Review of Bluesabuse at The Junction Tavern, Polegate, East Sussex, Sunday 20th Nov 2005
It is so refreshing to hear musicians you haven’t heard before, and wow were we refreshed. From the outset Steve Morrison held the audience with his personable narrative and interaction between songs. They opened the first set with the haunting “Lovers Gone”, which allowed Al Richardson on harmonica to really show us he feels what he plays. “Summertime” was introduced in an almost spooky manner with a rich bass line running throughout. This segued into a haunting riff with the harp breaking in to add to the overall quality. Steve Morrison’s vocals were clarity itself.This was followed by a very entertaining song entitled “I Had A Dream”, a lighthearted micky take current Politics, Steve added his own ideas in the intro by saying he was “saving up for attitude”.
The underlying humour of this gig carried right on with the next song “Day By Day”, Steve likened it to a eurovision contest song so we held up our scores ranging from 10 to the inevitable nil point, however it would have scored 10 all round. Al on the harp reminded me of the Mungo Jerry sound, he played it down to a whisper then belted it out with no holds barred. A new song for this duo called “Blue Mood” has incredibly evocative lyrics which everyone at sometime or other can identify with. It was a song with a statement, and was truly an inspiration to have the pleasure of listening to. In fact all the lyrics were sung with such clarity and spot on intonation. The first set ended with a Boogie Woogie number which ably showed off Steve’s bottle neck guitar skills. He plays a rare Fender Bullet serial number E100744 dating back to 1979 fitted with a hip-shot allowing pre-set tunings on each string producing a strong rhythm. He is a master of open-chord tunings.
And so to the second set, opening with “Fire In My Belly”. This song just builds and builds with such meaningful lyrics and a lengthy instrumental. If you closed your eyes you would have thought they had sneaked on a slap bass player, such is the virtuousness of Steve’s guitar playing. Steve also performs with a definitive blues voice, which is creamy rich and crisp. “South Of The River” is an autobiographical song and the words held much sentiment about feeling like you belong. What an intro they played for their song ”Crazy Mama”. Al’s harp playing on this was superb. They had the knack of almost going out but coming back with a vengeance, playing it down to the wire then kapow right back into it.
These two musicians clearly hold a lot of respect for one another and have been playing together for the last fifteen years. They have been influenced by Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie McGhee and Otis Reading not to mention Little Walter, Stan Getz and King Kurtz. They continued the set with another song from their live CD “Live @ Oliver’s Jazz Bar” entitled “On The Road Again”, loads of classics seemed to segue into one another on this one, and Al demonstrated just what he can get out of his harmonica. “After The Rain” had a wonderful intro and enabled us to hear such quality musicians. We enjoyed a tremendous encore, before the end of an amazing afternoon of all round entertainment. This duo had us laughing and sad and uplifted and it was a welcome return to the ‘The Junction’ for Steve who played here previously with the bands keyboard player Richard Ansell. I do hope next time ‘Bluesabuse’ trio turn up to entertain with their original songs and brilliant musicianship as I want to hear more. ‘Bluesabuse’ can be found at their website www.bluesabuse.com where you can hear samples of their music. They can also be heard live on the first Sunday of the month at ‘Oliver’s Jazz Bar in Greenwich, London.
By Helen Rich for 'Blues In Britain'
Photos by Katja
Confident and varied and accomplished set of songs ranging from virtuoso spanisn guitar to train whistle blues, dipping into reggae, music hall, good old fashioned pop and whatever else the store-cupboard had to offer. Breathy vocals suggest Tom Waits covering cast-off Martin Stephenson tracks. In a better world this man would already be a legend.
MUSICIANS MAGAZINE
The British guitarist Steve Morrison and his Blues Abuse opened the International Blues Festival of Coimbra.
In a night dedicated to the Blues made on this side of the Atlantic, the festival organisers had the merit to bring to the stage of 'Teatro Académico Gil Vicente' a veteran of the genre, Steve Morrison.
A virtuoso slide-guitar player born in London and of Scottish parentage, he uniquely intertwined traditional USA Blues riffs with sounds related to rich Celtic music. The folk tones gave an unusual accent to the sounds of black culture. Original, melodic and beautiful.
In one of the intimate moments of the performance, Steve wandered solo with his guitar through the life of endless voyages. Alone with his slide-guitar, the musician took the public to broader horizons.
It was not difficult to spot the sounds of ‘fado’* in full harmony with 'rock' and 'folk' riffs while black and white images were projected on a film screen, reminding us of the journeys of the working class during the industrial revolution.
With his band, it was the guitar dialogues that reigned, particularly in one of the songs performed with the guitarist Matthew Percival. In a heartfelt theme, the duo provided a very poignant moment in this disturbed world with a Blues full of feeling that delighted the Coimbran audience.
"TRYST"
This twenty-eight minute E.P. is a tasty taster of what Steve and Billy have been up to in some recent live collaborative work. There are two Morrison originals to open and close the session: ‘Man In The City’ and ‘Coming Down Slowly’. They both adhere to the traditional restraints of the traditional blues idiom whilst bringing fresh lyrical twists. There are imaginative covers of Canned Heat’s ‘On The Road Again’ and Leroy Carr’s ‘Midnight Hour Blues’. ‘Nobody But Me’ is a welcome choice from the recently cinematically featured and underrated source of Bobby Darrin. The remaining title is the traditional ‘I’m Going Home’. Steve and Billy are well-suited foils: Billy stays on the right side of bringing an inspiring vital jazz-tinged, edgy energy, without stepping into overly-busyness and there’s a brooding-shadow that pervades the nature of Steve’s guitar tones. This is an inspiring release from Steve, of whom it has been said: ‘In a better world this man would already be a legend’, and Billy the anarcho-jazzifist.
"WALK ON"
Steve Morrison is possibly better known for his fronting of Blues Abuse. On this project Steve himself has written everything save the Terry & McGhee title track, and performs all the instrumentation: truly a solo album. An undesirable ‘Fire In My Belly’ sets the standard for this quality set with a gently insistent rhythm and balanced slide and lead guitar: the author has dropped his guard and is unsettled at missing a lover. ‘No Pain No Gain’ is vocally darker and stylistically apart from anything else in this collection: a creepily dark warning with furtive breathing effects and insistent bass. The instrumental slide showcase, ‘No One Cries Like My Baby’ sheds big atmospheric deep-south tears. An ‘Inspired Moment’ is peppered with harmonics to a background of thunder. Sony Terry & Brownie McGhee’s ‘Walk On’, the only non-original title is a worthy inclusion, as is the railway boogie ‘Cold Steel Rail’ with a news readout in the background halfway through. ‘Journey’ takes an Eastern form, questioning Buddha with attendant rhythms and chanting. ‘More Than Words’ is the one cut on which the ‘words’ are indeterminate, giving appropriate focus to the title. ‘Call Out My Name’, although with gentle smoky vocals, reminds me of the instrumental material Kevin Brown recorded for his Sunny Side Up CD. The two closing titles are stylistically akin. ‘Soft Shoe Shuffle’ brings to mind Jonathan Richman’s ‘Egyptian Reggae’ with a similar lyrical levity and a vocal delivery worthy of Ian Dury. ‘Dance Dance’ keeps to a similar vein, though is more cowboy than Egyptian. Blues abuse? Blues complimentary I’d say! Never overly hurried, original thoughts are framed by varied rhythms and tasteful, measured, clean, ambient slide and lead guitar playing.
Review of "HERE IS THE BLUES!" Catford 24th April 2005
Broadway Theatre, Catford - By Charlie King
Micki the Morris Dancer said it all with a fixed look of shocked delight in the back row. Being a new man, he even had the courage to externalize it: “This is amazing,” he told the bloke next to him. “I didn’t realize the Blues could be like this. I thought it was supposed to be deadly serious all the time.” Micki, brought along by Tim and Paul – mates of Pete’s – was one of 67 spirits (capacity 72) who became increasingly kindred under the worryingly wholesome influence of Billy Jenkins and Steve Morrison as they told the Blues.
“Worryingly” because Jenkins’s famed melancholia is undoubtedly being undermined as each day goes by the “H” word. Even “First Day in Hell” – his Freudian release from the horrors of nursery school – came across as an almost pleasant excursion (Billy didn’t even mind when the audience response was “Nursery school!” instead of “First day in Hell!”). And Morrison’s loving influence can only be bad for Billy. They met for shy “coffee and jam” sessions last summer and now there’s open talk of marriage. Luckily, Steve’s a feminist, as he told us on the night, and bit by bit Billy will find his feminine side.
“Take Me Back” was Steve’s ode to redemption and acceptance, forcing Billy to play a touching solo that he tried to hide behind a “Pansy Potter” smile, little realizing that happiness. God forbid, could be the dangerous emotion he might have to deal with in later life. Morrison, with a little Karl Marx in his make-up to match Billy’s Groucho – his earth to Billy’s water, as ‘Thud’ might put it – is old-fashionably and beautifully eloquent on songs like “We Are People” and “Something’s Over”.
Meanwhile, Billy’s lifelong campaign to hide the gentlest soul behind things raucous and chaotic (you don’t fool many of us any more, Billy) was there in “First Time the Earth Shook” and “Ain’t Getting Married (In the Morning)”. The mask slips on “When did You Leave Heaven” and “Tonight I’m Alone” – both tributes to his dead hero, Charles Brown, and as soulful as you can get. Billy insisted (perhaps a little too strongly) that “Heaven” was about a baby, not a woman – but we weren’t all easily convinced.
Steve’s open-tuned guitar (whatever that means) is the perfect foundation for Billy’s multi-shaped and multi-coloured bricks, and Steve’s own solos – as fans of his band, Blues Abuse, will testify - are well worth picking up the trowel for.‘Here is the Blues’ (Steve was “Alastair” to Billy’s “Moira Stewart”) included the inevitable shuffling of papers, tapping toy microphones and reading from non-existent autocues.
Micki was all smiles at the back. The rest of a lovely audience also got the point and it could be that we’ll have to book seats for Part Two on Sunday, April 23rd, again at 8pm.
"Of all the performers, it was the Englishman Steve Morrison that made the biggest impression on the organizer - according to Sultangirejev, Morrison was truly awesome, and managed to sell a total of 45 CD's, thus setting the new festival record."
-- Hetlin Villak, Eesti Päevaleht August 2008
