Michael Osborn was John Lee Hooker’s guitarist for 13 years (I do remember seeing him with The Boogie Man at London’s Hammersmith Odeon) and he has a respectable discography himself, with three albums for Blue Rock’It between 1988 and 1996, and now releases on his own Checkerboard label. It certainly shows on this release, which is definitely modern blues but without any of the vacant posturing that term sometimes implies. He began his blues career working with the Ford Brothers and in 1970 was a founding member of the famed Charles Ford Band (who recorded for Arhoolie).

That he has got the chops is in no doubt from this straightforward blues set. There are echoes of Hooker’s spikey guitar style (most notably on ‘Needles And Pins’), but for the most part the playing recalls the likes of BB King and Alberts King and Collins, though usually with a little more down-home ambience, thanks to the stripped-down accompaniment of just bass, drums and harp. Lead vocals are shared between Dave Jackson on four songs, KG Jackson on three numbers, and Michael himself on just one, and the occasional use of harmonised lead vocals adds a fine individual sound. Most of the songs are originals but there are a couple of nice surprises. Whilst the opener is best-known from The Fabulous Thunderbirds and is a fine, slightly New Orleans-ish rocking piece, ‘Lollipop Mama’ is an excellent cover of Clarence Samuels’ 1947 Aristocrat recording.

I enjoyed this CD a lot – it is pleasing and unpretentious. Mike recalls in his notes that Hooker told him: “You can play a lot of notes and think you’re dazzling them… give them melody and feeling…” On this evidence Mike took note.

Norman Darwen, Blues and Rhythm Magazine, UK