Jo’ Buddy’s One Man Stomptet – Lockdown Sessions & Beyond Vol. 1
Ram-Bam Records – RAM011 [2023]
Kingston Street Dance – Jo’ Buddy’s Biznes – Holler With The Soul – If I Could Love Someone – I’ll Be There By Your Side – Never Find Another – Alphabet Boogie Woogie – Goin’ Back To New Orleans – You Stayed Out All Night Long – Lakewood Walk
Jo’ Buddy’s One Man Stomptet is a project led by Jo’ Buddy (real name Jussi Raulamo). He recorded this album during the lockdown (hence the title). He plays all instruments except the harmonica and sax, played by JD Harmo and Masa Orpana, respectively.
It’s an excellent blues album that explores many facets of the genre. The set begins with an instrumental, a relaxed shuffle on which a Johnny Watson-style guitar shines. Jo’ Buddy’s Bizness is a swinging blues, enhanced with a beautiful organ part, on which Buddy adds an excellent guitar solo and his expressive voice. Holler With My Soul brings a touch of Twist, spiced up by a New Orleans feel a la Fats Domino or Smiley Lewis. We can find this same influence on Goin’ Back To New Orleans, reminiscent of Stagger Lee.
If I Could Love Someone leans more towards Texas with its relaxed Jimmie Vaughan groove. The discreet organ delicately supports everything. I’ll Be There By Your Side, the first of the two songs on which JD Harmo’s harmonica appears, slows down the tempo delicately, while Never Find Another is more raw and crude in the spirit of Slim Harpo. Albeit classic in its form, Alphabet Boogie Woogie is enhanced by a superb steel guitar solo, which surprises the listener and makes the tune original. You Stayed All Night Long is a slow lament that again allows the multi-instrumentalist to deliver a superb guitar solo. The album ends as it began, with an instrumental, with the help of Masa Orpana on saxophone for an atmosphere very close, although more swaying, to Bill Doggett.
Available here.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
