Alive Natural Sound Records, 2007
http://www.myspace.com/blackdiamondheavies
Reviewed by Jimmy “Explosive Diarrhea” B.
I was not an easy or willing convert to the blues. It was the rocking top forty hit-makers like The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, as well as friends’ generosity and suggestions (thanks Kloghole!) that finally convinced me to give the blues a serious listen. The blues, like all extreme/brutal music, is non-uniform. The blues can be fun and innocuous, like Robert Cray or BB King’s smooth blues. Or, there is the Son House, and Sonny Terry blues that make you want to crawl inside a whiskey bottle, slit your wrists, run away, check out or otherwise withdraw and disappear into a haze of despair.
The Black Diamond Heavies have more in common with the primitivist style of Sonny Terry than to Robert Cray. The Heavies are John Wesley Myers on bass and keyboard, and Van Campbell on drums. Notice there is no guitar player. The use of bass and drums gives the Heavies a dark brooding sound that is the perfect accompaniment to Myer’s scratchy, whiskey drenched, Tom Waits styled vocals. The musicianship on “Every Damn Time” is hard to gauge due to the rough style, and rough production. There are moments of clarity on the record when something will break free of the mud, such as a drum fill that is anything but bluesy. But, blues is not about musicianship; it’s about feeling. And, the Heavies play with feeling.
The lyrics on Every Damn Time are typically blues. Life, as we all know, can be a depressing beat down, with moments of happiness sandwiched between selling our labor and giving up our creativity for someone else’s profit and catastrophe. The Heavies write about relationships gone awry, being broke, having a fucked up piece of shit car, and a love/hate relationship with cocaine.
I suspect that the Black Diamond Heavies are a band that you will either love or hate. If you like brooding music, depressing lyrics, and Tom Waits vocals give them a listen. What else does a blues fan need?
I tickled my taint for 8 minutes
Thanks for the introduction. I have been enjoying their CD. Interesting video. The Tom Waits vocal quality is quite endearing to me.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting review for me. You see, I saw this band several years ago when they were a three piece. Myers only sang two songs. Every thing else was sung by a guy named Mark Holder. He was a very very large man that sat in a chair, sang and played the harmonica. They were heavy as shit. The giant man with the great voice and the harp was a really great singer and harmonica player. I have the little self-made EP that I bought at the gig, it is called "you damn right" and has 6 tracks. Weird, I always wondered what happened to them and I guess you answered that question.
ReplyDeleteWait, the third member sang, played harmonic and ripped the shit up with slide guitar. I forgot, it was a long time ago. I found some new footage of them together but couldn't find any old footage from when he was in the band. He did rip the shit up.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq-rYhmN4sg
The Heavies have another release that I haven't heard yet - I think it came out in 2008 (or maybe 2009). I am going to see if I can chase down the e.p. you mentioned.
ReplyDelete