Some of you will know Tom Rodwell as Chairman of the Lord Taverners and writer of cricket novels, but this in not that Tom Rodwell, this is the blues musician one. You really need to dip into this complex album, of exploratory blues recorded totally in analog, at Roundhead Studios in Auckland New Zealand on The Who's old Neve console and with no digital conversion, As it went down straight to tape, it was co-produced by Tom Rodwell and the musical magician Raphael Mann.
The opening Don't Be A Fugitive All Your Life has a deep southern blues feel to it, in this case the deep south is Auckland New Zealand, as this slow careworn blues that wags a finger at the fact at some point we all have to answer for our misdemeanors.
Keep On Knockin' feels quite sinuous in both the guitar and percussion, laid back and yet not quite supine as you keep on looking for the right door to knock on, as he quotes William Morris and his News From Nowhere the guitar seeks to take us somewhere else entirely.
Plenty Time opens like a spare dub exploration but with vocals that are a bit David Byrne like, as the guitar becomes more exploratory and the music sounds more late night expansiveness with the odd tremble or two.
Carry On seems to re-work Bruce Springsteen's Fire into a sparse blues with some cool gospel style backing vocals from Colleen Davis.
Touch Me Like A Teddybear has a nice grizzled feel to it, that might worry some people, to have that grizzled voice saying you should Touch Him Like a Teddybear, but as soon as the guitar breaks free it's reasonably clear that this isn't some horrific scenario and much more of a cuddling on the sofa deal or is he really a furry?
She Got Me Boiling has shuffling percussion like the pot is just starting to simmer and things haven't gone ballistic just yet, but as the song goes on the temperature keeps rising and no amount of palm Wine Guitar is going to calm the nerves or ease the tension in the air.
Small Town builds on the ideas that Lou Reed and John Cale expressed when talking about the Small Town that Andy Warhol grew up in and fled from, to find the freedom to express himself properly, this has a languid and quite elastic feel to it.
Make Believe makes you feel like you're slowly floating down a very calm river watching the world go by as the sun dappled water shimmers by in a welter of carefully placed percussion.
The album closes with Dead End Road a slow pensive blues that's full of memories of the days that mattered to Tom and this record should also matter to the listener.
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