Music Reviews: Dr. Izzy Band, Laid Back on a Blues Ride

Blind and Blues Bound - Opening with slowly grinding notes Dr. Izzy and her band sway through your ears like autumn leaves that have fallen on cool crisp night. Guitars jangle in the foreground while the bass guitar and the drums provide an intimate dance of notes. Lead guitar work spins a string of notes that tell a story in and of themself. Vocal tones on this release have a down-to-earth-quality. Full of passion Dr. Izzy’s voice will sneak into your heart and warm your soul. The rattling of the fiddle in the intro of, "Soul Dance" builds anticipation. As the song unfolds the energy gets taken up a notch. For an acoustic number this cut has a lot of fire in its belly. You will almost feel as if you are starring death in the face yourself. This is the type of album that you sit back and just soak in. With the acoustic saunter of "Been a Long Time Coming" you will want to sit down with a nice bottle of wine, take a deep breath and mull past trials are over. "Old Crow" sidesteps a bit with some bluegrass textures and you can almost imagine yourself out on the front porch watching a storm roll in. Stripping it down even further the guitar is joined by just a fiddle during "Mamma Said”. Vocals help this track pop a bit when backed by the male vocal. Cranking it back up with a bass laying a funky groove, "Hang Tough" features overdriven guitars that play as if they refuse to take anything from anyone. As the notes roll out of the guitar amp on the beginning of "Dirt Bed" you almost expect to see your breath in front of your face. With such cold hard stories it takes someone with a fire inside to reveal such truth. The guitar takes center stage on "It's Been Real where it belongs on a blues record. With sass and swagger it cuts through the mix like a knife. Rounding out this release is the track "Your Redeemer". With the acoustic guitar dropping jewels of notes like stars from the heavens the vocal duo has the ability to soar into the heavens itself. I would recommend this album to those that like Blues, Rock, Americana and even Country. While life may try and blindside you from time to time, with music like this your are bound to survive.