Eli Cook - Ace, Jack & King

I just received the new release, Ace, Jack & King by Eli Cook and it's really smokey. The recording opens with Death Rattle, one of 9 original tracks on this release. I really like this track which conjures up the feeling of the back country south and ancient blues.The band consists of Cook on vocal, guitar and mandolin; Brian "Boogie" Thomas on bass; Wade Warfield on drums, percussion and hand claps and Wavorly Milor on harmonica. Please, Please has the feel of a country blues with simple acoustic guitar, slide and tambourine and Cooks deep rich voice. Snake Charm has a rockier blues but raw sound. Plugged in with simple rhythm, driving grinding guitar, solid bass, drums and screaming harp. This is a very cool modern interpretation of ancient blues. Skip James' Catfish Blues is up next. This track is literally an acoustic guitar, tambourine and Cook's deep rich voice. Although a startling difference from Skip James voice, Cook has a very strong melodic voice. Draggin' My Dogs is a much more contemporary track, still stripped down to it's simplest elements of acoustic guitar, vocal and percussion but lending itself nicely to commercial airplay with a smart melody and hook. Afrossippi Breakdown is really a bluesy folk tune and very strongly written and performed. Sugar and Rain, another track which has a more contemporary sound but again retaining the open feel of the country. Resonator and acoustic guitar along with simple drumming and vocals. The classic Driftin' gets a slower and more soulful treatment with squakin' harp and tom drumming supporting Cook's voice and a cool slide solo. Porter Irving's Cocaine Blues gets a pretty straight forward cover with Cooks massive voice set into a small environment processor. This has an interesting effect as well as the resonator work that accompanies it. Skip James' Crow Jane is brought forward with "Bonham" like drums and solid rock rhythms. Cook on electric guitar and vocals, this is one of my favorite tracks on the release. Suicide King has a much more heavy undertone with acoustic finger picking but with minor chord melody and contemporary rock style drumming. Nick Drake's Black Eyed Dog gets a very eastern folk oriented cover with only vocal, percussion and guitar. Death Rattle (slight return) is done electric style and has a resemblance to Come Together if performed by Black Label Society. It's actually quite cool. I really think that this cd is interesting. It has a little taste of a number of things and the things I like a bit I like a lot.  

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