Hell, you want funky riff driven magic, look no further as the band play imperiously.Īnd make no mistake there’s more than enough room in the rock blues community for a fiery player and kicking band such as this. The guitar and organ interplay here is startlingly good, setting up a deep groove that is both rigorously underpinned and periodically punctuated by drummer Mark MsSwain. Albert’s simmering tone picks out the theme over a crunching rhythm section. In Albert’s case if he paid just as much attention to his vocals as to his multi instrumental prowess, he’d be seriously knocking on the doors of a wider rock blues community.Īs it is he settles into a funky live cornerstone of the album, the tub thumping rendition of the afore mentioned ‘Chicken Heads’. The undoubted edginess to his playing on this track is also reminiscent of Washington DC guitarist Bobby Radcliff who funnily enough also covers Bobby Rush's ‘Chicken Heads. Albert plays all the instruments except for keyboards and leans into the groove with a rough edged tone that relies more on intensity than tone colour. As it turns out this track is nicely juxtaposed with a cool soulful blues ‘All My Life’ that sharply brings into focus both the strengths and weaknesses of his style. Storo delivers a stinging guitar attack on a well chosen cover of Carl Weathersby’s ‘Hipshaking Woman’, while his brusque vocals and steely tone is heavily reminiscent of Australian powerhouse Rob Tognoni.
Quite an impressive combination when you consider Albert has spent much of his pro career as a drummer! On balance Albert’s playing outweighs his singing - at times his phrasing lacks feel and variety - but in truth most people purchasing this CD will be more focused on the gut wrenching incendiary guitar solo’s, the kick ass rhythm section and the collective smoking band workouts than the singing. "Keeping the Blues Alive Award" Achievement for Blues on the Internetĭescribed as ‘Texas Fried, Chicago funked, Rollicking, Racket & Blues’, you might ask what’s in a title? Well in the case of Albert Storro, he certainly does what it says on the tin, ‘getting’ down & nasty’ on six covers and a self penned number that show him to be a bruising player and tough vocalist. Albert Storo and the Soul Hustlers CD Review