Translucent Blues Is Clearly The Blues In The End

Translucent Blues is the product of a collaboration between Ray Manzarek, keyboard player and co-founder of The Doors, and Roy Rogers, Johnny Lee Hooker’s Coast to Coast Band and producer of 4 of Hooker’s recordings, and it will not disappoint a fan of either of these guys or the blues.

From the first note of “Hurricane”, Manzarek’s signature sound is evident. Heavy on the bass beat, signature work on the keyboards and those unique deep vocals. His arrangement adds to some nice lyrical work about surviving a hurricane, which for many folks on the east coast, hearkens back to the days spent preparing and then riding out a vicious monster of a storm. Throughout the album Ray’s keyboard work is very evident, which I find pleasant and complements the solo playing of most any additional instruments. Good examples can be heard on “Game of Skill”, “Fives and Ones” and “An Organ, a Guitar and a Chicken Wing”.

The liner notes thank the poets who made the words available to be put to music by these two, and include Michael McClure, Jim Carroll, Scott Richardson and Warren Zevon. “Hurricane”, “River of Madness” and “Kick” rise above the rest lyrically. “River of Madness” describes the famous Sunset Strip in LA and the life that is found there.  “Kick”, with its’ xylophone and sax parts, is a haunting tune of overcoming a cocaine habit and stepping away through the metaphor of it being assassinated by an eagle winged creature.

The final six tunes really kick this album into the blues genre. Starting with “Blues in My Shoes”, which hearkens back to the 70’s rhythm and blues with its classic lyrics of lost love and the blues. You can easily skip over to “Those Hits Just Keep On Comin’” that’s a great boogie-woogie tune, lighthearted and speaks about the many songwriters that rely on bad relationships to create good songs. The ultra-bluesy, jazz infused “As You Leave” is an instrumental and played so well that you can practically feel the one love walking away from you. This is a beautifully played piece and a great change of pace in this otherwise rock-influenced album.

The disc closes with an additional instrumental tune, “An Organ, a Guitar and a Chicken Wing”. This is a great swinging, shuffle blues tune that has some nice work from Ray’s keyboard to the saxophone of George Brooks and  on to the guitar of Roy Rogers and sounds like a pre-break house tune in a really good blues/swing dance club that’s a lot of fun.

This album seems to go from the acid rock roots of Ray Manzarek to the true blues music of Roy Rogers and is an enjoyable journey!