Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Diesel, Hep Fidelity Records/Bloodlines Music 2021.
And so, to the second album supplied by Neil from Human Services (I’ll have to put him on a retainer).
Diesel, aka Mark Lizotte, stands amongst Australia’s greatest guitarists, singers, songwriters, and he also happens to be Jimmy Barnes’ brother-in-law.
His recorded output is remarkable whether it be fronting his band Johnny Diesel & The Injectors, as a solo performer, or a prolific session musician and producer.
He’s also a multi-ARIA winner who has even branched out into writing film scores.
Alone With Blues is a tribute album to the late great Michael Gudinski and blues harpist Chris Wilson, who collaborated with Diesel on their 1996 joint release Short Cool Ones.
Short Cool Ones was an album of blues standards that Michael Gudinski initiated and 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of its release.
Mark Lizotte was born in America but moved to Australia when he was five years old, the family originally settled in Albury before eventually moving to Perth.
Mark’s dad was a musician so he grew up surrounded by music and it was almost pre-ordained that he would follow in the family tradition.
Alone With Blues follows the template set out by Short Cool Ones.
Nine of the eleven tracks on the album are covers of classic blues tracks, from the well-known to the obscure.
The other two tracks are originals, Six Steel Strings by Ross Wilson and Mark Lizotte (it’s been released as the first single) and Mirror Blues by Mark Lizotte and Marc Swersky.
Some of the covers are: I’m Satisfied (Mississippi John Hurt), Shame Shame Shame (Jimmy Reed), two Willie Dixon tracks (Hoochie Coochie Man, I Can’t Quit You Baby), John Lee Hooker’s Boogie Chillen and Otis Rush’s All Your Love.
Amongst the little-known tracks is Lost And Lookin’ by James Alexander, Diesel performs it with only a sparse bass backing.
I don’t know the song and I suspect that Diesel’s rendition is nothing like the original, but it works really well.
Diesel is truly a remarkable musician, he plays every instrument on the CD plus he produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered it as well.
You don’t have to be into the blues to want this CD, it is great music full stop.
