Search - Eugene Blacknell :: We Can't Take Life for Granted

Therapeutic Funk for "Hard Times"!

Soulful Annie | Bay Area, California | 12/15/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rest assured Old-School Funk aficionados, this album will NOT be found in your local Wal-Mart or Starbucks. This is organic California-grown Funk from back in the day, made by REAL musicians, playing REAL instruments, which sadly took about thirty years to get to market. And though this music is decades old, the sound is still fresher and tastier than most of the artificial music product coming off the assembly line today.



Eugene Blacknell was an East Bay guitarist, writer and composer who passed in 1990, leaving a virtual treasure chest of unreleased material to his wife, Lillie, and son Gino. (from liner notes), "Gino approached Ubiquity Records in 2006 with the idea of releasing an album while attending a party for the Bay Area Funk compilation in San Francisco." Following that fateful meeting, a labor of love resulted in this album, consisting of help from Eugene's family & friends, remastering by George Horn at Fantasy, and produced by Ubiquity (Luv 'N Haight).



The playlist is divided into thirds with the following description:

Tracks 1-8; "Early Years, From R'N'B To Raw Funk"

Tracks 9-13; "Transition To Big East Bay Party Sound"

Tracks 14-23; Experiments With Blues, Soul, and Disco. Unreleased Exclusives & Live Clips"



Personally, I would include tracks #8, 15, 16 in the PAR-TEE category. Tracks 8, 10 are Sly Stone-ish happy sing-a-long Funk pieces (perhaps Sly attended some of Eugene's performances, as did Tower of Power members); While 15, 16 (my favorites) are tight, FULL-speed FULL-throttle FUNKY PARTY JAMS!



In addition to Blacknell's genius guitar work, there are OUTSTANDING performances on drums, organ, and bass from various members of his band, the New Breed (though it's not listed who played on which songs). There are several instrumental tracks, and admittedly there are a few raw, unpolished jams, but I expect some listeners will nevertheless appreciate the pure honesty of the music, as I do.



(Also included is an informative fifteen page booklet of liner notes and photos.)



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