The Skinny

I have picked up many CDs over the past months and have found this year to be a really disappointing year for music. I kept buying new and old artists but nothing really grabbed me. I heard the disk's title song on Bluesville and ordered the CD the next day. The title cut is great but my favorite is track 7 "Better Than Myself" and there definitely are several other great songs. This disc is the best sound I have heard all year. I am going to pick up other disks by Ian Siegal. This guy and the band are phenomenal.

Mr Siegel is right at home in Mississippi! I highly recommend this CD to all music lovers. I am impressed.

The Rolling Stones did it. The Yardbirds did it. John Mayall and The Blues Breakers did it. They all got hooked on America's homegrown down home blues. Bands like Fleetwood Mac and The Stones even came over here to record with their heroes and The Animals backed Sonny Boy Williamson when he toured Britain.Now British blues buster Ian Siegal has likewise crossed the pond, collaborating with an all-star cast of North Mississippi Hill Country musicians to produce the genre-expanding The Skinny that erupts with molten grooves and scarifying, hoodoo vocals.In 2010 Siegal brought his brawny voice and his guitar to the North Mississippi studio of the late Jim Dickinson and recorded with drummer/percussionist/bassist/producer Cody Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars and son of Jim), guitarist/bassist Garry Burnside (son of the late R.L.), guitarist Robert Kimbrough (son of the late Junior) and drummer Rodd Bland (son of Bobby "Blue"), all of whom happened to be the youngest sons of their legendary fathers. Alvin Youngblood Hart (guitar, vocals),Andre Turner (fife, vocals), Duwayne Burnside (drums and grandson of R.L.) and Quintez (drums) round out the cast of musical renegades.The result is some dark magic, some Mississippi funk, some tough, menacing blues. It sounds like strange sins and feels oh so good.Siegal is drinkin' Muddy Waters and sniffin ` Howlin Wolf and he has an unquenchable addiction to the blues. Through the late `90s he developed a reputation in Europe, after cutting his teeth as a busker. In 2004-5 he opened for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings and released his debut, Meat & Potatoes. Swagger (2007), The Dust (2008) and Broadside (2009) followed to rapturous reviews, and he received numerous awards and accolades.Most of the 11 tracks on this album are penned by Siegal, and the arrangements were done right before the studio session,... "no one involved had heard any material before we met on day one at the studio...once we started playing, developing grooves and ideas, it really got cooking. To have the legacy and history that comes with members of the Dickinson, Burnside, Kimbrough and Bland families was such an honor."says Siegal. The instinctive musical prowess of these guys can pull it off. It lends a live quality and a spontaneous feel to the album. Siegals nasty, slide guitar work is infectious, and the band grinds a rhythm like a hell bound train."Stud Spider" written by Tony Joe White, is a mash up of rap and blues. Siegal turns up the wah wah guitar, and sings a lyric with an appropriately creepy metaphor for male/female relations and featuring Kimbrough's serpentine solo and Dickinson on bass and electrified washboard called a "woogie board.Siegal's, on baritone guitar,lays down a hook laden riff for "Master Plan". Another non-Siegal tune is "Picnic Jam," written and sung by Garry Burnside. Pure, southern funk and tasty as pan fried chicken. The album ends with a Dylan-esque tune called "Hopper (Blues for Dennis)".The whole album just drips tough, powerful blues and these guys together cook. This is the real deal. You can not fake the blues and Siegal proves he's got The Skinny.The Dirty Lowdown

Ian Siegal is one of the most gifted singers and smart song writers that I know of. That's a helluva statement to make, and by doing so I hope I don't alienate people, but damn this guy puts it out there.I have been a fan of his for quite some time, first discovering him with his 'Meat and Potatoes' release (2005). Methinks I am not alone as he just won the British Blues Award for Male Artist of The Year.With 'The Skinny' we see Mr. Siegal cross the big pond and come to America to record with American Blues Artists. This is a time honored tradition, done by such British Blues bands as the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Mr. Siegal came to the North Mississippi studio of the late Jim Dickinson, to record with Cody Dickinson (son of Jim), Garry Burnside (son of R.L.), Robert Kimbrough (son of Junior) and Rodd Bland ()son of Bobby 'Blue) - all of them the youngest sons of their legendary fathers - hence the name reference.The title track 'The Skinny' is a pulsing, grinding down-to-the-bone low down on what is happenin right here and right now - the skinny = the truth delivered in a menacing straight up rhythm. 'Stud Spider' is a Tony Joe White tune presented as a dark metaphorical look at the world of male/female relations. Robert Kimbrough's solo is an incredibly dizzying venture down into a web of sound, only to be pulled out at the end by a rattling, clanking scratching at the strings that had seemed to have given up the fight just seconds earlier. No black widow feast here.There is not a soft spot here, as come to be expected from Mr. Siegal. 'Master Plan' is a open pledge to acquire the apple of his eye much in the same way that 'Ruby Baby' stated 'Ruby bay, how I want you, like a ghost I'm gonna haunt you' but with more conviction than that dark pop song had. 'Devil's In The Details' is a treat for us to experience the sound of some really fine Hill Country Fife and Drum music featuring Andre Turner on fife with some call and response added to fullness.If you are a fan of Ian Siegal then this is a must. If you have not yet had the pleasure than this will serve as a proper introduction. It is pure Ian but served up with a raw and edgy side of Mississippi Hill Country Fried Poke Salad.blues411.com is the home for reviews, interviews and more non-affiliated blues news, come on over and pull up a chair.

I think it's fair to say that the Blues genre is one of the most resistant to change. This isn't because of 'conservatism' but just that the 12 bar blues formula just can't be improved upon in most people's eyes. So here we have an album that sounds as if it could have been recorded 40 years ago, but was recorded in 2011 by Ian Siegal (a 40 year old at the time). No concessions to the current 'flavour-of-the-month' rap/hip-hop here (eg John Alex Mason), no heavy/hard rock excess (eg Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa), just wholesome country blues. Kicking off with the brilliant title track which is sort of reminiscent of John Lee Hooker, Ian Siegal's vocals (and he's English!) have that grizzled 'lived-in' quality which sounds vaguely like a young Johnny Cash. Next up is my favourite track on the whole album 'Stud Spider'. This is proof that blues (if proof is needed) can teach ANY music something about rhythm,down-and-dirty but with a rhythmic sophistication it's just the track to play to your upstart son/younger brother who thinks any music other than rap is 'boring'. The rest of the album contains other such gems as the brilliantly titled 'Hound Dog in the Manger' and 'Blues for Dennis (Hopper)'. Should be better known. New/Old Blues for the new millenium.

To be honest, I am quite disappointed with this album. I like Ian Siegal, but those other musicians didn't do to must to enhance him, or my listening pleasure. The whole thing sounded very samey, almost boring, needing a decent producer.

I have all Ian's albums and this one is up there with his best. Great band and Ian's lyrics are as brilliant as usual. I do not understand why he is not better recognized as the leading British blues artist on the scene today. Excellent buy.

Good CD, Ian never lets us down. Saw him recently and again he was brilliant. Worth looking into if you love music

What a star this man is.