Steve Hunter suffers from pigmentary glaucoma, and he makes no bones about it on this album, with a cover photo of a white stick in a doorway.
Many a great musician has been sightless, but here there is a poignant sense of someone coming to terms with physical deterioration. This album concedes this, but defies it all the same.
Opener On The Edge Of Uncertainty and Mojo Rock are vivid, luminously produced instrumentals, guided tours around his mountainous talent, blues fare with regular fretboard detonations. softwareuiphraseguid=“50f528d3-93ac-4198-bd40-4f1fe9a76926”>Softtail Deuce roars and snarls with the plentiful life left in this old dog.
There are more reflective, atmospheric tracks, though: Summer’s Eve, tinged with the sad glow of sunset, and Tienes Mi Corázon (You Have My Heart) on which Hunter’s strumming on a nylon-strung guitar, which reminds of the Durutti Column, is set against a recording of his own heartbeat. Happy Trails, with vocals from wife Karen, is a fittingly reconciled conclusion.
