The Bony King of Nowhere

King of the Highway is the first solo release from blues harp wailer Norton Buffalo and his band, the Knockouts, since the release of 1978's Desert Horizon. Norton Buffalo is an in-demand studio musician who has played on numerous sessions in all genres of music, highlighted by his involvement with blues slide guitarist Roy Rogers. The majority of King of the Highway is enjoyable (while occasionally predictable) straight-ahead modern blues mixed at times with an occasional hint of New Orleans zydeco rhythm courtesy of Buffalo's unamplificated harmonica. One of the main strengths of this 13 track Blind Pig date is the loose feeling brought by friends including Elvin Bishop, Steve Miller (Buffalo has been a member of his band for 25 years), and Merl Saunders, gathering together simply to jam.

This is a wordy but oh so fitting moniker for Shayne O'Neill's music, as the Future Kings of Nowhere perfectly captures the insouciant grandness he aspires to, with the self-deprecating twist that is the secret to his success. Actually, the secret to his success is summed up best on "I'm Still Waiting": "Take my quick observations and my questions and my poor explanations and wrap them up into rhymes. Weave them around my mouth, suffer me up into brilliance, until no-one doesn't know my name." With a sharp eye for mundane details, a wry wit, and an occasional ironic twist, the Future King and his cortege of guesting alterno-royalty take a royal trip around O'Neill's ragtag inner realm. Along the way there are amends to make, specifically on "Paper Napkins," an apology to the ex-girlfriend who's been the foil of the singer's many breakup songs. Perhaps "Never" describes their relationship, "Like a Staring Contest" their "trainwreck of an ending," but surely not the girl who did a runner and addressed in a folksy letter from home on "C Is for Heartache." There again, when you entangle yourself with women with a history of "high speed chase, no dialogue," as O'Neill does on "I Want You," it's no wonder problematic relationships make up the bulk of this set.