© Bluestronomical Publishing Inc. 2009

Zac Harmon
From The Root
Northern Blues #M0052

If you like your blues with a side of sexy soul, the new release from Zac Harmon From The Root, is a must have for your music collection. Such a dynamic and mesmerizing live performer can easily fall short in transferring those qualities to a recording, but Harmon has managed to capture both the energy of his guitar playing and the sexy, charismatic quality of his silky vocals on this disc.

His talents as a guitarist and vocalists are matched equally by his songwriting prowess. Zac wrote or co-wrote 13 of the 14 tunes on this CD. Nowhere in the liner notes is the title “From The Root” explained, but it seems obvious Harmon’s blues are driven from that most basic humans need – love. 
And many kinds of love, at that.

The song “Keep The Blues Alive” reminds us of what a labor of love it is to play the Blues. Taught early on as a boy by a “real blues man” how to play the blues, he was offered sage advice: “He said you ain’t gonna make no money…. whatever you gotta do to survive, just keep the blues alive.”

There’s plenty Zac has to say about romantic love as well. This man literally makes women swoon with his velvety vocals, so it’s practically an obligation for him to let the ladies know what he’s thinking and play fair by sharing his secrets with the guys as well. Two songs that accomplish both on the CD are “That’s What A Woman Needs” and “The Older Woman,” each song confirming Harmon’s love and respectfulness for womanhood. Not that he hasn’t been scarred by love. The opening track, “Don’t Give Me Another Reason” finds Harmon the masochistic lover – lamenting his misfortune of choosing the wrong love with lines like ‘If I ever lose a good thing, it won’t be because of losing you’ and ‘Hard times fell on me when I fell upon you’. Like that cigarette we know we shouldn’t light up or the last gin and tonic we’ll regret when the alarm goes off the next morning, love has such a delicious seductive pain, it’s addictive in an often soul destroying way. But then again, that’s the blues, isn’t it?

“Back Bitin’ Back Stabbers” tells the story of his lying woman Mary and his ‘friend’ Bobby, who he really thought could be trusted. Nothing like a mate who loves you and a good friend you can count on to make you think you are finally getting a storybook ending. But the blues come creeping in again: betrayal by the ones you are the closest to, the ones you think you can rely on most. Yet it’s human nature to seek the warmth of the very flame that burns us. “Scratch” is a primal, sexy ode to, well, scratching that itch if you know what I mean. Harmon is at his seductive best here – if you can listen to this song and not feel the itch, seek medical attention - something is wrong with you!

You cannot listen to Zac Harmon and not feel the power of the blues. His blues come “From The Root” and bloom like a mighty multi-branched tree of the genre, bringing the music proudly into the new millennium.

- Blue Lisa -


Southwest Blues CD Review - June 2009

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