Artist: Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters
Album: Beyond The Blue Door
Label: Stony Plain Records
Release Date: 8.30.2019
Beyond the Blue Door is one of those albums you just know is gonna be worthwhile. The 23rd studio release from Ronnie Earl and his band, the Broadcasters, since they first debuted with Smoking back in 1983, lives up to all expectations. The band has grown hugely in stature and sheer greatness, improving year-on-year to be unquestionably one of the finest blues outfits working the circuit. Indeed, in many ways Ronnie Earl is the very definition of proper old-style, old-school blues today.
Beyond the Blue Door brings together some of Earl’s own personal blues buddies and ardent admirers with the likes of the legendary David Bromberg guesting on one track while Kim Wilson blows his socks off alongside keys master, Anthony Geraci, Greg Piccolo on tenor sax, and fretwork support from Peter Ward. Add the boiling, smoking vocals of his long-time singer, Diane Blue, and the usual Broadcasters: Dave Limina, Forest Padgett and Paul Kachanski, and you have the inevitable makings of a truly wonderful studio crew and the basis for something just that bit out of the ordinary.
Earl never fails to deliver both as a live festival favorite or a recording veteran. The full 15 tracks offer include scorching takes on “Baby How Long,” Little Walter’s “Blues With a Feeling,” Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” here with Bromberg on top form, and “Drowning in a Sea of Love,” where Diane Blue is clearly tearing it up big-time.
Beyond the Blue Door is an album that could easily be a pick of the year, pretty essential for any blues lover’s collection.
—Iain Patience
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