Pat Travers
Blues On Fire

Dropping back to "The Roaring Twenties" for inspiration, Pat Travers' collection of one dozen covers fills out the Blues on Fire disc. Backed by drummer Sean Shannon, keyboardists Doug Bare and Carl Cleaver, Travers handles all the guitar and bass work on the tight-but-loose recording. Armed with a Paul Reed Smith guitar, P.T.'s dedication to the early blues leans on songs penned by Blind Blake, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Lemmon Jefferson and Blind Willie McTell. Needless to say, that is a whole lotta blind man blooze. Hard luck and heartbreak dominates the blues, and that fact is backed-up throughout the old school "Blues on Fire". Pat's vocal performance augments the down 'n' out tracks, with the output reminiscent of the legendary ZZ Top. In fact, Blues on Fire sounds like it could be a Reverend Billy Gibbons solo effort. There's nothing pretentious when it comes to the twelve bar progression, as evident by Travers reworking of "Black Dog Blues", "Back Water Blues", "Easy Water Blues", "Bulldozer Blues", "Dark Night Blues", "Rock Island Blues" and "Jailhouse Blues". Pull out the bottle of Jack and let the blus do the talkin'.