The Duke Meets the Earl
seems like an obvious album, pairing two of New England's finest
contemporary blues
guitarists,
Duke Robillard
and
Ronnie Earl
, who both share the same sort of hard, clear tone in their playing (
Earl
actually replaced
Robillard
in
Roomful of Blues
when the latter left the group for a solo career). For
, who has been working in a kind of
jazz blues
hybrid style in recent years, it marks a return to straight
blues
, and with guests like
Jimmy McGriff
Mighty Sam McClain
aboard on select tracks,
has the feel of a super session. Throughout,
's guitar is featured in the left channel and
's in the right, leading to some wonderful guitar dialogues, particularly on an epic, nearly 16-minute-long version of
Walter Price
's
"My Tears."
Another extended workout occurs on
"A Soul That's Been Abused,"
an
original, which features
McClain
on vocals and stretches out to just over 13 minutes.
McGriff
brings his Hammond B-3 magic to two cuts,
Eddie Taylor
"Lookin' for Trouble"
B.B. King
"I Need You So Bad,"
while the B-3 part on
"A Soul That's Been Abused"
is handled by
Dave Limina
. Other highlights include covers of
T-Bone Walker
"Two Bones and a Pick,"
Magic Sam
"What Have I Done Wrong,"
's smooth, clear slide style on another original,
"Zeb's Thing."
With only eight tracks, but clocking in at over 70 minutes,
gives these two fine guitarists plenty of room to talk to each other, and the result is a classy set of no-frills
, with just the slightest hint of
jazz
to keep it all smooth. ~ Steve Leggett