Released:
1998,
Guava Records, GR005 CD

Website:
Blues Broers

The tone for fun is established in the opening Bo Diddley beat of the whimsical 'I'd Rather Be Sad Than Happily Married' and continues as the band plays a well done live set of electric blues.

The liner notes quote Willem Möller, recording engineer, "The songs were recorded straight onto master, mixed on the premises, and not stirred in the studio." It shows, too, because this live album has that live musician chemistry of watching a performance.

The second track, 'Life's a Melodrama' has a funky lounge rock feel with streetwise lyrics delivered in a c'est la vie voice. This song, like many on 'Cellar Tapes', has liberal doses of sharp electric guitar, right on time bass, and energetic, alert-to-the-moment drums.

By the end of this Blues Broers set, you've been treated to flashy yet meaningful-to-the-song guitar work, up-tempo jams, a nice introduction to the band, and some fine original songs in various blues styles: blues-rock, walking blues, and so on -- with some slower, casually earnest numbers interspersed, such as 'Dragonfly'.

Like y'all, I've heard my share of live albums. Most seem to fail to capture the fun, spontaneity, and special magic of live music. Not these guys. This CD captures live music so well I can almost feel the music, taste the beer, smell the cigarettes, and hear the bartender yell, "Last Call, everybody out of the pool!" at the end. I leave pumped up and with a head full of music.

I've been hearing about the Blues Broers for some time, and have caught some of their tracks and musos on the Tassenberg live CDs. Here we've got Albert Frost, Agent Orange, Rob Nagel, John Mostert, the late Frank D. Frost, and special guest, Clayton Frick. You know these guys, and they know the blues, and rock.

'Empty Bars' is a melancholy treatise on the sameness of women the singer has met lately. The pace picks up with the road blues song 'Dragonfly', then goes to the heavy blues traditional-sounding 'Dolly Mae'. A band introduction, the rollicking 'Glove', then 'Cellar Tapes' closes with the ribald 'Black Eye Snake'.

Treat yourself to some music about being blue that makes you feel good. Blues are for sharing. Treat yourself to some fun blues, to the Blues Broers.

Kurt Shoemaker, Blanco, Texas, SA Rock Digest, April 2002