Baton Rouge-based blues and soul artist JOVIN WEBB’S name is new to us but Stateside he’s making quite a name for himself. It seems that he wowed audiences on ‘American Idol’ with judge, country star Luke Bryan saying, “You could sit and drink a lot of bourbon listening to that voice”, while fellow judge Lionel Richie called Jovin’s voice “what barbecue sauce sounds like.”
With such glowing praise, it wasn’t long before Mr. Webb was in the studio cutting music and the fruits of that labour are about to be released on the man’s debut album, ‘Drifter’.
The set’s a combustible 12 tracker and delivers the kind of blues and soul that people like BB King and Albert King turned into an art from. Thus it’s no surprise that one of the album’s standouts is a cover of the second King’s ‘Born Under A Band Sign’ (penned of course by William Bell and Booker T). It’s also no surprise that Jovin’s searing version stands up alongside all the better known versions!
Elsewhere ‘Bottom Of A Bottle’ is a classic blues heartbreaker. You can guess the storyline – aided and abetted here by a mournful harmonica while ‘Mine Someday’ is the album’s big ballad. The LP’s outstanding soul cut, though, is the passionate ‘Drunk On Your Love’. This is simple, sparse even, proving that, often, less is more. This one’s proper Southern soul – think of the whole Malaco thing. It’s one of the best real, old school tracks you’ll hear this year. Little wonder it’s been chosen as the album’s lead single! You can check it out when the set’s released, Friday 18th October!
