Jared James Nichols epitomises the life-long rock star fantasy. With his flowing blonde locks, heroic poses and devastating virtuosity, he successfully manages to roll the personalities and skills of Page, Plant and Hendrix into one, bursting-at-the-seams, denim-clad package. Hailing from Wisconsin, in just four years, Jared has grabbed the blues rock scene by the scruff of the neck and reclaimed it from its aging population, thrusting it back towards a time when the likes of Clapton and Page were breaking the mould, their Les Paul guitars blasting out of newly-minted Marshall amplifiers. For whilst the younger generation may erroneously believe that blues rock is a sedate, archaic form, there are still those who remember the blazing fire of Hendrix and the innovation of Cream and it is for them that Jared has learned to trace fire across his fretboard.
Following on from 2015’s ‘old glory and the wild revival’, ‘Black magic’ is a ten-track, adrenalin-soaked, blues rock monster of a record. Confident to the point of a fault and infused with the spirit of A/DC and ZZ Top, ‘black magic’ is the blues at its sharpest edge and it looks set to catapult Jared to the realms of superstardom for which he was always plainly destined. The album detonates with the blistering single, ‘last chance’, a hard-hitting beast that steals from the likes of Van Halen and Whitensake and throws in a solo that sounds like Joe Satriani on steroids, Jared putting dents in the fret board as he nails the solo with raw spontaneity and devastating accuracy. Things take a southern turn with the slithery riff of ‘the gun’ doused in slide guitar and chain gang vocals recalling the dusty highways that have informed so much of the blues. Both familiar and yet charged with an energy that feels like bottled lightning, ‘the gun’ sees Jared wailing over Denis Holm’s earth-shaking beat and Erik Sandin’s velvet-hammer bass lines. An album highlight, ‘don’t be scared’ draws on the likes of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains with the blues underpinning a thrillingly inventive slab of dark rock with its twisted harmonies, gruelling bass runs and hard riffs. As heavy as the blues can get, this is a track that could swallow stadiums whole and it is not without reason that Jared takes things down a notch on the funky ‘honey forgive me’, a track that brings in falsetto vocals and a toe-tapping bass hook that could move mountains. The first half of the album concludes with the smooth shuffle of ‘home’, a driving, soulful slab of road rock complete with aching solos and sweet, gospel-styled backing vocals.
Arguably the album’s most trad-blues, ‘got to have you’ still packs a powerful punch thanks to the thunderous drums that form its centre. A cracking track in the context of the album, ‘end of time’ is still arguably its weakest point if only because it sounds so similar to bands like Rival Sons, Gravel Tones and Picturebooks. That does not make it a bad song, but it has the ring of familiar to it in a way that the other tracks on the album do not. Happily, the funky underpinnings of ‘run’ sees things head back into more interesting territory, with sweet vocals and a sweet melody emerging on the chorus. Heading into the final stretch, Jared and his band scintillate on the dust ‘n’ bones blues rock of ‘keep your light on mama’ before heading into the beautifully traditional blues of ‘what love’, a track that could just as easily have been recorded in the sixties as now with its psychedelic overtones and lo-fi recording.
There is much to love about this new record from Jared James Nichols. His artistry as a guitarist and his clear love of the form are admirable and the record itself is beautifully produced. If it has a fault it is that, in the scattershot approach to song-writing, Jared still seems to be finding himself, working his way across a bluescape and trying out different elements as he moves ever more steadily towards his own unique sound. This is hardly surprising as it is the same course charted by the likes of Clapton, Hendrix and Bonamassa, all of whom spent time exploring a genre that offers far more variety than those with a passing acquaintance would ever acknowledge. This is a fine album all round, but there is a feeling that, as good as it is, Jared James Nichols has greater heights to which to rise. 8
