Label: b-side-blues

Producer: Bobby Manriquez

Release Date: 2004

I think it was the first two bars I heard from 'Find that love' that made me realise that Bobby Manriquez meant business and Bobby Manriquez has made the blues, at it's most innovative, his business! With a stunningly talented cast of supporting musicians that reads like a supermall shopping list, this astonishingly dynamic album is one of the best blues dominated albums I have heard since the late great Frank Jackson first mentioned and introduced 'Chicago Blues' to me after he knocked at my door to borrow a cup of sugar till pay day. The thing is, I know Frank would have worshipped Bobby and Bobby would have loved to have met Frank!

Prayin' the blues is indeed an album of complete and utter audio astonishment and the first indication you get of that is, as I have said, within the first few bars of Find that love with it's Strat parading mid tempo and delectable fret work. Bobby's vocals are so rich you feel wealthy even if your poor... this guy knows just how to balance his voice against the beatiful sounds emenating from above the third pick up... what an incredibly guitarist Mr Manriquez is! As though that wasn't enough to curl your hair around your ears, wait until you get a load of Grace; one of the finest guitar dominated throat tanglers I have ever heard in my life! I cannot imagine attending a Bobby Manriquez show without having to wade through a six feet high pile of ladies knickers before you could get to the stage to shake the man's hands! Watch out for the interstellar guitar solo that begins around the 1.30 mark and you'll see what I mean! This is a guy pouring his heart and soul into every note and oh deary me how those notes sound in this amazing song!

Blues rockin' is the harder rockier blues side of Mr Manriquez and my how he does it in such unique and fret flamboyant style! When you get to the 2 minute mark you are not alone on your flight through the heavens where you are accompanied by some superb brass here and there. I particularly love the drum work and then the guitar goes bouncing up and down the walls and around the back of the radiators all over again... what a journey!

Henpacked is one tall order of brilliantly played and produced innovative funk blues fusion. The fret dribbling that occurs all over the pace is wonderfully complimented by some of the most inventive drum and bass work I have heard in a very long time. This trrack should firmly establish Mr Manriquez as a consummate artist of the very first division... love the vocals Bobby!! Then we have My heart to give.. a phenomenon of a blues track complete with harmonica and slide that makes ya wanna get down... way on down within a fraction of a second of the first few bars... think smokey nightclubs, sex driven guitar work, and the guy responsible for it all under a blue light and you are truly half way there... the only thing missing is the reality of the occasion!

With the sudden arrival of Slinky, funk n fusion driven meanderings go hand in hand with some of the tightest arrangements I've heard of late. Bass playing is phenomenal from Sonny Petroski and by the time you get back from the other end of the sky, you are listening in direct competition with the sound coming through your soul's headphones. What an amazing piece of work 'slinky' really is. The production... the classyness!

Black and blue (first stone cast) is the one that Jimi would have guested on with pleasure had he still been around. The sheer magnitude of musicianship is awe inspiring and I have to confess that this song made me want to bear Bobby's love child until I realised that it was physiologiocally impossible and not my inclination to sleep with just 'anyone' who could pull off such an incredible track! The sheer imagination must have weighed a ton in Bobby's head before this track was finally mixed down!

I wish I had asked Bobby to sign this CD when I first heard the truly wonderful G-Blue (inspired) with it's incredible backing vocals, keyboards and intimately passioned guitar playing. The vocals are from heaven... honestly they are and my old blues and soul mate Frank Jackson, I know, is up there listening with intense delight and gratitude! This is the track that is gonna be played up and down the entire R Cat office for many months to come and I feel compelled to go on one of those 'missions' just to get this album heard by many many more deserving listeners! What a fantastic piece of work we have in our midst!

FT3 is the intriguing title for yet another astonishing piece of work where you feel so close to the fretboard you can smell the brass! It's actually difficult to relax when you are this awe inspired it really is. The unpredictability in this composition is so eye widening that you have to question the source of inspiration. Then we have Unhooked coming at us with the funk accelerator pedal licking the floor! The vocal arrangemernts are superb and the bass and percussion work are pure precise passion in themselves. It is actually quite hard these days to find musicans this well synchronized but whatever it took to get these guys together was surely the stuff of legend becasue the sound is truly legendary!

FT3.5 returns the promise set by FT3 a track ago with the kind of ingenious playing that makes you wish Bobby was a neighbour. It's beginning to dawn on me that this album's vlaue for money, if it could be called that without insulting anyone, is the fact that you don't get this kind of thing happening very often anywhere on earth! Rock me (baby) is the track that completely and irrepairably confirms and establishes Bobby's place in the grand symphony of heavenly musicians along with the musical angels supporting him. What a cast... in fact throughout this album I have not heard one note that I didn't roll my eyes backwards for! Oh how I would rob a bank effortlessly if that's what it would take to see this band live!

Sweetest Love, the final track on this awsome album is such a gift to mankind that you don't really feel worthy when you listen, even when you rewind it and play it again and agin like I did. The vocal caresses your soul and the guitar work blends so perfectly against the harmonies that you know you are wired up to heaven. If I had been responsible for any part of this album.. I would be walking on air for a very very long time!

Now Bobby... dear dear Bobby... thank you very very much... this is one album that I would recommend to anyone looking for audio and performance excellence with the kind of production the world's top producers dream regularly of! If you are looking for a guitar virtuoso who is no stranger to innovation and style... get your good self over to Bobby's place and buy this album NOW! Remember though to tell your loved ones that you won't be coming back to earth for at least a year!

 

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