If you knew nothing about James Armstrong’s past and you picked
\nup his third disc
\nGot It Goin’ On<\/i>, you’d swear you were listening to the
\nsecond coming of Robert Cray. If you know anything about his past,
\nyou’d be amazed that Armstrong can play guitar as well as he does,
\nlet alone play the guitar at all.<\/p>\n
Armstrong survived a home invasion and stabbing in 1997, which
\nnearly left him unable to play the instrument on which he was
\nquickly becoming a star on. After a “rehabilitation” album
\nDark Night<\/i> (which saw Armstrong switch to slide guitar), one
\nwould be hard pressed to say that Armstrong’s playing is at all
\nlacking. Simply put,
\nGot It Goin’ On<\/i> is a wonderful album.<\/p>\n
As much as Armstrong is celebrating life, he doesn’t turn his
\nback on the tenets of the blues, as evidenced on tracks like “Love
\nWill Make You Do Wrong,” “Beat Up By Love” and “I’ll Learn Some
\nTime”. What is intriguing is that Armstrong delivers these, as well
\nas other cuts, with a mixture of down-home blues and whiskey-smooth
\nsoul in his vocals. I compared Armstrong to Robert Cray earlier in
\nthis review; such a comparison is meant as high praise for both
\nmen.<\/p>\n
Sure, someone who has followed Armstrong since day one would
\npoint out that he still occasionally utilizes slide guitar; I would
\nargue that the combination of slide and straight-out guitar playing
\nenhances the music and gives it a grittier edge. And, frankly, I
\nlike it like this.<\/p>\n
Tracks such as “2 Sides,” “Mr. B’s” and the title track all show
\nthat Armstrong is making leaps and bounds not only in his recovery,
\nbut also in his mastery of the blues. My only qualm? I’d like to
\nhear him put a little more r&b-soul into some of the tracks –
\nyes, similar to Robert Cray. I listen to
\nGot It Goin’ On<\/i>, and I hear more than a little resemblence
\nto
\nStrong Persuader<\/i>. Such a style works well for Armstrong.<\/p>\n
\nGot It Goin’ On<\/i> is an album that will satisfy blues purists,
\nafficionados of r&b-infused blues and fans of just plain ol’
\ngood guitar work alike, suggesting that Armstrong is poised for
\ntrue superstardom. Here’s hoping this album is the key that will
\nopen that door for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6422],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36769","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-james-armstrong","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36769"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36769"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}