Rev Ferriday & the Long Dogs
Album: Nine Beats
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.reverbnation.com/revferriday

Nine Beats is Rev. Ferriday's second album. His first, in 2012 was described as "a really fun country record with echoes of Seasick Steve, a dash of Johhny Cash and the structure and melodies of Brian Setzer/Stray Cats".He describes his latest release as down and dirty "somewhere between Johnny Cash and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds".

It strikes me that he he is trying to find his niche. Nine Beats is a collection of blues songs which feature Rev. Ferriday on guitar, drums and vocals, Owen Bray is credited with, guitar and mouth harp blues, Neil Sadler takes care of bass and drums - presumably not at the same time! The album was recorded in Wokingham, Surrey and produced by Rev. Ferriday and Neil Sadler. The engineering was also done by Neil Sadler.

All songs on the disc are written by Rev. Ferriday and for the most part follow a riff-based shuffle structure either on guitar or harmonica.Ferriday's vocals are "low down and dirty" - think Howlin' Wolf meets Nick Cave - and while distictive they lack variety in tone across the album.

Owen's blues harp is a key feature of the album - often taking the lead role in songs - and this is where the album falls down. Far too often the harmonica was not further up the mix leaving me frustrated. Also most of the tracks are are on the long side - only nine songs. Perhaps some focused editing would have helped - it suffers from one of the perils of self-produced material, a lack of objectivity.

The stand-out track is Nine Beats - a raunchy riff fest which has a great Stones-esque feel to it.

John Knighton