THE INSOMNIACS "LEFT COAST BLUES" Source: Big City Blues Magazine Date: 12/2007 Writer: Gary von Tersch

It sure didn’t take very long for Portland, Oregon’s Insomniacs quartet to make a strong impression on the Northwest blues scene and their debut project for Delta Groove lets the world in on Portland’s little secret. Led by youthful singer/songwriter (a very good songwriter) and formidable guitarist Vyasa Dodson with a rhythm section of bassist Dean Mueller and drummer Dave Melyan along with keyboardist Alex Shakeri, the Insomniacs deliver high-voltage, jump and swing slanted blues of the highest order. Slow, more deliberate numbers like an after-hours resonant version of the Five Scamps’ R&B hit “Stuttering Blues,” the downbeat, organ-soaked “Wrong Kind Of Love” and the forthright declaration “I’m Not Sorry” are especially ear-catching.

While their instinctual ensemble interplay betrays the decided influence of West Coast legends like Hollywood Fats, Pee Wee Crayton and Junior Watson, the Insomniacs are clearly in a league all their own. Although rooted in that earlier playful but pugnacious sound, Dodson originals like the Chuck Berry, rhumba-rhythmed “I Got Money,” the seductively melodied, sparks-flying “Stick Around,” a swinging-all-the-way masterpiece “Shake The Chandelier,” the relentlessly percussive “I’ll Treat You Right” (that’s sure to get the feet and hips in motion) and the surf beat-oriented, swooping instrumental “Crime Scene” put a fresh spin on things with colorful musical nuances and asides in abundance.

A pair of bonus tracks, recorded live last March at the “What Love Is” movie industry premier after-party at the Avalon in Hollywood, California, wrap affairs up nicely, A reprise of Dodson’s composition “Serves Me Right,” with an on-the-money vocal and some inspired guitar and organ punctuation is followed by a sprinting redo of Mr. Google Eyes’ Okeh label classic sizzler “No Wine, No Women.” Left Coast blues at its ambitious, contemporary best.