The blues is not always a pretty form of music. It deals with
\ndirty dealings, betrayal, pain, and broken hearts – and it’s one of
\nthe most enjoyable forms of music out there.<\/p>\n
Paul Oscher knows about the blues, having been a member of Muddy
\nWaters’ band. He’s recently had his own share of hard luck, and has
\npooled all of his pain into
\nThe Deep Blues Of Paul Oscher<\/i>, a gritty portrait of the
\nblues created away from the polish of the studio. It’s occasionally
\ntough to listen to, but is a worthwhile trip to take.<\/p>\n
In one sense, listening to this album is a sad affair, as it
\nfeatures some of the final performances of drummer S.P. Leary, who
\nrecently passed away. It’s interesting to note that on all nine
\ntracks Leary appears on, he used brushes on the drums instead of
\nsticks. This adds a slightly more gentle touch to the percussion,
\nbut also gives it a more raw sound.<\/p>\n
A good portion of these tracks were recorded in a one-day
\nsession to DAT as they were played; no 24-track recording, no fancy
\nmixing… just the blues, pure and sweaty. As a result, you can
\nhear some mistakes as the tunes were played – a missed beat here, a
\nslip on the skins there. While this adds a bit of humanity to the
\nmusic, some people might be a bit shocked by the lack of polish to
\nthe music.<\/p>\n
Oscher successfully mixes splashes of gospel (“Satan’s Woman”)
\nand just good-ol’ good times music (“Summer Jam”) into the mix, as
\nwell as a touch of humor (“Traffic Problem”), and for the most
\npart, the performances here are very good. He proves himself to be
\na capable piano and guitar player, though I would have liked to
\nhear more work on the harmonica; it seems to come to the forefront
\nonly on “Money Makin’ Woman”.<\/p>\n
A central theme throughout this album is relationship troubles
\n(which Oscher apparently had experienced just before entering the
\nstudio). “Maxine” finds our hero pining for a love he has just lost
\nto another, while “Robin Lee” deals with an entirely different type
\nof loss. In a similar vein, “Forget About Your Used To Be” finds
\nOscher trying to convince his new love to stop thinking about her
\nex.<\/p>\n
If there is anything which is frustrating about
\nThe Deep Blues Of Paul Oscher<\/i>, it is a difficult album to
\nlisten to in one sitting. Whether this is the unpolished sound or
\nthe often depressing themes I don’t know, but it took me a couple
\nof attempts to get through this one. But once you’ve listened to
\nthe album a couple of times, it really begins to grow on you, and
\nits true beauty begins to shine forth. Problem is, many people
\nmight not be willing to listen to an album five times to gain an
\nappreciation for it – too bad.<\/p>\n
One thing that can’t be denied about this album is that, for a
\ngood portion of the time, the music is very low-key and subdued.
\nOften you find yourself waiting for Oscher to really burst forth
\nand lead this band into a raucous jam session. If only this had
\nindeed happened; it would have been a lot of fun to listen to.<\/p>\n
\nThe Deep Blues Of Paul Oscher<\/i> is a portrait of one of the
\nblues’s living legends who has been pushed aside for no good
\nreason. While this album is a good step forward in his expressing
\nhis independence, he still needs a coat of paint or two to really
\ncome into his own – and given the chance, he’ll successfully do
\nthat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7266],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38701","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paul-oscher","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38701","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=38701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38701"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}