GARY CLARK,JR.

O’Leary’s use of vivid imagery is
impressive; he is a master storyteller in the
manner of Rick Estrin and James Harman.
He even name-checks notorious femme
fatales of history like Eve, Cleopatra, Helen
of Troy, and Marie Antoinette on the brassy
mid-tempo roller “History,” a mix of Dr. John
and Mose Allison. Having seen them live in
the last year, I can attest that O’Leary leads
one of the most interesting and exciting
bands on the current scene (guitarist Chris
Vitarello, bassist Frank Ingram, drummer
Sean McCarthy, keyboardist Jeremy Baum,
vocalist Willa McCarthy, and the aforementioned
Stahl and DiFrancesco). A tight ver-
60 BLUES REVUE
satile band with a distinctive sound and distinctive
batch of tunes makes Waiting For
The Phone To Ring a winner on every level.
Highly recommended. (Disclosure: Waiting
For The Phone To Ring is issued by the VizzTone
Label Group, co-owned by Blues
Revue’s parent company, Visionation.)
– Thomas J. Cullen III
DAVID HIDALGO
MATO NANJI
LUTHER DICKINSON
3 Skulls And The Truth
Shrapnel
Two generations, three cultures, three guitar
stylists, three voices, one drummer, and
one bassist cooked the stew they call 3
Skulls And The Truth. David Hidalgo, Mato
Nanji, and Luther Dickinson inspired one
another as featured players in an Experience
Hendrix troupe. The gnashing, bloodpumping,
gets-under-your-skin results of
their first collaboration here sound like a
band together ten years, not just a one-off
with their Jimi and ZZ jones’s on. The
twelve songs, all written for the project,
focus on heavy-duty dueling guitars and the
weaving of distinctive voices (in both ideal
and tone). Detailed liners pinpoint precisely
who does what.
Hidalgo the elder rightfully sets the
tone much of the time, although he surprisingly
didn’t write any of the songs. The
churning rocker “I’m A Fool” could be Los
Lobos all over Hendrix, and “Woke Up
Alone” chops and swaggers like Hildalgo’s
Latin Playboys sideline might. Producer
Mike Varney brought “Make It Right” to the