Kurt Crandall - Take It Off (2016)

After more than seven years since his last album, Kurt Crandall has a new release – thankfully it is worth the wait. He follows up his sophomore release, Get Wrong with Me (recorded during his tenure in Chicago) with his most ambitious and focused effort to date. Once again this album finds Kurt navigating the worlds of jazz, swing, jump, as well as blues from Chicago and New Orleans. Consistent throughout, however, are Crandall’s clever songwriting and infectious grooves.As with all of his music, he chose not to rehash well-worn blues idioms and instead relies on personal experience and observational humor. For this album he chose to tackle such topics as being love-struck by a female heptathelete (8th Event), coping with male pattern baldness (Take it Off), dismissing a woman due to her lack of rhythm (Can’t Dance), exploring what it means to be down on your luck (Loser), the powerful attraction of pheromones (Dirty Pete), the silent treatment in a relationship (Why You Do) – as well as a couple of original instrumentals (FIiggy Bag & Taquito Under My Seat). Finally, the CD closes with an ambitious cover of a Thelonious Monk song – Bolivar Blues. All told, this album offers a glimpse at an independent artist ready to break into the mainstream and make people aware what fellow musicians and blues insiders already know – Kurt Crandall is a triple threat with his ability to write honest, original material that is propelled by his facility on both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas.