Artist:     Alexis P. Suter Band

Album:     All for Loving You

Label:     American Showplace

Release Date:     06/17/2016

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Blues fans and festival goers should be familiar with Alexis P. Suter by now. In any case, the rocking, enormous power of Suter and her band is on full display on their seventh album release, one that captures best the power of their live performances. Gospel- raised Suter’s bass/baritone voice is a force of nature. The Brooklyn/Jersey based Alexis P. Suter Band that got their start at Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles, where they appeared 99 times. Alexis has since been twice nominated for Blues Music Awards in the Koko Taylor Vocalist of the Year and Soul/Blues Vocalist categories.

This release contains 10 originals from the band and their devastating cover of “Let It Be,” a staple in their live shows. As with their previous American Showplace release, stellar keyboardist John Ginty is aboard, but aside from Suter, the burning light here is guitarist Jimmy Bennett, who has a hand in writing most of the tunes and fills the recording with blistering riffs of electric and slide guitars. Previous APSB releases have mixed blues, gospel and soul but this takes pretty much a straight-ahead hard-charging blues approach, detouring at times into blues-rock. We don’t really get the gospel touch until the glorious closer “Let It Be,” but you also hear the expansive range of her voice in the crescendo-building ballad “Fool for You.” Whether you want to dance or need an infusion of raw powerful music, this disc will more than satisfy.

The six piece band also features vocalist Vicki Bell, bassist Peter Bennett and drummer Ray Grappone in addition to Suter, Jimmy Bennett, and Ginty. Bell, Grappone and Suter with keyboardist Dave Keyes also form the band, Alexis P. Suter and the Ministers of Sound (AMOS), which focuses more on gospel and roots. You can see both units in many Northeast locations. Catch the APSB at these venues:

July 22 -The Stanhope House – Stanhope, NJ

Aug 05 – The Scranton Jazz Festival – Scranton, PA

Aug 06 – De;aware Riverfront Blues Festival – Wilmington, DE

Sept 16 – Central Jersey Jazz Festival 0 Flemington, NJ

You can also catch AMOS at the first ever Sunday Gospel Showcase at The Briggs Farm Blues Festival on Sunday, July 10.

– Jim Hynes