{"id":46354,"date":"2022-06-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-son-seals-blues-band\/"},"modified":"2022-06-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T00:00:00","slug":"the-son-seals-blues-band","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-son-seals-blues-band\/","title":{"rendered":"The Son Seals Blues Band"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">C<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">hicago has had its share of blues legends over the decades, but perhaps one of the greatest was the late Frank \u201cSon\u201d Seals. Coming to the Chicago scene by way of Arkansas, he merged soulful yet gritty vocals into his blazing guitar licks to create some of the genre\u2019s most memorable music. There\u2019s a reason that Phish not only covered his song \u201cFunky Bitch\u201d in concert numerous times, but also welcomed Seals onto the stage to play with them.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Seals\u2019s debut effort from 1973, <\/span><i>The Son Seals Blues Band<\/i><span style=\"font-style: normal\">, is definitely gritty in terms of the overall sound \u2013 it\u2019s definitely not a polished effort in either the performances or the overall production. <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal\">It\u2019s raw, but it\u2019s enjoyable, capturing a star in the making.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">On this debut effort, it sometimes feels like Seals is straining his vocals to reach a slightly higher range; later albums featured a gentle, soulful growl to his delivery that made his style unique. Not that his singing is bad on this release; tracks like \u201cYour Love Is Like A Cancer\u201d and \u201cCotton Picking Blues\u201d showcase this fact perfectly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">The rhythm section of bassist John Riley, organist Johnny \u201cBig Moose\u201d Walker and drummer Charles Caldwell fit the music like a glove; the band often gets locked into the groove and it seems like they\u2019ll never let it go (not that the listener complains). Take the track \u201cHot Sauce,\u201d for example \u2013 three minutes seems like three seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Seals\u2019s guitar work, naturally, takes center stage \u2013 and while he might not have had the flash of other musicians, the feeling and soul he put into his guitar lines spoke volumes, even this early in his career. When paired with his vocals, the power is truly felt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Yet this is still a learning experience for Seals and crew. The closing track \u201cNow That I\u2019m Down\u201d might have benefited being a little shorter; ending the album with a slower groove seems to be anti-climatic for this one. Similarly, \u201cGoing Home Tomorrow\u201d and \u201cHow Could She Leave Me,\u201d while not bad tracks in and of themselves, don\u2019t really stand out on their own.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Still, for a first effort, <\/span><i>The Son Seals Blues Band<\/i><span style=\"font-style: normal\"> is a fairly powerful release, and screamed the promise of what was to come from Seals.<\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10741],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46354","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-son-seals","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46354","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=46354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46354"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46354"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}