PAUL LAMB & THE KING SNAKES

See also Neil Slaven's comments on 'She's a Killer' - containing comments from Paul Lamb as well - at the end of this document.
 

Line up: PAUL LAMB- harmonicas JOHN WHITEHILL - Lead guitar CHAD STRENTZ - Guitar & vocals MARTIN DEEGAN- Drums JIM MERCER- Upright & electric Bass

Track list: SHE'S A KILLER (216K) KEEP ON DREAMING THE GIRL FOR ME TEXAS HOP BLACKJACK GAME JUST A DREAM MY BABY SHE DON'T LOOK LIKE THAT WHOOP AND HOLLER (153K) RECONSIDER BABY WILD WILD WOMEN JUMP FOR JOY BACK AT THE CHICKEN SHACK YOU'RE THE ONE JOHN'S JUMP (Click on titles to hear real audio sample)

Neil Slaven on 'She's A Killer':

"Most artists - and a few managers - have a sixth sense about their careers. Call it superstition but, like the surging seventh wave or a tide 'taken at the flood', there is a time when the instincts tell you that not only are you at the top of your form but the mystical conjunction of all the other elements in your career are propitious for success. Paul Lamb might not use those words but that's the way he's feeling right now - and that's also the feeling that emanates from this album.

Paul pays tribute to his rhythm section: "The secret, the key to the band is working with the same people for as long as possible. That is the thing. The rhythm section has got to be right, is has to 'bounce' behind you and be a good foundation for what I play on top." Jimmy Mercer and Martin Deegan are the rock on which the whole band rolls.

John Whitehill can play in any number of styles, in both lead and rhythm roles, more often combining the two seamlessly. That's most evident here on a fine version of Lowell Fulson's "Reconsider Baby", on which Paul's harmonica lays out. "You don't use it if it's not needed. You've got to incorporate the harp into the song. It's like Captain Beefheart says, 'Gimme dat harp, boy. It ain't no young man's toy. It's got to be put where it's gonna fit.' "

"John's Jump" is one of those happy accidents that sometimes cap a successful day's recording. "We were sitting around at the end of the day. It was about 10.30 and the engineer was about to switch everything off. We wanted to put down something a little bit different. John said, 'I've got this swingin', and we just went for it. We jammed it once or twice and then put it down in one take."

John also wrote "Who Can It Be" and "Jump For Joy", as well as collaborating on the title track "She's A Killer", "My Baby She Don't Look Like That", "Wild Wild Women" and "Keep On Dreaming". Lead singer Chad Strentz came up with "The Girl For Me", its rhumba rhythm contributing an aroma of Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman". Chad also inspired the inclusion of Ray Charles' "Blackjack Game": "When we're on the road, we just try a slow blues and I'll say to Chad, 'Have you got any words?' This time, he put in this Ray Charles song and it worked. He's got a wonderful voice and it really worked on that. And even though "Reconsider Baby" is a bit of a cliched song by now, his voice works great on that as well."

Paul's usual analogy is that of a ladder, the rungs of which he's been climbing since his first tentative tootings on a 'gob-iron' in his early teens. There was another harmonica in the family, for his grandfather had been a merchant seaman and had a large repertoire of waltzes and polkas from around the world. Paul's own inspiration came through John Mayall's solo (apart from drummer Keef Hartley, that is) album, 'The Blues Alone'.

As he followed Mayall's album releases, he made a note of the composer credits: "I went back to the roots. First of all, I went to Sonny Boy Williamson, because Mayall was influenced a lot by his style. Then I moved even further back to the 20's and started listening to DeFord Bailey, Jaybird Coleman, Noah Lewis of Cannon's Jug Stompers, Jazz Gillum - and then Sonny Terry. Up in the Nort East where I come from, we did a lot of parties and jumping around and the Sonny Terry style was fantastic for that."

Mention of Sonny Terry has been known to turn Paul into a full-blown blues bore if he's not restrained, but his enthusiasm for and knowledge of the all-encompassing Terry style, on display here on Big Bill Broonzy's "Just A Dream" and his tribute, "Whoop And Holler", remains undimmed. "Sonny's style is a music on its own. The Chicago players need backup, they need bass, guitar and piano, whatever. But Sonny's style was very rural, a mountain blues style."

For more than a decade, as he worked in folk clubs, first in partnership with guitarist Paul Short in and around the Newcastle area, then south to London and ultimately into Europe, he was an adamant acoustic musician. "I would never even listen to any electric or anything - it had to be acoustic. I was a real freak about this." And dedicated: "When I had records back then, I never listened to them, I had to be learning from them. I had to learn everything from a record and then I would sit back and enjoy it - but it was too late then, 'cos it was just about ruined." Nor did it help when his mum hoovered his precious Sonny Terry 78 into two separate pieces.

A similar parting of the ways happened to his partnership with Paul Short, as well. Finding another proved an aimless quest for several years, until he met John Whitehill, who played in a band called Smokestack Lightnin'. They played full-tilt amplified Chicago blues, a style with which Paul, aware that the Terry style wouldn't work in that sort of company, was becoming familiar. He'd been listening to classic Muddy Waters sides with Little Walter, James Cotton and Big Walter Horton in the harmonica chair.

"I loved Big Walter's style. When I heard that tone, that full, big chorded sound, that's when I was going for that." There was something to learn from Little Walter's style as well, in the way he adapted the saxophone style of men like Louis Jordan. "John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson was the first one to start that. All the harp players thought it was Little Walter, but it came from John Lee. It was a different style altogether." But it was Big Walter's tone that impressed Paul the most. "Tone is essential. I work on mine all the time. I've got to have a good tone. Remember, Big Walter had that tone acoustically a well."

Over time, Smokestack Lightnin' metamorphosed into Barfly and then the Blues Burglars but throughout, the close co-operation between Paul and John became the band's most significant relationship. "It just happened" , Paul admits. "We don't discuss it. He knows what I'm going to play, the notes I'm going for, and he backs me right. And it's the same for me when he's playing, I'll know where he's heading. I just play the way I play and it works with the way Johnny plays."

Ask Paul what he hopes this album will achieve for him and the band, he replies: "What I hope is that it helps my progress up the ladder (there it is again) in the blues field. I don't know how big the ladder is. Whatever goal I reach, that's what it is."

Beneath the pragmation, it's not difficult to discern that Paul Lamb is brimming with confidence and self-awareness. He's been voted 'UK Harmonica Player of the Year' for five consecutive years. He knows he's at the top of his game and that the King Snakes are the finest blues band in the United Kingdom. It's an enviable position to be in. "
 
 
 

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