Sauce Boss- Sky Blues (Burning Disk): The Listen

I cannot tell a lie (no really, I'm a G-d awful liar): I was essentially expecting Blues Hammer. Sauce Boss won't change your life, but he's a hell of a lot better than that.

For one thing, he's got range. There's the expected electric power trio some stuff, some tasty acoustic slide (unsurprisingly most prominent on the Robert Johnson cover), two tracks (Down In Georgia and I Need A Friend) that show how close country and blues can get to each other, a track in a sort of Spanish idiom (Blues de Gringo, also sung in Spanish despite one of the lyrics being “no hablo español.”), some pleasant easy rockers--really more guitar pop than rock or blues--and an album ending tribute to his mother (so I assume from the title and lyrics) that's just Sauce Boss, an acoustic, and a jaw harp for that down home old school feel. He's got a decent voice, too.

As I guessed, there's precious little soloing, although where it does show up (A Little Rhythm and Blues, Postcard With the Blues) it gets into satisfyingly gnarly territory. There's some other neat sonic tricks too, like the reverbing solo electric guitar that opens Down In Georgia.

Down In Georgia also features the most distinctive lyrics overall, which isn't saying much considering that you've heard just about all the rest if you've ever listened to the blues before. But he does pull out “it’s better than pharmaceuticals/it’s better than two weeks at a yoga retreat/it’s better than acupuncture/it’s better than Lollapalooza” at the end of A Little Rhythm and Blues, which is clever, unexpected, and mad amusing.

Discogs knows he exists, although they're missing this album.

OK, time to go websiting. This album came out in 2002, so lemme just find the usual 404. . . Um. . .

I was not expecting this.

It's still there.

Sky Blue was the second album in what is now a 26 year career. Sauce Boss has continued to tour, record, make hot sauce, blog, and he wrote a memoir/cookbook. I say this with complete sincerity: go Sauce Boss. That right there is a life well-lived.

My favorite thing ever? No. But a well-played, extremely well-recorded, fun record, from a guy who seems like he earned it.