Denny Earnest

DENNY EARNEST
Best of The Blues, Vol. 1

The blues, like jazz, suffers a bit from having the same material performed far too often. How many more versions does one need of “Stormy Monday?” Denny Earnest, a very talented individual, aims to change all of that. A composer who has had much success in writing music for films, television and the studios, Denny Earnest previously had recorded albums of Western Swing, Americana and 15 of his original tunes (in the classic American popular song format) for Songbook.
 
Best Of The Blues, Vol. 1 features Earnest, on vocals, guitar and bass, introducing ten of his blues songs. With fine support from pianist Bob Britten (whose playing is sometimes reminiscent of Otis Spann) and drummer Mike Gilian (Buff Brown on harmonica has a guest appearance), Earnest has put together a highly enjoyable disc. The music, which is comprised of blues at a variety of tempos and grooves, is timeless yet the songs have new and fresh lyrics. Earnest's expressive voice is easy to understand, his guitar playing is clean, concise and full of fire, and the program contains a lot of variety within the blues.
 
Some of the music is reminiscent of B.B. King, “High Cost Of Living” has a New Orleans 1950s r&b feel, “An Evil Woman” feels quite mysterious (with Britten switching to a spooky sounding organ) and other tunes include the catchy “T Bone,” the lowdown “Love's On The Loose,” “Watch What You Wish For,” the acoustic “Change Your Mind” and “Got My Mojo Back.” Quite a few of these songs deserve to catch on as blues standards and should be listened to by blues performers wishing to add some fresh material.
 
No matter the mood or the groove, this is high-quality no-nonsense blues, featuring Denny Earnest at his best.

Scott Yanow,
Author of ten jazz books including Jazz On Record 1917-76, Jazz On Film and The Jazz Singers.
- Scott Yanow

In the past few years the "American Songbook" genre (a la Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin) has made quite a comeback with modern artists covering the old standards. Crooner Danny Earnest and his recently released CD "Earnest Songbook" performs this popular style with the same pizzazz as the legends that came before him. One of the tracks showing off his vocal expertise is "Let's Give It a Whirl" in which we get to hear Earnest's lounge influenced vocals and he even does a great Dean Martin imitation through a section of this number. Earnest's jazz/blues influence is well represented in "Velvet Afternoon" in which it features complimenting alluring saxophone work. If you're a "Ratpack" lover you will definitely want to add "Earnest Songbook" to your swinging collection man!
-Shaun and the RadioIndy.com Reviewer Team - Radio Indy