Chris O’Leary’s got it, man, he’s got it. From rol­lickin’ rock (Give It) to week­end stomp (With­out You) to slinkin’ down-lo back-alley swank (Louisiana Woman) to bar­rel­house bal­ladry (Pic­tures of You) and well beyond…and, lord, that’s only the first four of thir­teen cuts deliv­ered with piz­zazz, panache, plen­ty of pig’s feet n’ gum­bo, and more than a lit­tle pugilis­tic punch-up all through the blues’ back yard. His ace band knows how to cen­ter O’Leary’s vocals while parad­ing all around him, hot and hip but per­fect­ly in con­trol, ac-cen-tu-atin’ the pos­i­tive, the neg­a­tive, the ques­tion­able, and even the down­right nasty. Thus, Wait­ing for the Phone to Ring most astute­ly joins Viz­zTone’s cat­a­logue of mod­ern blues gems.

In fact, the very title cut is sassier ‘n shit, with sprech­es­timme, rogue-ish strut, and enough testos­terone to fuel an A‑grade dragster…but not TOO much, mind ya, as Chris sings, among oth­er mat­ters, about a woman who beat “a dead­beat hus­band with a ‘luminum base­ball bat”. The times have changed since yer pap­py’s days, boys, so don’t think the wim­mens put up with that guff no’ mo’…might getcha hurt, Bert. The old James Mont­gomery Band put out clas­sic cuts like this, and I’m sure as hell hap­py to see the mode ain’t been aban­doned, even in this age of PC goop and drivel.

Com­ing from a six-year stint with Lev­on Helm’s Barn­burn­ers, O’Leary knows the rough ‘n tum­ble, and his ear­li­er debut, Mr. Used to Be, gar­nered crit­i­cal raves and awards nom­i­na­tions near and far, clinch­ing a “Best New Artist Debut” hoo-rah at Chi-town’s Blues Blast Music Awards. Well, this one, y’all, takes the ass-kick­ing a step fur­ther and every sin­gle song was writ­ten, unbe­liev­ably, by O’Leary his­self. The guy’s a quin­tu­ple threat, and, heyyyyy, waitaminnit…wasn’t that his grand­ma’s cow who kicked over the lantern in Chica­go and………?

Track List:

Edit­ed by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)