Good Christian blues.

I knew not of Danny Brooks. I was watching Nite Lite Live last week and you were a guest. You touched my heart and soul. No doubt Jesus is carrying you and I so would like to be present at your upcoming performance just to be in the same room with your powerful spirit. God willing I can get my brother from Montreal who is so wounded and broken to come to your performance Feb. 24 and soak in your music so that your message can hopefully touch him. Plese let me know details for that concert and how I obtain tickets. May you stay in the Light. Gratitude, Colleen email: colleenhoney@hotmail.com

CD - Danny Brooks: No Easy Way Out By theprimer on December 16, 2007 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) This is going to sound horribly like a broken record (no pun intended) but here we go again - another solid slice of southern R&B from a very fine singer / songwriter that is yet again in great danger of being unjustly overlooked by the UK record buying public. Not that it's entirely their fault - as far as I can tell, there is no UK distribution for this latest release from Danny and so if you want to get hold of a copy, your best bet is to pick it up from his own website. His last release ("Rock This House") was an excellent record, again undermined in the UK by a lack of a distribution deal. This one is even better - recorded in Nashville, produced by Johnny Sandlin with contributions from some of the Muscle Shoals elite, including David Hood, Spooner Oldham, Kelvin Holly, Scott Boyer and Bonnie Bramlett, it's another very fine slice of Southern R&B, blues, country and gospel. What makes this release a worthy successor to its predecessor is that, if anything, the songwriting is even better. Opening with 'Ain't That The Truth', a tribute to Danny's many heroes that he managed to see live as a kid in downtown Toronto, the album achieves a fine balance in terms of both tempo and mood. Any number of the ballads are worth highlighting and the Shades favourites include 'All God's Children', 'Miracles For Breakfast' and the title track, which features guest vocalist Bonnie Bramlett. Up-tempo standouts include the opener and 'Bama Bound' (a heartfelt tribute to the American South), What hold all of this together of course is that trademark Brooks vocal - gruff, gritty and sincere, it drags you into the music and holds you in its emotional grip from start to finish. It has been said that maybe it's a voice that needs to ease down, smooth out a little, to generate genuine commercial appeal - there might be some truth in this view, except of course that would completely miss the point of what makes Danny's music so compelling. His best yet - fresh and vibrant but never straying from his musical heritage. Roots music that pays tribute to the past without simply recreating it. Until or unless you find this on UK distribution, you can get it by clicking on the "Buy Now" link under the CD image - it will definitely be worth the effort.

MAPLE BLUES: Danny Brooks: No Easy Way Out (Rockin' Camel Records) For a man whose passion has been the music of the American South, recording there with this crew must have been a dream come true. Some names you may be familiar with are David Hood on bass, Bonnie Bramlett on backup vocals and Spooner Oldham the keyboard player and contributing writer to many of the songs we remember. But the main name here is Johnny Sandlin, the producer and at whose Duck Tape Studios in Alabama the sessions took place. Those of you familiar with Danny's last two albums will know what to expect here, with catchy new songs firmly in that southern tradition. Having said that, the opening song is a heartfelt paean to all the fine music he's seen and heard here in Toronto, from the Colonial days to the present. If I were to choose a single from the album it would be "Bama Bound", an anthemic rocker that would make Springsteen proud. The title track is a solid blues, extolling the virtues of hard work over easy expectations. A fine new song that captures how he sees his faith is called "Where Sinners and Saints Collide", the idea for which came to him at the Blind Boys of Alabama/Susan Tedeschi show at Massey Hall recently. "All God's Children" takes its cue from the Percy Sledge songbook, about a waitress who was probably not as happy as she seemed. "Lonesome Road", with its bluesy title and instrumentation, builds to the gospel intensity that a couple of the others songs have as well, "Miracles for Breakfast" and "Carry Me Jesus". There really aren't any weak songs here and you'll be humming a couple of them long after, as I was. The playing is stellar, with drummer Billy Stewart deserving special mention. There are far too many players here to credit them all but Danny's raspy vocals, guitar and harp are front and center, as they must be and deserve to be. Rockin' Camel is a new US company that has been advertising this album and a number of others in the blues press all summer. I hope his new availability will be a huge career jump. The music here is certainly worth it.- by John Valentyne /Maple Blues