Artist: Bobby BlackHat Walters
Album: Put On Your Red Shoes
Label: Bobby BlackHat Music
Release Date: 11.15.2018
Bobby Black hat is a newcomer to me, but, wow, am I happy to meet him.
Put On Your Red Shoes is a wonderfully crafted release, sparkling, pulsing, pounding R&B and soul music delivered by a guy with a cracking voice and timing, a band that clearly knows exactly what it’s doing, and an overall quality that is all too often sadly lacking in the music recording world these days.
Bobby Black Hat is the guy behind most of the twelve tracks featured here and, boy, can he string a lyric together! This is no faltering, uneven offering. Instead we have an album that holds together with strength and power, lyricism that hits the spot every time. Confident in himself, Black Hat includes a serenely delightful cover of the Late Leonard Cohen’s, “Hallelujah,” a track that is increasingly being featured in blues releases and is fast becoming a near-instant blues classic. Black Hat produces a jaw-dropping, cracker with this track, while his album opener, “I Smell Another Man On You,” his own composition, is genuinely equally excellent. Jimmy Reed’s wonderful standard, “You Got Me Runnin’” just adds to the pleasure.
At times those old Memphis horns howl out while at others, Black Hat’s own harp works wonders. The rest of the band pulls together throughout with fine fretwork, some tasty slide, and a complete understanding of what’s needed to turn out top-dollar modern, US blues. Try this one for yourselves, you won’t be disappointed—and those red shoes might just turn into dancing pumps before you know it.
—Iain Patience
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