JASON RICCI & NEW BLOOD Source: Living Blues Date: 11/2007 Writer: Roger Gatchet

Since they came on the scene in late 2004, owner Randy Chortkoff and the dedicated folks at Delta Groove Productions have released a slew of fine blues records from the likes of Rod Piazza, Phillip Walker, and John Long. With the launch of the Eclecto Groove imprint this year, the label has provided a new home for genre-bending artists with one foot in the blues.

    Call it what you will—alt-blues, postmodern blues, I don’t know—but Jason Ricci & New Blood’s Rocket Number 9 is a very special record. There’s no denying the band’s deep blues roots, evident on inspiring originals like the slow The Way I Hurt Myself and the fast, furious instrumental The Blow Zone Layer, or in the frenzied, psychedelic images of Little Walter, Paul DeLay, and Junior Kimbrough (whom he toured with) folded throughout the cover art. But even the most cursory listen will reveal that Ricci and his crew have a very different kind of mojo working here. Fans of funk, jazz, punk, jam rock, even classical and world music, will find something to love on this album. Jason Ricci is one of the most innovative young harmonica players since Paul DeLay and Charlie Musselwhite.

    Many of the twelve tracks on Rocket Number 9 (the majority of which were penned by Ricci or guitarist Shawn Starsky) are unabashedly autobiographical, as Ricci explains in detail in the liner notes. Harmonica players will also appreciate Ricci’s inclusion of the key and position he plays in for each song. On Sonja, for example, a gorgeous instrumental with nods to country and folk music, Ricci blows harp in twelfth position—an extremely rare tuning. The call and response between Ricci and guest saxophonist Michael Peloquin is hot on the funky Dodecahedron, and the rhythm section of Todd Edmunds (bass) and Ron Sutton (drums) impress on The Eternal Is. The two cuts that surpass the ten-minute mark, Loving Eyes and the title track, are richly layered compositions full of so many twists and surprises that it’d be impossible to do them justice here. No doubt, this complex, well-conceived album will offer something new with each listen, and this reviewer looks forward to the next installment in the band’s discography.