Masterpiece.
Guitar player /singer Findlay called this third CD his debut, because he mixes his jazz with more rhythm ’n’ blues and funk than on Fraser’s Dream and Manna.
His thoughtful melodies are full of unexpected tempo changes, measured funking rhythms and fiery guitars. Sometimes these genres blend, sometimes they grind profoundly against each other.
He sings emotionally on top of grooving blues riffs and quirky southern rock, adding equal parts of Steely Dan, Little Feat and New Orlans funk. It seems as if he leaves them simmering on the backburner.
That way thoughtful, rootsy songs emerge, which are just as cross-grained as they are harmonious. His intriguing intros immediately set the tone and because he keeps his songs comfortably short they are strikingly catchy, despite their rich melodies.
Connecting elements are Findlay’s organ and guitar, on which he plays solos with a strikingly languishing tone. Furthermore, they are just as intense as short, because he never loses himself in aimless virtuosity.
Throughout his CD, Findlay feels at home in the American South, in Way down in the cold’s subdued swing just as much as in the fierce, measured blues-jazz of High water, a critical tribute to New Orleans. That way this Canadian musically oversees the promised land that he never set foot in yet.
The fact that this more than average talented do-it-yourselver played all instruments in eleven of twelve songs and also produced his CD, proves all the more that he knows where he wants to go.
That he already released Fairplay independently in 2006, does not make that less true: shortly he will release his fourth CD.
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