Customer Reviews

Everything's for Sale

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Henry's Funeral Shoe aren't doing anything particularly new or innovative on this debut record for Alive, but when you're playing amplified blues with a kick to it, it's not a good idea to embellish it because you risk losing its essence. This is not music you listen to with your head. It's music that hits you in the gut. It's visceral, and the best thing to do is put it on - loud - and let it wash over you. Like the best blues, it's cleansing and healing at the same time. A very good debut; it'll be interesting to see where they go next.

The minimalist blues formula brought back to popular prominence by the White Stripes, has been equally effective for guitar-and-drums duos like the Black Keys, Two Gallants and Soledad Brothers, and bass-free groups like Black Diamond Heavies and Radio Moscow. The Welsh duo Henry's Funeral Shoe, featuring Aled Clifford on electric guitar and vocals and his younger brother Brennig on drums, debut with heavy blues-rock originals that drift briefly into psychedelic jamming. Aled's twanging low strings and Brennig's heavy kick drum and tom-toms fill up the rhythmic and tonal space made by the lack of a bass player. There are shades of Peter Green in the guitar playing, and the sparse vocals have the rough-and-ready force of guttural blues shouters such as the proto-rock `n' roller Big Joe Turner, the edgy electric bluesmen Johnny Winter, early metal howlers like Paranoid-era Ozzy Osbourne, and growling alley dwellers like Tom Waits. The elder Clifford writes lyrics populated with phrases rather than stories or characters, matching the duo's instrumental style by adding verbal catch-lines to the riff-heavy music. These tunes are sure to be even more arresting when assaulting sweaty bodies on a darkened, beer-soaked dance floor. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]