★★★★★
Canada's premiere blues guitarist has sidelined his Little Big Band to return to his blues-rock roots on the hardest rocking album James has recorded in years. The lead-off single Man's Gotta Be a Stone (and I don't care that it rips off ZZ Top's La Grange because ZZ Top ripped off John Lee Hooker) is James's most fun blues boogie since 1990's Keep On Loving Me Baby. iPod-worthy tracks: covers of Toots & The Maytals' Johnny Coolman and Bob Dylan's If You've Gotta Go, Go Now.
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-09
★★★★★
Canada's premiere blues guitarist has sidelined his Little Big Band to return to his blues-rock roots on the hardest-rocking album James has recorded in years. The lead-off single Man's Gotta Be a Stone - and I don't care that it rips off ZZ Top's La Grange because ZZ Top ripped off John Lee Hooker - is Colin's most fun blues boogie since 1990's Keep On Loving Me Baby. iPod-worthy tracks: James' covers of Toots & The Maytals' Johnny Coolman and Bob Dylan's If You've Gotta Go, Go Now.
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-09
★★★★★
On histhird American album, Colin James and the Little Band, Vancouver rocker James takes a side trip intopre-rock blues and jump tunes. But this is no poseur's record; he'sobviously having a ball on tracks like Roy Brown's "Cadillac Baby"and Rosco Gordon's "Sit Right Here." Best of all, the cracklingbig-band arrangements (courtesy of Roomful of Blues) are a totalgroove. In short, this album is an uninhibited love letter to an erawhen music was for dancing, not thinking. A-
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
A fine blues guitarist and singer, Saskatchewan native Colin James dabbled in the swing thing long before it became the pop flavor of the month. His 1993 release Little Big Band featured a dazzling band that included Roomful of Blues, Chuck Leavell and Reese Winans. James revives that sound here by inviting blues and swing talents Kaz Kazanoff (saxophones), Greg Piccolo (saxophones), Winans (keys), Brian Casserly (trumpet) and many others to join him in the studio...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2009-06-05
★★★★★
If you didn't know better, you'd swear that Canadian guitarist Colin James was from Texas. James, one of the best blues-rock guitarists to emerge in recent years, has all the earmarks of the traditional Texas guitar slinger: dazzling, cocksure technique, a flair for dynamics, enough humor to stand clichs on their heads and an innate sense of direction in his soloing. It's not surprising, given James's precocious talent, that Texas legend Stevie Ray Vaughan treats James like a protg.Musical...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-03-23
★★★★★
Roy Brown's "Cadillac (Baby)," Ike Turner's "Leading Me On," Roscoe Gordon's "No More Doggin'" rumble from the days just before Elvis exploded. This music is swinging stuff too rarely heard. Detouring from his proven AOR track, Canadian heartthrob Colin James stomps this 1948-56 turf engagingly, his expert Wes Montgomery-style guitar licks jousting sassily with the Roomful of Blues horns...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-03-22
★★★★★
A solid, stylistically varied followup by this Canadian guitarist.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
A tasty hybrid of rock & roll, jive, and blues, James' eponymous recording -- a collection of standards from the late '40s-early '50s recorded live from the floor -- takes a swingin' jump approach with horns and organ given equal billing to smooth, hollow-body guitar tones. Highlights: the finger-snapping, fedora-over-one-eye cool of "Evening" and a bopping, knockout version of "Train Kept A-Rollin'."
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
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