of those of us included are very accurate. So glad you found some enjoyment. You write very encouraging reviews! Thanx! WB