Craig Erickson Project
"Shine"
Grooveyard Records

That's what I call a highly appropriate title! I do have Craig's previous albums and I do think they are great, but I'd still say this is where the guy really shines. Sure he's still got the blues, but this time he's given it a twist and mixed it about a bit. Don't misunderstand me, Craig sure can sing, but the addition of one of my fave-singers Rob Lamothe kinda gives the cake a nice icing. That boy's sure got his vocal chords in order. The combination of Craig's killer blues-guitar vibe and Rob's cool blues-voice turns a pretty ordinary melodic blues-oriented rocker like "Familiar" into pure art. Well, ordinary ain't an appropriate word in this context, as this is definitely Craig's biggest divertion from the traditional bag of blues. "Desperate" is an ultra-cool tune with an outstanding solo-effort from Erickson, so full of feel you can taste it. In "Break Free" and "Remember Now" he carefully treads into Hendrix riff-oriented land, but with Lamothe taking it a step further on the latter. "Wild Dogs" is another cool toon, here with the addition of man with the golden vocal chords himeself, mr Glenn Hughes. My absolute favourite on the album is the outstanding King's X-goes-heavy-blues-on-a-Sunday-afternoon "Bus Stop". Here Craig takes care of the vocals himself and he surely does it great. The title-track is another Hendrixy tune, again with Lamothe adding his personal touch to the vocal territory. I really love this type of heavy, yet cool riffage with the classic Strat-type neck pick-up sound. Another favourite of mine is "Doomsday Blues", which just by looking at the title could've been a typical "Woke up this morning and my dog was dead" type of three-chord blues. Well, blues it is, but it's another example of Craig's heavy coolness and riffing skills. Another track well worth mentioning is of course the cover of Hendrix "Angel", where, again, Rob Lamothe's vocals in combination with Craig's string-treatment gives it new life. The album ends in style with Craig showing his full range of feelings in the instrumental "Beautiful Venus". His tone is so full of feeling it hurts. Too bad it's so damn short. Those 1:30 minutes could've been 1:30 hours in my simple opinion. This is not a recommendation; it's an order – BUY IT NOW!

---Janne Stark
Midwestern Skies - Sweden - 2001