AARON WEST is an Australian soul and blues singer/guitarist who’s just released a proper, old school blues and soul album, ‘504 Soul’.
So passionate was West in getting his sound just right that he travelled all the way to New Orleans to make his record. In the Crescent City he recruited a ten piece band (Jon Cleary’s Monster Gentlemen) and you can hear the combo (including a full horn section) in full flight on the instrumental workout ‘The Balcony’… shades of Tower of Power. The album’s other instrumental is a bluesy ‘Rollin’ With D’.
Pick of the vocal cuts is the moody ballad ‘It Could Be Wrong’…. very atmospheric and haunting in its own peculiar way. Best of the up-tempo numbers are the jazz-tinged ‘Such A Shame’ and the old school ‘She’s So Fine’. The album oddity, given the context, is the slinky ‘Just The Most’. Oddity in that it comes on like a sleazy Prince outtake.
Intrigued? Find out more @ www.aaronwest.com.au while top Aussie record shop Just Funkin’ @ www.justfunkin.com.au will help out too.
