Otis Grand
Album: Blues '65
Label: Maingate
Tracks: 13
Website: https://www.otisgrand.com

Ample reminder if any were needed that the Blues doesn't always about flashy musicianship, soul-searing situations and hellhound on my trail misery. Sometimes it's about painting on a smile, pulling on the glad rags, spreading talc on the floor and having a damned fine time.

Otis Grand goes for the jigging jugular on this neatly-judged approximation of the salad days of R&B radio - summer 1965. Thus, old time classics like Pretend and Who Will the Next Fool Be? cut up the good stuff alongside Grand originals like Those Days Are Gone and Bad News Blues on TV.

As ever though, what really stands out is just how well Grand and his band understand the less-is-more ethos of the greatest Blues and R&B. There's exhibition standard musicianship here -and lots of it - but you won't hear the six string pyrotechnics that are all too often mistaken for quality.

Blues '65 is the sound of the dance party rather than the four-in-the-morning drinking sorrows. It's the fleet-footed swing of The Shag Shuffle and the honking Rumba Conga Twist, the jive-walkin' Baby Please (Don't Tease) and the hip-hug-her churchy raunch of I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water.

Hard to find fault really.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk