Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Garry Clark Jr., Warner Brothers Records 2012.
Blak And Blu is the debut album from American singer/guitarist Garry Clark Jr and it’s an album that other guitarists often reference when discussion turns to outstanding practitioners of the artform.
Clark started playing guitar as a twelve-year-old and by his mid-teens he was performing with other Austin Texas musicians who frequented promoter Clifford Antone’s club.
This led to him gaining session work with a variety of well-known artists including The Jackson 5, Cheryl Crowe, and Jimmie Vaughan.
He first rose to national prominence when he signed with Warner Bros and released his debut EP, The Bright Lights (2011).
The EP gained immediate traction in the music press and Warner Bros had him back in the studio to cut his first LP.
Clark’s incredible guitar playing had some critics labelling him as the new Jimi Hendrix and he played up to this accolade by including an amalgamation of Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone From The Sun and Little Johnny Taylor’s If You Love Me Like You Say on the debut album.
Garry was not the first gifted guitarist to be burdened with the ‘New Hendrix’ label and he probably won’t be the last but, despite the clamour for endless outlandish guitar solos, he stayed true to himself and to the eclectic nature of his music.
Blak And Blu cemented his position at the vanguard of the new blues movement and the album peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Top 200 and reached number one on the Blues Album Chart.
While the album is basically a blues album it also contains a good deal of variety. In fact, it could be argued that it’s too eclectic resulting in a lack of cohesion.
It’s a criticism that is somewhat warranted but I personally enjoy variety.
Garry employs almost every blues guitar technique available and dabbles in an array of genres on Blak And Blu including a particularly sparse acoustic bottleneck and foot stomp on the final track, Next Door Neighbour Blues.
There are ballads such as Please Come Home and You Saved Me and he even includes a little hip-hop in the title track.
Garry Clark Jr has only released three official studio albums and two live albums however he’s one of the hardest working and most in-demand performers in America.
