Rhythm Krewe
Unfinished Business
Rhombus Records
Publicity: Blind Raccoon
Peter “Blewzzman” Lauro © March 2023
Unfinished Business contains twelve tracks with nine originals penned by guitarist, vocalist, horn arranger and band leader, Steve Zelman.
Along with Steve, the rest of the Rhythm Krewe are: Gary Coppola and Dave Morgan on vocals; Jim Blazer on piano and organ; Chris Ryne on piano; Dave Grover and Steve Nelson on bass; Danny Pucillo, Jr. and Gary Ferguson on drums; Roy Weigand on trumpet; Chris Mostert and Mike Nelson on tenor sax; Chris Jennings on baritone sax; and Chuck Hughes, Steve Baxter and Ira Nepus on trombone.
The disc opens with a swingin’ cover of “She Moves Me”, a Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson classic. Style and performance wise, it’s a perfect opening track. The songs style pretty much tells you what Rhythm Krewe is all about musically; and the outstanding performance from the band introduces you to its killer rhythm section, and several key players on smokin’ solos.
“One Hell For Another” is an original track that embellishes on ‘the grass ain’t always greener on the other side of the fence’ idea. Musically, with a lot of support from the four-piece horn section, Dave Grover and Danny Pucillo, Jr. are laying down a smokin’ rumba groove on the rhythm while Jim Blazer and Steve share a monster two-minute mid-song piano and guitar solo.
This original song is about a man who gives a woman everything she could hope for, but she won’t give him the “Time of Day”. It’s one of those nearly seven-minute-long slow blues songs that pretty much always winds up being my personal favorite. My regular readers know the drill, same killer song components with different artists. Here it’s Gary Coppola emotionally and soulfully singing his heart out; Jim putting on a blues piano lesson with lots of that high end, right hand stuff; Steve somehow making finessed blues guitar licks sound scorching; and the horn backed rhythm section locked into that all important slow blues groove. Very good stuff!
The title and original track, ‘Unfinished Business’, is a smoker on which the horn section shines… Additional highlights include a deep, foot tappin’, knee slappin’ rhythm from Jim, Dave and Danny on the organ, bass and drums: Outstanding – as they’ve been all disc long – vocals by Gary; and the usual excellent blues guitar work of the boss man, Steve Zelman.
Oddly – or maybe not – there are many songs with toes in the title. There are song titles about white toes, pink toes, bubble toes, cold toes, popsicle toes, tippy toes, pretty toes and on and on and on. Thanks to the humor of Steve Zelman, you can now add ‘Monkey Toes’ to that list. It’s a fun way to close out a seriously good album with Steve and Gary telling a tale of a women who can’t do much with her hands but can do almost anything with her monkey toes, with the chorus line of ‘Ohhh Ohhh Oh, monkey toes’ being sung to a ‘Hey Bo Diddly’ beat.
Other tracks on what I’ll confidently say is a must have album include these originals: “Little Bit Of Heaven”; “Better Late Than Never”; “Prescription for Disaster”; “Wild Love”; and “Sweet Surrender”; with “She’s Murder” (James Oden); and “Her Mind Is Gone” (Henry R. Byrd).
Should like to find out more about Rhythm Krewe, just go to – www.rhythm-krewe.com. Remember, wherever you go and whomever you speak with, please tell them their friend the Blewzzman sent you.
“The Blues Is My Passion And Therapy”
Peter “Blewzzman” Lauro
Blues Editor @ www.Mary4Music.com
2011 “Keeping The Blues Alive” Award Recipient
