Pete Feenstra chatted to Laurence Jones for his show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio. First broadcast 17 September 2023.

Marshall Records [Release date 25.08.23]

‘Bad Luck & The Blues’ is Laurence Jones’s ninth release in all and it’s a cracking hard rock album by an archetypal power trio.

It’s an old school album with modern rock sensibilities, crafted by the subtle use of space and time, succinct songwriting and catchy hooks.

He may have been hedging his bets with an album title still rooted in the blues, but this is a balls out hard rock album in which a sometimes grungy update of 70’s riff heavy rock always supports the songs.

There’s also an important attention to tonal detail as evidenced by the slight fuzzy distortion of the title track and the more grainy sound on the closing ‘You’re Not Alone’.

LJ mentions Robin Trower and Hendrix as influences and you can also add the technical ability of Gary Moore to that list. He emulates all 3 in passing, but this is all his own work powered by a blistering rhythm section.

It’s an object exercise in supporting a variety of songs which never over outstay their welcome and are drawn together by incisive licks, potent hooks and always an elemental groove.

Everything is built from the ground up, from Laurence’s’ mission statement about his new found rock direction, to drummer Ash Sheehan’s (The Twang, Glenn Hughes Band & Dead Sea Skulls) power house attack and versatile phrasing which provides the free flowing tempos of a kick ass rock album.

Bass player Jack Timmis (Virgil & The Accelerators) provides the perfect foil with dynamic layering, from low-end drones to supporting riffs and a myriad of subtle textures.

Then there’s Laurence himself, whose vocal style is never forced, as he gently hovers over a variety of material that consistently rocks hard and finds a perfect balance between his incisive riffing and catchy hooks.

And if his riffs sometimes subliminally reference Sabbath, as on the sludgy ‘I’m Gone’, it is still a good exemplar of his ability to resolve a tension with a coruscating wah wah.

‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ extends the Sabbath influence into a Hendrixy wah wah, refracted by a Trower style smooth and thick toned chiming riff with later note flurries.

Jones’s self production also cleverly makes use of sonic contrast, most notably on the Metal feel of ‘Stuck In The Night’ on which he opts for a double-time change at the 2.52 mark, suggesting a restlessness, while the booming rhythm section drives the band into perfunctory outro.

‘Woman’ is almost funky, as he slips from a mixed bag opening into an explosive Purple style burst.

The production is nicely complemented by Chris Sheldon’s subtle mix which refreshingly pays equal attention to the vocal and guitar solos, while constantly placing Sheehan’s percussive drive at the centre of things.

A song like ‘Woman’ is defined by the sheer power of the trio who wig out on a wah-wah avalanche, before a drop down to the basic riff and a rebuild with Sheehan’s tom-toms and cymbal crashes, which takes them back to the groove.

The title of ‘Take Control’ could almost be a mission statement for the album as a whole. It’s a rhythmically more complex piece on which drops straight into Laurence’s opening wah-wah flurry. And as the sound fattens, a grungy rhythmic drone asks much of his vocals which he answers with aplomb.

Then as if to emphasize the flow of the album, the following ‘Out In The Distance’ reworks a ‘call and response’ dynamic between the vocal and guitar riff, with a slight echo on the voice.

The hard driving closer ‘You’re Not Alone’ re-states the hard driven approach, as Jones imperiously slips through the gears from steely riffs to supportive rhythm playing and ultimately expansive solos.

The fact that he’s pushed all the way by a rhythm section who sound as if they have been with him all his career, speaks volumes about the organic feel of an excellent hard rocking album. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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