Charles Burton

The Charles Burton Blues Band
"I Wouldn't Lie To You"
Charles Burton Music

BY PETER "BLEWZZMAN" LAURO, © July, 2007

Although this is the first review of a CHARLES BURTON release, regular and attentive readers of Mary4Music.com reviews may recall having heard his name mentioned here before. CHARLES appeared as a guest guitarist on Michele Lundeen's 2005 release, "Song Inside Me", reviewed here back in 2005. Back then, I only got to hear him on 2-3 tracks, now I get to appreciate him even more.

On "I WOULDN'T LIE TO YOU", an all originals disc, CHARLES BURTON, on vocals and guitar, is joined by EDUARDO SABOGAL on drums and RICK NASH and STEVE WELLS on bass.

The disc opens with the title track, "I WOULDN'T LIE TO YOU". Now I don't know about you, but whenever I hear that line, I can't help but think it's a lie in itself. As a matter of fact, that line should be right up there with the two other biggest lies in the world....."the check is in the mail" and .......oh never mind, you get my drift. On this track CHARLES appears to be telling some hot babe the many different ways that her boyfriend is mistreating her - in hopes that she'll go home with him instead. Wait a minute.....who's the real snake here? Great rhythm from STEVE and EDUARDO behind some great guitar highlights by CHARLES already have me thinking this may be one of the best tracks on the disc.

Jazz, and blues fans alike, will appreciate the instrumental track titled "CUBA". This one's all about CHARLES and his guitar. It's four and a half minutes of absolute skillful mastery over an instrument.

Very sharp drum work by EDUARDO leads the band in several tight grooves on "YOU CAN'T TREAT ME THAT WAY", "BIG EYES", "THIS LITTLE NUMBER" and "I HAD TO PULL HER OVER". These tracks pretty much emulate what this band is all about. You've got three very talented musicians doing what they do best- laying down tight rhythm, putting on virtuoso guitar performances and singing perfect sounding vocals. No trickery necessary!

If you think that a title like "MY BABY DON'T LOVE ME" might be some low down dirty blues song, then we think alike. Happily, that's exactly what it is - the kind of stuff that lights my blues flame. CHARLES nails the mood with the vocal tempo and the blues licks on guitar are the best on the disc. This is good stuff.

Another instrumental, this one titled "SWING", has me very impressed. As proficient as this band is musically, I find myself uncharacteristically thinking I could easily enjoy many more of these instrumentals. Not since Ronnie Earl has a guitar player impressed me as much as CHARLES BURTON is now doing.

Other tracks on "I WOULDN'T LIE TO YOU" include "HOW WE DO IT DOWNTOWN", "BLOCK PARTY", "SEE MY BABY" and "I'D LIKE TO KNOW".

I've said this before and I'll say it again. if you're going to make it as a three piece band, you better be damn good, and THE CHARLES BURTON BLUES BAND is damn good. Check them out at www.charlesburton.com and tell them the Blewzzman is talkin' 'bout 'em.

- PETER "BLEWZZMAN" LAURO

His second piece of work is this "I Wouldn't Lie To You" by Charles Burton, the bald headed guitarist from California. With his debut, the eponymous Charles Burton Bluesband" he had already showed to be an all round guitar player. Then already I heard a lot of influences of Robben Ford in his playing style, but also in his way of singing, a kind of crossover jazzy blues, carefully tended, with a somewhat polished sound. With this CD this impression is strengthened. The opener "I wouldn't lie To You" is blues rock but of a civilised kind, just as "Big Eyes”, a shuffle in Albert King style but with the sharp edges nicely rubbed down. In between there has been
“Cuba”, a beautiful laid-back jazzy instrumental with some Latin-American influences. A bit later Charles shows he can do it more roughly in "That's How We Do It Downtown", a funky blues rock song where he lets himself go to some extent, and doesn’t colour within the lines as in the other songs. The word ‘slow blues’ gets its full meaning in the extremely slowly sung, strange tune "My Baby Don't Love Me", that sounds as if it it’s been recorded after a huge dose of valium. Standing apart is also "Block Party", a funky shuffle wherein Charles again show he’s a guitarist belonging to the great. The Charles Burton Bluesband is a trio, which leaves little room for a lot of variation, unless that would come from Charles’ guitar and we may say that this is a minor weakness of this album. Charles is an excellent guitar player, who sadly enough keeps on that same sound for each song, for a boogie song as well as for jazz or slow blues. There’s just little variation in the sound of the guitar itself . Nevertheless this is a beautiful blues release of a excellent guitar player who filled this CD with exclusively his own material. (RON) (translation Antoine Légat, August 14th 2007) - RON

Charles Burton er en unik Amerikansk bluesman med en meget bred teknisk formåen.
Hans interesse for de forskellige stilarter blander han så godt at man bliver bjergtaget med det samme. Hans smagfulde frasering og en dejlig skæv vinkel til moderne blues gør ham til en af San Diego’s bedst bevarede hemmeligheder – lidt endnu.
www.charlesburton.com - In Danish