Blues Karloff - Light And Shade (2015)

After WW II, Chicago Bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy & Otis Rush, who derived their style from the Mississippi Delta tradition of Charley Patton & Robert Johnson, plugged in their guitars and invented an exciting and powerful format that redefined Blues. When by the mid-sixties most major labels in America had given up on the Blues, white British Blues bands like The Rolling Stones, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall & His Bluesbreakers and later Cream and Led Zeppelin re-exported the Blues back across the Atlantic, but with a very distinct Rock influence. Blues Karloff is all about these musical influences; Black and White, British and American, that shaped the musical tastes of the various band members in their youth. On their debut album Blues Karloff salutes some of the Blues legends that every member of the band has been listening to since childhood. They recorded nuggets by Robert Johnson, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters, but recasting the vintage Blues gems in a contemporary fashion like the British Blues-Rock greats such Savoy Brown and The Yardbirds had done in the late sixties and early seventies before them. ""Ready For Judgement Day"" Blues Karloff contains a powerful blast of mostly hard rocking Blues; each track road tested in neighborhood bars and clubs - some places without a stage, lighting or sound support. If any song failed to connect with the audience of which the majority wasn't even familiar with these classic Chicago Blues tracks reinterpreted by the band in their own distinctive fashion, then the song was soon dropped from the repertoire. The entire process took three years to complete. Steeped in the tradition of Leslie West's Mountain, The Jeff Beck Group and early Led Zeppelin, Blues Karloff throw down some of the hardest-edged Rock and Blues grooves on the planet and unleash an album which is nothing less than a scorching and hellacious hard rocking Blues extravaganza!