Delta Generators Blues-Roots Band Caps Triumphant

Year With Release of Striking Debut CD

“Devil in the Rhythm”
With their blues and elements of ..Louisiana..funk, ....Memphis....soul and 1950s rock ’n’ roll, the Delta Generators provide the big blast of fresh air the blues-and-roots scene in the Greater Boston metropolitan area has needed for years. Their self-produced new first album, Devil in the Rhythm, flows over with shining technique, musical intelligence, and honest emotion—this gem needs to be heard by everyone who claims some interest in top-grade roots music. The Delta Generators also deliver the goods in concert, having won the 2008 Boston Blues Society Blues Challenge.

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Taking top honors at the Blues Challenge last summer was no small achievement: the Delta Generators bested seven of the most popular bands in the region to earn the right to represent the Hub in the Blues Foundation’s prestigious2009 International Blues Challenge next February in ....Memphis.....

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Delta Generators bass player Rick O’Neal says, “The band was formed and built on the chemistry of four players.” Indeed a special telepathic rapport informs the music the band plays on the new album and in clubs throughout..New England... Rick, singer-harmonica player Craig Rawding, guitarist Charlie O’Neal (Rick’s brother), and drummer Jeff Armstrong show the fire and confidence of a long-established group. But, no! They’ve actually been together just a year, with Armstrong taking over from original drummer John Perkins (he got married, moved west) last January.

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Rarely do blues fans in any part of the country get to hear a debut album in which tempos and moods are shifted compellingly across original songs. The welcome spontaneity of Delta Generators-style blues on the four-star Devil in the Rhythm derives in some measure from the tracks having been recorded with all the musicians together at the same time in a basement studio. “We pushed Craig off to one corner of the room,” notes Rick. Two winter weekends recording in basements nailed it; Perkins appears on two album tracks, Armstrong on seven.

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The Delta Generators extract new life from the well-traveled I IV V blues progression by adding levels of urgency or relaxation, and by steering clear of clichés. With his strong and appealing voice, Craig shows faith in his own instincts for drawing conviction out of the smart lyrics he’s supplied to nine crackling good songs whose music the band composed. Like the singer, Charlie communicates a great sense of uplift in his sure-fingered slide guitar work, building tension to the max impressively. Rick and Jeff are always vital to the excellent musical health of the group, full of drive yet quick to grasp the importance of subtlety in blues expression.

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If there’s any justice in the world, album opener “Hand Me Down Blues” will draws serious attention at songwriting competitions and award shows. This pounding, straight-ahead romp, glorious in its simplicity, finds Craig laying down the law to some deadbeat in a forthright, don’t-mess-with-me way.The spirited musicians echo every one of Craig’s flammable articulations.

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Charlie really lets it rip on “That Evil,” a take-no-prisoners homage to ....Chicago....blues houserocker Hound Dog Taylor, who generously gave the world “Give Me Back My Wig” and “Walking the Ceiling.” The Greater Boston area probably hasn’t heard such a mighty ruckus since the 1970s, when slide wizards Hound Dog and J. B. Hutto torched Joe’s Place in ..Cambridge.. and ..Sandy..’s Jazz Revival in ....Beverly..... “Straw Dog Strut” smacks listeners upside the head with another dangerous sonic blast of slide guitar. This exciting salute to the late great Elmore James (Hound Dog Taylor’s mentor) is also memorable for Craig’s passionate singing. Go figure--the song title may or may not refer to the violent Sam Peckinpah-directed film Straw Dog in which the meek character played by Dustin Hoffman stood up to several vicious thugs.

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In two quick minutes, title track “Devil in the Rhythm” cleverly acknowledges the “good time” 1950s “when Buddy Holly had his say” and the likes of Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, and Chuck Berry launched a new musical rage called rock ’n’ roll. The no-nonsense “Bone Orchard Blues” does a slow grind, making connections with the idiosyncratic music of Tom Waits. Craig sings “All Good Things Must Come to an End” using two persuasive approaches: first, he rather matter-of-factly explains how life plays out, then, he ratchets up a go-for-broke intensity. Many bands exaggerate feeling, but these guys do not.

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“Read My Letter” is a change of pace. It’s an unsentimental love song in a country music-meets-blues mode that differs from the other tracks because it makes use of studio overdubs, such as additional guitar tracks. The production is just right, neither showy nor fussed-over. Rick O’ Neal calls the slow blues “Never Satisfied” an “addict’s anthem.” He explains the emotional tone of the tune: “No matter what they try, it doesn’t satisfy them.”On that song, Charlie’s slide guitar cuts to the heart of the matter with human voice-like wails. Rick mentions how “Somebody’s Got to Pay Your Bond,” the slowest and longest song on the CD (at five minutes), is “sort of a slow cooker that never boils over….It’s like the sleepy morning after….What the hell happened last night?”

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The Delta Generators, who have been widening their fan base by doing club dates all over New England, from ski country in ..Vermont..and ..New Hampshire.. down into ..Connecticut..and ....Rhode Island....,may be fairly new band but its members are all seasoned pros with impressive resumes. For starters, Charlie and Rick played in Ben Orr’s band as teenagers(Orr used to be with the popular new wave band, the Cars) and they’ve done lots more since, together or independently. Craig was with the Boston R&B institution Heavy Metal Horns. Etc. Etc. But probably nothing they’ve done before compares with what they’re up to now.

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The sky’s the limit for the Delta Generators. “We’d love to be touring more than just regionally,” comments Rick, “and get bigger distribution for our album.” No doubt good things will happen sooner than later for these four talented, committed players.

****THE DELTA GENERATORS WILL BE AT THE DIVE BAR IN WORCESTER ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21****

www.myspace.com/deltagenerators