Album review: KAI STRAUSS – In My Prime
Continental Record Services [Release date 20.11.20]
Kai Straus’s aptly titled album ‘I’m In My Prime’ sees him updating traditional blues styles from Chicago to the West Coast, while confirming his own impressive elements of tone, taste and feel.
Strauss is a multiple German blues award winner with a pedigree stretching back to 1990, from being a sideman with Memo Gonzales, to stepping out as a band leader in has own right.
Clearly he has learned much. His Euro take on the blues is shot though with integrity, real ability and the kind of funky soulful blues sensibility that only a road tested band can deliver.
With the exception of ‘World Crisis Blues’ (of which more later), a succession of heartfelt and sometimes autobiographical narratives on 4 original songs and 5 co-writes connects perfectly with his band’s deep grooves.
And if there’s a slight disappointment it’s simply that he might have been a bit more adventurous and filled the album with more of his own songs.
The 2 covers here best serve to illustrate the fact Strauss is worthy of comparison with some of the greats, but that’s not to say they are all great songs.
His funky makeover of Nick Gravenites and Mike Bloomfield’s ‘You’re Killing My Love’ finds him in his element, while he stretches to a full bodied tone on a fine arrangement of Johnny Copeland’s ‘Down On Bended Knee’, even if this version does lack Copeland’s vocal grit.
There are 2 co-writes with lyricist Doug Jay, of which the title track is best, carrying a justified mission statement which offers all the evidence as to why Strauss’s mentor Otis Grand rates him so highly.
It’s an unabashed meeting of musical and lyrical swagger: “Over 30 years with this guitar in my hand, north, south, east west, I played all over this land, I learnt my trade a long time ago, learned from the best, always give a good show.”
He takes on the mantle of the younger BB King with shades of Albert Collins on an up tempo shuffle with a jump feel. He adds a blizzard of intense notes, alongside Sax Gordon’s buzzing baritone and some judicious horn stabs.
His expressive vocal is not too far removed from Rick Estrin. In other words he knows the limits of his range and doesn’t exceed it.
The other Doug Jay co-write is ‘A Day Late And A Dollar short’, as Strauss sinewy guitar playing brings an edge to an old blues theme, though neither his vocal or the lyrics quite have the gravitas to make a significant emotional connection.
No matter, for the most part this is an exemplary album shot through with effortless technique, authenticity and real feel.
It’s on his own material that he is best, such as the autobiographical single ‘Guest In The House Of the Blues’ (with lyrical help from drummer Alex Lex).
It’s one of several funky grooves with fine band interplay on which he contextualising his own music. A combination of intricate guitar and a subtle horn arrangement flows seamlessly into Paul Jobson’s funky keyboard solo, before Strauss references his blues antecedents from Albert Collins to the 3 King’s with total conviction.
The opening ‘Going To London’ opens with a subtle jammed fade in, as his expressive vocal teases out his theme: “I got the blues for the big city, got to leave the countryside.”
His perfectly weighted long linear guitar lines give the track an extra emotional punch. Bassist Kevin Duvernay anchors an exaggerated 70’s sounding funky bass heavy groove, which is neatly offset by a cool horn arrangement from Strauss’s American horn section.
And it’s those elements of subtlety and cool that permeates an album that is never rushed, but still has musical ambition, as evidenced by the line: “I want to see that swinging city, Europe cradle of the blues.”
The exquisite signature solo just before the fade provides a magical moment that sets the high standard for the rest of the album.
The key to everything is his fluid and versatile playing which is soulful on the nuanced blues of the Strauss/Duvernay penned ‘Keep You Happy’, funky on the Gravenites/Bloomfield cover ‘You’re Killing My Love’, and a very confident on the big band blues arrangement of Johnny Copeland’s ‘Down On Bended Knee’. The latter pushes his vocal to the limit without quite nailing Copeland’s original vocal grit.
Tommie Harris is the lyricist on ‘Betting My Life On The Blues’ on which a blur of staccato horns are counterweighted by mellifluous guitar, while on the closing magisterial slow blues ‘Wait A Minute Baby’, Strauss’s brusque guitar tone dwarfs his own slightly mixed back vocals, though he sensibly lets the track breathe enough to let the lyrics resonate.
He dives deep to uncover real feel in a variety of blues related subjects, no more so than on ‘World Crisis Blues’ in a welcome alignment of blues with current affairs.
It’s a fine track, but has a curious disconnect between the weight of his lyrics and the outright swing-led celebratory arrangement.
That’s not to say blues shouldn’t be fun, or that meaningful topics shouldn’t have an accessible musical feel. But it still feels a little surreal to groove along to Thomas Feldmann’s celebratory harp-driven swing, while Kai sings: “You know the world is in a crisis, from Houston Texas down to Rome.”
It’s a minor hiccup on an otherwise excellent blues album with a double mission statement. He eloquently confirms that Euro blues has an identity of its own and that blues is an all inclusive emotion any person can feel.
‘In My Prime’ shares every aspect of that enduring emotional connection and the enduring musical genre as a whole. ****
Review by Pete Feenstra
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