The Fortunate Three

www.myspace.com/fortunatethree

To launch what their leader refers to as a ‘West Country Blues’ trio in 2008 has to be plain daft, very brave, extremely committed..or a mixture of all three. Fashionability – whatever that is, I always replace the word ‘fashion’ with ‘copying’ whenever I read it – doesn’t matter to us and what we CAN tell you is that this group attains a clear and subtle driving sound in a live setting. They aim at a sound that is all heart and grit but this group sounds  sophisticated enough, to add to that.

Dan Sowerby sings lead and has clearly soaked up Elmore James, Fred McDowell, Taj Mahal (and Jessie Davis), Homesick James maybe..?  So the ghost of Sue and Excello haunts this music and was caught in a live session for English West Country radio station Spire FM, check the myspace. What’s hard to determine is whether a younger audience might to take to this outfit, older blues and roots fans would ‘get it’, for sure. If they open for the likes of, say, Gomez or Imelda May  reckon they might be well-received. Back in the day they would have made a great touring band for a visiting blues artist.

This initial album tells you where they are coming from and adds a couple of originals ; they are working on a set of all-originals which I look forward to hearing.

Drummer Jools Owen and bassman Paul Blake keep the momentum going but don’t fill every space so there’s nothing to overload the sound and more to savour. Kicking off with the precision riffing, patter drumming and cool vocal delay touch of ‘I Wish You Would’, taking in Steve Earle’s ‘Mystery Train Part 2′ and even Peter Green’s ‘Rambling Pony’, the albums rolls along with great slide riffing and no gimmicks on the production.  They even include my own least favourite blues song namely ‘It Hurts Me Too’ which would even be a dirge if Elliot Randall or Roy Buchanan performed it ! I like the Rory G feel on ‘Catfish Blues’ which is as elemental a blues number as they could pick, but performed with such feel the listener just surrenders.

A classy debut, with better to come

Pete Sargeant   www.fairhearing.co.uk