THE HOLLYWOOD BLUE FLAMES "DEEP IN AMERICA" Source: Blues In Britain Magazine Date: 06/2010 Writer: Mick Rainsford

This follow-up to “Road To Rio” once again presents a double CD featuring live archive material from the genre defining Hollywood Fats Band plus another stunning set by the band’s reincarnation as the Hollywood Blue Flames with the great Junior Watson and the burgeoning talents of Kirk Fletcher replacing the irrepressible Michael Mann on lead guitar.

The Hollywood Fats Band comprised Al Blake (vocals/harp), Fred Kaplan (piano), Larry Taylor (bass) and Richard Innes (drums) with Fats’ laying down lead guitar that was to influence a whole generation of blues guitarists – his creativity, fat tone and unique phrasing setting the standards for what has  now become known as West Coast blues.

“Larger Than Life Vol 2” presents Fats, and the band, in all his glory with classic tracks like Tampa Red’s “She’s Dynamite” with it’s “old school” piano and harp flourishing with the stark contrast between Blake’s downtrodden vocals and Fats’ swinging fat-toned guitar. 

In Fats’ hands even instrumental classics like Freddie King’s “Hideaway” are reinvented as he owns rather than imitates the number – “Blues After Hours” is quite simply a masterclass by a virtuoso of the genre – “Half Steppin’” is fired by wonderful jazz inflected guitar and piano – whilst “Read About My Baby” is a wild stomper with Blake’s vocals at full throttle underpinned by a thudding backbeat and Fats’ uninhibited fat-toned guitar.

One track links the two sets, “Nit Wit”, which on the Fats’ set is a slab of wild rock’n’roll replete with manic piano and pure r’n’r guitar – whilst on the Blue Flames’ set it becomes a swinging West Coast blues with hip vocals, eccentric guitar (Watson) and bone-shaking piano.

“Deep In America” features the Flames in various settings from solo performances to duo, trio and full band settings with all of the artists showing an innate appreciation and mastery of a wide range of blues ranging from the Estes feel of Al Blake’s “Music Man” with it’s downtrodden vocals and sprightly harp – through the slow-rocking Muddy styled “He’s A Blues Man” – to the good-time New Orleans instrumental stomper “Crescent City Rock” where Kaplan and Fletcher excel – to the sleazy west Coast blues of “National Enquirer Baby”.

Al Blake wrote 8 of the 14 tracks on offer and he has that unique ability to write songs that sound as if they are lost treasures lifted from the archives of some of the blues’ greats.  “Rambler & A Rollin’ Stone” with it’s declamatory vocals, moaning harp, “in the alley” piano, hypnotic bass and shimmering slide melds elements of Estes and Nighthawk – “Leavin’ California” finds Blake and Kaplan recreating the legacy of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell – whilst “Bad Boy Blues” is delivered in a laconic Sonny Boy No 1 style with Watson and Fletcher laying down Robert Junior Lockwood styled guitar.

“Jalopy To Drive” is pure Sonny Boy No 1 replete with fine Black Bob styled piano – “Hip-Hoppin’ Toad” finds Blake solo in Short Stuff Macon mould – “Hushpuppy” finds Kaplan (solo) in jaunty mood recalling Maceo and Sykes at their finest – whilst “Rocky Mountain Blues” finds the band permeating Sonny Boy with a dash of swamp blues.

A double CD – twice the delight!