Black Bone Child - Take You Blind

When a band kicks out an acoustic album, the immediate reaction from the masses is that the songs are going to be softer, slower, more ambient pieces of music that would suit itself better played in front of a campfire than a bar filled with whiskey chugging patrons. Well, that’s not the way Black Bone Child see things, and I expect that most who lend ears to this disc will feel the same way. Take You Blind is the duo’s second album and yes, it’s all acoustic. Donny and Kenny holed up by their lonesome’s, strumming the six strings, clapping hands, shaking tambourines, and singing their asses off . . . and amazingly, stripped down in this oh-so-natural blues-y form, the boys haven’t lost any of the heavy elements that made their self titled debut sound so ominous.

Made up of pieces of the debut album, the follow up heavy electric album, Alligator, and a few songs that live as acoustic entities only, Take You Blind is everything that I love about the blues and blues-based rock. This disc has got groove, soul, an earthy richness to it, catchy lyrics and melody lines, and the music is flat out heavy. There are only a handful of acoustic albums that have struck such a dense chord for me, for instance, Zeppelin III and Jar of Flies, and even those had more studio trickery to them to be truly acoustic albums. Take You Blind may have one plugged in bass line through the entire half hour set, is stripped down to the music’s most organic elements, yet has layers to it helping the production quality be more than a truly old school Robert Johnson-esque recording.

Black Bone Child revisits a few songs from the self titled album, stripping the songs down while retaining everything that made the songs infectious in the first place. “Mine” has that same swagger as the electrified version, gritty with a touch of class, and still catchy as all hell. The song would make a great theme song for any silver screen scene of a cocky cowboy strutting into a bar, a hush falling on everyone in the establishment, every woman’s head turning in unison, and you can imagine the rest. This is a song with some serious attitude, kinda’ touching on that loose Texas boogie that ZZ Top played to perfection. “Time Pass Me By” follows along the same line . . . upbeat and grooving, also with a hefty amount of swagger, and all condensed into a song that barely exceeds two minutes. Gotta’ love that! No superfluous lines of lyric need to be added, no extended guitar jam, just a short and concise exercise of musical brilliance.

“Baby Baby” opens the disc with a barn burner of a song. The duo is clicking in a perfect harmonization of musical souls. There are a number of elements that make this song so damn compelling, and it starts with the melody . . . nothing fancy, just straight forward and infectious, so much damn hook that you’ll invariably find your golf ball stuck in the brush amidst all who have listened to this song before you. The vocal harmonies are fantastic as the boys feed off of each other and the fun that they had making this recording are capture in full effect. Listen to all of the subtle things going on in here . . . a little break where the guitars drop out and we’re left listening to the vocals, a dying harmonica note, and shimmering tambourine. Then, through all of the hoots and howls, you’ll note a laugh or two. This is one of those songs that, in time, will be a standard tune played at many a ho-down.

“Tell Me I’m Wrong” is as epic as I’ve ever heard this band come across in song. The tune is Zeppelin-esque in a “When the Levee Breaks” kinda’ way. Heavy blues, but not your standard blues . . . more ominous and dark, full of loneliness and suffering, filled with interesting changes and beautiful vocal harmonies. It’s a song dripping with emotion and one that goes well with a smooth shot of whiskey. The wail of the harmonica sounds like a passing train whistle as we sitting in a box car riding the rail back to wherever we left our hearts. Though not electrically heavy, this song has a serious emotional weight to it that would make some of the finest singer/songwriters want to break their gear in frustration. It’s definitely may favorite song on the album and one I can listen to over and over again . . . this may actually be in my top ten of songs.

If you’re heard the first Black Bone Child disc then it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the songs on Take You Blind are catchy and well crafted tunes. The biggest surprise certainly has to come with the immense heaviness that an acoustic set can carry. Is it the tuning? Is it the gear? I’m willing to bet it’s in the hands of the musicians themselves. There’s certainly something magical in the way these two guys can sit down and hammer out a song, and make it sound as intense as they do. Every song on here is solid if not great. The reconfigured songs from the debut add a new wrinkle to the already familiar; the Alligator songs are fresh and give the listener an idea of what’s to come, while a song like“Tell Me I’m Wrong” was meant solely for the acoustic medium. To add electrified anything to these latter songs would ruin the organic mystery of them and hats off to the boys for recognizing that and leaving them in the state that they’re in. And, as if all of this wasn’t enough, the album gets better and better with every listen. At no point will you want to stop playing this CD as you’re traveling around town, and you may not even get out of your car once you get to your destination.  -  Pope JTE

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