John Dummer Band

John Dummer’s Famous Music Band (1970)
Vinyl rip @ 24/96 | FLAC | Artwork | 902mb
Rock, Blues-Rock | 1970 UK LP | Fontana 6309 008

The John Dummer Blues Band were an established act on the blues circuit and had released two pure blues albums “Cabal” and “John Dummer Blues Band” both featuring singer and slide guitarist Dave kelly, later and currently a member of The Blues Band with Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness. Kelly left after “John Dummer Blues Band” and was replaced by multi instrumentalist Nick Pickett. Pickett was a strange choice. His main instrument was the violin and he was from a traditional folk background; but he had songs, lots of them, and the line up of Pickett, Dummer, Thompson and guitarist Adrian Pietryga recorded “John Dummer’s Famous Music Band”.
This is a very strange album. Imagine a folk singer and fiddle player playing over a blues based rhythm section. This contrast is the albums great strength. Pickett obviously doesn’t find singing the blues that easy but he delivers some great vocals on the more upbeat numbers like “Yes Sir, She’s my Baby”, a Pickett original and not the old show tune.There are some great moments: The opener “Lady Luck” is an eerie, percussion soaked rocker and the slow bluesy “No Chance Now” is another high, and the bright, jazzy instrumental “Nine By Nine” was a huge hit on the continent and also dented the charts in the UK.
Ultimately this album is a little schizophrenic and would probably have benefitted from an outside producer.There are also some odd moments: on the song “Changes” a harmonium is featured and you can hear quite clearly the squeaking of the pedals as the player pumps them.But all that aside, I really like this album. If you like off-kilter, bluesy, jazzy, folky music, it’s well worth a listen. Taran Geary, amazon.co.uk

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