Jason Ricci & New Blood tear the roof off the house on their new killer CD Rocket Number 9. Jason sings, plays harmonica and note flute while the New Blood behind him are Shawn Starsky (guitars and backup vocals), Todd “Buck Weed” Edmunds (fretted and fretless fender jazz and precision basses, clavinet, hell’s bells, and backup vocals), and Ron Sutton (drums, backup vocals). They are quite a cast of characters and the music provided mirrors their colorful leader.
This is great music, all of it at some point hit home with me. I can say I sure listened to this CD enough to appreciate the value of every single track.
The instrumentals are what cemented in my mind that this band has tremendous and beyond ordinary chops to handle just about anything they decide to undertake. “Dodecahedron” is a funky blues track with a great saxophone leading the way and some well-placed harmonica, bass and guitar parts, all equally sharp and unified. “The Blow Zone Layer” lays it on thick with harmonica, which takes the place of Ricci’s in the gutter vocals for a little while. The backbeat on this track is excellent with strong drums and bass, and then the guitar licks come in with a distinct razor sharp country-blues twang, “The Eternal Is” smokes with fire of the blues and sister jazz with some extended jam band breaks, it’s a real backyard barbeque with all the trimmings. Then to wrap up the instrumentals all the musical mayhem takes a back seat to some kicked back and tasteful picking with a lonesome far off harmonica to settle in the ambiance of a lazy evening on the porch sipping on cool drink and watching the train disappear into the distance. Only diverse instrumental music can create this kind of imagery.
On the vocal side of the house, there is plenty to enjoy and contemplate and the liner notes explain how each track came to be. “I’m A New Man” is not your typical I am sorry I did it lament, it really happened. Ricci wrote this one on the way to the slammer. Are you looking for real life experience in music? You got it on this CD.”Loving Eyes” is the bomb!-Over 11 minutes of transitions and straight out scorching jamming guitar bordering on space rock and psychedelic trip licks. Interesting that it does not set you up for all of that, it starts like a ballad and gradually brings you to the other side of this band’s repertoire.
To say this band has it all going for them is an understatement. Ricci and his blood brothers make every effort to impress on this effort and what you get is a full-blown performance, just like it was live off the floor-an all out jam session filled with blues, rock, jazz, jam band sounds that will keep you focused on the music from beginning to end.
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-March 5, 2008
