Memo Gonzalez & The Bluescasters
10,000 Miles
(Stumble ST 13/ET 22)
Let's get right to the point. What a fun
recording, this is! It has been about three years since local harmonica player/vocalist
Memo Gonzalez left the highly competitive North Texas Blues scene and headed east, way
east, to Germany in search of fame and fortune. Memo will have to tell us if he has found
either of those, but in the meantime he has just released his second fine recording for
the German label Stumble. Memo's first CD with 'The Bluescasters', Let's All Get Drunk and
Get Tattooed (Live) was a wonderful down, dirty and raunchy CD. Recorded live it showed
the raw and fun side of a Memo Gonzalez show. This new CD in contrast, is a wonderful
studio effort that shows the fine musical and songwriting skills of both Memo and his
band. Sixteen songs, of which 13 are original, run the gamut from Chicago to Texas, with
shuffles, jump, and ballad type blues. The mournful vocals and harp, along with the
haunting guitar of Kai Strauss on the almost eight minute long song "Greyhound"
are the blues at it's finest. This is a collection that, when put in the CD player to have
on in the background, one finds their attention wandering from the task intended to full
attention focused on the music. One can only imagine the fun this band must have
performing this material live. The only drawback to this wonderful CD is the fact that
Stumble records does not yet have US distribution. Discussions are currently taking place,
so hopefully it will not be long before local (North Texas) fans of Memo will be able to
make a trip shorter that "10,000 Miles" to obtain a copy. That this four piece
band is made up of individuals from the countries of Germany, Turkey and 'Texas' only
shows that the blues have indeed become an internationally spoken language.
- Scott
Ferman -
Southwest Blues CD Review - February 1999
Current Reviews -
1999 Reviews
