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Sunday 17 July 2011

Random Review #82 Chris Thomas King - Me, My Guitar And The Blues

C9S8CD7 picked by @dazlee1 the wise all knowing owl of twitter, with a great musical knowledge.

Chris Thomas King was originally known as Chris Thomas and added the King in tribute to his Blues Heroes Albert, Freddie and B.B. King. Much as I believe the mark of respect I also think this would also place Chris Thomas King’s CD’s smack bang in the middle of these giants in the music racks and that can’t be a bad thing.

Chris Thomas King is a Blues talent but I sometimes think he has made some choices more to do with seeking commercial success rather than belief in his music. Let me explain. CTK had a small part in O Brother Where Art Thou? On the back of it he released an album ‘inspired’ by the movie. It has a sepia photograph on the cover of King in his film costume and he subtitles the album as the work of Tommy Johnson (his caharacter in the film).The content is acoustic blues that befits the film and is good stuff. I also have 2 albums of Rap Blues that have titles like Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues, Mississippi Kkkrossroads and N Word Rap, King has covered Big Yellow Taxi and What A Wonderful World on other albums and I guess what I’m trying to get at is I think that King will do whatever his record company think will be a success and I’m sure that may have hindered Kings career rather than helped it.

This album is a confusion of both styles I have mentioned he is still wearing the ‘Tommy Johnson’ outfit on the album cover but giving Albert Kings Blues classic Born Under A Bad Sign a rap make over. King plays all the instruments on this album and the tracks are a mix of originals and classic Blues covers. It’s a good Blues album, King is a good blues artist but it’s not a great album and I don’t think King will release a great album until he has decided which style is really him.

King has continued to dabble in acting playing Blues guitarist Lowell Fulson in the Ray Charles biography, Ray that starred Jamie Foxx. I last album I bought was released in 2006 in the wake of the New Orleans hurricane disaster and the cover had an artist imagine of the damage done to New Orleans and a guitar placed in the middle.......need I say more!

Mark 6/10



This trakc isn't on the album but is a reflection of what King does best, melodic blues infused pop, ironically this track has been released on 3 of King's albums and this recording is pre his re-naming.


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