BLUES ACCESS CD Review:

Bernard Allison
Across the Water
Tone-Cool 1178 A

Blues, rock, funk and soul — Bernard Allison’s got it all on his new CD, Across the Water, and it’s all good!

Bernard’s blues heart pumps a big ol’ shot of rock’n’roll blood into his exciting first recording for the Tone-Cool label, which seems to be guaranteeing its already talent-laden roster some new Grammy and W.C. Handy Award nominations next year with rising stars like Allison and the North Mississippi Allstars.

Bernard, Luther Allison’s son and the direct heir of his father’s blues legacy, will never, ever desert his blues roots, as evidenced on the album’s most stunning cut, "I’ve Been Down," the centerpiece of the disc. But the blistering, fat-toned riffs Bernard unleashes on this tune are definitely SRV-worthy.

Bernard often pays tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan in his live shows, showing affection and respect for the Texas blues-rock legend by nailing one of Stevie’s slow blues burners and demonstrating his own considerable chops in the process. On Across the Water, Bernard also tips his double-rattlesnake-head-topped hat to a pair of guitarists held in high esteem by Stevie and himself: Jimi Hendrix and Colin James.

Allison’s heavy, molten guitar on the title track comes with a decidedly Hendrix feel, and he does a rousing cover (minus the horns) of James’ sonic-rocking, fire-and-ice put-down of a former girlfriend, "I Just Came Back to Say Good Bye" (with the oh-so-cold line, "I didn’t look up your number, just looked up on the wall").

Funk and rock pair up nice and tight on Bernard’s brass-brightened "There’s No Higher Love," the driving "Feels Kinda Funny," the Bernard- and Bobby Rush-penned "Meet Me Half Way," and the disc’s opening track, "The River’s Rising." Memphis rock-blues chanteuse Reba Russell is all over the album as one of the back- up vocalists who enhance Bernard’s R&B groove, especially on "Work It Out," and his tenderly rendered cover of his dad’s tune, "Love Is Free," which Bernard ignites with guitar solos as soulful as a deep, slow, lingering kiss.

Bernard wrote or co-wrote five of the 11 songs on Across the Water and enhanced the variety of the new disc with the stripped-down, honky-tonk piano blues of "Change Your Way of Living" (written by his dad) and the twangy, hook-laden swamp-rock of "I Want to Get You Back," contributed by hit-makers Gary Nicholson and Tom Hambridge.

All in all, the lively mix of musical styles, vocals and guitar on Bernard’s eighth album suggest that his previous releases, as tasty as they may be, have given us only a hint of the musical well-spring still untapped inside him.

— Linda Seubold