Self release [Release date 15.09.23]

Canadian rock bluer Garret T. Willie has a wise head on young shoulders and it goes some way to explaining his song craft.

His 7 studio cuts co-written with bassist Parker Bossley are full of potential, but don’t always have the consistency to successfully make an emotional connection or otherwise with real life experiences. This means the album feels like a very promising work in progress.

The 3 “live off the floor’ cuts also suggest he has a fierce post-George Thorogood bluster which will serve him well on lengthy tours.

Perhaps because of the contrasting styles, the album sounds less of a crafted organic work than an aggregation of studio and live songs.

Willie has an impassioned vocal style which stretches from a rich baritone to a road tested husk and he knows enough about phrasing a lyric to bring his own stories alive.

‘Same Pain’ offers us glimpses of singer-song writer who straddles a contemporary roots-rock style with thunderous rock-blues bluster. And in doing so, he inadvertently shows us that he’s a much better song writer in the former genre than the latter.

Perhaps the above explains the apparent attempt to incorporate every facet of his talent into opening ‘Make You Mine’.

There’s a foot stomping, riff driven intro and a beefy ‘call and response’ vocal which gives the track a greater sense of urgency, before he unleashes both barrels of his slide and wah-wah talent.

And yet he feels the need for a stuttering tempo change to usher in a belated screaming solo which is given a perfunctory finish.

He’s at his best on the title track, which once you get over the shock of his Johnny Cash low register phrasing, leads us into a swampy atmospheric number with some sharply contrasting sinewy guitar. It’s all predicated by subtle dynamics and is framed by a shimmering tremolo sound.

He juxtaposes this album highlight with the equally good ‘What It Means To Me’, on which his voice is cleverly mixed into an ambient acoustic wash. His rich gothic baritone hovers over the track like Brendan Perry on one of the best Dead Can Dance tracks.

The mix of acoustic and sculpted slide lines is offset by an earthy vocal which perfectly captures the raw emotional nuance of feeling isolated. It’s the closest he comes to nailing his unique oeuvre rather than the more obvious power slide blues bluster.

The following riff-led and Stones influenced ‘Rolled’ comes with the vague pun of the title. The song is a compromise between his own musical direction and the ever present pull of a blues, as he settles into swampy groove with evocative lyrics, sumptuous harmonies and some gnawing guitar.

If there’s a weakness with the album as a whole, it lies in the flow which is hindered by the stop-start nature of the material. For having brought together 3 impressive tracks which all mellifluously run into the big fat groove of ‘Rolled’, it’s only his youth defying baritone and illuminating lyrics that rescue the rather pedestrian boogie ‘Black Shiny Shoes’.

A sudden tempo change (much like that on ‘Make You Mine’) ushers in a belligerent solo. It taps into a restlessness which at times feels as if he’s ever ready to break out of the album mould.

To that end, the live sledgehammer slide blues of ‘Out In The Rain’ blows away any remaining cobwebs, though it feels like a thin reworking of ‘Red Rooster’.

The first part of ‘So So Long’ also recalls ‘Love In Vain’, but with a more brusque vocal style that could be Toronto’s David Bacha.

The song slips also into a full band workout on a subtle layered arrangement with slide, organ, and an impassioned vocal line; “No one can save you from yourself”. This is then beautifully eclipsed by a Hawaiian sounding slide figure.

The closing brace of live tracks, ‘Good Time Woman’ - which evokes Elmore James, refracted through George Thorogood – and the booming shuffle of ‘Front Street Blues’ act as portal to his rip roaring on stage sound.

In sum, the album might have benefited from a more original finish. That said, his songs and vocals tick most of the boxes, while he saves the full gamut of his guitar playing for the rock blues material.

‘Same Pain’ showcases a nascent raw talent whose next step lies in firming up his musical direction. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)

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