Lee Delray

New York based Lee Delray is a solid addition to the blues-rock pantheon, although nothing unusual or innovative is on display here. Lee is in Possession of a rough-hewn voice and a voluminous arsenal of guitar licks...the right tools for the job. His guitar playing can be forceful, mellow or funky, as each song dictates. His lyrics on this st of all original tunes cover the usual blues topics of mean women, lost love, etc. His reliable rhythm section is rough and ready, providing a sturdy foundation for his energetic and adventurous guitar explorations. John Scanlon's keyboards tend to serve as support low in the mix, only surfacing for the occasional solo.
Lee digs right in with "Walking In The Rain", abundant with his biting guitar and gruff vocals. The hard guitar attack continues on "Don't Know Why", which features the only organ solo of the set. The dilemma of being accused of not possessing the proper "blues credentials" is addressed in "Don't Tell Me I Can't Get The Blues". The narrator relates his hard times that gave him his "blues cred", although he didn't go through a hard southern upbringing. He backs up his assertion with a "hard as nails" vocal and guitar assault.
He slows down the pace on the soulful and funky "How Much I Love You". Rapid fire and tasty guitar are aplenty in "I Got It" and "It's A little Too Late". The guy in "Need To Talk" needs to talk to his girlfriend until his girlfriend's best friend arrives on the scene. This tune is all done up as a shuffle and one of the few tunes featuring piano. A lazy piano intro kicks-off the slow shuffling "last call" blues of "House Of Love". As befits the pace of the song, Lee reverts to slower, but no less intense guitar riffing.
A Stevie Ray Vaughn inspired riff is the undercurrent of "No Time Blues", the longest song here, really giving him the opportunity to stretch out his guitar prowess to its' outer limits, spewing out licks with ease. Southern rock territory is breached on "She's Got Everything", bringing to mind the fluid guitar goodness of The Allman's, The Marshall Tucker Band and the rest of the Southern rock crop.
Lee and company handle the blues-rock idiom with a rough and ready ease, without straying too far from the blues source. The band are able to handle anything from the hard-edged end to the more mellow fare. Bands like this will proudly carry the blues-rock torch well into the future.
Reviewer Greg "Bluesdog" Szalony hails from the New Jersey Delta. - Blues Blast Magazine