Dudley Taft - Left For Dead

WASHINGTON BLUES SOCIETY BLUESLETTER:

Big, fat and loud are descriptives that got slapped around on the début album of Seattle’s rock and blues singer/songwriter Dudley Taft; pretty, soft and conservatively wired listeners need not apply.

“Left For Dead” is stacked with the Texan overtones of ZZ Top and SRV yet with an untypical innovative style and approach that gives this album the meat and potatoes to get a listener on the sonic train tracks and dancing till they pull into the station.

There is no question that Taft, his band and this album have passed through the deep mojo fires of the Seattle music culture infecting a blend of blues standards like Willy Dixon’s “Back Door Man” and “Seventh Son” and Taft’s original work like the album’s title track, “Left For Dead” which encapsulates the spirit of the NW blues with lyrics like “My body hit the mattress, but my soul hit the floor”. The first tune out the gate is Taft’s “Ain’t No Game” which had me heading for my leather pants, boots and ready for a ride and by the last tune, also a Taft original, “If You’ll Come Home” I had to wonder if I wasn’t listening to the next Billy Gibbons or Joe Bonamassa.

If you are new to the name Dudley Taft, he is no upstart to say the least, he’s been rocking crowds for years with regional superstars Spike and the Impalers and it’s going to take a tornado to knock this showman off his game. So if it’s a feast of thick and beefy guitar tones or a stratospheric riff rock, blue note rocket ride this collection of NW styled blues tunes is a must have for any serious rock blues music collection.

by William Thomas Anderson - Rock the Blues/Washington Blues Society

You can sample all album tracks on CD Baby here:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/DudleyTaft