Snowy White - Driving On The 44.
SNOWY WHITE
DRIVING ON THE 44
(Soulfood)
8.5/10
By Paul Davies
As laid back as a cherished bottle of wine, Snowy White has emerged from his music cellar hiatus to pour forth another beautiful serving of vintage blues. Driving On The 44 is unmistakably a Snowy White album of relaxed riffs, graceful grooves, and soulful blues from a guitarist whose cool tone and blues phrased technique is a trademark of a gold top musician. With former Jeff Beck and Chris Rea keyboard player Max Middleton adding his inimitable palette of colourful sounds, along with Ferry Lagendijk, instrumental opener Freshwater delivers a slinky blues-jazz panoramic atmosphere with drummer Thomas White laying down a soulful groove and White locking in on bass, which he also plays throughout this album, it’s time to kick back and savour this album’s long finish. This company of musician’s musicians produce a masterclass of instrumental brilliance couched within unforgettable compositions. Longtime Blues finds White letting loose with a sorrowful riff that finds better company in a deep fuzzy sound signature over which he solos as he protests that ‘I’ve still got that feeling I’m living with my Longtime Blues’. The cutting social commentary about hate speakers protesting how hard-working people should live their lives on Down In The Dark finds Snowy deftly delving into political waters with a catchy arrangement as electric piano and guitar trade empathetic blows. Whereas the title track charts a road story of bittersweet romance found and lost on travels into the heart of America. It’s wrapped in a beautifully presented parcel of soundtracked music with slide guitar to the fore.
Then there’s an old-school blues lament on Blues 22 that reflects on the modern mores of personal relationships that, in the song’s lyrics, bewilders White as he resorts to playing a sizzling blues solo. Each track is a moment in time of classy songwriting and musicianship where the band dips into traditional blues tropes and limitless musical explanations. On mid-album numbers Ain’t No Secret and Keep On Flying, Snowy lays down his law of living a better life and with that guitar tone who could argue? The bluesy organ vibes to One Man Girl are about as up-tempo as this record manages to get and it's belter in contrast to the jazz-blues shuffle on Slinky Too - another instrumental touch of class in which nothing is overplayed or fussed over. Closing out this remarkable collection of ten tunes is the minor chord funk slide, with a wash of wah-wah, of Lady Luck (So Mean To Me) on which Snowy White never needs to stretch his vocals throughout these fifty-six minutes of timeless music.
