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Miles Davis, Eminem, Nikka Costa, Dr. Dre and Everlast (ack!) and Bruce Hornsby (double ack!). What do they all have in common? Not much except John Bigham has worked with them all. He also performed with funksters Fishbone for eight years.
But a sideman no more, you may now address Mr. Bigham as “The Soul of John Black.” And if you expect anything that sounds like any of the above, think again because JB these days is singing the blues. And if you are a diehard blues devotee, it might be best to mosey on down to Plush on Friday, May 18 to see him do his thing, because his music is like a veritable blues music meat, veggies and cheese sampler. Only the cheese is wrapped around the carrot sticks and there are chunks of paté in the dip. This may sound messy and in a way it is. But admit it, a true foodie loves sampler platters because we can get so many flavors into our mouths in such a short period of time.
Bigham clearly loves the blues – all kinds and its offshoots. In his sophomore release, The Good Girl Blues (Yellow Dog Records), he takes a lot of the old and mixes it up with the new and throws in a little funk, a lot of soul and even a tiny bit of hip-hop flavor. And if you know the blues in all of its different stages, you’ll hear snippets of everything from Buddy Guy and Leadbelly to Al Green all over rock, funk and hip-hop beats.
The influences range from the more basic feel of Chicago blues (not my favorite sub genre) in “The Moon Blues” to the pulsating and downright dirty soul of “Fire Blues” (quite nice). The album meanders in sound, but the unifying link is a soulful touch and a sensual, OK, let’s just say kind of dirty vibe.
“Moanin’” is just that – soulful, wordless moans instead of lyrics. It sounds like a lonely, slow death in excruciatingly oppressive heat (in a good way, of course) accompanied by just a single acoustic guitar.
The lyric-free “Slippin’ & Slidin’” combines languid slide guitar with a slow hip-hop beat and subtle synthesized sounds.
“The Hole” starts out sounding like a slow, sun-baked, southern spiritual/work song. That is, until the upbeat percussion kicks in and suddenly it’s sounding more like Gnarls Barkley jamming from dusty rocking chairs on a porch in the early evening. Moonshine jugs at their sides. Nice.
That’s right, you will hear Cee-Lo in the vocals, but you will also hear a little Ray Charles and Al Green lilt in Bigham’s voice. He does a good job of bringing the soulful vocal feel of these old masters into his work without making it sound like he is mimicking anyone.
One thing Bigham says he is not mimicking is the wanky guitar solos that oft work their way into modern blues. He explains, “The best solos are melodic; people should be able to whistle anything you play.” Thanks, JB. ‘Preciate it.
However, though “Feelins” brings a more energetic hip-hop beat with a funk groove and slide guitar, the last quarter of the song suffers from the wank guitar syndrome that he spoke out against. And the rest of the album isn’t without blemish either.
“One Hit” laments a woman losing her looks by overindulging in vices of the white powdery variety. It’s basic and we’ve heard it before, but could have been salvaged with some creativity. Instead, it suffers from a strange synthetic sounding bass sound, which detracts from the song and beckons your finger toward the fast forward button. If that bass sound was just a little more raw, OK, a lot more raw, the song would have the chutzpah that it sorely needs.
Overall, the songs are there for the most part, but some of them just need a little extra juice. The production doesn’t take any risks and therefore songs that could hit harder don’t. And it always pains me to hear an album that could be really good suffer from weak production, but it happens. And if Bigham truly is “(the harbinger of) a new brand of soul” (per Rolling Stone), then he deserves a coach and knob twiddler that isn’t afraid to unleash the hounds.
But the good news is that the man seems to be going in a good direction. And there’s a good chance that a live Soul of John Black show may just crank things up to where they should be – boiling over with chutzpah, cajones and creative magma.
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