Two excellent CDs in the very
best tradition of British Blues are offered here for us to enjoy time
and time again. John O'Leary was one of the founders of the Savoy
Brown Blues Band back in the late 1960s, recording for Island, and
has remained true to his roots for most of the intervening years. He
has worked with many other well known bands during this time. I was
alerted to this gem by Paul Jones on his Radio 2 show a couple of
weeks before Christmas 2010.
John's vocals and harmonica
work are outstanding and very individual, instantly recognisable. The
members of his band are younger than him, but they share his
professionalism and enthusiasm, and combine effortlessly to produce
confident and melodically high-energy blues. I suggest you listen to
some of the MP3 samples, and I expect you'll be as happy as I
was to snap up the pair of CDs while they are still available.
The
first CD `Sins' is a studio recording originally made in 2004 for
limited release privately and at gigs. The second CD `Live at Mr
Kyps' is taken from a live performance at Poole in the eponymous
establishment in 2006, and I think that this shows slightly more
polish and if asked to choose between them, I would admit I tend to
prefer it.
The pair of CDs come in a folded cardboard
sleeve with a 12 page booklet with details of the tracks, photos of
their performances and two sets of notes, the first by Paul Watts
talking about signing up John, and the second by Pete Feenstra giving
us details about the tracks with additional comments from John.