Since it landed in my inbox, I’ve played My Blues Pathway at least once a day. It is the most unpretentious, open-hearted, life-affirming album I’ve heard this year and, like the best blues albums, it feels like you’re being taken on a personal tour of its author’s record collection. As the title implies, My Blues Pathway details a lifelong love of the blues and, as such, it genre hops beautifully. From the opening, electric blues of Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted through to the stripped-down, acoustic strum of closing number Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal, Kirk Fletcher and his band take the listener on a tour, incorporating a mix of covers and originals, that manages the impressive trick of being both warmly familiar and yet satisfyingly original at the same time. Beautifully recorded at Hertz Workz Studios in LA, it is one of the blues albums of the year, and it is quite impossible to listen to the record and not find a huge smile on your face within the first few bars.
Opening number Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted gets the album off with a swing, sitting comfortably between Robert Cray’s soulful oeuvre and Clapton’s exquisite Journeyman album. With Travis Carter’s prowling bass and Kirk’s liquid licks bringing the sunshine, it’s a track that effortlessly brings light from darkness, and you’re hooked from the off. Next up, No Place To Go (co-written with Robert Cray’s bassist, Richard Cousins) maintains the momentum with a spidery guitar figure and the horns of Joe Sublett and Mark Pender. It’s a rich, warm, soulful track that feels like it was a joy to record, and Kirk’s understated lead is simply wonderful. Slowing the pace, Love Is More Than A Word is another Cousins co-write and another track with that smooth, Cray vibe. A soulful piece that meditates on the nature of love, it’s greatly aided by the horns, and it’s easy to imagine the band playing on a satin-draped stage as people sip drinks quietly at candlelit tables. Struggle For Grace is a semi-autobiographical take on the legacy its author hopes to leave, delivered with a funky groove and plenty of bite in the lead guitars. It leaves Rather Fight Than Switch (an AC Reed cover) to see the first half of the album out, the band having a hell of a time on a track that is addictive as it is punchy.
Opening the album’s second half, Heart So Heavy is a contemplative piece. With Kirk’s lead work front and centre and the horns adding a touch of class, it’s a wonderful take on a classic blues sound, and you can almost feel the years peeling away as Kirk and his band deliver a strangely timeless track. Another cover is up next, in the form of Sonny Boy Williamson’s Fatting Frogs For Snakes, which is delivered with such gusto that it feels as fresh as the day it was written. The scratchy blues of Place In This World Somewhere (Chris Cain) is a masterclass in understated soul, with Kirk’s gritty guitar neatly underscored by Jeff Babko’s subtle keyboard flourishes. With the album nearing its end, Kirk brings out a touching, instrumental tribute to Denny Freeman, a Texan guitarist who used to talk the blues with Kirk. D Is For Denny 1 is pure Texan-blues-joint-dance-floor fodder and you can imagine the whole venue leaping to their feet for this one. The album ends, in contrary fashion, at the beginning of the pathway, with an acoustic blues (featuring Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica) written by Juke Boy Bonner. Entitled Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal, it brings the album to a perfect close and, having taken the listener on a tour of Kirk’s myriad influences, it’s a clever decision to end this way, because it leaves you wanting to start the journey all over again.
My Blues Pathway is a lovely album, there’s no other way to put it. It’s so warm hearted in its approach, so vibrant in its playing and so genuine in its love for the blues, that it sweeps you along over the course of its run time and, when it spins to an end, you find yourself genuinely surprised at how much time has passed. Unequivocally one of the albums of the year, My Blues Pathway is an absolute delight. 9.5/10
