‘S.A.D.’ was Billy Jenkins’ first album with the Blues Collective. As the
terrific musicians of the Voice of God Collective flourished in their own
careers, Billy took a long overdue path back to his roots, at the same
time developing his talents as a singer. The result is a more pared back
guitar-based sound from the Voice of God exuberance, while losing none
of the caustic Jenkins punch. The first couple of tracks set the pace and
tone. The order of the day is fast characteristically ascerbic guitar-work
while Jenkins lends a new meaning to the term ‘blues shout’. ‘Pissed off
boy’ is pure Muddy Waters after a few lager-tops. Rapid guitar thrash threaded
around funksome harmonica by Whispering Gerry Tigue. ‘Every night you turn
away’ is a fine slow blues on a whiffy blend of harmonica and Dave Ramm’s
keyboards, incorporating an extended solo on Billy’s guitar at its most
BBesque. ‘Where did I stay last night’ is a more medium tempo number bemoaning
the thrills of touring. ‘I’m on an island’ betrays Jenkins’ free jazz sensibilities,
with a much looser feel to the earlier tracks; the deep dark ‘Where are
you’ and ‘I’m stuck on you’ continue the theme of powersome guitar over
incessant harmonica and organ beatfulness. The up-tempo instrumental ‘Walking
back to crappiness’ is the first of three tracks joined by the Fun Horns
of Berlin: ‘Jazz had a baby’ mixes off-the-wall brass flapping along to
twiddle-finger fast guitar; ‘Give me the money quick’ shows all the band’s
thunderous forces blazing, with an extra guitar thrown in to add to the
buzz The closer, ‘Goodbye blues’, more of an appendix, is a lo-fi live
recording and sounds like an attempt to capture the original recording
conditions Blind Lemon Jefferson had to put up with- "I’ll be back someday"
is just about discernible: and he was back, to where the blues first raised
its gloomy gin-soaked nose.
This was Billy’s first album as out and out lead singer and so it is no
surprise that his guitar skills take the fore. He runs the stylistic canon
through Peter Green and Clapton, via Buddy Guy, Paganini and Ornette Coleman.
Chorus after chorus plunges and quivers, as Billy shows he can fit fifteen
notes into half a beat with the best of them. At the same time he makes
full use of the simplicity of the blues, framing the musical phrases with
stripped, functional work from his sidemen. British blues of course has
a sumptuous history, taking in the Stones, Hendrix, Cream, T Rex, the Goodies
and Basil Brush. An artistically successful modern blues album can either
be suitably derivative or clearly expressive of the blues as evident in
modern life. ‘S.A.D.’ is a believable album on both counts, pointing the
way to many more years of the Blues Collective as a state-of-the-art purveyor
of real music for real people played on real instruments. So far it hasn’t
particularly caught on in the industry as a whole, but we can hope, can’t
we?
