B.B. King
Blues On The Bayou

I might be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that this is B.B. King's favorite album among all his works. Financial ability permitting, it seems like a good guarantee to convince us to spend 20 euros, right? But that's not enough for us. We want to form our own opinion.

That the album is special is clear from the start. An instrumental track. Trying to have a clear idea of what exactly B.B. King's official discography is, is not easy; in any case, if it's not the first instrumental track ever, it's one of the few. It's a bit melancholic (well, it's a blues), but at the same time, it flows easily. The second track starts with the same keyboards as the first one (identical in timbre), but it completely changes direction. First of all, it's fast and rhythmic. It's cheerful. And then it's sung. It has a nice walking bass. Not a bad start. The sounds are very beautiful. There's a great job of recording and mixing, you can feel it. And you will feel it throughout the album. "I'll survive" is a dragged-out blues, but the contrast between the instruments and the singing is beautiful, the latter being a voice engaged in the attempt to pull the cart. Just as the first slow track was followed by a fast one, the same happens with the fourth. A sustained rhythm of a danceable blues. A kind of slowed-down rock'n'roll. But deep down, the origins of rock are right in this music. We calm down and listen to "Blues man." The structure follows the canons of blues to the letter. Even in the lyrics. In short, a blues that couldn't be more blues. The speed rises again in the sixth track. But isn't it done on purpose, right? "Broken promise." Nice and carefree. Very pleasant, basically. Guess what? Of course! The seventh piece is slow. Okay, it's done on purpose, and indeed, anticipating the rest of the tracks, I tell you that this "rule" will repeat for all the tracks except the last one. "Darlin' what happened" someone might call it predictable. It doesn't have much melody. The arrangements aren't particularly special either, but oh well, in the end, it's a blues with nothing to demand. Certainly not annoying. Then comes the rhythmic "Shake it up and go." This song isn't one of the best either, but it's noted for the classic blues choruses that repeat the guide voice's phrases.

Track number nine is another instrumental. B.B. King seems to want to surprise us. He succeeds indeed, although in some points of this piece, it seems to echo "How blue can you get?" The title is "Blues we like." The next track is "Good man gone bad" and talks about a man telling his woman not to try to trick him because the fact that she believes she's smarter than him is just an illusion. It's a good excuse for a piano solo. "If I lost you" fails to restore vigor to the album, which for a few tracks now seems to have lost some ground. "Tell me baby" isn't a high-level track, but it manages more or less to bring back some energy. The next two tracks return to being well-produced and played, but they have nothing particular and remain good background music for an evening at the pub but nothing more. The last track, excluding B.B.'s "farewell," is also an instrumental, and, partly due to an insistent rhythm, partly due to the bass phrasing, it becomes a piece that finally rises above the average.

The album doesn't excel as some of B.B. King's others. However, without a doubt, if you want to listen to some proper blues, you can put this CD in the player and be sure that you'd also make a good impression playing it to a friend who is approaching the genre for the first time. However, a review must be able to distinguish between a well-made album (and this is magnificently produced) and another that contains significant compositions. "Blues on the Bayou" doesn't contain many of those, but it's a beautiful blues album.