Album Notes

The savvy Mike Bruce's exquisite lead licks wander all over the place, defying the usual restrictions and poking around in places where few others have the imagination, or the chops, to go. With Mike Dragoo wailing out his vocals from behind crashing cymbals and thumping skins, the Soul Avengers are an unusual and consistently entertaining bunch with a repertoire that is always fresh and inventive.

You're never quite sure where they're going from song to song, but you're happy to be along for the ride. You'll find a perfect example of the group's inspired eclecticism here, in tracks taken from sessions recorded with former Mike Bruce bandmate David Teegarden (of Teegarden & Van Winkle and Bob Seger fame). The Bruce, Dragoo and Munson version of "Can't Stand the Rain," for instance, not only evokes the Memphis soul of its original singer, Ann Peebles, but also the tight and tough Chicago blues licks that Bruce often employed during his years in the touring band of R&B great Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Even the Beatles get an authoritative Soul Avengers reworking in "Don't Bring Me Down." And then there are the group's originals, indicating that the three not only work great as interpreters of other people's work, but turn out some top-drawer original material themselves. -John Wooley, Entertainment Writer, Tulsa World