The Shack: Back Door Slam - Roll Away (!007)

Back Door Slam - Roll Away (2007)

Back Door Slam - Roll Away (2007) Hailing from the United Kingdom s Isle of Man scarcely a citadel for the blues Back Door Slam is fronted by 20-year-old singer, songwriter and guitar prodigy Davy Knowles, and has already begun to get a pursuit in the U.S. via high profile performances at SXSW in Austin and the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis.

From the same Running Media Group management stable as multi-platinum Grammy nominee Corinne Bailey Rae, they recorded the album at the Isle of Man s DAM Studios with RMG s Dave Armstrong producing. One of the season s most compelling debuts, ROLL AWAY finds Second Door Slam displaying its powers of what has been described as "Back To The Future Blues" on a diverse program of punk rockers, moving ballads and flawlessly executed blues. Highlights include the guitar-driven opener Come Home, the dark Albert King-styled Heavy on My Mind, rock-funk groover Takes a Real Man, and the album s one cover song, the highly-charged Outside Woman Blues. Too Good for Me is a quiet, change-of-pace piece featuring mandolin and guitar; it is more folks than blues, more Bruce Springsteen than Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stay is a powerful paean to a fallen comrade (the set s original rhythm guitarist, Brian Garvey, killed in an automobile accident in 2004), while the title song, a reflective, largely acoustic track with Celtic overtones, deals with a new man s love of his safe, idyllic home and his motivation to give out for the uncertainties of the existence beyond. Back Door Slam s name comes from the Robert Cray blues classic, and Cray s work and that of other blues greats like Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Rory Gallagher, early Fleetwood Mac plus the late Stevie Ray Vaughan imbues their intoxicating, guitar-driven sound. Knowles, who also writes most of the songs, first picked up the guitar at age 11 after hearing Dire Straits Sultans of Swinging on his mother s cassette. Skipping the usual three-chord songbook approach to learning the instrument, he taught himself to turn the classic song in its entirety and, in doing so, also observed his destiny. After hearing Back Door Slam at SXSW in March, 2007, Patrick MacDonald wrote in the Seattle Times: I heard the life of Jimi Hendrix coming from the open, streetside windows of a joint called B.D. Riley's. It was Red House, executed superbly by a surprisingly young trio called Back Door Slam, from the Isle of Man in the U.K. The society was packed and so was the street outside. Folks were spellbound by this kid on guitar, who played with a fiery feeling and sang with conviction, making the song his own. Tracks 1.Come Home 2.Heavy On My Mind 3.Outside Woman Blues 4.Gotta Leave 5.Stay 6.Too Late 7.Takes A Real Man 8.It ll All Get Around 9.Too Good For Me 10.Roll Away 11.Real Man