Artist:     Eric Johanson

Album:     Below Sea Level

Label:     Nola Records

Release Date:     9.30.2020

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For fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton’s Cream, here’s a taste of New Orleans blues that will rock your socks off. Heavy on the beat (thanks to drummer Cody Dickinson) and light on the unrelenting, too-damn-many-notes solos that some guitar slingers favor, Johanson consistently delivers heavy-hitter blues, making every lick count.

Balanced songs evoke traditional blues without the mind-numbing repetitive three-chord progressions and overly simplistic “My Mama done left me” lyrics. What we have here, folks, is a new classic. The titles alone are a tipoff: “Buried Above Ground,” “River Of Oblivion” and “Dose Of Forget” show the writing trucks along the Blues Highway in the smart lane, and Johanson has the chops to deliver his load every time.

Nice to see that rare combination of good guitar, good vocals, good songwriting and good production (thanks to Luther Dickinson) in harmony throughout an entire album. Give a listen to “Love Is Rebellion” for a good example, then start in back at the beginning. Repeat.

—Suzanne Cadgène