CD REVIEW: STEVE KOZAK BAND – It’s Time

Shane | 22 June 2017 | Reply

CD REVIEW: STEVE KOZAK BAND – It’s Time
Independent
March 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
7 ½ /10

“You only need three things to play the blues: a good guitar, and innate understanding of the music, and thirty years in which to do it,” says Steve Kozak’s press bio, and it’s something this well-travelled Canadian bluesman knows all about.

Kozak’s fluid playing and razor sharp band are perfectly suited to his brand of passionate, exuberant jump blues. They may hail from Vancouver, but they have Chicago in their soul.

Combining some really cool originals (the excellent Cane Sugar Sweet, Messed Up, Trouble, That’s Cool With Me, the great fun vibe of Goin’ Fishin’) with some deep cover cuts like Brook Benton’s rolling Kiddio, Magic Sam’s Every Night And Every Day, and the slow burn of the Henry Glover & Julius Dixon song originally released by little Willie John, and also covered by Johnny Winter, Love, Life & Money.

I say it all the time, but it stands repeating: the blues is as much about what is not played, as what is played, and Kozak & Co have nailed the laid back aesthetic essential to make it work. That’s what that guitar, understanding and thirty years of experience gets you.