I always regard blues music as an attitude rather than merely a musical style. It is a frame of mind and a feeling, and whilst such a name evokes a particular genre of music, blues can be heard echoing out of any style and genre if the artist behind the music understands this. Evin Gibson understands this.
Of course, he does, he’s a bona fide Carolina boy, having grown up in the southern state and now resident in its northern neighbour, and Carolina Blues is a tribute to all the styles of music he grew up listening to.
Some songs are unmistakably evolved blues, such as “Round the Sun,” a song that blends the vibe and emotions of that genre with a thread of upbeat neo-soul, and there are songs like “City Nights” which are cutting-edge groovesome dance-pop.
“Can’t Get Enough” is a song built on clubland groove and euphoric energy, stabs of brass and infectious rhythms, and music that captures the timeless qualities of all dance music but mixes it with the sound of the here and now. The album rounds off, aptly, with “Last Word,” a soulful ballad which sits at the end of a long line of ’50s jazz divas and ’60s soul sensations, ’70s disco kings and ’90s revivalists. It’s a style that never goes away but gets repolished and repurposed to fit that era’s fashions.
Whilst many argue that this isn’t a blues album, and stylistically perhaps it isn’t, I say that spiritually it most certainly is. Emotion drips from every word, every note, every beat as Evin Gibson sings of love and loss and longing and life, and what could be more blues-atuned than that?
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