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MITCH
KASHMAR "WAKE UP & WORRY"
Source: Blues &
Rhythm Magazine
Date: 09/2006
Writer: Phil Wight |
Mitch
Kashmar’s Delta Groove debut release ‘Nickels
& Dimes’ was a big hit with the music
press and shifted a skip load (that’s a
dumpster for you guys and gals Stateside) of product
over the counter. This is the all-important follow
up and I have to say the guy is going from strength
to strength! Kashmar tackles a twelve-track set
consisting of his own originals with several covers,
including ‘Dead Presidents’ and ‘Up
The Line’, both associated by Little Walter
(former penned by Dixon/ Emerson and the latter
by Walter).
Number one on the grid is ‘I Got No Reason’,
a hard charging slab of harp led West Coast swing.
Fred Kaplan tickles the ivories, Junior Watson
delivers a brawny rhythm line and the whole affair
drives to a thundering conclusion. ‘Dead
Presidents’ mines the mother lode laid down
by Little Walter, Kashmar makes it sound so easy
while delivering a devastating attack. Like a
touch of whimsicality? Then the Latin inflected
‘Green Bananas’ is definitely for
you! ‘Don’t buy any green bananas,
you won’t be around that long, you better
get on the phone, call Forest Lawn, sing your
sad song’. ‘Funky Dee’ is a
mellow, late night jazzy instrumental, with Rusty
Zinn on steppin’ on that wah wah pedal and
Kashmar on chromatic, coming in at nearly six
minutes it’s maybe a tad too long though.
The title track ‘Wake Up & Worry’
features yet another axeman, this time John Marx
steps up to the plate to play a relaxed rhythm
and chorus behind Kashmar’s full toned harp.
Maybe it’s time to mention just how good
a singer this guy Kashmar is, always relaxed,
never forcing the issue, just how he has not received
long overdue acclaim is a mystery. ‘Night
Creeper’ is a real downhome piece that could
have been waxed in any number of indie studios
in the South in the 1950s. Rudy Toombs’
‘Half Pint-A-Whiskey’ works up a real
party atmosphere in the studio with a squad of
singers and hangers on drafted in to supply the
party atmosphere.
Kashmar’s vocals and harp are backed only
by Alastair Greene’s National steel guitar
on ‘Black Dog Blues’, it’s in
a style that, as Scott Dirks points out in his
notes is a hold over from the immediate post-WW2
years and the dawn of the big indie studios in
Chicago. Producer Randy Chortkoff (he also supplies
first position harp and backup vocals) penned
‘You Dogged Me’, it’s Jimmy
Reed style with Rusty Zinn providing the all too
important guitar part. With Jim Calire providing
the bottom end on baritone sax, Kashmar wades
in on chromatic harp and demonstrates his devastating
tone and attack on ‘Up The Line’,
another early 1960s Little Walter song.
Organist Bobby Watley provides the Hammond B3
and vocals on his own composition ‘I’m
Sorry’, John Marx renders pretty jazzy chords,
Kashmar blows jazz inflected harp and Cynthia
Manley and Jessica Williams warble prettily in
the background. Jim Calire puts aside his sax
and holds down the piano seat on the closer, ‘The
Waddle’, a sinuous instrumental that I’m
pretty sure would have become a dance craze if
it had been released as a 45 in the 1960s.
I have to mention here the rhythm team of Rick
Reed on bass and Richard Innes on drums, Innes
in particular is one of the finest, if not the
finest blues drummers on the West Coast. ‘Funky
Dee’ apart, all of the songs come in under
five minutes, no eight minutes plus mini epics
that quickly run out of steam. And for the gentlemen,
the lovely ladies on the cover are a delight!
Long touted by his peers, stand up Mitch Kashmar,
take a well-deserved bow to your audience and
let’s see you as soon as possible over here
in the UK headlining at one of the big festivals. |
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