Jon Amor Blues Group – Jon Amor Blues Group

site| buy

The Jon Amor Blues Group is technically Jon Amor’s solo band under a different name and a wholly new flavour. Doherty brothers Chris (bass) and Dave (guitar) plus drummer Simon Small, all originally loaned from local Wiltshire outfit Hitchmo, have backed Amor for a number of years now for recording and touring his varied solo outtings prior to this switch back to blues. That said, there’s not really that much blues to be had on their self-titled debut. Most of the songs, to varying degrees of success, focus on raw riffs and the kind of energy very obviously captured by recording live in a room together, than they do on the traditional motifs of the blues. Long-time fans hoping Jon’s re-focus on blues following the reformation of The Hoax would lead him back to the sound of the old Amor band which gave rise to post-Hoax classics like 24 Hours, Hit So Hard and Even After That may find themselves a little disappointed here. Instead this is more akin to an electrified, muscular version of his solo work, with that same ear for a quirky groove. Try to suggest Juggernaut here hasn’t come from the same pen as Drowning or Headspin, or that Make It Your Trouble doesn’t have the same poetic lyrical naughtiness as Stitch In Your Party Dress. On the guitar side, because the blues always has the guitar side, the leads are, although unmistakably Jon Amor, a lot rawer than they used to be on the Amor records. It’s all indicative of an album recorded in just seven days, genuinely bringing the feeling of the sessions to the finished product. There are mis-steps, like a dirgy Repeat Offender, but tracks like Juggernaut, upbeat rocker Underdogs and the one true blues track of the album When The Time Comes are amongst some of Jon’s energetic best, while his lyrical abilities continue to mature with every release.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Blues, Quick.Play Reviews, Jon Amor Blues Group