Chris Thomas King Angola (2020)

Chris Thomas King - The Legend of Tommy Johnson (2001) {21st Century Blues VE15156}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 331 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 116 Mb
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© 2001 21st Century Blues Records | VE15156
Blues / Country Blues / Modern Acoustic Blues

After his screen debut as bluesman Tommy Johnson in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Chris Thomas King released this ambitious concept album, which essentially tracks the history of country blues through to its electric blossoming in Chicago. Beginning a cappella and then working through covers of Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues" and Blind Willie Johnson's "Trouble Will Soon Be Over" mixed in with like-minded originals, King then plugs in and finishes with several Chicago-style electric numbers with a full band before closing out with his trademark post-Chicago approach. It's probably a bit more intriguing in concept than in actual execution, but the result is a pleasant and intelligent album.

Christian Rosander is a 22-year old musician and songwriter from Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. He studied music for about 11 years, three of them in high school and two years in college. Since he was 14 years old, he'd been writing songs in the AOR/MR and westcoast genre. His main influences include Toto, H.e.a.t, Queen, Chicago & Def Leppard, all having been an important inspiration for his musical work. Rosander's musical work includes artists and bands such as Michael Ruff, Paulo Mendonca, Frank Ådahl and X-Romance.

A sequel of sorts to his earlier On the Beach, King of the Beach continues the laid-back mood of the earlier album but is (despite the goofy title) a more mature and unified work. It's one of his best albums and is a return to form after the film soundtrack La Passione and the more electronic sounds of The Road to Hell Part 2. Written primarily during a vacation in the Turks and Caicos Islands, it's replete with lots of beach and summer imagery in the titles ("King of the Beach," "All Summer Long," "Sandwriting," "Sail Away") as well as the lyrics, which were originally written as poems. A remix of "All Summer Long" was a big dance hit in Ibiza and other Mediterranean hot spots. A good album for a summer day, with a soulful mellowness flowing through the tracks.