Powerless is the second album by London based Indian blues sensation Ajay Srivastav who mixes Mississippi Delta Blues with the Varanasi Ghat blues, now while I own loads of records from Mississippi I have never visited, but I have visited Varanasi and don't recall buying any music while I was there, but to be by those magical Ghats on the banks of the Ganges once more would make me feel blessed just as much as this album will make you feel blessed listening to it.
The album opens with The Line that takes a similar Asian blues approach to Urban Turban (the Swedish based band and not the London based food company) in this case marrying some good delta blues to tabla and Double Bass and sounding very intoxicating as the message of hope comes from within the lyrics.
Innocent People is a slow blues cry for understanding and better treatment of all the innocent people caught up in the machinations of the powerful, this is a cool plea for peace and a better world with some very cool and carefully picked national steel Guitar.
Powerless adds violins to the sound as Ajay asks where is the hope and promise of a better time that the disenfranchised hope for, an end to hostile environments and pointless barriers to progress. We all need to join Ajay in this fight for a better world.
Bed Of Arrows slows things down a bit as this song of sorrow and pain unfolds like they are relaxing on a Ghat as this tribute to a friend who could be lying on a pyre beside the banks of the Ganges about to return to the source unfolds.
Break The Circle is a song for change to completely re-invent how the world works before his next re-birth with some really tasty blues picking and gently intoxicating Tabla and brushed drums.
Holy Mother is spiritual blues for the spirit mother and the holy Ganges and everything that river means with meditative chants and bewitching violin and the gentlest tablas hoping to bring us redemption and a brighter world.
One of the singles from the album Golden takes an almost Rolling Stones style blues rocker, adds lots of Indian influence to this road trip of a blues song, where he's going down to Rishikesh and the confluence of the Chandrabhaga and Ganges rivers rather than the crossroads like Robert Johnston and so ends up feeling Golden, as he's alive and hasn't sold his soul to the devil.
The Path may well lead from Shivala Ghatt to Durga Temple, or it could just be choosing the right path through this life we lead, over a slow contemplative violin led blues, this is chilled out and insightful as Ajay almost becomes our guru in time for his Guitar solo.
Count Your Blessings has a hymnal spiritual blues feeling of hope and thanks for all the great things we have in our lives before getting too caught up in all the sorrow and pain, so never forget to Count your Blessings as you listen to this incredibly beautiful tune.
The album closes with Shanti the Hindi chant for peace, this is sung like the prayer it is, with the tablas violin and guitar adding an intoxicating rhythm for us to meditate too, this a very relaxing end to one of the more captivating new blues records I've heard in a while.
Find out more at www.ajayhq.com https://fanlink.to/ajaypowerless https://www.facebook.com/ajayhq
