Big
Mamma's Door @ Ain't Nothing But... 3/7/08
While we at Bluesin London might
make much of the more wonky or innovative blues-mongers plying their
trade around this fair city, there is plenty to be said for tucking
your trousers into your socks and just cramming into Ain't Nothin'
But... to soak up the sweaty atmosphere. It's atmosphere that is
largely generated by whatever band is making the joint jump and,
like a pressure cooker, it just gets hotter and hotter in there. ANB
is the only place to go and hear electric blues every night
of the week in London and it is something of an institution
regardless of whether you manage to get inside or not.
Big Mamma's Door packed in
a notably crazy crowd last week and proceeded to roll through three
sets of diverse and well chosen but not obvious tunes. How often do
you hear Clarence Carter's Snatchin' It Back? Or Freddie King's
superb, almost-poppy What About Love? Exactly.
I've seen Malcolm Barclay
play guitar a number of times and he always impresses. Looking not
unlike Mephistopheles thanks to a nifty, almost twirlable moustache,
his great combination of taste, touch, and tone lift tunes out of
the ordinary and imbue a solid rectitude to proceedings despite
looking like he's just cutting loose and having enormous fun. When
combined with the consistently great piano and organ of Joe Glossop
the rhythms are blooming marvellous and the solos marvellously
bloom.
Rob Porkorny helmed the
drums with notable aplomb and while I might be a sucker for double
basses, I must concede that there was nary enough room for 'Big'
Andy Roberts to play one seeing as he took up most of the stage. He
is not small.
Fiona McElroy Whipped the
crazy crowd into a clamour and is enjoyably more Etta James than
Janis Joplin in her approach. Her gutsy vocals were matched by
playful Irish banter between numbers and she ably fronts the band
and engages the crowd. Sharing a few songs with Malcolm gives BMD
breadth and interest and the crowd had no choice but to enjoy things
enormously. They got drunk and danced!
It can be a fine line
between electric blues and rock so it is to Big Mamma's Door's
credit that things never ramped up or got rocky. A lot of bands
might be tempted to descend into extended jams to eat up the time
but they kept swinging and mixed in some fine soulful sounds and
cheeky numbers like Don't Feel My Leg.
Besides being a welcome
addition to the roster at ANB they play in and around London and
deserve a much wider audience. Go see for yourself!
David Atkinson (Blues in
London)
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Big Mamma's
Door - CD - Open For Business
What a beautifully cool
album this turned out to be!! Starting as a regular jammin' band
these bluesters soon realised that they had something special going
on and, seemingly, Big Mamma's Door was born. Specialising in the
slick R&B side of the blues, Big Mamma's Door keep it all very real
here - low key, what you see is what you get. And what you get is
well worth a little looksee!
Big Mamma's
Door comprise Fiona McElroy (vocals), Mal Barclay (guitar), Joe Glossop
(keys), Big Andy Roberts (bass) and Rob Pokorny (drums); a coming
together of five like-minded bluesters to form one slick entity. 'Open
For Business' is cleverly a low key production insofar as Big Mamma's
Door are allowed to be heard much as they would be if you saw them live.
I love the fact that these 'guys' do R&B in the manner that I remember
it being before the tag got somehow sideways kicked towards the street
soul idiom. This is good old 50's proper Rhythm & Blues, not the
soul-less heart-less pop of the 00's ; real blues with real rhythm - do
I have to say more? I don't think so!! Big Mamma's Door have compiled a
gloriously rich set of eight classy blues 'standards' here; they cruise
their way through each and every track and sound like a well oiled,
precisely assembled unit. I could well imagine Big Mamma's Door groovin'
away on some street corner, pulling in massive crowds and entertaining
everyone that come into contact with them. They have that friendly,
approachable feel about them!
Big Mamma's
Door don't get bogged down with 'arty-farty improvisations or 'look how
fast I can play this' interludes - Big Mamma's Door play with undivided
unity, as one, they play for each other rather than for showboatin' and
ego building - don't you just love it when a band sticks to the
job-in-hand!! Big Mamma's Door show here just what can be done by
sticking to the basics and refusing to get drawn in to the
all-too-common instrumental 'blow-outs' - 'Open For Business' certainly
benefits from the band's honest, down-to-earth approach. No, there's
absolutely no room in this unit for a prima donna or show-off. Big
Mamma's Door take it back to basics and the music is all the better for
it!
My only
criticism is that the album is just too short; less than thirty minutes
in total - just as you really start to slip into their groove it all
comes to an abrupt end!! Without doubt I was just starting to get really
into 'Open For Business' and then....silence and disappointment! Oh
well, such is life! Anyway, 'Open For Business' by Big Mamma's Door is
an extremely workmanlike and honest piece of work - a slick and
sensitively handled bunch of great songs - polished and wholesome,
robust without being overly bulked-up, tantalising yet somehow familiar
- like an old fried come to stay and going over old stories but putting
a new slant on them. A rich and rewarding eight track outing from a real
honest-to-goodness blues band. Tasty, very very tasty!!
Peter J Brown aka toxic pete
www.toxicpete.co.uk |
