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Dave Weld and the Imperial Flames - Burnin’ Love
Delmark Records 806 – USA – 2010
www.daveweld.com

Dave Weld is most known for having been the alter ego of slide-guitar wizard Lil’ Ed, nephew of J.B. Hutto, for many years in the Blues Imperials. Weld’s Imperial Flames has been developing in parallel since the late eighties with a quite different approach, more melodic than the furious, take-no-prisoner, slide extravaganza run by Lil’ Ed. Burnin’ Love is a perfect example of Chicago Blues present status.

Owing to some sort of mellow mood, at the outset, Burnin’ Love looks as is not gonna burn a lot. There are recordings like these: they start slow to take some altitude ultimately; sometime it happens at random, some other times is either the musician or the producer’s choice. Nonetheless, the presence of a hot sax player such as Abb Locke indicates that somewhere any time, the party is going to start. Tribute should be paid to the rhythm section, Jeff Taylor on drums and Dave Kaye on bass who bring in some groove in the song “Burnin’ Love” and continuing with “She’s mine”, the CD turning point. Singer Monica Myhre contributes to buttress the real weak point of this work: vocals, and Locke starts blowing seriously. Last but not least, it comes Dave Weld who plays wild and raucous solos adding that taste of unvarnished all good Blues records need. Weld also made a moving homage to his mother – painful aspects of her life are described by Weld with devotion and compassion in the inner notes. Lil’ Ed snakes in for a couple of torrid solos in his best tradition. At the end of the day, the two final numbers “Things are so slow” and “She’s Lyin’”, set the tone of a more than decent, if not ground-breaking, Chicago Blues release.

Luca Lupoli

1 Sweet Shiny Brown Eyes
2 Rambin'
3 Burnin' Love
4 I Got Mad
5 She's Mine
6 Talk Dirty
7 Donnie Lee
8 Ed's Boogie
9 Peace of Mind
10 Listen To Mama
11 All Of These Things
12 Things Are So Slow
13 She' Lyin'

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