Bam!
Artist: Ricky Gene Hall & The Goods
Label: Yard Dog Records 
Time: 12 tracks / 45:15
 
One thing about the blues:  you’ve got to believe you’re hearing it from the gut of the artist – even if it’s just for those few minutes – or, like the proverbial Chinese dinner, you’ll be hungry again an hour later. The music served up by Ricky Gene Hall and The Goods on Bam! is tasty enough, but doesn’t quite hit the spot. For this musical meal, I think Emeril Legasse would ‘bam!’ a few more times to add some spice. Ok, enough of the food analogies. You want blues to stick to the ribs, though…..
 
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Ricky Gene Hall is obviously a versatile and talented musician. He leads his three piece band - which includes Tom Martin on bass guitar and harmony vocals and Rocky Evans on drums, percussion and harmony vocals - through nine originals and three cover tunes that touch on most of the blues styles that aficionados of the genre know and love: fast blues, slow blues, shuffle, low-down blues, bayou blues, funky blues, bluesy ballads… you’ll find most of it here. The three musicians each have a good pedigree and know how to play well, as they do a textbook-like excursion through blues territory.

Therein lies the problem.
 
Hall’s guitar skills are undeniable, and he’s mastered a bluesy vocal technique to perfection, but I feel like I’m hearing more technique than gut feeling here. His guitar tone is closer to Clapton than Stevie-Ray, but lacks the authenticity of Clapton or the raw emotional power of Vaughan. Sure, that’s heavy competition, and I wouldn’t think it fair to hold someone up to those standards, but any unknown blues player, in any corner pub in any city, should be able to elicit that gut-check that the blues should give you, even with a deficit in the technique department. The blues is about communicating a feeling – not executing a technique.
 
Lyrically, this is standard blues material, much of it clever and ironic – as good blues ought to be. Nobody is expecting profound ideas to come from a blues project – but, then again, what’s more profound than pressing that emotional release button that allows you to shake your head, feel the groove, and say, ‘uh, huh…. I know what you’re talkin’ about.’ For all of the good playing on this CD, it just doesn’t take us there. Still, I have to point out that this is competent playing and might be exactly the level of blues that would appeal to you….
 
Bam! is a fine album in terms of production and performance, on a clinical level – something like a textbook approach to the blues. It would be hard to find fault with something this well-done, and you certainly might enjoy it on many levels, but if you’re looking for hard-core blues, you might want to keep looking.
 
Bert Saraco
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