Album review: SELWYN BIRCHWOOD – Exorcist

July 7th, 2023 by petefeenstra

Alligator Records [Release date: 08.06.23]

Selwyn Birchwood is the epitome of a young contemporary blues contender who has learned his chops in the old school way through touring.

He’s nurtured his tone, honed his vocal phrasing and he’s worked on his narratives which stretch from relationship songs and moments of occasional introspection to the art of story telling.

He’s equally good as a singer and guitar player with the ability to get inside the song and seize the moment.

Baritone and tenor sax player Regi Oliver is a significant presence, while the band’s tight interplay is flanked by frequent ‘call and response’ bv’s, on an album that eloquently mixes funk, blues, soul with occasional hints of fusion and reggae. Selwyn accurately describes this wide ranging crossover style as: “electric, swamp, funking blues.”

Tom Hambridge’s production captures the band’s natural energy and he polishes the solos and frames everything with tight arrangements that still allow the songs to breath.

All that’s really missing is a few memorable songs which Birchwood makes up for with some cool lyrical lines. These range from the opening vitriolic lyrics of ‘Done Cryin’ – “I have to buy me a silver spade, to bury all the love that we made, I wouldn’t leave a single trace, And I’d plant dead flowers on that grave” – to the polar opposite optimism of ‘Plenty To Be Grateful For’: “It’s not difficult to find a reason to be mad, but I’m telling you it’s just as easy, to find a reason to be glad.”

‘Done Cryin’ also acts as a template for the album as a whole. The use of contrast between the opening sinewy guitar line and his gruff, but warm timbre, and earthy horns works perfectly on a broken relationship song on which Byron Garner’s bubbling percussion cleverly suggest an underlying turmoil. He resolves the musical tension with interwoven guitar work with a shimmering tone.

His use of language is also sharp as a tack; “I was there to catch you, but now that I’m gone, you only have your arrogance to break your fall.”

On other occasions his muddies, his tone and counters that with a more restrained vocal. On the buzz tone-led ‘Horns Below Her Halo’, his guitar solo has all the power of water bursting through a dam, and acts as a counterweight to lyrical mundanity.

The supernatural title track is an adventurous jazzy, reggae and crisp toned affair over a sumptuous horn arrangement with a ‘Hit The Road Jack’ backing vocal motif.

He goes on to find the perfect balance on the self affirmative ‘My Own Worst Enemy’, where any residual self doubt is blown away by his aggressive vocal and intense guitar work over an another mesmerising horn accompaniment.

Selwyn Birchwood’s blues has an authenticity because he sings about what he knows, in neatly balanced songs born of experience and imagination.

He may not be big on outright emotion, but he doesn’t hold back on ‘Florida Man’s track with a lyrical newspaper headline feel and a gnawing guitar tone to his slide solo.

On the other hand, he’s unafraid to be reflective as on the jazzy guitar and staccato word plays of the autobiographical ‘Underdog’, when he tells us he is: “An underdog, Understated, Undermined, and Underappreciated.”

Musically it’s very close to mid 70’s funky Zappa fusion feel, while his ripping slide guitar embodies the anger and frustration of someone who he tells us: “worked twice as hard to get half as far.”

The noirish ‘Swim At Your Own Risk’ has a claustrophobic feel which he never quite leaves behind during the course of an album that builds and then resolves lyrical and musical tensions.

And it’s the way he resolves those musical moments that gives the album its spark.

The band impressively leans into the uplifting ‘Hopeless Romantic’ with real zest, on a perfect melange of guitar, horns and percussion.

‘Exorcist’ is an album on which the individual players beautifully support the whole, even when there’s a line-up change on both the Dobro-led lilting shuffle of ‘ILa view’ and the undulating swing of ‘Call Me What You Want To’.

The latter features the subtle contrast of Selwyn’s enveloping dirt toned guitar and Jim Mckaba’s sweet piano.

His use of biblical imagery on the gospel tinged ‘Lazarus’ feels almost lazy, but the song builds impressively on the back of Ed Krout’s funky Rhodes and Hammond and leads to an exquisitely toned solo by Regi Oliver which brings real heft.

‘Exorcist’ is a contemporary blues album shot through with all shades of blues, funk and plenty of soul.

It’s neatly book-ended by foot stomping instrumental called ‘Show Tune’. The feverish tempo gives the number a Blues Brothers feel, as Oliver adds some grainy sax work alongside Birchwood’s B.B. King style vibrato. The latter’s tremulous tone occupies the role of his own absent vocal.

As on this track, so with the album as a whole, the blues speaks to us in many ways. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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