Artist: Sugar Ray and the Bluetones Featuring Little Charlie
Album: Too Far from the Bar
Label: Severn Records
Release Date: 9.18.2020
Sugar Ray Norcia not only has a right to sing the blues, he was born to, it seems, proving it time and again with ease and potent virtuosity throughout the six classic masterpieces and nine similarly superb originals that span Too Far From The Bar. Norcia’s honey-rich, hardwood-smoked voice—perfectly flavored for the “devil’s music” or to croon smooth standards—long ago foretold his destiny.
The Bluetones have backed Big Joe Turner, Big Walter Horton, and Roosevelt Sykes, among other luminaries. All have had a rousing effect on the singing, harp tones, and piano playing on display here. Elements of deep dish Chicago blues mesh with the swing styles of both Kansas City and Texas. The Bluetones have featured several world-class guitarists in their day, including Ronnie Earl and Monster Mike Welch. Little Charlie Baty, the fast cat of Little Charlie and the Nightcats fame, joined the band for this eleventh Bluetones album. Sadly, he passed away shortly after completing it. But he sure left some final, sweet and stinging licks behind.
In the bopping opener, “Don’t Give No More Than You Can Take,” Baty plays a solo that sounds like Lone Star-fired rockabilly, before Norcia takes off on harp as if getting down in a West Side dive. On Sonny Boy Williamson’s classic “Bluebird Blues,” Norcia rolls his pitch in both voice and on harp as if darting around obstacles, while the band digs in, down low. Original Bluetone pianist Anthony Geraci kicks off the inspired, fast-paced title track with rollicking glee. He also co-commands Otis Spann’s melancholy “What Will Become of Me” ultra-naturally, as Norcia virtually bleeds the blues. Geraci’s quite a treasure. His own recent album, Daydreams in Blue, also comes highly recommended. Of course, Baty plays behind the bottomless groove of that Spann tune with understated class before following Geraci’s glistening solo with a beauty all his own. Roomful Of Blues founder Duke Robillard—yet another ace guitarist and Norcia’s fellow Rhode Islander—produced the album and goes to toe to toe with Baty on four of its tracks. Both are in their ultimate lounge-jazz element as the glide through “What I Put You Through” and “I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues,” the latter song made famous back in the day by both Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Sugar Ray Norcia put the Bluetones on hiatus in 1991 when he stepped into the spotlight for seven years as the singer for Roomful Of Blues.
Ever since he reactivated the Bluetones, they’ve been on an award-winning tear. Too Far From The Bar finds them as close to blues heaven as possible.
—Tom Clarke
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