Todd Wolfe Blues Project - Live From Manny's Car Wash (1999)

Review

Todd Wolfe spent five years playing guitar behind pop songstress Sheryl Crow. Now he fronts his own band, a strongly blues-based rock outfit whose first recording, Live From Manny's Car Wash, delivers heavyweight guitar heroics from the old school. The players are finely tuned and capable of expressive dynamics: bassist Eric Massimino and drummers Yves Gerard and Paul Unsworth don't sound strictly like moonlighting rockers, while keyboardist Mike Lattrell, with his supportive rhythm work and strong soloing, is a tremendous asset. Wolfe's guitar sensibility is a rock 'n' roller's, bringing a searing quality to the band's Cream-y explorations. That's a useful point of comparison for Wolfe's style: Drop the needle (as it were) anywhere on Live, and you'll hear strong echoes of Eric Clapton's playing. Wolfe has adopted the legato note-cramming and highly ornamented approach of latter-period Clapton. He's imaginative, varying his attack song by song, and it's refreshing to discover a guitarist who doesn't smack of Texas or the West Coast. Wolfe's tone isn't far from Clapton's, though judging from the high noise level in his signal, his compression comes from a high-gain amp rather than from his pickups. Wolfe doesn't sound like a natural singer, but he gives a spirited and relatively unmannered performance. The set list is a traditional, with selections such as "Same Thing," "Evil," "I Can't Quit You Baby" and "Homework." A high-energy "Stop Messin' Round," from Fleetwood Mac (possibly via Gary Moore), keeps the Brit Flag flying. Wolfe shows his songwriting hand only on "Four Walls," a Son House-style Delta slider arranged for a band, and the excruciating warp-speed power boogie "On the Run." So Live serves as a calling card, introducing Wolfe and his guitar but revealing little of the artist. For many that will be enough, and this is quite a good album in "gunslinger" terms. TOM HYSLOP

Credits:
Guitar/Vocals: Todd Wolfe
Bass: Eric Massimino
Keyboards: Mike Lattrell
Drums/Back Vocals: Yves Gerard
Drums {1,2,5,7}: Paul Unsworth

Tracks:
1 I Can't Quit You Baby (Dixon) 7:08
2 Evil (Dixon) 6:19
3 Stop Messin' Round (Adams, Green) 2:55
4 On the Run (Bryan, Lawrence, Massimino, Weintraub, Wolfe) 4:28
5 Same Thing (Dixon) 11:24
6 You Gonna' Wreck My Life (Burnett) 8:17
7 Four Walls (Wolfe) 4:44
8 Homework (Clark, Perkins, Rush) 4:25
9 Eyesight to the Blind (Williamson) 8:24

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