THE INSOMNIACS "AT LEAST I'M NOT WITH YOU" Source: Blues In Britain Date: 05/2009 Writer: Mike Rainsford

The Insomniacs “At Least I’m Not With You” is also a second release, but this time for Delta Groove Music – a follow up o their critically acclaimed “Left Coast Blues”.

In Vyasa Dodson the band have a natural and great blues singer, a guitarist who reminds me of a young Junior Watson, and a fine songwriter to boot.  The band, featuring Dean Mueller (bass), Alex Shakeri (piano & B3) and Dave Melyan (drums) are tight and swinging – and are augmented by special guests of the quality of Jeff Turmes, Al Blake, Mitch Kashmar and Joel Paterson.

The band open with Memphis Slim’s “Lonesome” which is transformed into a West Coast swinger with percolating B3, Hollywood Fats’ styled guitar and features a hot harp solo from Al Blake.  Johnny Otis’s “Broke And Lonely” finds quirky, mesmerising guitar and swinging piano riding a “clip-clop” beat – Little Richard’s “Directly From My Heart To You” features deeply soulful vocals underpinned by reverberating guitar and baying horns – whilst “Maybe Sometime Later” is a sleazy grinder with Dodson’s guitar salaciously straddling the mix.

Mitch Kashmar’s harp melds mellifluously with Dodson’s stark guitar on a killer rendition of Junior Wells’ “Hoodoo Man Blues” – “the instrumental “Angry Surfer” sounds like a wild Surfaris with elements of The Routers and Twist overtones – whilst “Baby Don’t Do It” strays into big band R&B territory with Dodson again in tremendous form, vocally and instrumentally.

Add in the quirky rock’n’roll of “She Can Talk” – the 50’s styled R&B of the title track, which melds elements of Fats Domino and Johnny “Guitar” Watson – and the manic “Insomniacs Boogie”, and you have a set destined to further enhance the reputation of this already popular band