REVIEW: LUKE WINSLOW – KING: BLUE MESA (2018)

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Maybe it’s the glorious summer that the UK is still basking in, but I am typing this as the sun goes down in late evening and the sound which Luke Winslow-King is creating has never sounded more perfectly suited to the mood than it does right now. The title track to “Blue Mesa” is floating out of the speakers and there is absolutely no urgency here at all.

Sonically at least, you can forget that you hate your job, it’s two weeks until the football season kicks off and your team has got massive holes in its squad (you can choose your own bugbears here, those are mine). You could, if you so wished, forget the fact that the political leaders we have are incompetent liars (this applies on both sides of the Atlantic) and you can, just for a few minutes feel wonderfully at ease.

To be fair throughout nearly all of “…Mesa” LWK sounds about as chilled out as a man who is asleep in a hammock in the afternoon sunshine after a particularly decent lunch. Right from the timeless “You Got Mine” which kicks this ten tracker (kicks is a strong word, more wanders…) off, there is a wonderful warmth. The blues lead and the organ just mesh perfectly, like some married couple who have an unspoken bond.

There is a classic shuffle about “Leghorn Women” and if it takes a line or two from “Start Me Up” then it sounds exactly like something Bonamassa would cover. Which is sort of the point. These are original songs, but ones that are instantly familiar.

“Born To Roam” – perhaps the highlight here –  has a whiff of “Gold” era Ryan Adams, while the Tom Petty comparisons it will surely get will just as surely be welcomed. Appropriately for a man who was born in Cadillac, Michigan (goodness me, why must I live in a town with such a boring name!) it belongs on the road and it is troubadour stuff from the top drawer.

Throughout his career, Winslow-King has often blurred the lines. “Better For Knowing You” is soul filled, “Thought I Heard You” on the other hand is campfire blues, and ”Break Down The Walls” is possibly the least aggressive song with that title ever recorded. This is a song for when you are at your most world-weary,  and its message of hope is just what you need.

“Chicken Dinner” is horn filled and funky, and is just how I’ve always imagined every bar in New Orleans (where Luke now calls home) sounds like – fittingly it was written with “Washboard” Lissa Driscoll, a legend of that parish who passed away last year., while there is something glorious an unhurried about “After The Rain” which is encapsulated in its bass throb.

“Farewell Blues” – which has just a hint of Dylan – ends the thing and is proof that even in his break up songs, LWK can’t sound too upset. Instead, there is a proper country feel, and a shrug of the shoulders.

The sun will rise tomorrow, it seems to say, and when it does there will be more tales to tell. Those are for the next album, but as “Blue Mesa” comes to a close, it is clear that on this particular occasion, Luke Wilmslow-King has created a snapshot of something where time stood still and the modern world need not apply.

Rating 8/10

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