That's how I found Radio Kings - an American white boy blues band, who apparently have recorded at least one more album alongside this one, but who never quite made the big time as far as I know. Their relative obscurity cannot be explained by a lack of quality - this album has all the most inportant traits to make it into a favourite. A good singer, adequate players as far as I can judge, good and varying tunes (which isn't a given thing in the world of contemporary blues) and a nice, lively and breathing sound palate.
Three of the songs have a special place in my heart; the slow blues "My Day Of Reckoning (Has Finally Come)", which combines a forceful vocal with quite fresh chord and melody lines, the rolling midtempo starter "I Can't Win", which is another tour de force for singer/harpist Brian Templeton - a man with a blues voice and presence in the Kim Wilson/Sugar Ray Norcia mode, and "The Shelf"; another slow blues, perhaps a bit more conventional, but which has well written and eloquent lyrics on the theme of being cast aside.
That doesn't mean that the rest is filler. As I write this, I'm listening to "Money In Her Pocket", an easy-rolling midtempo number built on Templeton's voice and harp - all ingredients are traditional, but the mix is fresh. The overall feeling of this album is that it by and large avoids the clichés of the genre, the band has a pleasantly warm yet firm sound, the solos are kept in moderate fashion, and the tunes are great examples of how the blues is so much more than twelve bars of whining about lost love and opportunities.
On the other hand, as the world looks today, it's no wonder that the blues is alive and well...
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