Devils Creek – Bullfrog Blues

Details: 2007, Top Of The Hill, CD

Any regular reader of these pages will know that I’m partial to a bit of blues-rock.  The last couple of years has seen Joe Bonamassa and Walter Trout rank highly in my year end favourites, whilst the likes of early Status Quo, ZZ Top, Gwyn Ashton and Rory Gallagher are regular listens guaranteed to please whatever my mood… so I’m kicking myself a bit for not picking up on this band a bit sooner!

Devils Creek are a classic three piece blues-rock outfit, very much in the mould of the aforementioned Gallagher line-ups although herald not from Ireland but from Cornwall.  Issued on bass-player Tim Chapple’s own Cornish music promoting record label “Top Of The Hill” my first impression upon hearing “Bulldog Blues” (other than wondering where the title track disappeared to – but that’s answered on their myspace page!) was this album has a similar structure to Bonamassa’s “Sloe Gin”.  Not in style particularly, we’ll come to that in a moment, but more in structure. Like “Sloe Gin” it’s a mix of impressive original compositions, from the pen of lead singer/lead guitarist Guy Rosewall, accompanied by a number of well selected and certainly unusual and often superbly interpreted covers.

Stylewise though it’s that Irish genius Gallagher and most specifically that stomping brand of blues-rock he displayed so brilliantly through the 70s and 80s that forms the major template for the music.  In fact it’s a radical electric reworking of the acoustic “Defender” closing track “Seven Days” that opens the album.  A fantastic re-imagining of the song so effective that it’ll have you checking the lyrics just to confirm its the same thing.  Following this a trio originals underscore the positive first impressions, with the powerful “Dead Man’s Walking”, and the amusingly acerbic lyrics of “Poor Boy” especially impressive.

With another original, “Shadow City” interloping in a collection of covers on the latter half of the album it is instead another reworking, this time of James Taylor’s “Fire And Rain” that catches the ear before a welcome visit to Albert Lee’s excellent “Hear Me Calling” proves a delight to discover.  For many years the opening song of the mighty Slade’s live set, Devils Creek take the sensible root of not trying to emulate the power of that band at their peak but instead take the song back to its bluesy roots.

Naysayer’s will knock the fact that there’s nothing radically new in terms of style on the album but that’s not the point is it? Some unfortunately even dismiss the genre as little more than glorified pub-rock but there’s plenty of us out there that delight in finding bands like this that keep this invigorating music alive.  For me, it’s the best album of its type that I’ve heard since last years Walter Trout set, and it offers the belief that live they’d be a blast.  A quick check of the gig listings on their myspace page shows that although prolific live performers unfortunately they seem mostly restricted to the South West of England at present.  Now, with the fact that Walter Trout has actually just announced a pretty comprehensive UK tour, I can’t help thinking that he and Devils Creek would make an ideal pairing.

Highlight: Seven Days

Score: 3.5/5

(CD Baby Link)

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