Album Notes

In which a blues prodigy grows up and rediscovers the Beatles...In 1998, 19-year old "Monster" Mike Welch was already an eight-year veteran of the Boston and international blues scenes, but he found his writing taking new and surprising directions, and his listening tastes expanding beyond the confines of the traditional blues genre.

Suddenly, Mike's songs became infused with the knotty wordplay of people like Elvis Costello, the chime and shimmer of the Beatles, and the rock swagger of the Rolling Stones and Black Crowes. His B.B. King and T-Bone Walker-influenced guitar started taking on shades of Cream- and Dominoes-era Eric Clapton, and he was left with an EP worth of material that wouldn't fit on any blues record.

He took his then-current band - Jack Hamilton on organ, Brad Hallen (Aimee Mann, Ministry, Susan Tedeschi, Roomful of Blues) on bass, and Warren Grant (the Lydia Warren Band) on drums, and recorded the CD for sale here.

The songs represent several new directions for Welch, from the Byrds-meets-Clapton-meets "Revolver" chime of "Switchblade," the anthemic "Heaven Knows," the Pretenders-like "Long Way Down," the Exile-like strut of "Shame on You," and the pure shot of power-pop that is "Tempting Fate." Also included is a loving tribute to 60's soul heroes Booker T. and the MG's.