Rising bluesman D.K. Harrell keeps on rolling with his sophomore album–and Alligator Records debut–Talkin’ Heavy. Released last week, the album includes another dozen extremely impressive original tracks that demonstrate why the 27-year-old Harrell is one of the hottest acts on the blues scene right now.
Picking up right where he left off from the energy and sophistication of his first, Blues Music Award-winning album The Right Man (Little Village Foundation), Harrell kicks off this follow-up with a grooving “A Little Taste” that does indeed provide a nice little taste of what’s ahead, including some Albert King-style licks from Harrell on guitar as well as some terrific horns and playing from Jim Pugh on keys.
That’s followed by the similarly groovy “Grown Now” about which we told you previously, and weighty, creeping title track, with its forceful vocals and some more stinging, Albert King-like playing from Harrell. With three of the album’s heaviest hitting tracks immediately at the top of the project, you’ll be glad to know there’s still plenty of good stuff to come from Harrell and his band, composed of producer Kid Andersen on rhythm guitar, Pugh on keys, and Andrew Moss on bass, with June Core and Derrick “D’Mar” Martin sharing on drum duties and the likes of Alabama Mike, Tia Carroll, and Andersen’s wife Lisa Leuschner Andersen joining on backing vocals and Terry Hanck helping on horns, in addition to a host of other guests on backing vocals, horns, strings, and percussion and congas, throughout the album.
Among the best other numbers are a horns-laced, vice-filled, shuffling “Liquor Stores And Legs”, the swaying, soulful blues of “What Real Men Do” and an addictive “Good Man” that starts as a soft, slow piano ballad before the rest of the instruments and backing vocs burst in.
In between you can also catch a couple of disco-ish tunes in “PTLD” (as in “Post-Traumatic Love Disorder”) and an “Into the Room” that sounds like it could easily be a cover of a B.B. King track from the disco/R&B era, with the slow blues of “Life’s Lessons” and creeping, strings-accented “No Thanks to You” also both having a very B.B.-like sound. “Vibe With Me” is an intoxicating slow burner (pun intended), while the album closes on the upbeat, full-on gospel of a “Praise These Blues” that features rich organ, a backing choir, and Chuck Berry-ish guitar just like it came from one of the Blues Brothers movies!
Harrell’s first album will always be a tough one to top, but Talkin’ Heavy is certainly another terrific outing for him, introducing a good number of more instant classics from the young bluesman while also showing him trying out some different directions, and again giving fans and critics alike a whole lot to talk about!