Matty T. Wall – Sidewinder
YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujhp-Km8Yrk
The whiplash tight changes of the opener for Matty T. Wall’s Sidewinder, “Slideride”, makes this the sort of instrumental that makes you forget singers even exist. Wall’s band careen throughout a variety of changes without missing a single step and play with the sort of chemistry it takes many outfits years of familiarity to establish. His blistering slide guitar runs are, naturally, the centerpiece of the instrumental and he seems uniquely gifted with the talent for hitting endless variations on a central musical motif Wall establishes early on. The title song brings Wall’s vocals out for the first time on the album and he has a strong, confident voice more than capable of carrying this material. There’s a stronger rock vibe surrounding this song than what we heard with the opener, but blues remains the foundation of what he builds with “Sidewinder”.
The album’s first cover comes with a take on Trombone Shorty’s “Something Beautiful” and Wall proves he can do New Orleans with just as much aplomb as he tackles the Mississippi Delta. Wall throws himself into the song with the same energy he reserves for his self-penned numbers and it pays off with a stunner vocal ranking among the album’s best moments. Another cover comes with Wall’s brave take on the iconic Sam Cooke tune “A Change Is Gonna Come”. It isn’t a song that anyone approaches lightly and kudos to Wall for never approaching the song in too reverential a manner. Instead, he recasts the tune closer to his bluesy heart and his singing, while not Sam Cooke, invokes the oceans of hope rolling within this seminal cut.
The rugged slowburn of “Can’t Stop Thinking” benefits enormously from the fat bass pulse bassist Stephen Walker maintains throughout the tune, but the rough hewn crawl of Wall’s guitar and his soulful, yet understated, singing brings the song off quite nicely. There’s some organ fills dropped into this tune courtesy of Gordon Cant and it gives the song extra heft and fills any possible holes in the song’s sound due to the band’s one guitar configuration. Wall’s solo with this tune is a gem on an album full of jewels. Probably most famous in the hands of legendary blues guitarist Freddie King, Matty Wall shakes up the venerable “Going Down” with strong backing vocals and a stop-start arrangement that slaps a fresh coat of paint on this hard-rocking blues standard.
“Walk Out the Door” incorporates horns into the mix with satisfying effects and Wall’s sinewy guitar sound is, in places, reminiscent of the great Stevie Ray Vaughn. Wall’s a better singer than Stevie Ray, however, and the phrasing for this lyric elevates the words while nicely dovetailing with the musical mood. “Mississippi Kkkriossroads” is the album’s final song and last cover. This time out Wall plunders the back catalog of the great Chris Thomas King and latches onto one of the songwriter’s most incendiary numbers chronicling the struggles and dangers of racial prejudice in the American South. The vocal delivery is spoken rather than sung, for the most part, and has a light “rap” quality while never straying away from Wall’s roots. Sidewinder is a scorching statement from purpose from an artist we’ll be hearing from for years to come.
Mindy McCall