Dylan Bishop Band - Distilled (2018)

For Dylan Bishop’s sophomore release, this twenty-year-old, who could be a sophomore in college, decided he would work on his master’s dissertation in the blues instead.

On Distilled the young Texas guitar slinger and vocalist recorded a sixteen-song program of mostly covers that runs all over the blues map. Bishop takes on tunes by Slim Harpo to Elmore James and from Jimmie Reed to Magic Sam and others.

He is accompanied by bassist Cadillac Johnson and drummer Dick Cortez. They are augmented on a couple of tracks by Dallas based blues stalwart and multi-instrumentalist, Hash Brown, who blows harp on a couple of tunes. The album’s executive producer Wes Race adds some Fort Worth style Wesola soul on two spoken word numbers.

The star of the proceedings is Bishop who is developing some formidable chops as a singer and already has an astonishing blues vocabulary on guitar. He also has a maturity on the instrument that is truly refreshing. He is as exciting as he is restrained and seems to have already developed a real sense of what not to play.

Dylan Bishop is a bright light in the blues field and can be the hope for the future of this music, if he so chooses. We all hope that he “so chooses” as Lord knows we could use some young blood around here. Bishop provides the energy and excitement that comes with youth, but has a very healthy respect for what has come before.

In talking to Dylan recently he said, “I would like to make this music accessible to young people without changing what makes the music so special in the first place. I believe that there can be a young audience for this type of music. I don’t want to change anything. I want to make the music fun again. I’m not going up on stage to give people a history lesson, but to remind them that this music is fun.”

I think Distilled speaks directly to this message. If young people can get out and vote, which they did in record numbers, who knows what is possible. Young people like Dylan Bishop very often have the answers, now it is up to all of us to listen to what they have to say. When you get a big dose of decades old traditions presented with the explosive, fiery creativity of a young student of the blues the results can be very entertaining. Check out Distilled by Dylan Bishop and let me know what you think. ~ David Mac