Howlin' Stone - Slow Blues In A (2014) [CD Rip]

Howlin ’Stone consists of Tom Janssen (lead-singer and guitar), Thimo Gijezen (bass player), Daan Geerlings (guitar) and Juliën Rapmund (drums).

On a drizzly Saturday in February I saw Howlin ’Stone with the gentlemen of BluesinWijk as a support act for Howlin’ Bill to herald the spring. Although, supporting act ... playing for 1 ½ hours is simply a complete gig. The wolf had already left for Germany, according to BluesinWijk host Arie Verheul in his announcement, but the wolf had seen that it was a must with the Blues in Wijk bij Duurstede and with the growl of Tom!

Howlin ’Stone gave away a resounding performance. These young dogs are unfortunately not that much in this region, it is also quite a drive from Limburg to the center of the country, but it is more than worth our trip from my lazy office chair. The men had played a big gig and of course bought their CD afterwards, where one euro of every CD sold goes to the Sean Costello Foundation.

"Slow Blues In A" starts with, indeed, a slow blues "Do My Own Thing" (Johnny Taylor). An acoustic guitar run with the grinding voice of Tom suddenly coming around the corner. Restrained but steaming. Don't show the back of his tongue yet, but the volcano is about to erupt. Suddenly there is reinforcement of drum, guitar and bass, but then it dies away again.

Gro Grooving a few seconds later, however, "The Devil is Watching You", from its own pen. A nice up-tempo song with a wonderful rhythm guitar and some solo work woven through it. This song looks a bit Hoax-like, but is one of the three own songs on this CD. There are also covers by Robert Johnson, Sean Costello, Jeremy Spencer and Jay Hawkins. The scouring voice is from Tom Janssens. Tom's voice is powerful, catchy, compelling, in short you cannot ignore it and will already be almost unparalleled in the Netherlands. However, the blues world is slightly larger than the Netherlands alone, so let's "and surroundings" get involved.

But there's more! Daan Geerlings, the other guitarist from Howlin ’Stone has a slightly slick voice compared to Tom, but that makes it so varied. You can hear it on Love "Breaks You Down", on which he also excels on his guitar. I was also impressed live. Lovely song. Daan regularly sings a song, so that your ears have a few moments of rest during the Howlin Stone performances. During the live performances, Thimo Gijezen sometimes plays on double bass, as I saw in Culemborg. Gives just that little something extra. This second CD "Slow Blues In A" by the gentlemen of Howlin "Stone is a great CD and I hope this is just the beginning. ~Paul Scholman