The Hitman Blues Band - Calling Long Distance (2025)

This is the third Hitman Blues Band album we’ve had the honour to review and it’s hardly been off the car stereo this past two weeks.
I guess there’s some kind of ‘formula’ going on here, as the first time the title track Calling Long Distance came out of the speakers while my iPhone was on random; I instantly recognised Russell Alexander’s distinctive voice … or was it the crackling groove supplied by the band? It doesn’t matter, as I immediatly found the album and desperately trying not to hit the accelerator too hard, cranked it up to 9!
That first song is a bit of a ‘kicker’ as it has a twist that only came to me on the third or fourth time I heard it; and subsequently while listening on ear-pods nearly left me slack jawed.
Because of the ‘twist’ in the story I’m not going to go into too much detail; but it’s been a long time since an opening track from a band I already know effected me so much.
This is followed by the swinging rocker Edge of The Bed which is pure kick-ass R&B with a melody and chorus that really should be destined for national radio!
The Hitman Blues Band have been regular visitors to the UK in recent years yet I’ve never got to see them as they don’t appear to have appeared in my part of the country; and like cheap red wine … I don’t travel well; so I’ve still not seen them … which is a shame because judging by their previous couple of albums and the raw energy produced in studio recordings like We’re Gonna Party Tonight, Watch That Thing and the Surf-Punk instrumental Blood Alley, I can barely imagine what they will sound like in a sweaty basement club on a Friday night.
Eight of the tracks here are Alexander originals; plus the addition of four exceptional cover songs, that include a couple of Classics turned upside down and inside out until they become Hitman songs; which is a rarity for Sunday Morning Coming Down which becomes a swirling electric organ opus not too far from something The Butterfield Blues Band may have recorded years ago and there aren’t many out there who would dare take on Folsom Prison Blues and fool around with the arrangement until it don’t sound nothin’ like the original as the vocals, sax solos and melody take it into a darker place than even Cash ever intended.
The other two are new to me; the stompin’ and stormin’ Watch That Thing! (by S Maxwell?) that somehow mashes up Jumpin’ Jive with Rock n Roll and comes out the other side as a total winner! And the band take it down low and dirty with the traditional (arr R Alexander) I Know You Rider, which alongside the superb and swoonsome ballad Back To The Blues which follows it shows the musical dexterity that 50 years ‘on the road’ brings to a band … the Rolling Stones could learn a lot from this album.
Where to go for a Favourite Song, you may well ask?
Well there are contenders among the songs that I’ve already mentioned; but there a couple of absolute wallopers here too …while I’m not 100% sure what Side Pocket For a Toad is actually about, but I sure do like it and have found myself bellowing out the chorus while alone in the car!
Then there’s the punchy psyche-rock of Wide Old River which sounds a bit like a Yardbirds B-Side around the time Beck was in his prime, so it has to be a contender.
But for once I’m going for ‘the obvious’ … Back To The Blues as it features some mellifluous guitar playing and a brass section that threatens to overwhelm Alexander’s basso-profundo vocals that he draws up from the dark pits of his soul, but never do … because they are the ultimate professionals.
While they obviously draw on many variants as influences, The Hitman Blues Band mix them up in such a way so as you don’t even notice them as influences … making this band one of, if not the very best barroom boogie band that I’ve heard on record … and now I just need to catch them live, before it’s too late as none of us are getting any younger.