Ford proves the axe is mightier than the pen

Blue Moon\nRobben Ford\nConcord Records\nRobben Ford's resume includes playing among some pretty impressive names. He's worked with Miles Davis, Charlie Musselwhite and George Harrison. But jamming with the big dogs doesn't exactly make you a big dog. Blue Moon is a blues/blues-rock album made by great musicians, with decent solos and at best average songwriting. \nTo Ford's credit, his solos are full of cool turnarounds and jazzy arpeggios that add a nice twist. It's just that he runs into trouble coming up with interesting material for the other 10 or so bars of form. The instrumental "Indianola" is the exception. This drivin' blues rocker is a tribute to B.B. King, but really sounds almost nothing like B.B., though it is a little more reminiscent of one of the pioneers in electric blues guitar instrumentals, Freddie King. "It Don't Make Sense If You Can't Make Peace" is the one song where the words actually seem to mean something out of the musical context. It's a slower, jazz-tinged song about how we put so much effort into destruction when it would be easier to try and help each other out.\nThe main problem with the album is how unbelievably bad some of the lyrics are. Seriously, for someone who's been playing blues and soul professionally for 30 years this is pathetic. Maybe he just concentrated so hard on playing that he never actually heard the singer. If you're anything like me, you're probably thinking, "They're just blues lyrics, how bad could they be?" Well, here's the opening line of one tune called "Sometime Love": "When you fall for a love you can never possess, it'll only lead to happiness." Not from my experience. Anyway, I'm not asking for Shakespeare, just lyrics that make sense.\nWhile this isn't a bad blues-rock album, there are definitely a number of better ones out there. Unless you're a big Robben Ford fan, I'd recommend checking out Corey Stevens, Susan Tedeschi or Tommy Castro. Ford was quoted saying "there's a tremendous opportunity, if you like blues music, to keep it fresh and alive." Well, Blue Moon may help the case because it's alive, but there's really nothing fresh about it.\n

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