With the continuous loss of blues legends who have kept interest
\nin their magnificent form of music alive, the attention of the
\nblues world slowly shifts from these legends to the younger
\ngeneration. Into this void stepped Mike Welch two years ago, when
\nhe released his debut album at the tender young age of 16. Now 18,
\nWelch has released his third effort,
\nCatch Me<\/i>, which, despite some major flaws, is an
\nentertaining listen.<\/p>\n
While I can still relate to the perils an 18-year-old goes
\nthrough (I’ll be able to identify, at least, until I attend the
\n10-year reunion of my high school graduating class next year), it
\nsometimes is hard to believe that someone so young could relate to
\nsome of the topics the blues deals with, such as love lost and
\ngained. (I’m 27, for Crissake, and I don’t claim to be any more
\nknowledgeable about such things.) “Make Up Your Mind” and “If I
\nLove You” are prime examples; on the latter, Welch sings, “If I
\nlove you so much \/ Why do I treat you so bad?” Please.<\/p>\n
And while Welch’s playing is impeccable, his singing takes some
\ngetting used to. I honestly had problems getting past the opening
\nsong on the disc, “As Good As Gone,” due to the limitations of his
\nvocals. To Welch’s credit, though, they get better as the disc goes
\non – he does a great cover of “Money (That’s What I Want)”.
\nHowever, Welch is still a very young man, and it does take time for
\nvocals to mature. In a matter of time, this shouldn’t be a
\nlimitation to Welch’s future.<\/p>\n
When Welch steps away from the microphone and lets his playing
\ndo the talking on
\nCatch Me<\/i>, the album takes a major u-turn for the better.
\nWith a talented crew of backing musicians (including bassist David
\nHull, drummer Warren Grant and keyboardist George Leroy Lewis),
\nWelch lets his Strat copy shred through some wonderful 12-bar blues
\nexercises, as heard on “Mole’s Blues,” “Blues For Cara” and “Don’t
\nWorry”. However, had this album been all blues instrumentals, it
\nmost likely would have become boring rather quickly. So, to Welch’s
\nbenefit, he spaces out the instrumental work well.<\/p>\n
Some of the songs on
\nCatch Me<\/i> stand out, such as “Worried Life Blues” and “My
\nLove Belongs To You,” but there still lacks a maturity about the
\nsongwriting – and this, again, is something that only comes with
\ntime. So, I’m willing to cut Welch a little slack in this category.
\nExamples of this include “Changing Of The Guard” and the title
\ntrack.<\/p>\n
Is Welch a talented musician? Absolutely. Is he a natural born
\nleader of a blues band? That has yet to be proven. But
\nCatch Me<\/i> is a portrait of a student of the blues studying
\nfor the ultimate test – even though his lessons are far from
\nover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7504],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39227","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mike-welch","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39227","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=39227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39227"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}