Search - Bobby Radcliff :: There's a Cold Grave in Your Way

When you can play guitar as fast as Bobby Radcliff can, there's a natural temptation to cram as many notes into a song as possible, and there was a time when Radcliff was guilty of such excess. In recent years, however, the bluesman has disciplined himself to play in syncopated patterns that offer fewer notes but stronger grooves. The payoff can be heard on There's a Grave in Your Way, a marvelous blues album which makes the connection between John Lee Hooker's boogie and James Brown's funk. Radcliff tosses in occasional bursts of fast picking, but these always reinforce the beat and never obscure it. Radcliff has a modest voice, but he has turned that into an effective rhythm instrument, too, by forcefully shouting on the beat. The album includes tunes associated with Hooker, B.B. King, Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam, and Buddy Guy but also those linked to Brown, Tyrone Davis, and Kool & the Gang. By playing both the rhythm and the blues, Radcliff makes all these songs sound like parts of the same tradition. On numbers like Guitar Slim's "Got Something for You" and Bill Doggett's "Hold It," Radcliff boils the tune down to a hard-hitting, twisting syncopation that's pure pleasure. --Geoffrey Himes