Venue: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden am Woerthersee / Austria
Concert date: 23.09.2008
Attendance: 20
Ticket price: 24 €
Paul Lamb and the King Snakes are a crafty mix of experience and youth. The lineup is built around two full-blooded “pensioners”, harmonica player Paul Lamb and bassist Rod Demick, two outstanding musicians and elder statesmen of the blues, with a trio of eccentric-at-first-glance youngsters fluttering around them: guitarist Ryan Lamb, rhythm guitarist and man in charge of most of the vocals Chad Sternitz, and drummer Sonny Below. This far-from-introverted bunch of characters shocked Bluesiana on every front last night, from the playing to the show itself, and in RockLine’s eyes they definitely delivered a one-of-a-kind evening of music, marked by a raw demonstration of the basics of blues rhetoric.
Great Britain (with rare lapses) has been seen as the hatchery of white blues talent since the early ’60s, that is, the generation of musicians whose descendant is none other than Paul Lamb. That makes him a lucky man, since he gets to draw on the priceless cultural and artistic backing of a long-forgotten scene that reshaped the evolutionary currents of rock & roll from the ground up. As for Paul himself, his mastery of the harp is beyond dispute. Paul Lamb is the kind of musician who, unlike his younger colleagues, doesn’t overdo showing off his penchant for wind-instrument aerobics. Luckily, and to the great delight of those gathered (there were barely two dozen of us in Bluesiana, by the way), his roots grew deep into blues tradition decades ago. Sound-wise, Lamb remains undeniably indebted to Little Walter, which is fairly surprising given the colorful genre collage his scaly comrades-in-arms juggle. The band’s overall look is just as captivating. At first glance Lamb comes across as a creepy uncle who spends his free time in the park offering rowdy kids “gifts of dubious origin” at especially good prices! The rascal followed the affordability principle shamelessly in his undemanding taste in clothes, too. Dressed like Franz Beckenbauer back when the football legend still proudly considered his own hair a mandatory part of the polished image of a real man, he doesn’t spare himself from fondling the most noble parts of his body, which surely thrilled a mostly male audience, with the exception of Gurdrun and her faithful Tigress.
Paul Lamb and the King Snakes serve up black blues crowned with all its venomous authenticity in a totally unique way, in short, the way only the Brits dare! Practically everything they tackled last night in Bluesiana felt refreshing, despite how played-out blues-rock outfits generally are. In that sense we got a (much-needed) dose of the typical British school of blues last night, at the far end of Austria no less, and a full 40 years after John Mayall’s resurrection to boot. Paul Lamb and the King Snakes eased into the evening fairly cautiously, with easily digestible improvising that put the youngest of the snakes, Paul’s son Ryan, forward as the first of the band’s many aces. Ryan has made a name for himself as an excellent guitarist, with an exceptionally controlled touch and a recognizable tone that cuts sharply into the ear without any effects, in the manner of Freedie King. Facing the exceptional voice of rhythm guitarist Chad Strentz was surely an experience of a special kind, too. But all of this was merely a warm-up, a likable but rather forgivable stretching session before the storm of emotions that followed! Soon enough, Paul himself took the stage. A stout little fellow with a towel wrapped around him and not a single twitch on his face immediately grabbed his “lady”, and after a short, formal address, a plunge through a series of heavily distorted harp maneuvers followed, with the determination of a herd of horny antelopes.
From there the first half of the evening unfolded at barely comprehensible speed, like some hyperactive blues medley, during which the temperature marched briskly toward boiling point. And that in a room “packed” with a mere 20 people. Baby Please Don’t Go followed, confirming all of the above, this time with a spectacular Paul in full charge! The immortal Big Joe Williams classic, which has seen countless interpretations, hasn’t given off such fresh aromas in a long time as it did in Paul Lamb’s brilliant rendition last night. Thirty-plus years of knocking around concert stages show in the gent’s unusual juiciness of interpretation, which comes across as a symbiosis of the legacy of the harmonica giants and Paul’s priceless talent, built on the most intimate level. Heartfelt playing is of course not left out here. As a meaningful dedication to it, Adopted Child followed right away, dynamically polished down to the finest detail, with Chad Strentz’s beautifully restrained vocals, in short, with all the attributes needed for the role of the evening’s top favorite.
Of course, the thrilling moments weren’t over yet. For further massaging of stiff Austrian limbs, Paul prepared a funny wreath of tunes picked from various creative periods, from the bouncy boogie rhythms of Sweet Sweet Woman, with which he briefly gave the latest album a chance, to an adrenaline ride through Come To The Conclusion, which was already flirting dangerously with ZZ Top riffing. Slowly the question began to arise: which genre approach can Paul Lamb not melt down into a playground for harmonica antics? In the rather rambling, let’s call it relaxed, encore, the gent even allowed himself to take a bite out of blues classics of the biggest caliber that basically have nothing to do with the harmonica. One of them was Key To The Highway, whose intense performance, full of sharp dialogues between guitar and harp, completely overshadowed the far more homey (for the wind-instrument crowd) I Got My Mojo Workin’ by the immortal Muddy Waters!
Paul Lamb and the King Snakes certainly delivered one of the most convincing performances we’ve witnessed at Bluesiana so far. Their message is perfectly simple, spiced with a good dose of sarcasm, which nonetheless picks listeners of a special character. Paul has thoroughly distilled the essence of the blues and, with a lineup far from your run-of-the-mill musicians, is now setting new milestones of modern blues, putting him shoulder to shoulder with the most attractive blues-rock collectives, if not a step ahead of the competition. A completely empty Bluesiana didn’t discourage him, quite the opposite: the man nurtures so much love for music in his heart that he doesn’t even need an audience to surrender to its charms. Everything Paul Lamb does comes from the heart! After the show the legendary musician was of course available for a handshake, which was invariably followed by a word or two. No question, besides being an outstanding musician, songwriter and performer, Paul Lamb is a big-hearted man who takes time for every seemingly insignificant little thing, which is ultimately most visible in his relationship with music. An anomaly of the modern music circus, a true gem in a long-deserted music machinery, incurably sick from the flood of instant content.
Words: Daniel Pavlica
Photos: Mojca Perdih
Setlist
1.Blues In C
2.She’s Crazy
3.Money World
4.Baby Please Don’t Go
5.Adopted Child
6.Hey Now
7.Blues Had a Baby
8.More Than Alright
9.Come To The Conclusion
10.Black Jack
11.Ya Ya
12.Ain’t It a Pity
13.Things I Used To Do
14.Boogie
15.Sweet Sweet Woman
16.I Got My Mojo Workin’
17.Key To The Highway
Photo Gallery
