Nashville, Tennessee isn’t typically associated with hard-hitting blues acts, but Chris Ford’s SuBourbon Blues Project didn’t get the memo. “Whiskey Still” is a powerhouse single from the band’s second album Where Concrete Meets the Grass and, as a representative of the album, promises Ford has further refined the gritty punch delivered during his debut. His music and songwriting prove it’s possible, sometimes, to have your cake and eat it too – he founded the SuBourbon Blues Project from a position of strength, an already successful businessman pursuing his passions, but there’s nothing of the weekend warrior surrounding his presentation or work.
URL: https://subourbonblues.com/
The guitar playing is especially incendiary. Ford doesn’t burden the track with too much lead guitar, there’s really nothing self-indulgent about “Whiskey Still” at all, and the guitar has a biting attack sure to engage with many listeners. It may pull from a long-standing tradition, but there’s no question Ford understands what the important ingredients for a successful blues rock song are. He arranges them in a compelling fashion; yes, “Whiskey Still” establishes its identity straight out of the gate and it’s predictable. The fun, however, is in hearing how well Ford and his collaborators pull it off.
Its attitude towards its own identity is important. Ford and his music embrace a roots-oriented approach with wholehearted zeal, never tempering it with false “modern” touches, and clearly showing he’s intent on providing an authentic listening experience. He calls upon many familiar images from blues and blues rockers you’ve heard countless times, but they sound new here. Ford shares a talent for pouring old wine into new bottles shared only be a select few; it sounds like rank imitation in the hands of others.
Ford, instead, is carrying on a tradition. He’s using that same tradition as a vehicle for expressing his imagination and, undoubtedly, his personal life. Taking a venerable form like this and finding continued use in it, making it your own, is a far from shabby accomplishment. Ford riveted my attention from his first line onward and elevates the lyric to the level of performed conversational poetry.
I expect the remainder of the album is the same. Let’s hope that Ford is getting the opportunity to play this material for appreciative audiences; it’s obviously tailored for a concert setting and it isn’t difficult imagining the band ratcheting its intensity even higher in such an environment. Ford doesn’t overstay his welcome with listeners either; his performing and songwriting instincts are first-class for someone only on their sophomore album. He may have other callings in life, but it’s clear to me that Ford was meant to be doing this all along.
Music like “Whiskey Still” is getting harder and harder to find. There isn’t much call in 2022 for someone caterwauling about bootleg whiskey stills in the moonshine. It’s language out of another time. He makes you believe, however, if you give him the chance. He wails about his worried mind like a man on the verge of a complete breakdown, perhaps, but he’s not going down without a fight.
Chadwick Easton
The music of Chris Ford has been heard all over the world in partnership with the radio plugging services offered by Musik and Film Radio Promotions Division. Learn more https://musikandfilm.com