Review of Main Street, Living Blues, Issue # 292
MUDSLIDE CHARLEY Main Street No label – No # Mudslide Charley’s Main Street resonates with an evocative rough-and-tumble vibe. The 11 all-new tunes on this Missoula, Montana– bred sextet’s sixth LP would seem just as much at home roaring from a Saturday-night barrelhouse as they would shaking the walls of a grunge-era garage. Such is the power of this band’s collective energy and confident DIY spirit. This snarling verve is exemplified by the blistering Black Train, with Marco Littig’s guitar cutting enough to slice throats and Phil Hamilton peeling off a squalling baritone saxophone freak-out amidst drummer Roger Moquin’s battering assault. The ballsy City Boy exudes a similar no-nonsense defiance, bassist Paul Kelley belting out his bold lyrics (“I ain’t no prisoner, and I’ll never be a slave”) while Hamilton, joined by trumpeter Jeff Stickney and trombonist Naomi Siegel, counter Kelley’s country pride with skyline-shiny unison horns. Sisyphus is immediately commanding, Kelley unspooling thrillingly elastic lines while Russ Parsons counters with his own string of enticing funk organ licks. But Main Street offers friendlier enticements as well, largely thanks to the versatility of vocalist Liza Ginnings. Her feathery croon bops through the tricky changes of Blues for You with aplomb, skating along Parsons and Moquin’s playfully fractured rhythm. The subtly psychedelic Drivin Home finds Ginnings deploying a seesawing drone ideally matched with Littig’s echoey slide chords and Parsons’ trippy organ undercurrents. The confidential intimacy of Ginnings’ voice on the quietly inspirational You Can is an impressive contrast to Hamilton’s cavernous amplified harmonica. Then, amidst the cool slow drag of Stardust Motel, Ginnings’ knowing erotic theatricality lights a fire under the tune’s bleary-eyed, closing-time flavor. Above all else, Main Street is about delivering a good time, even when the road ahead threatens some rough patches. Kelley and Moquin maintain a spicy, full-speed-ahead pace on the powerful down-home valentine Blues Farm, and Hamilton’s harmonica and the assembled might of the horns take the unsettling anxiety of Almost Through to an unexpectedly energetic denouement. Ginnings’ forceful vibrato and Parsons’ slick piano interludes give an exhilarating chill to the rising dangers of Judgement Day. And on Rolling Forward, the album’s folksiest cut, Littig’s unadorned warmth, Parsons’ jovial tone, and the cozy-campfire conviviality of the unison vocal line cement the friends-making-music ambience that suffuses all the best moments of this album. Mudslide Charley makes playing the blues sound like nothing but the purest pleasure there is.
—Matt R. Lohr, Living Blues, Issue #292 Vol. 55, #5
https://www.bluesblastmagazine.com/mudslide-charley-clearwater-junction-album-review/
Review by Blues Blast Magazine - Rhys Williams - March 18, 2023
“When you listen to these guys, you get to the marrow of the Delta blues. It’s visceral and rough-hewn, yet polished at the same time...”
This is an excellent refreshing eclectic Blues album by this Missoula Montana based five-piece band who play the Blues the way I believe it should be played, with grit and straight from the heart…Montana is often referred to as being “wild & untamed”, this perfectly describes Mudslide Charley, please don’t ever change. Blues Matters
“These guys roar out of the chute with the bare bones elements that drive all the best rhythm and blues: gritty electric guitar, elastic bass and a backbeat that punches you right in the sternum.”
Mudslide Charley are a very interesting band out of Montana, who play rough, raw and raucous blues and roots music…Mudslide Charley have a very distinctive, almost ramshackle sound, one that appears to be constantly teetering on the edge of disaster. But this untamed quality only adds to the band’s charm. Littig and Hamilton both lay down a series of uninhibited but spot-on solos that never forget to serve the song first and foremost, while the rhythm section of Moquin and Kjelland are as comfortable on the rumbling gospel of “Burden”, the quiet restraint of “Jelly Donuts” or the Tom Waits-esque “Devil Can’t Stop The Rain”. Blues Blast Magazine - August 19, 2018 - Rhys Williams
“In addition to strong songwriting, clever interplay and the creation of the right emotions, Mudslide Charley ensures their place in the roots world. Their new studio album ‘Words & Bones’ is an album with which Mudslide Charley makes a unique and respectful contribution to the blues of this century...”
MUDSLIDE CHARLEY | MISSOULA
Missoula songwriter releases song penned after shooting
Phil Hamilton reflects on writing his song "Thoughts and Prayers" Thursday in his home studio. Hamilton is a member of local blues group Mudslide Charley, and wrote the tune after the 2018 Parkland, Florida, shooting.
Hamilton strums the first few bars of "Thoughts and Prayers." “The whole thing of ‘thoughts and prayers’ just felt tired,” Hamilton said. “There’s so much hypocrisy when people in power say that.”
Local musician Phil Hamilton was sick and tired of hearing empty words from politicians after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, but he didn’t feel he could do anything about it.
“It’s easy to get numb to that,” he said Thursday from his home studio.
“The whole thing of ‘thoughts and prayers’ just felt tired,” Hamilton continued. “There’s so much hypocrisy when people in power say that.”
The saxophonist and harmonica player for blues-rock band Mudslide Charley woke up one night soon after the 2018 shooting, inspired to write a song with these words in his head:
“Thoughts and prayers are cheap these days/we see them everywhere/it’s so easy to say these words when blood is in the air/thoughts and prayers/thoughts and prayers/”
“We dry our tears and ease our fears/with the shield of thoughts and prayers.”
He set it to music and played the song for a few people, including his bandmates. They recorded the song and made a simple music video in Hamilton’s studio.
Then, he let it be.
“I didn’t know quite what to do with it,” he said. “I thought, unfortunately, it’d become timely again.”
After the Aug. 3 and 4 shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, Hamilton found himself thinking about “Thoughts and Prayers” again, playing it for a handful of friends who encouraged him to release the song.
So he uploaded the video to the Mudslide Charley YouTube account on Aug. 7, and it had over 200 views by early Thursday afternoon, much more than any song Hamilton had put up before.
He was happy with the response, around 45 likes on the Facebook post and plenty of encouragement, all tinged with a bit of sadness, naturally.
Ed Stalling commented, “Wish it didn’t need writing of course. But way to express the feelings of the country.”
When President Donald Trump visited Dayton and El Paso this week following the shootings that left at least 31 dead, protesters and supporters showed up to let him know their thoughts, many with forceful messages, according to an Associated Press story.
“In Dayton, raw anger and pain were on display as protesters chanted ‘Ban those guns’ and 'Do something!’” the story said.
But Hamilton felt more sad than angry — and meant “Thoughts and Prayers” to be more of a personal and emotional work than a political one.
“I get this knot in my stomach when I hear the news, being a citizen out in Montana … you feel a powerlessness,” Hamilton said. “I think the best thing you can do is control what you do have power over.
“Somehow we can all make a small difference.”
For information about booking and upcoming events contact Marco Littig via phone 406-546-5469 or email littigmarco406@gmail.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram and visit our website www.mudslidecharley.com