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Coming out of a resurgent Kansas City blues scene, Levee Town is a basic, unrelenting quartet with a powerhouse guitarist in Brandon Hudspeth, an inspired harmonica master in Jimmie Meade, and a right-on-the-money rhythm section of bassist Jacque Garoutte and drummer Jan Faircloth; for added value, Hudspeth, Meade, and Garoutte are also solid singers. Moreover, the songs are all originals, with Hudspeth (the primary vocalist) contributing most of the repertoire and Garoutte pitching in with three tunes, including the grinding, lowdown title track. Meade’s contribution is the merciless, driving kissoff number “I’m Gonna Leave,” strikingly embellished by his rumbling chromatic harp sorties between Hudspeth’s stinging guitar solos. On this, its fifth album, LT exhibits some early Stones ferocity, but also summons some raunchy, Canned Heat-flavored choogling on “Show Them Whatcha Got”; delivers a pounding scorcher in the Butterfield Blues Band mode via Hudspeth’s “So Many Pages” (concerning a certain gal’s deceptive packaging); and betrays a Skynyrd influence in the foot- stompin’ attack of “Four Leaf Clover,” about “the evilest woman I most ever seen.” (Romantic dysfunction is abundant herein.) Produced by the band, Pages of Paperwork’s soundscape is heated and raw; it’s about brute force, not sonic clarity.
By David McGee
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