CD: ZOE SCHWARZ BLUE COMMOTION – The Blues And I Should Have A Party

Shane | 22 August 2018 | Reply

CD: ZOE SCHWARZ BLUE COMMOTION – The Blues And I Should Have A Party
33 Records
March 2018
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

With Grace Slick attitude, garage psych cool and smokey blues chops, Zoe Schwarz and her Blues Commotion serve up a tasty smorgasbord on this, her fifth studio album.

It’s a record that bounces back and forth from pure blues to organ-drenched psych rock and it’s a trip, man.

It’s all blues-based, of course, and stand back when Schwarz and guitarist Rob Koral hit their stride together, as on the epic six-and-a-half minute title track where they build an insurmountable wall of emotion. Ironically, it’s anything but a party track – purest broken heart blues and scorching B B King licks.

Way Down in The Cave is a name-dropping, organ-drenched ‘60s garage stomp paying homage to the ‘60s blues scene from The Stones to The Yardbirds and all points in between.

Schwarz smoulders on Don’t Worry Blues, the guitar and Pete Whittaker’s soulful Hammond organ interplaying wonderfully, but never quite stealing the show from the vocals. This is a band, and boy, they play together perfectly rather than grandstanding.

Shout really brings the Grace Slick comparisons to the fore: this could easily have sat in Jefferson Airplane’s set at Woodstock. It’s indicative of Schwarz’s love of not only the blues, but of ‘60s rock in all its myriad forms.

My Handsome Man and Tell Me turn another corner, getting about as poppy as bouncy blues can get, before The Memory Of You and Time Waits For No-One go down a pleasantly hippyish, almost Buffalo Sprinfield-esque road.

Zoe Schwarz Blue Commotion cover a lot of ground on The Blues & I Should Have A Party, and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable ride. Clean and slick, there’s no grit or rawness here: just great songs, great playing, and a great, moving, rollercoaster of a way to spend sixty-four minutes of your time.