Energetic, guitar-driven big band blues with bounce and poise
The wonderfully titled and superbly produced Stand Back… I Don’t Know How Loud This Thing Gets! is a powder keg of a blues album. It’s full of energy, imagination and exhilarating interplay – and is shot through with Doiron’s exuberant personality.
The award-winning Nova Scotia bluesman is a thoughtful, humorous and observational lyricist who revels in big band arrangements that straddle blues, soul, gospel and funk. He balances incendiary licks with real feel, as evidenced by the gnawing wah-wah squall that shapes Dance Naked and the intricately woven flute and guitar-driven Slippin’ Back Into The Dip.
There’s diversity too, with the slide-led supple funk of Painted Up, the drum-tight My Kind Of Trouble, the fleeting gospel of Killing Each Other Trying To Get Into Heaven and the explosive title track. Contemporary blues has just relocated its raison d’être.
