Oli Brown
Album: Here I Am
Label: RUF
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.oliselectricblues.co.uk

Oli Brown is something of a musical prodigy. Picking up the guitar when he was just 12 and invited to appear onstage with Buddy Guy in America at the tender age of 15, you could say he was educated well from an early age.

Signed to German Blues label Ruf Records in 2008, Here I Am is Brown's third album and is his strongest offering yet. Joe Bonamassa has been instrumental in bringing the blues back into the album charts in the last few years and even he has labelled Brown "a real talent." In a similar vein to Bonamassa the solos wail and the backing is both understated yet powerful, exactly what you want when a guitar player is as much of a virtuoso as Brown.

Here I Am is 12 tracks of pure, unadulterated blues that harks back to the 60s when British bands were at the forefront of this genre. Devil In Me is reminiscent of John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers but also has a vocal comparison to Brown's US contemporary John Mayer (who has also tried to bring blues back into the mainstream in recent years).

Vocally, Here I Am features lyrics synonymous with someone with more life experience and are sung with a ferocious passion. Brown's voice is reminiscent of a cigarette smoking, whisky-loving traditional bluesman (which again belies his years). This gives the album an authenticity that many blues acts fail to capture because, let's face it, the blues is all about the lessons learned in life and how you cope with them. Brown makes you believe he has not only lived the pain but he's come out on the other side fighting, stronger for the experience and wielding his axe in defiance.

Simon Ridley