Reviewing Blue & Lonesome

It took eleven years for the Rolling Stones to release their follow up album which consists yet again of covers,titled Blue & Lonesome,the band's 25th album since 2005's A Bigger Bang that highlighted them as the previous decade's top grosser.

One can identify the band as innovators of Chicago blues with that harmonica felt deep in Mick Jagger's soul doing the opening track on "Just Your Fool",something that remains prevalent on the other tracks apart from the exceptionally tasty trade off riffings of Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.
On the subject of the vocal part Mick Jagger gave his all,sounded a hell lot cooler like wine that gets better with age.

Thing about British blues is,that it was given much importance by the people who mastered its craft and can be traced back to London's Marquee where the famous jams took place in the wee hours of the night after the clubs had called it a day.Sad part is that it wasn't given much eminence from where it came from that Jeff Beck had expressed his frustration upon going to its essential birthplace only to be appalled that nobody has ever heard of Howlin' Wolf or John Lee Hooker when he asked the local musicians in the area.The same thing went to Chas Chandler's mind I suppose when he discovered Jimi Hendrix in upstate New York and realized that his talent will be much more appreciated in a smaller pond.The jams in the Marquee is where the exchanges of guitar skills took place and was attended by every rock guitarist in town at the time-Jimmy Page,Mick Taylor, Peter Green and some of the guys that came in and out of John Mayall's "circle of friends".When Hendrix returned to the States as a mighty fish,local bands started getting serious about the music that came from the deep South, some kind of a wake up call,but nevertheless,the British invasion that just keeps on coming has overwhelmed much of them that made it kind of difficult to compete with such strong force- sort of.

With Blue & Lonesome, the Stones rivaled closely that of one of their contemporaries namely Led Zeppelin and Cream thus reminded everyone of the very first album that they gave us.With Jagger even stating that it could've been a whole lot different had they recorded this back in 1964.The album gave the blues a different meaning and introduced it to a whole new generation of fans.

Even though the Rolling Stones were proficient themselves they sought the help of Eric Clapton on two tracks"Everybody Knows About My Good Thing" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" with the latter one closely rivaling or perhaps bettering that of Led Zeppelin's.

Keith Richards has long been compared to Jimmy Page and was often times dismissed by loyal fans of the latter and several guitar publications so it was a wise move for them to get Clapton to do the job.

To top it all,Blue & Lonesome is one brilliant interpretation of the music that became the staple of rock guitar and  though the band doesn't have anything more to prove, it made them more than just a father figure out of the immortal rock opera amid the shitty,nowhere bound new music that is around us.


RATING: 9/10

(c) 2016 Keith Vernon Adagio