I want to start this review off by saying that I don’t get out much, and I still have managed to see a handful of kick-ass local bands and a few crappy ones. And yet I have never seen The Kilborn Alley Blues Band, despite the 600-odd live shows the quintet has played. After hearing Put It In The Alley, their latest effort, perhaps I should. It’s music to get drunk to, or at least to go out and dance to. I listened to most of the CD while riding the bus across town, and the MTD doesn’t offer much room for gettin’ down.
The album opens with “Your Next Baby’s Daddy,” a white trash bar song. Telling a woman she looks fine as she pushes a stroller down the road is pretty classy. The lyrics reminded me of one night at the Cowboy Monkey when an inebriated young man, after learning that I have kids, told me he’d “add more fuel to that fire,” which resulted in myself and my two female companions falling over from laughter rather than swooning. That guy would like “Your Next Baby’s Daddy,” and perhaps he could pick up some pointers.
The album’s third track, “The Blues Take Me In” boasts Joe Asselin’s heady harmonica and classic blues lyrics sung with perfection by Andrew Duncanson. “The blues takes me in/ When my woman puts me out/ The blues is my good friend/ Knows what I’m all about.”
“Tales From the Alley,” a song that is more subdued vocally and melodically, letting guitar and harmonica take center stage, as does “Campbell’s Blues”, another mellow tune with a crying guitar.
Put It In The Alley boasts a diverse array of the blues, from jammin’ (“Blues Boy From Illinois”) to melancholy (“Thousand Miles”), but does not go overboard with either. My only complaint is that the CD ends on a mellower note than I would have liked, with “I Like To Live The Love.” (But the lyrics are sort of a tongue twister!)
The Kilborn Alley Blues Band will be at the Rusty Spur in Decatur on July 28 at 9 p.m.
