PHANTOM BLUES BAND "OUT OF THE SHADOWS" Source: Jazz & Blues Date: 05/2007 Writer: Ron Weinstock

Best known as the band that backed Taj Mahal on several award-winning recordings, The Phantom Blues Band finally has a handsome disc of its own that will certainly will make
even more people aware of this superb group. The seven members of the band have a wealth of experience playing with a who’s who of pop and rock music ranging from keyboard whiz-vocalist Mike Finnigan who was on Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland album and toured with Dave Mason to guitarist Denny Freeman who was sharing guitar duties with Stevie Ray Vaughan before being part of the Antone’s House band and currently is in Bob Dylan’s touring group. Saxophonist Joe Sublett and trumpeter Darrell Leonard are known as the Texacali Horns, guitarist-vocalist Johnny lee Schell had a lengthy tenure with Bonnie Raitt starting in the late seventies, bassist-vocalist Larry Fulcher had stints with
Smokey Robinson and the Crusaders as well as reggae groups Third World and Andrew Tosh while drummer Tony Braunagel has too many credits as a producer to list. Producer John Porter has let them wax a number of classic R&B numbers with a dash of reggae added that should go down easy. From the opening funk groove of The Meters’ Do
the Dirt, they go on to the Memphis Hi Records groove of I Only Have Love, the rocking reworking of Don & Dewey’s Big Boy Pete, a fresh reworking of Chuck Berry’s Havana
Moon, Flasher’s handling of a reggae classic, Book of Rules, and solid takes of blues from Jimmy McCracklin, Bobby Bland and Ray Charles. Finnigan especially is a terrific vocalist and Schell and Fulcher are very good with some terrific playing (listen to Freeman solo on Part Time Love). Perhaps the only shortcoming is that this album is of covers, although few acts can perform the range of material they do or inject the band’s personality into the material. Few will be disappointed in this disc of solid blues and rhythm numbers masterfully played.