It was our friend Fabio who suggested Duwayne Burnside's excellent hill country blues record "Red Rooster" a few weeks ago, and it was Fabio who suggested the new one from Kyle Rowland, "Not Holding Back."
This record is slicker, in a Jimmie Vaughan/Fab T-Birds style, but Rowland plays a mean harp and the record covers a lot of ground. Maybe too much. At 52 minutes, "Not Holding Back" lives up to its title when it probably should have held back about 15 minutes of music. Songs like "E.G.O." and "We're Still Friends" just don't cut it here among the gritty cuts like "I'll Take You Back" and "Backtracking." Actually, "We're Still Friends" sounds more like John Mayer than I needed on this record.
But, as a whole, Rowland's real debut after two self-released records back in 2011, is a terrific collection of soul, R&B and blues. Whittle it down to a digestible 38 minutes and you've got a winner.
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