Guitarist
Jeff Golub has long mixed his soulful crossover jazz with a healthy dose of modern electric blues. However, he's never devoted a whole album to the kind of greasy rocking blues that makes up his 2009 effort
Blues for You. An assured fret-wiz with a knack for juicy, well-tempered jazz licks, here we find
Golub going for more of a laid-back shuffle and rocking twang that is more
Stevie Ray Vaughan than
George Benson. Joining
Golub are a bevy of unexpected, but no-less blues familiars, guest vocalists most likely culled from
Golub's time in the pop world backing
Rod Stewart. Included are such names as
Tom Waits,
Marc Cohn, and even '80s rocker
Billy Squier who shows up here to help
Golub rework his classic hit "Everybody Wants You" into funky, Southern-blues drawl. The result works surprisingly well and overall brings to mind the earthy late-career efforts of
Bob Dylan.
Golub-himself has never sounded as muscular and assured as he does on such tracks as the shuffling jump-blues "Rooster Blues" which also features
Peter Wolf sounding as inspired and back-alley slippery as ever. This album may be
Blues for You, but it is clearly a work meant to please
Golub's own soul as much as his audience's. ~ Matt Collar