"LIVING BLUES"
CD Reviews, Dec. 2011
Little Joe Ayers

Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’

Tonedef – (No #)

Los Angeles guitarist/vocalist Ray Bailey made a splash with his 1993 debut Satan’s Horn (Bohemia Music), but then nothing more was heard from him until 2009’s Resurrection, recorded live in L.A. at Babe’s and Ricky’s. This is his follow-up to that comeback disc.

Bailey is a dexterous fretman, in command of a stinging tone and a technique that combines jazz-tinged West Coast smoothness with B.B. King–derived string bending and Delta-tinged chordal and harmonic ideas. Sometimes, as on the title tune, he also unfurls a simplified Wes Montgomery–like chording style. Bailey’s vocals are obviously based on B.B.’s, but at the same time his stentorian bellow and grit-infused timbre evoke juke-joint rowdiness. His lyric imagery tends toward the streetsy (as evinced by such titles as Hoe’s Heart and Get Out of Jail Free Card), but he brings to even his rawest stories a folksy wisdom and aphoristic wit; I Just Can’t Cry No More, despite its neo-psychedelic sound effects and labored, neo-Hendrix grind, is redeemed by the unmitigated bluesiness of the storyline. Tie a Knot likewise echoes Hendrix, but again Bailey’s lyrics invoke hard-won, blues-tempered wisdom. His take on Going Down Slow, in contrast, evokes a nightclubby, soul-jazz atmosphere as he unfurls those Wes-like chords again and delivers St. Louis Jimmy’s tale of fatalistic resignation with an appropriate blend of irony and angst (as well as a few nods to Bobby “Blue” Bland in his timbre and phrasing).

Ray Bailey’s life hasn’t been smooth; since his 1993 debut, he’s wrestled demons to the ground and passed through fire in order to re-emerge unbowed as a presence on the West Coast blues scene. Let’s hope this impressive outing garners him the wider recognition he deserves.

—David Whiteis