East Nashville's Black Diamond Heavies combine the best New Blues traditions of artists like Kenny Brown and Elam McKnight with Jimbo Mathus' 'shine fired bottom-of-the-hill country blues and the Black Keys aural sonic senses and backroom basement know-how. Their new six song blues thesis earns a hard and easy 22 carat A+. Now, I gotta admit on average I got about as much use for a keyboard tickler as I do a harmonica blower. Neither one to my experience knows when to shut the hell up and let it breath. I now stand corrected. By gawd if The BDH's John Wesley Meyer has not opened my ears that I might see. J.W. rolls the ivories around the dirt floor barrelhouse one song, spreads out a sweet b-3esque spackel where wanted on another or so and takes it to wednesday night meetin' when the service calls. Strap that to a ten pound tin of Port Arthur Texas-sized whoopass and you got yerself a problem you can make work. Drummer Van Campbell hails from Kentucky and All Hail a drummer that doesn't bore me nor piss me off. The man is one a few i've heard in some time that understands the drummers secret is one foot on the edge of the grave and the other down on the metal pedal pounding through like Henry's hammer. Ol' Mark Holder knows for real sure how to squeeze every drip of lemon and greasy fat butter out of that guitar then knock you in the damn head with the dish (or tub depending on the knock needed). He'll sneak up behind y'all to do it too! A tough soulfull singer that honors his rural Tennessee raising. The disc trots the line from track one Hambone (which hangs in one of our top 3 songs of the year here) a hell raisin' shout-out to Black Betty (Bamalam!), Ol' Black Mattie Ass Pocket of whiskey style to a cover of Tom Waits Down Down Down (which I guarandamntee you will be the soundtrack to monkey knife fights country wide) and a head peelin' slide workout called No Doctor. We all had some suit try and sell the year of the blues back to us. I'm sure some non-player got paid. But I reckon we got some celebrating to do still with outfits like The Black Diamond Heavies, Gravel Road, Jimbo, Elam, Hill Stomp, Chris Cotton, Snakedrive and the rest of our world-wide brothers and sisters makin' damn sure it's Not The Same Old Blues Crap. I must hope and believe these new folks have and will come to be the blues world's Nirvana ridding the blues once and for all of the SRV aping white-boy overbitin' leather britches wearin' wankstas.

Black Diamond Heavies are off to a bigass start and will no doubt rank within' the top five records of the year in my world.