Customer Reviews

Texas Sugar/Strat Magik

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The comparsisons to Hendrix and Vaughan abound, but anyone who typecasts Duarte as a simple clone of those two godfathers of acid blues is simply short sighted.

Chris Duarte's first full-length album, *Texas Sugar* is astounding on many levels. Sure, it's hard-rocking blues. However, the funk and jazz influences color nearly all the tracks. Take something like "Big Legged Woman." Certainly, one can hear the blues influences, from the scorching guitar solos to the chordal structure. However, one would have to be tone deaf to miss the scratching, funky rhythm of the song. "Big Legged Woman" shares more in common with Wild Cherry or post-Bitch's Brew Miles than with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Duarte reminds me of what Jimi Hendrix may have become: a restless experimenter who fuses jazz, funk, rock, blues, and acid rock with a stamp of originality that many, many musicians should envy. His playing is clean, but sometimes hidden behind a wall of effects and distortion. I'd like to hear an acoustic outing from Duarte.

The songs, however, are amazing. I love "My Way Down." It's a blues/rock/funk explosion with a guitar solo that soars above the stratosphere, makes a left at Neptune, and comes back home with alien knowledge of another world.

Buy this album. Also, check out "Tailspin Headwack."

I love this CD. Sure, at times he does sound like Stevie Ray but labeling him an SRV clone is the easy way out. There's some mighty fine guitar pickin' goin' on here. Great Strat sound throughout. Listen to the funky guitar work on Big-legged Woman, so sweet! Other standouts for me are C-Butt Rock, Letter To My Girlfriend and the super My Way Down. Just super guitar pickin'. Kudos to the band as well, especially the drummer for some tasty playing. I recently caught Chris and his new band at BB King's in New York and Chris was smokin'! Check this guy out, I think you'll dig it.
www.electriceyes.us

It's impossible to write a review of Chris Duarte without invocking the name of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Duarte, a fellow Texan, is obviously a disciple of the late, great guitarist. In fact, Duarte dedicates the nearly ten-minute instrumental "Shiloh" to Stevie and his brother Jimmie. But while Duarte may have been influenced by the Vaughan brothers, he is no imitator. Duarte's guitar playing is both fiery and inspired. His vocals are serviceable, but it's his guitar playing that brings me back to this album time and again. I caught him live a couple years ago and his performance was dazzling. This is an impressive debut. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This guy is coming to a blues fesitval here in Ohio, so I thought I'd buy this album. Quit calling this guy a wanna be. Hell SRV was an Albert King wanna be. If you're lookin for some smokin guitar playing say no more. He's got a good voice, and here's a novel idea, there are actual guitar riffs. New original ones (not the same old blues rehashed). While there is some traditional, this album just blew me away from the first lick. He is definitely up there with Kenny Wayne and J. Lang (probably a better player then both). I was about to give up buying electric blues CDs as they were all very average. This one just kills. I am so pleased to have found a really good guitar player, with good tunes, and tasty chops.

That industry reviewer was really off base when he dismissed Chris Duarte as a mere Stevie Ray Vaughan wannabe. Sure, Duarte often sounds like Vaughan both vocally and instrumentally but when you are playing in a rather narrowly defined genre, "Texas blues", you are bound to sound like someone else who has done it all before. The criticism might be more apt if Vaughan were still alive when this CD was first released and Duarte was merely aping him. But Vaughan was not around when this came out and Duarte is not playing Vaughan's songs, so the listener should hear this instead as another helping of the tasty Texas blues style as popularized by Vaughan.
Those reading this review and others on this site are unlikely to be looking at Texas Sugar/Strat Magik at all without some familiarity with and affinity for Texas blues. Its hard to describe the style except that you know it when you hear it. I had heard of Duarte for years, but just recently actually heard him for the first time when I chanced to pick this up at a very good price. Now that I have, I am sorry I didn't hear him earlier.
On this his debut CD, Duarte shows that he has mastered not just the style but also the spirit of Texas blues. If you like great guitar work and can separate yourself from any negative feelings vis-a-vis comparisons with SRV then you should enjoy this. Not every song is great, Just Kissed My Baby is actually quite lame and repetitious, but there is a lot to like in just under fifty minutes of music. The standouts are the SRV instrumental tribute Shiloh and a fine cover of Big-Legged Woman but I also have high praise for My Way Down and C-Butt Rock.
Duarte's career may have not taken off immediately but he's well received by most people I know who love the blues. When Robin Trower issued his first solo LP after his departure from Procol Harum, critics howled that he was nothing but a Hendrix ripoff although those who knew him from his Procol Harum days knew differently. Thirty-five years later, Trower is still making great music. The industry hack insinuated that since this CD failed to ignite the music world, Duarte's career would be short. Yet, thirteen years later Duarte is still at it. If you haven't heard Duarte before, buying Texas Sugar/Strat Magik is sure to whet your appetite for more. It sure did whet mine!

To paraphrase my brother, who is a both a devoted guitarist and a devoted student of many playing styles (from D'Jango to Jimi), Chris Duarte manages to combine influences from many, many other fine artists and yet retains his own unique style. His music ranges from straight-ahead [...] rock to liquid, buttery-smooth jazz, blues and soul. If you expect ANY of his albums to be consistent and uneclectic, forget it. If, however, you delight in amazing, incindiary, surprising and listenable ear-candy, ALL of Duarte's work is a treat.

While you're at it, look him up on the Web and plan on seeing him in concert. I did, at some little biker dive in Topeka, KS. Spent most of the time there in slack-jawed amazement at him and his band. God only knows how Duarte wrenches so of the music he gets out of that strat, but it's well worth hearing.

This album and it's predecessors are more polished versions of the Duarte magic. I highly recommend you spend a few $$$ and buy them. Your ears will thank you.

To all of us hard core "Blues/Rock" guitar nuts Chris Duarte's "Texas Sugar/Strat Magik" is an album worth keeping in your CD case.Some of Mr. Drozdowski's terms in reviewing this album are right. Chris Duarte is not the worlds greatest vocalist, yet I would not call his vocals or style pallid. Jimi Hendrix stated his entire career that he had a lousy voice, and on many of his cuts he was. In terms of Chris Duarte being a wannabe, I think not. It is obvious when one sees Chris "Live" that he has his own style. In terms of "Copped licks" aren't most "Blues/Rock" lead guitarist copping licks on a continuum. Chris Duarte's "Texas Sugar/Strat Magik" is an enjoyable album, and much better and creative than Johnny Lang's first album. This album is of the type that you can pop in your player and listen to over and over, a good album with very good creative guitar work. Mr.Duarte has produced a good "Blues/Rock" lovers album. It's not Hendrix, but it is better than most that "New rockers" put out as most are one album one hit wonders.Chris Duarte will be around along time. Buy the album, and you'll find yourself setting Lang and others aside to slide "Strat Magik in.

Jimmy Hattabaugh Wichita, Kansas

I'm so tired of people saying so and so is a "fill in the blank" wannabe. So what if some of his licks sound like SRV, he's an artist who plays what he wants to play and was probably very strongly influenced by artists like SRV and others. Doesn't make him a Wannabe, he's just playing that style of music and very well if you ask me. Don't get so hung up on comparing artists to the people that came before them, they may show signs of influence but deserve to be reviewed on their own merits. Hell even Clapton and Duane had influences but no one called them Wannabes. Fine album in my opinion.

Man, this collection of tunes really rocks! If you love the sound of the guitar, you cannot go wrong here. Check out the instrumental "Shiloh" dedicated to Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, it smokes!

Chris Duarte is without equal in the world of blues rock today. His mastery of the guitar and incredible live shows are unbelievable. His sound is Stevie Ray Vaughan transformed. His music adds much more funk, punk and drive to that Texas blues sound. Duarte's songs have great feeling, and the louder the better. This is a must have for any blues fan. Check out the tracks "My Way Down", "Scrawl", and "Big Legged Woman", they are incredible!