image courtesy of the Namedroppers

Album Review of Namedroppers: Cool Blue Shoes

There’s something about the Namedroppers‘ brand of blues. Despite the band’s ragged, emotional vocals, there’s a lightness that bring joy with the blues. If that’s your style of blues – blues as therapy rather than downtrodden commiseration – then the Name Droppers are a band you oughta know.

I reviewed the band’s last disc, Starshine, and now I’m giving Cool Blue Shoes a spin. As expected, Cool Blue Shoes is a collection of Namedroppers-style potential new favorites. The new album showcases the band’s broad-based talent, delivering a fun collection of new music, Namedroppers styled!

“Killing Floor” opens the record with a rhythm you’ll recognize quickly as the Namedroppers if you’ve heard their previous records. It’s a loose, soulful style of laid-back blues, and there’s just something about the music and vocal style that lets you know it’s gotta be the Namedroppers; it can’t be anyone else. Indeed, all the elements sound familiar, but the band has carved out its own signature sound, something few bands can do. As such – a tune that clearly identifies the band – it’s a great disc opener. “Cool Blue Shoes,” next, still has that hint of a herky-jerky rhythm but leans into its instruments’ repeated patterns just a little heavier.

“Be Alright” is a big-stage performance number, with plenty of background vocals and an uplifting rhythm. The song sports a kind of a blues meets soul meets ’70s rock vibe. You can almost see the greens, browns, oranges, and goldenrods of the ’70s if you close your eyes and listen to the funky guitarwork.

“Keep Pushin'” combines a George Thorogood-esque guitar crunch with some serious ivory-tickling and a fast tempo.

“That’s the Way My Love Is” is a bit of a late ’70s/early ’80s laid-back distorted rocker, the sort that would be reminiscent of the summer of love in a style that’d likely place it a little more than a decade later. It’s a pretty cool number in that it shows the band’s range, falling a little farther than usual on the straight-up rock ‘n roll fringe of the band’s blues style, though still clearly being a Namedroppers tune. “Hard Way,” too, leans old-school rock, with sixties-style vocal harmonies and organ-style keywork setting the stage for a very cool, very bluesy blues-rock guitar solo. It’s followed by a rocked-up, modernly-stylized version of Willie Dixon’s “I Cry For You.”

A fun, energetic, kinda silly “Think Yiddish” – playing on the phrase “think yiddish, dress British” – follows, dropping in a brief “hava nagila,” while also serving as a vehicle for a nifty keyboard solo, all delivered with some typically ragged, cool Bobby T vocals.

The album’s second-to-last song, “Yes I Will,” carries the spirits of ’50s-style rock ‘n roll, with an almost Chuck Berry-ish guitar riff, maybe a little Chubby Checker style in the song’s rhythm and its rockin’ blues.

Then Cool Blue Shoes closes with the slowly swaying, spoken-over-doo-wop “Out of This Blue.”

In all, Cool Blue Shoes is a solid blues record with forays into adjacent styles that showcase the Namedroppers broad range while also providing a fun disc whose variety – all containing the Namedroppers’ cohesive, identifiable sound – make for an interesting listen, an enjoyable follow-up to Starshine.

Looking Ahead

Well, you won’t have to look far ahead to find the Namedroppers’ next album. Let’s Live Together is scheduled for a June 12th release. That’s next week! I, for one, look forward to more music that, I have no doubt, is gonna be a welcome addition to my playlist.

photo courtesy of the Namedroppers

Album Review of Namedroppers: Starshine

The Namedroppers – Bobby T Torello (drums), Scott Spray (bass), Ron Rifkin (piano/organ), and Rafe Klein (guitar) – were named Blues Act of the Year by the 2023 New England Music Awards. They followed that in 2024 by releasing this disc, Starshine, containing ten songs ranging from rockin’ blues and bluesy rock to soaring soulful blues.

They kick things off with kind of a combination of those styles on the title track, a mid-tempo number featuring spoken-sung lead vocals from Rafe Klein with a chorus of background vocals from Ron and Bobby and, most notably, the soulful, standout supporting vox of guest vocalist Simone Brown.

image courtesy of the Namedroppers

That’s followed by “Sweet Little Angel,” one of the two covers on the album, an exceptional rendition of the B.B. King classic that’s carried by engaging guitarwork but really driven home by its fun, tuneful, slightly growling lead vocal.

“Whiskey” is one of two songs on the disc featuring Bobby T on lead vocals, his grizzled voice providing a rough, in-character delivery.  Bobby T also lends his voice to the song “Rotten Person,” a hilarious, um… could it be considered a curse? On it, you’ll particularly dig the lyric “You’re a rotten person, you deserve desertion, and I really hope you end up alone.” I think we all know someone deserving of that particular curse.

The only other song featuring someone other than Rafe Klein on lead vocals is the band’s cover of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” with Ron Rifkin handling the mic duties. The song has been so bluesified in this arrangement, with keyboard flourishes and a tunefully anguished, pleading vocal, that you almost don’t readily identify the original. And that, my friends, is how you perform a cover song.

photo courtesy of the Namedroppers

Probably the song with the biggest crossover, multi-audience hit potential on this disc is “Shades of Blue,” a song with a gentle, sneakily hooky guitar line that supports Rafe’s heartfelt vocals, with guest vocalist support from Carole Sylvan, who you’ll remember from a review of her album Love here at the Blog a little more than a year ago.

There’s a little two-song run in the middle of the album that I refer to as the disc’s “death section.” It’s comprised of a couple of lighthearted songs about passing away (or, rather, having passed away), “I Died You Cried” and “Can’t Take It With You.”

The only songs I haven’t yet mentioned are Starshine‘s final two tracks. “Red Sea Blues” is a heavy blues protestation/proclamation, while “Joy, Pain, Sky,” helped along by prominent guest vocals from Simone Brown, ends the album with a bit of joyfulness, which in the blues can’t come without some pain.

Starshine is a fun listen beginning to end (and on repeat), covering a lot of blues real estate, featuring a talented group of musicians with rather impressive bios. But hey, you can read about their pasts for yourself on the band’s website, because at the end of the day, it’s all about how those backgrounds come together to create the exceptional music on this disc; if you’re a blues fan, you’ll enjoy this record.