Australian blues music is in a damn good place right now. Many of the country’s top blues artists have showcased new material in the last 6 months and now Melbourne’s acoustic blues virtuoso Lloyd Spiegel has released his 8th studio album “Backroads”, the follow up to his 2017 release “This Time Tomorrow”.
Spiegel’s variety of blues styles and uses of different guitar sounds throughout the album captivates the listener and this is evident from the first notes of the opening track “The Kick Around”, an up-tempo foot tapper of a song, with a fantastic solo to boot. “Betcha Bottom Dollar” continues the mood with a real swing-blues shuffle that immediately gets you moving in your seat, with trombone slides playing in the background almost taking us back to the days of jazz. Spiegel slows it down for the third track “Bridges to Burn”, a deeply moving song with stunning guitar work from start to finish. “Christina” brings us back to the light with a cheerful song, the highlight being Spiegel’s vocals overlaid with female harmonies.
“The Price You Pay” once again returns us to the haunting acoustic blues sound where Lloyd can immerse himself emotionally – this has that deep south feel, and I can imagine walking past a bar on Bourbon Street and being drawn in to hear more. “Man on Fire” is a slightly quicker track with acoustic & electric sounds entwined to give us another foot tapper, with guitar riffs and solos venturing to the front of this punchy bluesy number.
“Candy Cane” keeps the tempo up with nice guitar licks between every few lines that are sung. Spiegel gets the guitar to sing with every string he picks and plays. “Sweet South West Blues” takes us back to the roots again with the classic blues sound and almost echoing vocal, simple yet ever so effective – the solos just peel off the guitar with casual ease. “Beautiful and Dangerous” once again eases us down a bit with a nice melodic track with acoustic rhythm guitar work overlaid with electric solos & riffs. The album finishes with unsuspecting instrumental, “Emerald City Sky”, easing us back to the real world with mellow electro-acoustic sounds and gentle drum work. It gives you a “lazy Sunday, can’t be bothered to do anything today” kind feel – love it!
Lloyd Spiegel has delivered another collection of songs showing the wide spectrum of the blues genre – a kind of something for everyone album. The “Backroads” tour is well under way with Lloyd playing The Ellington Jazz Club in Perth on Thursday 19th and Fremantle’s The Aardvark (formerly Odd Fellows) on Friday 20th July, before jetting off to New Zealand & Canada.
