Album Notes

Here it is... at last! The long awaited new album by the Zeeman that captures much of the magic and spontaneity of his live shows and arrives drenched in his sometimes subtle, sometimes gut wrenching and jaw dropping but always tasteful guitar work. Stevie spent the best part of the nineties in the U.S. based out of Portland, Oregon moving back to London, England in '96. In 2001 after more than four years of touring England, Ireland, France and Spain and having already started work in England on an album of original Zee tunes provisionally entitled 'Blue' Stevie decided to move to Madrid, Spain where he is now based because as he explains: "I had itchy feet, I needed a change of scene and I'd always wanted to learn to speak spanish.... I'd always thought of Spain as a very romantic place since my childhood and of course it doesn't rain as much as in England!" After gathering together a great little band of top class spanish R&B musicians he decided spontaneously to cut an album, "Because I knew I had the ingredients and I wanted to capture the vibe of the band by recording some tunes in Box Studio which is one of the top analog studios here in Madrid... and it was an opportunity to invite some of the best blues musicians I'd met and played with since moving to Spain." The title of the album 'Caballero' came naturally according to Stevie, "It's kind of like a souvenir of the amazing times I've had travelling and playing here and that's also what they happen to call me around these parts. Things are going well and I've had the opportunity to open for both Johnny Winter and John Mayall recently as part of their European tours."
On this new disc Stevie proudly displays his blues roots and finally responds to endless requests for him to record a few of his favourite blues songs by some of the artists that have influenced and inspired him over the years.
Stevie opens up the album with a daring up-tempo version of 'The Sky Is Crying' going straight for the jugular with his trademark rocking blues strat+wah sound. The guitar man follows up with a Dobro version of Sunnyland Slim's blues classic 'Highway 61' and featuring top Spanish blues harp virtuoso Ñaco Goñi. Next cut Stevie and the band tear through another cranked up version of a blues classic by Jimmy Reed, Stevie shows off his superb slippery slide work and winds up trading licks with Ñaco's harp 'live' in the studio. 'Painted Angel' is a melodic masterpiece of acoustic and electric guitars, piano, percussion and harmony vocals that showcases Stevie's songwriting talents beyond the twelve bar blues format. Then he boldly takes on Jimi's 'Red House' a sizzling slow blues impassioned with breathtaking blues chops and dynamic control. Mister Zee is king of the blues shuffle and sure knows how to swing hard... and his rendition of the 'T-Bone Shuffle' is no exception as he steers the band through a rousing version of the classic T-Bone Walker tune. Wheeling out a scintillating version of Jeff Healey's 'Can You See The Light' Stevie Zee nods his hat to one of his finest contemporaries. But this unique version takes the song even further out into the strato-sphere with solos round the entire band and an ending to make your toes curl! 'If you Love Me' is a song that has also been in the Zee repertoire for many years, Stevie takes the opportunity to enjoy a lengthy guitar workout bookending the song with some familiar Freddie King riffs. To round off the new disc the Zeeman treats us to a couple of original tunes guaranteed to rock your socks off, 'Stone Cold Valentine' a raunchy and atmospheric instrumental will have you in a cold sweat and before you have time to recover he delivers the final punch with 'Sorry Some Day' a knockout up tempo boogie in which Stevie becomes three different guitar players trading choruses with himself and showing unquestionably what a master stylist he is... leaving us breathless but smiling.
So here it is folks, the latest bloozed out offering from cult blues rocker Stevie Zee. It's been a while but our Caballero finally delivers the goods. The odyssey continues...