CD Reviews

Ike Turner

Risin’ With The Blues | Zoha

By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 7, 2006

1.5 Stars

As much as I enjoy hearing Ike Turner’s gritty voice sing “You’re like Kentucky Fried Chicken, woman/You’re finger-lickin’ good” on the new “Tease Me,” this album is still a disappointing follow-up to his 2001 comeback, Here and Now (Ikon). Sure, that Handy-winning, Grammy-nominated album also mixed up classics from Turner’s Mississippi Delta birthplace with new material, but this time, the now-75-year-old Ike seems to have lost some of his vigor; there are just too many bland shuffles and recycled funk arrangements. “Gimme Back My Wig,” “Caledonia,” and “Big Fat Mama” are all tired choices; “I Don’t Want Nobody” has a cheesy programmed rhythm track that’s right out of the back pages of ’80s soul blues. More hard-ass boogie-woogie piano would serve him well; his best playing here is on the instrumentals. The keyboard work on the classic “After Hours” is parked right in the barrelhouse, and he plays a clean, pretty guitar melody over the pedantic accompaniment of “Jazzy Fuzzy.” There’s conviction in his vocal delivery of “I Don’t Want Nobody,” a song that distances him from his controlling past, and also in the sassy but touching “Jesus Loves Me,” where his admission that “I made a lot of mistakes” is paired with his belief that “I’m a bad boy, but Jesus loves me anyway.” Add in his stingy guitar solo and Turner shows he’s got enough power, faith, and personality to transcend obstacles like the tune’s generic 12-bar shuffle form.

Related: Déjà vu, Dance, monkey: Angelo Tsarouchas, Indie gets the blues, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Ike Turner, Ike Turner

| More

ARTICLES BY TED DROZDOWSKI

TOM HAMBRIDGE | BOOM! | August 23, 2011
Roots rock is the new country and ex-Bostonian Tom Hambridge is the style's current MPV.

COUNTRY STRONG | SOUNDTRACK | January 11, 2011
This steaming pile of songs is emblematic of the state of mainstream country music — all artifice, no heart, calculated anthems written to formula and meant, like the film itself, to do no more than capitalize on the genre's current success and rob its undiscriminating fans.

MARC RIBOT | SILENT MOVIES | November 02, 2010
This exceptional, eccentric guitarist has traced a slow evolution from screamer to dreamer.

IN MEMORIAM: SOLOMON BURKE, 1940 — 2010 | October 11, 2010

REVIEW: RONNIE EARL AND THE BROADCASTERS | SPREAD THE LOVE | September 07, 2010
Boston-based blues-guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl seems to be considering his past on his 23rd album as a leader.