★★★★★
Poetry, Wordsworth once famously noted, "takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." The kind of swamp-blues poetry practiced by Baton Rouge's Neal family is no different, which is why this tribute to genre master and family friend Slim Harpo sat on the shelf for two full years: a true Neal family project, the nearly-completed CD languished when its patriarch, Raful, was diagnosed with bone cancer...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
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- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Like the jazz tradition in New Orleans and zydeco music's in South Louisiana, many of the current blues artists that from Baton Rouge are second, and even third generation musicians. Not only is Kenny Neal the oldest son of blues harp legend Raful Neal, but also each of his siblings has pursued careers as a musician (brother Noel has played bass with Bobby Bland on-and-off for years)...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Let Life Flow sounds like Kenny Neal is trying to make a blues album, but he keeps getting interrupted by life. It has songs you expect: A fine version of Ivory Joe Hunter's "Since I Met You Baby," the grooving "Blues, Leave Me Alone," and other tales of heartache and infidelity. But periodically, the real world pokes its head into the album starting with the title track, which opens the album...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
You really can't go wrong with any of the guitarist's fine Alligator albums, but this one sparkles as brightly as any, with memorable outings like "Right Train, Wrong Track," "That Knife Don't Cut No More," and the steamy title track. Kenny Neal's albums are invariably dominated by well-chosen originals -- no small feat these days.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
This no-frills Alligator reissue of 2003's Easy Meeting (recorded in France, 1998), allows a wider audience to hear this exceptional recording, which might have been all but impossible to find on its previous indie label. Louisiana swamp guitarist/vocalist Neal is well known through his nine discs on Alligator and Telarc, but harp player Branch is a more obscure, yet tremendously talented bluesman who blues fans may recognize from his inclusion on Alligator's 1991 Harp Attack...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Kenny Neal began the project that led to this record in 2002, and it was originally intended to be a tribute to the music of Slim Harpo, whose own languid, atmospheric recordings are the very definition of swamp blues. With Slim's good friend (and Kenny Neal's father) Raful Neal handling most of the vocals, and, of course, the harmonica work, and with some of the members of Harpo's band also on-board, ten tracks were recorded before the elder Neal was diagnosed with bone cancer...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Backed by a punchy horn section and sizzling rhythms, Neal didn't suffer from any sophomore jinx. Between Neal, his bass-playing co-producer Bob Greenlee, and drummer Jim Payne, there's some very crafty songwriting going on here -- "Any Fool Will Do," "Bad Check," and "Can't Have Your Cake (And Eat It Too)" are among the standouts.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
On Kenny Neal's third Telarc release, One Step Closer, he combines the Louisiana musical traditions he grew up listening to with a wide range of contemporary material. Among the 12 tracks are soul-blues renditions of Bob Dylan's "Walk Out in the Rain," Nick Lowe's "High on a Hilltop," and John Hiatt's "Lover's Will...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
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