Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If you think you don’t like the Blues, if the thought of a century worth of music is not for you and that Robert Johnson is just a name that holds no fascination then the best thing to do would be to start at the beginning of Jules Carter Trio’s album, Done Misbehaving, and throwing every single odd piece of prejudice out of the window and fall in love with a set of songs that just cry out for attention.
To be mischievous is to live without completely breaking all the rules. The stuffiness associated with the hang-over a Victorian period that imposed to much will on generation after generation, the unwilling straight and narrow that told people how they should behave and if you dared challenge that, if you dared try to be individual or even creative then the whole edifice of British life would fall apart. Some things, some actions, deserve to come down and be replaced, The Blues and Jazz rightly replaced the alleged grandeur that emanated alongside the rigid and constraining orchestra movement, the Jules Carter Trio add significantly to the arsenal of those who dared and came up with a way of popular expression that still thrills today.
Jules Carter, Fingerz Carty and Paul White make up this just slightly rebellious band and the tracks they have laid down on Done Misbehaving have the power of those giving information away for nothing, the benefactors who urge people to explore the unseen and society hidden, the men and woman who implore those less fortunate to let their imagination run. Done misbehaving? Not a bit of it! The songs run through the head as if being chased through the school yard in a big game of kiss chase, the boys slowing down on purpose as they truly want to be caught by the girl that in just a couple of years they will be pulling the pig-tail of.
The album sings as if caught in the arms of a guitar wielding angel with a nobler tale to impart, tracks such as Same Day Born, the soul destroying beauty of 27 Club, the humour of Blondie, The Purdie Shuffle and Ten Out Of Ten all combine to make Done Misbehaving a great album to which indulge the love, and more importantly respect, of life in.
Blues should never be shied away from, it is an important as taking a deep breath or thinking for yourself regardless of what others may sneer at in your direction. Done Misbehaving, surely that should never be the case.
Ian D. Hall