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October 27, 2004
jimi hocking - give jimi some love!
This album’s a bit of a creeper. Even to the blues lover it takes a listen or two to get into. You’re probably not going to like this unless you dig blues or have a bit of a rockabilly blues bone in your body. Me, I dig the blues, but even so it took me a couple of listens to get into this album. Some albums are like that. This is definitely one of them. It also wanders a little bit into the jazz electric guitar side of things, which may or may not be a good thing depending on what blows your hair back.
Jimi Hocking is certainly an excellent blues guitarist but the first tracks just seemed a bit middle of the road. There’s a bit of self effacing humour on Skinny White Boy that makes a point of how white-bread Jimi is and that he loves to play the blues. I really think that the first few tracks of this album are very nicely recorded but all in all they’re ultimately unsatisfying.
Things start to turn around with Look at the Damage (Free the Children). The hollow top electric guitar is abandoned for acoustic and a much more stripped back performance. It may just be my personal taste in blues, but I think this is a far superior track to the first four. The second half has a stack of very listenable tracks, Mr Nobody is a more sultry groove, Collar Up features a blazing guitar widdle intro with distorted vocals making a reappearance too. Good Boy features soaring Stevie Ray Vaughn style lead guitar. Romance in Aisle 2 is a nice little track too, with some nice ABC radio style presenter samples, just a fun track that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
This is a nice album, but really only suitable for the blues enthusiast – it's pretty light in nature and it's a not a super serious listen. Best track for my money would be Good Boy or Look At the Damage (Free the Children) (Why won’t anyone think of the children?!)
Jimi Hocking – Give Jimi Some Love
File Under: Nerdy white boy blues
Released: 2002
Label: Black Market Music
Track Listing:
Everybody’s Clown
Skinny White Boy
No Particular Place to Go
Blues at My House
Look at the Damage (Free the Children)
Mr Nobody
Collar Up
Credit Card Blues
Good Boy
Romance In Aisle 2
Boxing Gloves
Posted by funnelbc at October 27, 2004 11:17 PM
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