Press

Big City Blues cd review
Randy Volin and The Hard Ones
“Detroit Thang 2015”
www.randyvolin.com
www.facebook.com/RandyVolinandTheHardOnes
In Your Pants Music
Multicoastal bluesman Randy Volin hasn't forsaken his warm California sun but he is revisiting his third coast home town with his latest disc “Detroit Thang 2015.” Recorded on both mid and west coasts all songs were written by Randy Volin except one. Volin also provides vocals, guitars, fender bass and Hammond B3 while The Hard Ones are all guest criminals grabbing what spots they can in this hard case line up. The beat is laid down by Vinnie Dombrowski, David Salinas, Todd Glass or Steve Kohn, bass by Steve Nelson or Tad Wadhams with keyboards by Chris Codish, Phil Parlipiano or George Canteerbury, and the Horny Hard On's AKA the Regular Boys horn section are also part of this alliance. The rest of the conspirators, the background singers, hand clappers and fluffers are known simply as the Hard On's, nobodies taking any other credit these guys ain't snitch’s.
The whole thang leaps into action with “When She Says Jump” a swagging horn romp with guitar hopping in then “Come Back Home” has Randy channeling Elmore with an under layer of “She's About A Mover.” The hard tone, swaggering vocals and thrusting horns of “Mr. Johnson” may be about his own Johnson. A down river urban delta blues of Dobro sliding up against a West Coast beat of “Brand New Day” goes into an autobiographical stream of conscience rap vowing “It's Gonna Be Alright” with an acoustic guitar under crashing electric chords. A Bo Diddley beat flavors Randy's growling acclamations of “I Want Your Lovin'” cause “She's Fine” fine, fine, finds the guitar working against cooing background vocals and “Two Worlds Collide” blazing guitar shines through a calm yet barely restrained vocal. Two instrumentals fill out this set, a breezy Cali cruise down that infamous “Mulholland Drive” and an old school AM radio guitar strangling instrumental with an eerie incantation of “Mofocito” its only lyric. The only cover “Route 66” is used as a travelog for Volin's California trip thou written well before he was born running closer to Chuck Berry then Nat King Cole.
Yeah its true what they say, you can take the musician out of Detroit, but you just can't take the music out of the Detroiter, it's a “Detroit Thang.”
Roger & Margaret White
bluestime@sbcglobal.net