Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Rome wasn’t built in a day and yet for all intense purposes the cracks that reside in that fair city have long been established, the crowded Piazzas, the overwhelming hustle of one of the most visited capitals on Earth long since been discussed and the history that bares down upon its dry soil, the magnitude of expectation that sees the past swallow at times the present, at times all but dust in the wake of Time’s shadow.
Rising above the glory of Rome’s empirical value is tough but it’s a feat worth undertaking and when the Blues comes a calling, the sheer magnitude of the delivery of performance can make Rome’s argument about taking time to come to fruition seem like the excuse of the worst of Nero’s builders who claimed that the replacing of the stone pineapple on the front wall will take at least a year and its his fault for learning to play the fiddle so badly.
For Sunjay the majesty of The Blues is a lot healthier and more defined and ultimately more complex and yet shining like a beacon in a sea of troubles. His latest album Black & Blues, which was recorded in one day by the marvellous producer Eddy Morton, stands out as being something that The Tiber couldn’t withstand and which would raise Hell amongst the so called elite of Rome’s once mighty army. It is a Hell though that is sublimely beautiful, one that is
The build up of Sunjay’s reputation has not gone unnoticed but now it has become a tidal wave, a release of power contained only by the depths of the assured and delight of the exquisite in the way he picks his music and at the lonely heart of a guitar string that begs to be touched.
Tracks such as Nobody Wants To Know You Down & Out, St. James Infirmary, the superb You Don’t Learn That In School and the truth of One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer steeped in elegance and the aspiration and providing of total control of the genre. all float with sincerity and ample of serious endeavour that the listener cannot be helped but be impressed by the style of performance captured.
For Sunjay this is true moment in which to raise a glass towards the Blues, somethings will always age well, some will be remembered for the sense of what they have attained, rarely do they both happen to the same object or piece of material, for Black & Blues is stamped and authenticated as a true mastery of the art form.
Sunjay’s Black & Blues is released on November 30th via New Mountain Music.
Ian D. Hall