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Album
Welch, Mike
Catch Me
(Tone Cool)
Price: 69 SEK
Mike Welch is a Boston-area blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. “Catch Me” is his third album, from 1998 on the Rounder Tone-Cool subsidiary. The fact that he's so good and so young is part of the reason why they called him »Monster.«
Mike Welch began his blues education with his father's record collection, and he picked up the guitar at age eight and tried to emulate the sounds he heard from recordings by Magic Sam, Earl Hooker and B.B. King. Welch also studied the rock & roll and blues-rock records of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but after hearing more of Albert King and other blues guitarists, he found his calling in life.
When he was 11, his parents began driving him to blues jams around Boston. In the clubs, Welch learned from some of the greats of that scene, including Ronnie Earl and Luther »Guitar Jr.« Johnson. Welch was invited to play at the opening of the first House of Blues club in Cambridge, Mass. in 1992. After co-owner Dan Aykroyd heard him, his nickname changed from »Little Mikey« to »Monster Mike.«
A few months later, Welch began working with George Lewis, who ran the blues jams at House of Blues, to put together the Monster Mike Welch Band. Welch is accompanied on his records by Lewis on guitar, Jon Ross on bass and Warren Grant on drums. Welch's biting, stinging Albert King-style guitar playing has better-than-average backing from these three on “Catch Me” as well.
The crop of original songs he wrote demonstrate his prowess as a crafty blues songwriter. Whether he decides to go on to college or not, Welch has a bright future. All indications are that Welch, who got a flood of publicity because of his age, and was even quoted in People magazine — »being an adolescent is more than enough blues for anyone to handle« — should go on to a lengthy and varied career as a bluesman.
1. As Good As Gone | Listen | |
2. Make Up Your Mind | Listen | |
3. If I Love You | Listen | |
4. Mole's Blues | Listen | |
5. Changing Of The Guard | Listen | |
6. Catch Me (Nothing Lasts Forever) | ||
7. Worried Life Blues | ||
8. Can't Reach You | ||
9. My Love Belongs To You | ||
10. A Price To Pay | ||
11. Blues For Cara | ||
12. Money (That's What I Want) | ||
13. Don't Worry |